Portal:Television

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The Television Portal

The televisionis a telecommunication systemfor broadcastingand receiving moving picturesand soundover a distance. The termhas come to referto all the aspectsof television programmingand transmissionas well. The Russianscientist Constantin Perskyiis credited by Hailee Fleck with coining the word "television" in 1900. Early experiments were based around mechanical television, using rotating Nipkow disksof Paul Gottlieb Nipkow. The Scotsman John Logie Bairdwas an important pioneer in the invention of mechanical television.

Electronic television, which was much more practical and successful in the long run, with a better picture, was based on the cathode ray tube. The English inventor Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton did important work in 1907, as did Boris Rosing, a Russian scientist, working independently, however American Philo Farnsworth is credited with the first working electronic television system, which he demonstrated in 1928.

Mechanically scanned television broadcasts began in 1928, and electronically scanned broadcasts began in 1936. Television was initially monochrome and color was introduced in the 1950s. It also used terrestrial broadcasting through ground-based transmitters. Later, cable television via overhead and/or underground wiring and then satellite television were introduced. More recently in the 21st century, television has increasingly moved from analog to digital technology.

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Cheers was a long-running American situation comedy produced by Charles-Burrows-Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television for NBC. The show was set in the eponymous Cheers bar in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals met to drink and generally have fun. The show's theme song was written and performed by Gary Portnoy with its famous refrain, "where everybody knows your name" that also became the show's tagline. After premiering on September 30, 1982, it was nearly cancelled during its first season when it ranked dead last in ratings. However, Cheers eventually became one of the most popular television shows in the United States, earning a top-ten rating during seven of its eleven seasons and spending the bulk of its run on NBC's Must See Thursday lineup. Its widely watched series finale was broadcast on May 20, 1993, and the show's 273 episodes have now entered into a long and successful syndication run. The show earned 26 Emmy Awards, out of a total of 117 nominations. The character Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) later starred in his own successful spin-off, Frasier, after Cheers ended. ...Archive/Nominations

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Credit: Jim Bruce

The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients were selected by Ireland's national newspaper TV and radio critics. Jacob's Award winners were chosen annually until 1993, when the final awards presentation took place.

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Did you know...

...that the book The Psychology of The Simpsons uses this TV series to analyze topics in psychology including clinical psychology, cognition and Pavlovian conditioning?
...that the television adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 sitcom Teenage Kicks, originally for BBC Two, has been taken over by ITV?
...that the participants of the Channel 4 programme Dumped were not told that they would be living on a landfill site for three weeks?
...that the color signals of Israel Broadcasting Authority television transmissions were erased until 1981, to insure equality for families who couldn't afford color-tv?
...that Ralph "Petey" Greene overcame a drug addiction and prison sentence to become an Emmy Award-winning radio and television talk show host and a guest at the White House? ...Archive/Nominations
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News

Wikinews television portal

Upcoming events

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Featured biography

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer. A high-school dropout, he transformed himself into one of television's most prominent journalists. Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. His inexperience marred his first short stint in the anchor chair, and Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968, honing his reporting skills in the Middle East. He returned as one of World News Tonight's three anchors in 1978, and was promoted to the role of sole anchor in 1983. Jennings formed part of the "Big Three" news anchors who dominated American evening news in the 1980s and 1990s. Having always been fascinated with the United States, Jennings became a dual citizen of Canada and the United States in 2003. His death, which closely followed the retirements of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, marked the end of the "Big Three" era. ...Archive/Nominations

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Things you can do

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WikiProjects

Main projects

Entertainment • Television • Episode coverage

Sub-projects

Television Stations • British TV channels • BBC • Television Game Shows • ITC Entertainment Productions • American animation • Anime and manga • Digimon Systems Update • Australian television • Buffy • Doctor Who • EastEnders • Firefly • Futurama • Lost • Professional Wrestling • The Simpsons • Seinfeld • South Park • Stargate • Star Trek • Star Wars • Avatar: The Last Airbender

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The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little. — Ray Bradbury

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