The model of private television
Illustration 1: The sitcom I Love Lucy (apparaîtJohn episode where Wayne) 2. Hopalong Cassidy western the series 3. The show's whimsical ads with Jackie Gleason 4. The show Amos'n Andy, for the issue of stereotypes raciaux5. The Kennedy-Nixon debate 1960. Nothing prevents you wander through the archives and found.
Introduction
private American television is the prototype of contemporary mass media. We'll see how is its technical structure and economic and what is its content.
Regarding technical and economic structure, private American television is built on the model of radio networks. His logic is the same: financing through advertising, organizational networks (whose head is in New York), audience measurement by Nielsen. The recording studios are moving in to California where is the knowledge of the shooting. The programs are a great place to series and sitcoms.
As a means of representing the world of commercial television picks of popular cinema and family as it existed in the years 1930-40, while the film is looking for new audiences (teenagers) and new forms (blockbuster, horror movies, arthouse films). Television series exploiting canonical forms of popular literature and film: western, detective series and develop a format that is clean, the situation comedy (sitcom). Forms innovate but few espouse content (slowly) the changes in society.
I. Technical and economic structure
Debut. In 1947 four companies are beginning to broadcast programs. Three are networks of radios. NBC appropriate and CBS in the early years, creating a duopoly. DuMont has fewer stations. ABC emerges later.
programs are then direct: competition "Skating", session of the UN live music hall artists (Milton Berle), "dramatic" live. These programs seem bad at first trial of criticism, even compared to series B movie but meet a real popular success. Soon the working classes and middle classes are driving consumption. Demand is outstripping supply. The items are sold in gas stations or drug stores.
A media present in every home
In 1959 almost all households receive television Nir and White. the shift to color will be a way to revive the market.
avecTV% of households in the United States in 1948
0.4
1950 9 1951 23
1952 34 1956 64 5 95 1959
Source: James L. Baughman The Republic of Mass Culture. Journalism, Filmmaking and Broadcasting in America Since 1941 , The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992 [2006, 298 p. , Pp. 41
The audience is mostly composed of families with children in urban areas (which is related to the fact that the first transmitters serving the densely populated cities). At the beginning there are still local stations with original programs (Country music in Texas) but the center of creation, the more interesting (Chicago) off the mid-1950s.
The technical and economic model of radio networks is required. ATT provides the cables that connect the stations. These can be operated directly by the radio company (NBC or CBS) or "franchised." Emissions are mostly sponsored by advertising. The sponsors want to control the content of programs they sponsor. Soap operas sponsored products firm Procter and Gamble detergent and must follow the rules issued by the company to its employees: no tobacco. However Alcoa never interfere on the issue of political commentary from Ed Murrow "See it now " that the company sponsors. Sponsors such as U.S. Steel, Goodyear (tires) or Bell Telephone) allow the birth of programs that you remember twenty years later.
stations emit profits. In 1951 the FCC reported only 5 of 108 stations are profitable but in 1954 a station affiliated with a network can provide a return on investment of 35% per year. CBS and NBC make money primarily with stations which are directly owned stations but sell their network programs.
II. Programs.
TV borrows from the tradition of the radio and know-how of the film.
come from the radio: a) the music hall (vaudeville) - jugglers, magicians, light music b. Situation comedies ("sitcoms") : The Former Life of Riley , My Friend Irma c. The "action drama" The Lone Ranger "d. Quiz (Games): " Truth or Consequences, Queen for a Day .
come as radio stars: actors and entertainers like Milton Berle and Lucille Ball, Jack Benny (who lives for 14 years star of CBS). In the field of information Ed Murrow, famous news reporter since the war, moved to TV in 1951. As in radio, TV programs are structured into genres.
