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TV has been so ingrained into our culture for the past few decades that we tend to forget that every little detail of the medium was an innovation at one time. Here is a look at some television “firsts.”
1. The First D-Bomb
The first prime time sitcom curse word was not uttered by Archie Bunker or Al Bundy, but by Doris Packer. You may not recognize the name, but you probably know her face — whether as school principal Mrs. Rayburn on Leave It to Beaver or the Widow Fenwick on The Beverly Hillbillies. Packer played the role of a society matron with an accent that made Thurston Howell III sound like a Bronx street vendor. Among other roles, Packer portrayed Tim O’Hara’s former teacher Miss Pringle on My Favorite Martian. On March 28, 1965, an episode aired in which the imperturbable Miss Pringle received an award as Teacher of the Year. In an attempt to mask her emotions as she accepted a gold watch, she quipped: “Damn thing probably doesn’t even keep time.” It was later revealed that this line was an ad-lib, but it nevertheless made television history as being the first time the so-called “D” word was said on a prime time sitcom.
2. The First “Eyewitness News”
In the early days of television news, anchormen simply read stories gathered from reporters out in the field. But that all changed in 1965 when Al Primo, news director of Philadelphia’s KYW Channel 3, had a brainstorm. Primo had done some market research, and found that viewers preferred “personality” and “warmth” in their newscasters over the straight-laced all-business type. Primo also studied the AFTRA contract, and discovered that there was no union rule against TV anchors going out into the field and reporting stories. Better yet, he found that regardless of job description, a station employee who researched and reported his own story wasn’t entitled to any additional compensation above their regular salary. Primo recruited a stable of upbeat, personable reporters and sent them out on the streets with a camera person to where the news stories were breaking. Because the reporting was unscripted and informal, it gave the viewer the feeling of “being there.” But that wasn’t Primo’s only legacy. He coined the phrase “Eyewitness News”, and the format was so successful that it eventually became a trademark for ABC stations across the country.
3. The First Credit Squeeze
Once upon a time, when a TV show ended the credits scrolled by much like they do in a movie theater. They filled the screen and moved at a pace that allowed the average viewer to find out who played “Girl in Swimming Pool.” By the early 1990s, however, commercial-free cable TV was commonplace, and satellite packages were also infringing on a very tight and competitive market. Networks had to find a way to promote themselves without cutting more time out of their prime time shows for commercials. The logical spot ended up being the closing credits of a show. NBC launched the trend in 1994, when they started showing the closing credit scroll in a split-screen format, with the right half of the screen filled with station promos and snippets of upcoming programs. Of course, the Peacock Network didn’t want viewers to think of this as additional advertising, so they promoted it as a “seamless transition” from one show to the next.
4. The First Canned Laughter
The Hank McCune Show ran on NBC from 1950-1951. It was groundbreaking in two ways: it was the first to use canned laughter (since it was not filmed in front of a live audience), and it was the first sitcom to use the “show within a show” premise (McCune portrayed the host of a self-titled variety series). The guffaws heard on the soundtrack were provided by the Laff Box, an invention of Charles Rolland Douglass. Douglass had an engineering degree and developed shipboard radar systems while serving in the Navy. He eventually got a job at CBS as a sound engineer and came up with the concept of providing the mirthful laughter he’d enjoyed on the radio programs of his youth for TV shows filmed without an audience. He diligently attended a variety of radio broadcasts and TV shows and recorded the audience laughter, and then very carefully separated his recordings into different categories: chuckles, guffaws, belly-laughs; male, female, juvenile, etc. His Laff Box had a keyboard that allowed the operator to choose the type/gender/age group of the laugh, and foot pedals that controlled the length of the mirth.
5. The First Commercial
The Bulova Watch Company has always been aggressive in its advertising. In 1931 they launched a million-dollar campaign despite it being the time of Great Depression. On July 1, 1941, the company made history by airing the first TV commercial. Just prior to the broadcast of a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies, a clock and a map of the United States appeared onscreen, along with the statement “America runs on Bulova time.” The 10-second spot cost Bulova a total of $9.
6. The First “Bug”
You know that ubiquitous onscreen station ID graphic that reminds you what channel you’re tuned into? They’re called “bugs” in industry lingo in the US, DOGs (Digital Onscreen Graphic) in the UK, and “watermarks” in Australia. Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) in Rome was the first station to use the bug. Their engineers developed it during the 1970s, when other stations in Italy were “borrowing” and re-broadcasting RAI’s programming without permission. The onscreen ID told viewers where the content originated, and made it easier to bust any stations pirating the material. As for the US, CNN was the first station in the country to use a bug. They happened to be the only network providing live national coverage of the Challenger space shuttle launch in 1986, and once events took a tragic turn, stations across the country were clamoring for their footage. Like RAI, CNN added the onscreen identifier after dozens of news outlets used their film without providing credit.
Television. It reigned for years as a way to escape reality… now it’s nothing BUT reality.
I can’t wait until the tide turns.
posted by Sandy on 7-2-2008 at 12:02 pm
Any idea when they started “rating” TV shows - V for violence, language warnings, etc?
posted by Jill on 7-2-2008 at 12:18 pm
“But that wasn’t Primo’s only legacy. He coined the phrase “Eyewitness News”, and the format was so successful that it eventually became a trademark for ABC stations across the country.”
