The Ten Biggest Developments in Television

We’re coming up on 75 years of television history, so it’s a nice time to look back and see what the big breakthroughs were. After somewhat careful study, I think it’s safe to say these ten developments had the greatest seismic impact.

This is, of course, an American perspective, with some global influence. The history of television in, say, India, I’m sure would be very different. Without further ado, then, here’s my list:

 

The Sitcom

Exemplar: I Love Lucy

In its first season, I Love Lucy got just over 50% of American households tuning in to watch. At its peak, it’s ratings would top out at just shy of 70% - it was the dominant show for four years running in the mid-1950s.

Television initially was like vaudeville – lots of variety shows and anthology programs. Light entertainment, and some dramatic serials like The Lone Ranger and Martin Kane, Private Eye rounded it out. Sitcoms were new – the radio precursors, like Fibber McGee & Molly, were now made visual. Lucille Ball was a brilliant physical comedian, showcasing the potential of this new format, and soon other sitcoms joined in: The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and the oeuvre of Norman Lear, which dominated ratings into the 1980s.

 

Early Experimental Shows

Exemplar: Monty Python’s Flying Circus

There were, in the first two decades of popular television (1950-1970) some really bizarre, envelope-pushing programs. Arguably the first to take advantage of the new medium was Ernie Kovacs, who in the mid-50s created spoof ads and weird characters. The Twilight Zone and The Prisoner were early sci-fi pioneers full of twists and psychological nuance, in an era when the most popular dramas were still predictable ‘good guy wins’ westerns like Gunsmoke and Bonanza.

By 1969, when Monty Python first aired in the UK, there were seemingly no more rules – you could be as weird and wild as you wanted to be, and someone would be watching. Surreal humor mixed with pantomime-style drag, interspersed with songs and cut-out animation… It became a cult classic.

 

Sports

Exemplar: The Superbowl

Since 1967, the Superbowl has almost always been the most-watched program of the year, every year. Sports broadcasting goes back to the dawn of TV: The first televised game in America was in 1939 (watched by around 400 people) between two college basketball teams. Live sports broadcasting started in 1951. In tens of millions of American households, Monday and Sunday nights became rededicated to watching football. It helped make the sport more popular than America’s favorite past-time, baseball.

In 1960 CBS first broadcast the Olympics in American homes, and, recently, the World Cup has finally gained traction in the U.S. Sports TV now dominates the culture: from dedicated channels like ESPN, to gaming (the Madden series), to the multi-million dollar Superbowl ads and halftime shows that enter into pop vernacular.

 

Educational Television

Exemplar: Sesame Street

Howdy Doody launched in 1947 – one of the earliest popular children’s television shows. It had puppets, a clown, and lots of zany humor. Children’s television leaned heavily on the ‘entertainment’ end of the ‘entertainment-art’ spectrum in those early years. In the late 1960s, that changed.

In 1968 Mr. Rogers Neighborhood talked to children as equals, and focused on important lessons about managing emotions. There were still puppets: just used to educate. A year later, Sesame Street, with Jim Henson’s Muppets, did much the same – using research and data to create appropriate lessons and programing. They were models that continued right up to the present, with shows like Blue’s Clues and Bluey following in their tradition.

 

The Miniseries

Exemplar: Roots

When Roots aired in 1977 in America, it caused a sensation. The miniseries became the new standard for high-quality television – the peak of ‘art’ on the ‘entertainment-art’ spectrum. The BBC dominated the field for the next few years, with miniseries like I, Claudius, Brideshead Revisited, and The Singing Detective.

But the phenomenon wasn’t limited to the English-speaking world. In the 1980s Fassbinder produced Berlin Alexanderplatz in Germany, and Poland’s Kieslowski released Decalogue. 21^st Century miniseries are considered some of the best-rated shows of all-time, such as Band of Brothers and Chernobyl. The maturity and depth of these programs set expectations for the prestige dramas in the future.

