Highlights from 100 Years of Television

 By Bruce Shawkey

Great article in The Guardian on highlights from the first 100 years of television. Here are of ones I highlighted. 

I start with Janet Jackson's famous (infamous?) "nip slip" during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime performance – in which her right breast was accidentally exposed for less than a second. It led to broadcaster CBS being fined $550,000 by the Federal Communications Commission.


Technically, her nipple was covered by a nipple ring, but the network was still still fined.  It was the fifth largest fine in television history, with the largest fine ($24 million) going to Univision for lack of children’s shows. Did you know there are federal regulations that require television broadcasters to devote a portion of their programming to educational and informative shows for kids? The Howard Stern radio show also got fined $1.7 million for various infractions.




On January 26, 1926 John Logie Baird gives the first public demonstration of television to members of the Royal Institution, from his lab in Soho. The subject of the demonstration was Stooky Bill, Baird’s ventriloquist dummy, because the lighting generated too much heat for a human to bear. Bright lighting continues to be an issue to this day.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dawn Photos Over the Years

Image
 Cutlines as needed. Produced from slides that Dad shot from 35mm camera. Mom at age 40 with baby Dawn Dawn with Karen at her wedding with Curt Dawn with big brother Bruce Dawn on the fire escape at 639                                                                                            East Johnson Street Dawn with Mom at baptism Dawn with babysitter Mandy, who worked at Mel's Diner   Dawn with Mom and Bruce, possibly at Knott's Berry Farm                                                   Dawn and Bruce at Grandma and Grandpa's house Dawn and Bruce at S...
Read more

Burgers and Fries

Image
 By Bruce Shawkey What's more American than hamburgers and fries, or a "burgerfry" as I call it when I'm hungry for a fix. I'm pretty sure this "mashup" is my own invention, because a Google search of the term turns up nothing.      Anyway, I found this interesting book stored on the Internet Archive. Turns out hamburgers have a long and storied history, much of it occurring beyond the shores of America. Thirteenth-century warlord Genghis Khan and his fierce cavalry may have invented the hamburger.      According to a number of sources, the Mongol leader and his members of the Golden Horde rarely left their mounts. Since the army required food that could be eaten while galloping, warriors stored raw mutton scraps in the gap between the horse's flank and the saddle.       After a morning of traversing rough terrain, tough meat became tenderized and more or less chopped up. All a hungry warrior need do was reach beneath his saddl...
Read more