But KYW wasn’t an ABC station, it was an NBC station - until fairly recently, when it was swapped with WCAU and became a CBS station. WPVI has been, I think, the only ABC station in Philadelphia for decades.
posted by Dan on 7-2-2008 at 1:22 pm
So who was the first to start running promos for another show over the bottom 1/2 of the screen? Because I’d like to find the SOB and shoot him.
posted by airship on 7-2-2008 at 2:25 pm
I agree with Airship.
So many times my wife and I watch DIY or HGTV and they are putting important information on the screen. Of course in the middle of that information they pull up a 1/3 screen ad for themselves. Very frustrating, especially when I have a 50″ TV and can’t see.
posted by Bucsfan on 7-2-2008 at 2:50 pm
Jill: That was around 1997 or so. It’s fairly recent.
Airship: I first noticed that on Global up here in Canada. They were putting crap on the bottom of the screen long before I saw it on any US network.
posted by UncleBoogie on 7-2-2008 at 2:58 pm
Jill -
The ratings you’re describing (V for violence, etc.) were part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. They function with the V-Chip (also part of the Telecom Act of 96) to allow parents to block programming they don’t want their kids to see.
Something has puzzled me about these ratings, however, and that’s their presence in Canada. They seem to fall under provincial laws (Ontario and Manitoba have different symbols), but they’re there nonetheless - anyone know their history?
posted by Kyle C. on 7-2-2008 at 3:03 pm
That bottom of the screen thing… Once I was watching a scary movie, like Alien or something, and at a very tense moment, Kyra Sedewick popped up with her flashlight and scared my face off.
I’ve heard that the canned laughter they use today is the same they used 40 yrs ago, and what you hear is the laughter of actually dead people, which is either really cool, or really unnerving.
posted by Johnny Cat on 7-2-2008 at 4:23 pm
Johnny Cat–I’m glad that I’m not the only one to be spooked by Kyra suddenly appearing at the lower right hand part of my screen. I forget what movie I was watching, but it really startled me.
Personally, I hate canned laughter. I’d rather the show just leave it up to me to figure out what’s supposed to be funny.
posted by TeacherPatti on 7-2-2008 at 4:33 pm
Worst one I’ve ever seen was on “Band of Brothers” when it aired on Global. It was a very emotional scene… And up popped the weather forecast sponsored by a pizza company.
I pretty much gave up on network TV that day and have rarely watched it since as I find this stuff absolutely deplorable, and it shows a complete disrespect both for the creators of the show, and the audience at home.
This is why I torrent shows now. If you’re going to plaster sponsored crap over the screen, pimp your other shows DURING THE SHOW, why the hell should I give your advertisers my eyes. “But then there’d be no shows.”
Given the wasteland of TV these days, that would be a good thing. The few actual GOOD shows I buy on DVD anyway, and to be honest would rather financially support a direct-to-dvd model than the current cancerous advertising based television industry.
posted by UncleBoogie on 7-2-2008 at 8:24 pm
Yeah, Uncle. That’s why I’m just now getting the whole Battlestar Galactica experience via the DVD collection. I sure as hell don’t want some ad for Sci-Fi channel popping up during a tense Adama/Tighe scene.
posted by Johnny Cat on 7-2-2008 at 11:26 pm
About canned laughter:
What Johnny Cat heard is right.
Lucie Arnaz said her mother, Lucille Ball, was in the audience of several comedy shows where they recorded the laughter for use in laugh tracks. Years later, Arnaz could identify (pick out) her moms distinctive laugh in tv shows that were made after Lucille Ball had died. Shows of the 1990’s were still using laugh tracks recorded in the 1950’s.
posted by Tdave on 7-3-2008 at 2:09 am
That is really creepy. They seriously need to get rid of laugh tracks altogether. They’re annoying enough on sitcoms (and, as proven by The Office and Arrested Development, unnecessary), but they’re the absolute worst on video clip shows. SO OBNOXIOUS.
As a Heroes fan, I really like my reCaptcha: fist Linderman. What am I, D.L.?
posted by Celeste M. on 7-3-2008 at 5:43 am
Just adding to what other people said about annoying ads popping up on the bottom of the screen BLOCKING the current show…the freaking Bill Engvall show!! Literally every 5 minutes TBS decides to remind you that they have an absolutely horrible show featuring Bill Engvall…who the hell is that anyway??
posted by Leah Y. on 7-3-2008 at 5:46 am
As I’ve long said… Newton Minnow was an optimist and I can only echo that great philosopher Bruce Springsteen.. “57 channels and there’s nothing on…”
posted by Doug on 7-3-2008 at 11:31 am
I’m with Leah Y., As if I don’t get enough Bill Engvall when my brother makes me watch Country Fried Home Videos now I can’t even watch Family Guy withour him “pausing” the show to do a commercial DURING the show! If CBS starts doing that during my NCIS, heads WILL roll.
On a less violent note, I’ve always wondered that about the bugs. They get annoying, too. But not half as annoying as when your watching ESPN and you’ve been waiting 10 minutes for National League scores then they start talking about something you want to watch and you look up and by the time you get back to the ticker, you’ve missed the Cubbies’ score…I hate tickers.
posted by Special Agent Baker on 7-8-2008 at 11:06 am
Back to Lucille Ball…when you watch “I Love Lucy” and hear that “uh oh” when Lucy’s about to get into trouble, know that the female voice you’re hearing is actually Lucy’s mom (Lucie Arnez’s grandma).
posted by beth on 7-15-2008 at 11:26 am