History Main / OlderThanCableTV

* RecycledInSPACE -- ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet'', 1956

Television had the fastest adoption rate of any media technology until the [[{{Podcast}} iPod]]. In the [[TheForties 1940s]] TV sets in the USA numbered less than 10 thousand, by the [[TheSeventies 1970s]] there were over 140 million (And as of 2012, at least 302 million). The number of [[UsefulNotes/AmericanTelevisionStations TV stations]] also went from 9 to '''953''' in the same time-frame.

This rapid rise meant millions of viewers and millions of dollars in advertising revenue; which by 1950 were based on UsefulNotes/{{ratings}} generated from quarterly questionnaires, called "UsefulNotes/{{sweeps}}" for their staggered regional polling. ExecutiveMeddling soon followed as UsefulNotes/NetworkExecutives learned that only popular shows made money, with {{fiction}} being a big seller. Some networks like Creator/{{PBS}} and local news-stations are funded by donations from viewers instead, these tend to focus on [[NonFiction non-fiction]].

For more technical information and tropes in general, see the [[UsefulNotes/{{Television}} Useful Notes for Television]].

The limited number of over-the-air channels and (initially) TV sets meant that audiences were not as niche and fractured as they are now. Any given show or episode could more easily become the talk of the country since more people were likely to have seen it. This in turn meant that there were limits on content "because children may be watching" -- which was the source of [[UsefulNotes/ANSIStandardBroadcastTVSchedule late-night content restrictions]], as that was when kids were supposed to be asleep. As [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_content_rating_systems on-screen content ratings]] didn't arrive until the [=1990s=], the Broadcast Standards and Practices (BS&P) during this time period was tougher than today and started the [[EditedForSyndication Editing [of Films] for Syndication]].

[[{{Series}} T.V. series]] also share many tropes with both {{radio}} and cinematic {{film}}s, so be sure to check the OlderThanTelevision index for tropes which TV may be famous for, but are OlderThanTheyThink. See also UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfVideoGames for video-games from this time period.

* SpiderManSendUp: ''Franchise/SpiderMan'' duplicates have been around since his inception into popular culture in 1962.

* AbbeyRoadCrossing -- ''Music/AbbeyRoad'', 1969

* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy -- ''Film/StarWars'', 1977

** arguably Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe (1950)

* PrimeTimeSoap -- ''One Man's Family'', 1949

* SeasonFinale -- ''Faraway Hill'', 1946

* BorrowingTheBeatles -- Musically, the albums ''Beattle''[sic] ''Beat'' by The Liverpool Kids and ''Beatle Mania'' by The Schoolboys, cheaply and hastily recorded right after "I Want to Hold Your Hand" started gaining momentum in the US in 1964, blending [[CoverVersion Cover Versions]] of Beatle songs and soundalikes. In film, Frankie Avalon as the British rocker The Potato Bug in ''Film/BikiniBeach'', 1964. On television, The Mosquitoes from ''Series/GilligansIsland'', 1965.

* AdamWesting -- Music/DeanMartin in ''[[Film/KissMeStupid Kiss Me, Stupid]]'', 1964

* AbsentAliens -- ''Literature/{{Foundation}}'' series, 1942

* {{Sampling}} -- The avant-garde ''musique concrète'' movement, which started in TheForties, built around manipulating recorded sounds, basically pioneered the idea. In pop music, "I Am the Walrus" by Music/TheBeatles, 1967 (snatches of a radio broadcast of ''Theatre/KingLear'')

* {{Sampling}} -- "I Am the Walrus" by Music/TheBeatles, 1967 (snatches of ''Theatre/KingLear'')

* RooftopConcert -- The 1969 performance atop [[Film/LetItBe 3 Savile Row in London by The Beatles]].