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Portal:Television

The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting," which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s. (Full article...)

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Big Bird's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The history of Sesame Street began with its conception in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Corporation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them", such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of $8 million from the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation, and the U.S. federal government to create and produce a new children's television show. Sesame Street premiered on November 10, 1969. Featuring animation, live shorts, humor, celebrity appearances, and Jim Henson's Muppets such as Big Bird (star pictured), it was the first television program of its kind to base its contents and production values on laboratory and formative research, and the first to include a curriculum "detailed or stated in terms of measurable outcomes". Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings. By its 40th anniversary in 2009, Sesame Street was broadcast in over 120 countries, and 20 independent international versions had been produced.

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Kaknästornet illuminated as a memorial to the November 2015 Paris attacks
Kaknästornet illuminated as a memorial to the November 2015 Paris attacks
Credit: Holger.Ellgaard

The Kaknäs tower (Swedish: Kaknästornet) is a TV tower in Gärdet in Stockholm, Sweden. It has 72 pillars. The tower is a major hub of Swedish television, radio and satellite broadcasts. It was finished in 1967, designed by architect Bengt Lindroos, and the height is 155 metres (509 ft) or 170 metres (560 ft) with the antenna included. The tower is owned by the national Swedish broadcasting company Teracom. The tower's name comes from the ancient name of the area, Kaknäs.

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  • ... that the day employees of Boston television station WLVI received new business cards, they learned the station would be sold and they would lose their jobs?
  • ... that Sharp Corporation produced three official variants of Nintendo's Famicom in Japan, one of which was a television set that was subsequently released in the United States?
  • ... that people were scammed on New Zealand television by the host of You've Been Scammed?
  • ... that Valley Public Television once raffled off a 1961 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, according to the wishes of the man who bequeathed it to the station?
  • ... that Alan Rosen once sold 2,400 cheesecakes in four minutes to television shoppers?
  • ... that before being restored as a Broadway theater, the Ritz Theatre was used as a television studio, pornographic theater, vaudeville house, children's theater, and poster warehouse?

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Caricature of Groucho Marx
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

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  • ...that the final episode of the 1986 television series Outlaws recycled footage from The Oregon Trail, because actors Rod Taylor and Charles Napier appeared in both programs?


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Sorkin in 2016

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing at an early age. As a writer for stage, television, and film, Sorkin is recognized for his trademark fast-paced dialogue and extended monologues, complemented by frequent use of the storytelling technique called the "walk and talk". Sorkin has earned numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globes.

Sorkin rose to prominence as a writer-creator and showrunner of the television series Sports Night (1998–2000), The West Wing (1999–2006), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–07), and The Newsroom (2012–14). He is also known for his work on Broadway including the plays A Few Good Men (1989), The Farnsworth Invention (2007), To Kill a Mockingbird (2018), and the revival of Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot (2023). (Full article...)

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History of television: Early television stationsGeographical usage of televisionGolden Age of TelevisionList of experimental television stationsList of years in televisionMechanical televisionSocial aspects of televisionTelevision systems before 1940Timeline of the introduction of television in countriesTimeline of the introduction of color television in countries

Inventors and pioneers: John Logie BairdAlan BlumleinWalter BruchAlan Archibald Campbell-SwintonAllen B. DuMontPhilo Taylor FarnsworthCharles Francis JenkinsBoris GrabovskyPaul Gottlieb NipkowConstantin PerskyiBoris RosingDavid SarnoffKálmán TihanyiVladimir Zworykin

Technology: Comparison of display technologyDigital televisionLiquid crystal display televisionLarge-screen television technologyTechnology of television

Terms: Broadcast television systemsComposite monitorHDTVLiquid crystal display televisionPALPicture-in-picturePay-per-viewPlasma displayNICAMNTSCSECAM

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