The sitcoms. After 1951 the sitcoms of a demi heure deviennent partie structurante de chaque soirée. Certaines sitcoms se maintiennent longtemps : ainsi « Burns and Allen ». Leur succès est fondé sur le fait que les spectateurs reconnaissent les personnages plutôt que sur la qualité de l’écriture. Dès 1952 un journal écrit que les Américains connaissent mieux les personnages de Burns and Allen qu’ils ne connaissent la plupart des sénateurs. Les scripts sont souvent pauvres. Le jeu de l’acteur est important (Lucille Ball).
La série policière . Le roman policier, genre installé dans la littérature populaire et le feuilleton radio est adapté à la télévision. And "Dragnet," which depicts a policeman in Los Angeles. The story and creating images inspired by reality. "All We Want Are the facts ma'am."
Westerns are also translated to television. "Hopalong Cassidy " starts in 1948. The actor William Boyd (Series B) becomes the idol of the children. "The Lone Ranger ," another Western series, was originally a radio series for children. The series features a lonely vigil forest and its Indian companion Tonto. At the end of each episode the hero delivers a short lesson morality and goes, before we could thank him, on his horse named Silver. The series lasted until 1958 before being distributed by syndicated (sold to other networks).
Sport - In 1953, the Boston Braves (football) moved to Milwaukee where beer brewers who have bought them have promised to sponsor television coverage broader. As the radio, televised sport structure time and space of the nation. The games draw a geography of the United States, the championship calendar is a calendar class. TV offers the possibility of a shared emotion.
Policy. Television also plays a role in the structuring of political life; For example, the diffusion of hearings conducted by McCarthy as part of the investigation on Un-American Activities (communist) is helping to precipitate his fall. He plays the "bad guy" in bad faith and abusive unshaven.
Culture. Since the beginning of CBS and NBC broadcast of the "dramas" for the studios (wealth) in New York. Ex: "12 Angry Men " (1952, juror managed to convince a jury of the innocence of an accused); " Anthologies": "A Night to Remember " (Titanic), " For Whom the Bells Toll (English War). Viewers have the impression of being in the theater. Initially most of these dramas are broadcast live. Achievement often with few resources. Improvements can occur: firms do not want the spectators get tired and falling sales of receivers.
The hearing . The classic analysis of the mass media is follows: since all the listeners hear the program individually from home the mass media - television with them - help to deconstruct society by atomizing the audience and each listener by returning to his individuality viewer. In reality things are more complex. The notion of "mass audience" must be qualified. It is found that viewers are grouped by origin and social status. The whimsical Jackie Gleason was popular among African Americans. Italians of the working class of Boston did not like the character of father easily manipulated sitcoms. They wanted a father figure more traditional.
Conformity. Sponsors verified that the authorities were not called into question the conventional morality and respected. John Crosby complained "You can only make jokes about the rain because rain does not advertise, has no political connections and falls on blacks and whites in an impartial manner ...."
racial stereotypes. The black middle class complained of racial stereotypes in the TV version of Amos'n Andy with the unexpected effect that television suppressed all programs with black actors. Africans in a show of Jack Benny in 1954 were dressed as cannibals and sang the song advertising the soup Jack Campbell preparing to eat its host Benny and Bob Hope. Lucille Ball had great difficulty obtaining the right to play with her own husband, Desi Arnaz, who was Cuban-born mestizos. The anti-female stereotypes are illustrated by the main theme of I Love Lucy . Every time it leaves the marital home to find work disaster befell her. The drama could be realistic, they almost all ended well, with a wedding. Attacks are personal. No society.
Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy) and her husband Desi Arnaz are the first to film the sitcom in Hollywood.