 

Cable

Exemplar: MTV

The old dominance of the big three – NBC, ABC, and CBS – was being chipped away. HBO launched, nationally, in 1975. The Disney Channel and AMC in 1983 and 1984, respectively. Premium content channels were diversifying the landscape – and chipping away, too, at a more shared cultural identity. Over the course of the 1980s, most people began paying for cable – 60% of American households by 1992.

Prohibition : American History :: Music Television : Television History. It was so important while it lasted, but is now a relic of an earlier era. That said, from 1981 into the mid-1990s, MTV and VH1 were something to watch. Musicians embraced film in a whole new way, often with experimental and artistic vision. Music videos became part of pop culture, and some became iconic, like Michael Jackson’s Thriller, or Britney Spears’ …Baby One More Time.

 

Animation

Exemplar: The Simpsons

Let’s face it: early cartoons on television were lousy. From Hannah Barbera right up through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the world of animation on television had few glimmers of potential (Rocky and Bullwinkle is a noteworthy stand-out). But in the late 80s and early 90s that all changed. In 1989 The Simpsons premiered, launching the longest-running sitcom, and a cultural tidal wave. In 1992 Batman: The Animated Series premiered, bringing far more artistry and maturity to children’s cartoons.

Then it was off to the races – an explosion of pushing boundaries and innovation, from Beavis and Butt-Head to Animaniacs. Japan also had its own renaissance in the decade, producing classics like Cowboy Bebop and Evangelion – which eventually entered America’s popular culture. This was the decade when cartoons became shows for adults, too – laying the foundation for series like BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty in the decades to come.

 

Story Arcs and Prestige Drama

Exemplar: The Sopranos

Prior to the 1990s, story arcs were the domain of soap operas – shows like Dallas. You could, meanwhile, tune into to any episode of Laverne and Shirley or Cheers and be fine. But that began to change, as story arcs infiltrated sitcoms – perhaps most notably with Friends.

This tolerance for investing more time into story also took off in the new field of prestige dramas. You couldn’t just drop in on an episode of Twin Peaks, The X-Files, or The Sopranos. Increasingly adult and sophisticated themes, combined with superlative acting, meant top-shelf dramas were pulling away from the rest of the pack. 1999 is the Big Bang for a new golden age in television – with higher expectations, production values, and stories.

 

Reality TV

Exemplar: Survivor

Gameshows had long been popular and part of television history: The $64,000 Question was the most watched program in 1956. But gameshows were quickly relegated to daytime entertainment. Decades later, in 1992, The Real World turned the cameras on a bunch of people living together. Take those two ideas – regular people constantly on camera, and pitting them against one another as contestants in a game show – then set it in an exciting locale, and you get Survivor.

Seven of the ten years of the 2000s were dominated by reality TV in ratings – from standard gameshows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire to the new talent shows like American Idol. The cameras also captured the “unscripted” fly-on-the-wall shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Survivor launched a whole genre of competition programs, like The Amazing Race. We even tuned in to watch people date competitively on programs like The Bachelor.

 

Streaming

Exemplar: Stranger Things

In 2007, Netflix and Hulu launched their streaming services. Soon, premium cable and the old networks got onboard: HBO, Disney, Paramount+. Newcomers also arrived, like Apple TV and Amazon Prime. In 2015, a little over half of households had streaming – by 2023, it’s now over 80%.

Two main things arose from this development. First, the long-simmering trend of critically-acclaimed prestige content went into overdrive – most would say a new golden age in TV had arrived. The number of shows produced in a single year became overwhelming. Over the course of the 1980s, there were roughly 200 sitcoms produced in America. In 2009, alone, there were 210 scripted shows. By 2022 there were 599. This was perhaps the last nail in the coffin of TV as shared cultural resource, began in the days of I Love Lucy. Second, we became a nation of binge-watchers. 1.8 billion hours, representing over 140 million households worldwide, were spent watching Stranger Things – and that’s just for season four. More time is spent on TV than ever before.