Two TV Facts You Must Know

1) On February 28, 1983, at exactly 11:03pm, water use in NYC jumped by several million gallons. Why? The final episode of "M*A*S*H" had just ended. As Jason mentioned in a recent post, it was the highest-rated television event in U.S. history, with 105 million viewers. Of course, that leaves us wondering: How come no one in the 1980s realized you could go to the bathroom during commercials?

2) Because South Africa's apartheid regime was worried that television would give black Africans access to news from other countries, TV wasn't introduced there until 1976.

This was today's sneak peak at the new issue of mental_floss. These two facts are just a taste of the info-packed piece we've done on TV history in this issue's "Scatterbrained" section.