Hollywood's reaction. The majors are initially scornful; United Artists then distributes the series, she also bought the stock before 1950 film from Warner for TV and then sell its own stock. Monogram and Republic Pictures sell old westerns series B. In response, transform their production studios (color, blockbuster, late Hayes Code). When there is proof that movie theaters can survive on TV, TV studios are moving to Hollywood. All studios are starting to make programs for television. The most famous sitcom since 1951, I Love Lucy is the first to be filmed in California. The actress does not want to leave his ranch and live broadcast is impossible to cause jet lag. CBS and the sponsor agreed reluctantly to pay the additional cost for the show is filmed. Arnaz persuaded a former operator MGM to do it. To keep the spontaneity of the TV, Arnaz requests that the public is present during registration. We filmed with two or three cameras simultaneously. The best decision is published in an episode of 26 minutes 30. 25 years later many sitcoms were still made in the same way. The success ruin the idea that the public prefers the "live". The company of Ball and Arnaz bought RKO studios to TV production in 1958.
Disney. ABC, which starts in TV at that time, decided to develop production capabilities in California. Agreement with Disney that produces a weekly series for the network. Success in 1954-55 with Davy Crockett. The Walk Davy Crockett is a success at the Box Office. Derivatives. Disney also produced "Mickey Mouse Club "on ABC.
A year after the agreement with Disney, Warner Bros. turned to the TV. Success of 'Cheyenne' on ABC. Westerns are the greatest success. In 1958-9, according to Nielsen measurement, seven of the eight major ratings success happen in the American West. " Maverick (1957-62) contains a certain amount of humor. In the years following the ABC-Warner group turns to the detective series, "softened": eg. "Hawaiian Eye " (1953-63). Investigations necessarily happen in the rich and famous. "Gunsmoke , 1959, is one of the favorite programs of President Lyndon B. Johnson
The partial conversion of Hollywood television is illustrated by the fact that a summer day of 1959, 23 TV programs are in production at the same time in the studios of Warner, mostly for ABC. The production arm of NBC, "Review" buys Universal Studios in 1959. CBS bought the studio from Republic the same year.
Critics scorned the "Hollywoodisation" of TV production, saying the 90-minute drama had more spontaneity and creativity. One of them wrote that "TV WAS Mainly Satisfied to Become a purveyor of The Worst Kind of Hollywood C picture junk.
Scandal games. Between 1955 and 1958 games (quiz) with wholesale prices were very popular programs. The set of CBS 'The $ 64 000 question "was more popular than" See It Now ". But the production had helped Charles Van Doren, a young "wasp" of Columbia, to the detriment of a more popular competitor. The case involves an investigation of Congress and embarrasses the chains. Their ability to manipulate public opinion is spread. The scandal is even larger than games mimic a situation of fair competition which is the source of the American dream and that the protagonists of the Van Doren is a scion of the elite of the east coast and a recent immigrant New Yorkers.
Public Television USA. The issue of television as a public service but asked the FCC can not impose quotas for public programs or to finance public television because of the indifference of its members, the policies and the opinion. Van Doren scandal, however, encourages the chains increase their emissions "political." Les chaînes multiplient les émissions d’information à la demande de la FCC (CBS Reports) mais ces émissions plombent l’audience. La question de l’influence politique de la télévision commence à être posée dans les années 1960. En 1960, lors des élections présidentielles, débat Kennedy-Nixon, 71 millions d’auditeurs. Nixon, raide et mal rasé, passe mal.
Production . Au début des années soixante les rapports avec les sponsors changent. Au début, les sponsors, via leur agence de publicité, s’adressaient à des producteurs indépendants qui réalisaient pour eux les séries cédées ensuite networks. Production costs are too high and independent producers fall under the umbrella of networks. They offer a pilot networks. Sha, the series is completed. Officials of the network, taking over the role formerly occupied by advertisers or their agencies, supervising the production of the series itself. In a way that illustrates the vertical integration of an industry, the network in exchange for investment in production costs of a program, then receives a share of the "syndication" if it emerges and profits a share of royalties de rediffusion à la fois pour le marché domestique et l’étranger.
