Chapter 9: A History of Television Style

• Copeland, Gary A. "A History of Television Style." In Television: Critical Methods and Applications, edited by Jeremy G. Butler, 253-284. 3rd ed. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2007.

Chapter Outline/Notes

Technological, economic, and aesthetic reasons and requirements impacted how and why various stylistic elements were incorporated into television production.

Technological Manifest Destiny
Myth: Technological advancements will automatically, even immediately, be incorporated into entertainment production and distribution practices.
Reality: The economic situation and aesthetic goals drive technological implementation.

Visual Elements of Television Style
The Birth of Video

• The invention of the technologies that allow for television occurred at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Influence of Radio on Television

• The development of television was done by private industry, not the government.
• The design of the television industry emulated the design of the radio industry: a "configuration of a national broadcasting system designed around commercial networks and their affiliates" (p. 258).
• Originally folks from radio background helped design and develop the programming for early television.

In the Beginning: Video

• Television mimicked radio by relying on live, studio-based programming; sometimes producing two screenings of the same programs, one for east coast and other for west coast viewers. The ability to record and redistribute material cheaply and adequately did not yet exist.
• Fireside Theater and Hopalong Cassidy (both started in the late 1940s) helped bring pre-recorded film to serial television.

I Love Lucy

• I Love Lucy broke television programming out of the "live programming" method introduced by radio and also developed some of the consistent conventional elements we still see in television today.
• First network series shot before a studio audience.
• Streamlined syndication process in television production and distribution.
• Use of several film cameras to shoot the program with the live audience, introducing the "visual style of multiple-camera sitcoms that survives today" (p. 261).

Independent and Major Studios

• In the early 1950s independent television studies had a lot of influence because movie studios were trying to ignore television.
• Once Hollywood movie production studios jumped in, television production moved to California (next major shift was in the 1980s with a lot of production moving to Canada)

Television and Single-Camera Technique
Film companies shot with one camera, no live audience, multiple takes, and did editing after the fact. Once this production method moved to television, it changed the types of genres that could be produced.

Introduction of Videotape

• Allowed second showing (west coast) of "live" shows to be edited prior to broadcasting.
• Does "look" different (better) than filmed images, making most television movies "filmed" instead of "video taped" (now changing with digital video and HD technologies)
• The shift in editing technologies allowed for different aesthetic conventions to emerge.
• Most television, and films, are digitized for editing, whether or not they were shot with film, video, or digital video.
• Once television production is digitized it is easier and cheaper to incorporate more special effects into the final product.

Color Television
The history of color television is wrapped up in economics and politics; not until the appropriate commercial strategy and political context could color television blossom.

Color and Style
The introduction of the color camera resulted in the adoption of the zoom lens, impacting the visual style of television aesthetics.

Logo-mania
In the 1980's network logos, or bugs, developed with the proliferation of network channels and the need to immediately identify which channel a person is watching.

Remote Control

• Initial designs for the radio as early as 1920s with early versions for televisions in the 1950s.
• The ability for consumers/viewers to so easily "zap" to other stations has begun to radically change introductory and conclusion elements in television programming and production.

Aural Elements of Television Style

• With the historical connection between radio and television, radio conventions strongly influenced the way TV sounds.
• Careful attention to the use of sound in television programming allows producers to account for interrupted consumers/viewers.

Music

• Historically organ music accompanied much television programming.
• Rock, and other popular music, slowly filtered into television because historically rock was not well received by the middle-class families (i.e., parents) that television was marketing to. Once rock was considered not as threatening, it became more incorporated with television programming.

Laugh Tracks
Not until the late 1980s did television production companies begin considering not using laugh tracks; it is still a widely accepted practice.

Key Terms/Concepts/Examples

• manifest destiny
• scanning
• cathode ray tube (CRT)
• kinescope
• simulcasts
• I Love Lucy
• syndication
• multiple-camera technique
• single-camera technique
• video tape recorder (VTR)
• post-production
• nonlinear editing (NLE)
• compositing
• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
• National Television System Committee (NTSC)
• bug
• remote control devices (RCD)
• zapping
• zipping
• laugh tracks

Related Course Outcomes

• Describe the functions and artistic responsibilities of each of the major members of a television crew. (1. Television Crew)
• Discussion of camera and editing responsibilities
  
• Describe and apply principles of aesthetics used in the critical analysis of a television show.(2. Aesthetics)
• Description of how different production technologies impacted programming aesthetics
  
• Identify the technical elements of a TV show and explain how those elements are used to stimulate different emotional responses from the audience and to illuminate the lives of the characters. (3. Technical Elements)
• Discussion of b&w versus color camera (different lenses, etc.)
  
• Discussion of sound tracks
  
• Describe the characteristics of live drama, vaudeville, radio, and movies as sources of material in early television. (4. Early TV)
• Discussion of how radio impacts various historical points in television history
  
• Analyze several significant TV shows to explain the techniques television artists use to express their ideas and values. (5. Significant Shows)
• Discussion of single and multi-camera production techniques
• Discussion of sound track techniques
  
• Describe historic television programming breakthroughs, including their impact both at the time and later. (6. Programming Breakthroughs)
• simulcasts
• I Love Lucy
• Disney
  
• Identify the names and major works of significant TV artists from the beginning of TV broadcasting through the present. (7. TV Artists)

• Describe the characteristics and representative examples of major TV genres, such as sitcoms, social comedies, dramas, news, sports. (9. TV Genres)
• Discussion of how different technological changes/advances allows for different genres
  
• Identify and describe issues which television advertising is likely to encounter in the future. (12. TV Ads & the Future
• Discussion of technological advances like remote controls
  
• Describe programming strategies for success in commercial television and non-commercial programming. (13. Programming Strategies)
• Discussion of remote controls and intro-sequences
  

Television Examples to Watch and Discuss

• I Love Lucy (watch a few of the clips provided at TV Land)--historical example, live audience, multiple-camera
  
• The Office (watch an episode from NBC)--example of a single camera production
• Max Headroom Coke Commercial--example combining film and video
• Discussion of New Title Sequence to CSI: Las Vegas (from YouTube)--think about both how/why the length and content of a title sequence as well as rock in television.