Cependant de nouveaux acteurs apparaissent : des assembleurs independants, les " packagers" , qui travaillent pour les réseaux, et deviennent dans les années 1960 la source prédominante des programmes dpour ces derniers. Selon le bureau d’étude de la FCC, en 1957 les « packagers » produisaient 38 % de tous les programmes des réseaux, contre 33 % produits par les annonceurs et 29 % produits par les réseaux directement. En 1964 la part des « packagers » dans la production était montée à 71 % pour 20 % pour les réseaux et 9 % pour les annonceurs.
Since the networks ran more financial risks they controlled more closely the series, being hostile to the risks. We are witnessing an evolution in the global economy programs. The 50s had preferred games, westerns and detective stories. The 60s are experiencing a succession of mini booms around genres renewed. "Drama" around doctors and teachers, comedies about the second world war and espionage. In the latter genus Mission: Impossible "(CBS) lasts from 1966 to 1973. His hero is an agent who puts his extraordinary powers service du gouvernement des USA. Diffuse à l’étranger , il donne une idée exagérée des pouvoirs de la CIA. ABC place un soap opera Peyton Place ( 1964-69) puis une série sur un héros comique Batman (1966-68) le soir en prime time. Les sitcoms sont le genre le plus populaire : les deux tiers des émissions avec le plus d’audience en septembre 1964 sont des sitcoms. La plupart se passent dans la classe moyenne. Certaines ont des gimmick incroyables : un cheval ou une voiture qui parle ou une femme qui est une sorcière ou un martien comme compagnon de chambre…Beaucoup sont mal écrites. Le recrutement des bons rédacteurs s’est tari ; ils sont moins bien payés. After 68 sitcoms also suffer from competition from relatively recent films that begin to be broadcast in the evening. There is the failure of British films but successful collection of XXth Fox on NBC, with stars like Clark Gable and Susan Hayward, who were rarely appeared on TV. The number of rounds decreases a little face for movies. Since 1964 Hollywood produced films "made for TV."
Self-censorship. In the series, sex is very self-censoring (when the movie is released) Regarding the image of minorities, the networks are reluctant to schedule blacks in the series even for supporting roles until the mid-1960s. CBS program then sets with black stars and co-stars. Bill Cosby plays a U.S. secret agent in "I Spy " (1965-68). Diahann Carroll's nurse widow in " Julia" (1968-71). But in 9 years the series "The FBI " deals only once a question regarding the violation of civil rights.
The contrast with the civil rights movement by giving the floor in the information, the activists ignored by newspapers and local radio and showing violence. In 1970's TV movie Roots devoted to slavery, accompanies the position of African Americans in public space.
counterculture. TV supports rather the American intervention in Vietnam. Sitcoms ridicule the cons-hippie culture (Dragnet). Bob Hope organizes tours to support the Army in Vietnam. On CBS, the younger actors, Tom and Dick Smothers, however, try to break the consensus between 1967 and 1969 by introducing political satire absent from TV. Network executives prohibit Joan Baez dedicated a song to her husband in prison for refusing conscription. Columbia is trying to prevent Pete Seeger to sing a ballad anti-war. The Smothers Brothers issue is removed. Emissions pro-Vietnam Bob Hope record viewing figures, 46.6% more than the emissions of the brothers Smother. But in the 1970 MASH (CBS 1972-1983) will accompany the release of the Vietnam War.
Competition. During the 1970s develops cable television, first in areas of poor reception (city). Cable channels that do not threaten slowly terrestrial channels. By the late 1970s about 90% of viewers watching the three national channels (NBC, CBS, ABC). The audience of cable channels increased from 6% in January 1982 to 20% in January 1989, the self spend 12-18%. By the three networks down to 61% of viewers in the late 1990s. Public television continues to occupy a marginal place. PBS has an average audience of 2.7 million prime-time homes on a total of 92.1, or 2.9% of households in 1989. cable channels do not compete directly with traditional channels but are aimed at specific audiences. This breaks partially with the role of national TV as cement.
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