Tropes first documented after the emergence of broadcast television as a mass medium of entertainment (1940) until the rise of cable television (1980).
Television had the fastest adoption rate of any media technology until the iPod. In the 1940s TV sets in the USA numbered less than 10 thousand, by the 1970s there were over 140 million (And as of 2012, at least 302 million). The number of 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 ratings generated from quarterly questionnaires, called "sweeps" for their staggered regional polling. Executive Meddling soon followed as Network Executives learned that only popular shows made money, with fiction being a big seller. Some networks like PBS and local news-stations are funded by donations from viewers instead, these tend to focus on non-fiction.
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 late-night content restrictions, as that was when kids were supposed to be asleep. As 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 Editing [of Films] for Syndication.
For more technical information and tropes in general, see the Useful Notes for Television.
T.V. series also share many tropes with both radio and cinematic films, so be sure to check the Older Than Television index for tropes which TV may be famous for, but are Older Than They Think. See also The Golden Age of Video Games for video-games from this time period.
Tropes from this time period:
- Abbey Road Crossing — Abbey Road, 1969
- Absent Aliens — Foundation series, 1942
- Adam Westing — Dean Martin in Kiss Me, Stupid, 1964
- Aliens Steal Cable — The Day the Earth Stood Still, 1951
- Animated Sitcom — The Flintstones, 1960
- Anime Film — Momotaro's Sea Eagles, 1943
- Anime Series — Tetsuwan Atom, 1963
- Argentina Is Nazi-Land — Notorious and Gilda, 1946
- Armed Blag — The Lavender Hill Mob, 1946
- Band Toon — The Beatles, 1965
- Big Dumb Object — Arthur C. Clarke story "The Sentinel", 1951
- Bizarre Alien Senses — Isaac Asimov story "The Secret Sense", 1941
- Bizarre Baby Boom — Children of the Atom by Wilmer Shiras, 1948
- Bonus Round — Password, 1961
- Borrowing the Beatles — 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 Cover Versions of Beatle songs and soundalikes. In film, Frankie Avalon as the British rocker The Potato Bug in Bikini Beach, 1964. On television, The Mosquitoes from Gilligan's Island, 1965.
- Bowling for Ratings — The Honeymooners, 1955
- Buddy Cop Show — Dragnet, 1949
- The Caper — The Asphalt Jungle, 1950
- Carbuncle Creature: Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges, 1957
- Carcass Sleeping Bag: The New Land, 1972
- Car Song — Oklahoma!, 1943 ("The Surrey with the Fringe on Top")
- Catch-22 Dilemma — Catch-22, 1961
- Close on Title — Head, 1968
- Collectible Card Game — Topps' Baseball Card Game, 1951
- Combining Mecha — Getter Robo, 1974
- Computer Virus — Westworld, 1973
- Concept Album — Dust Bowl Ballads, 1940
- Concept Video — The clip of Ricky Nelson singing "Travelin' Man" on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1961, mixing him singing with stock footage from the locales mentioned in the song, including some arty double exposures, probably counts. If not, "Penny Lane", 1967.
- Concert Film — Concert Magic, 1948note
- Cowboy Cop — Bullitt, 1968
- Cruel Twist Ending — Often on The Twilight Zone (1959)
- Cut-and-Paste Suburb — A Wrinkle in Time, 1963
- Cybernetic Mythical Beast — "Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon" by Stanisław Lem, 1964
- Diagonal Billing — Love Crazy (William Powell and Myrna Loy), Come Live with Me (Hedy Lamarr and James Stewart, and Hold Back the Dawn (Charles Boyer and Olivia de Havilland), all 1941
- Distinct Double Album — Freak Out, 1966
- Disturbed Doves — The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957
- Dr. Feelgood — Long Day's Journey Into Night, 1957
- Dragon Rider — Dragonriders of Pern, 1967
- The End of the Beginning — The phrase was coined by Winston Churchill in 1942.
- Evil Overlord — The Lord of the Rings, 1954
- The Expy With No Name — Dollars Trilogy
- Fake Action Prologue — Sullivan's Travels, 1941
- The Fantastic Faux — Fantastic Four, 1961
- Fauxba Fett — Star Wars, 1980
- Fetal Position Rebirth — 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968
- A Fête Worse Than Death — The Lottery, June 28, 1948
- Fiction as Cover-Up — Isaac Asimov story "Pâté de Foie Gras", 1956
- Film Noir — The Maltese Falcon, 1941
- A Fistful of Rehashes — Yojimbo, 1961
- Five-Man Band — Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, 1972
- Floating Advice Reminder — Beyond the Line of Duty, 1942
- Framing the Guilty Party — Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, 1956
- Friday Night Death Slot — Pink Lady, 1980
- Gag Dub — What's Up, Tiger Lily?, 1966
- Gangbangers — The Cool World, 1963
- Generation Ships — Don Wilcox story "The Voyage That Lasted Six Hundred Years", 1940
- Genre Anthology — Tales of Tomorrow, 1951
- Ghostly Chill — The Uninvited, 1944
- Gorgeous George — professional wrestler George Raymond Wagner took on the name in 1941
- Gut Punch — Psycho, 1960
- Hauled Before a Senate Subcommittee — Government Girl, 1941
- Hidden Track — "Her Majesty" from Abbey Road, 1969
- High Fantasy — The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954
- Horror Hippies — The Real Life Manson Family's 1969 murders codified this idea
- Hotel Hellion — Eloise, 1955
- Hot Sub-on-Sub Action — Run Silent, Run Deep, 1958
- Human-to-Werewolf Footprints — The Wolf Man (1941), 1941
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy — Star Wars, 1977
- I Take Offense to That Last One! — Citizen Kane, 1941
- It's a Wonderful Plot — It's a Wonderful Life, 1946
- Jitter Cam — The Battle of San Pietro, 1945
- Knuckle Tattoos — The Night of the Hunter, 1955
- Lottery of Doom — "The Lottery", 1948
- Made-for-TV Movie — The Three Musketeers, 1950
- Magical Girl — Himitsu no Akko-chan, 1962 for manga and Sally the Witch, 1966 for anime.
- May the Farce Be with You — Hardware Wars, 1978
- Mecha Show — Tetsuwan Atom, 1963
- Midseason Replacement — The Bob Cummings Show, premiered January 1955
- "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop — Topkapi, 1964
- Monster of the Week — Dark Shadows, 1966
- Muppet — Sam and Friends, 1955
- Obi-Wan Moment — Star Wars, 1977
- Old Cop, Young Cop — Stray Dog, 1949
- Ominous Floating Spaceship — Childhood's End, 1953
- Playboy Parody — Playboy, 1953
- Pop-Up Texting — Associated with smartphones but first seen when the stuff Snoopy was typing would pop up in Peanuts, 1960s
- Psychedelic Rock — The 13th Floor Elevators, 1965
- "Psycho" Strings — Psycho, 1960
- A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil — The Lord of the Rings, 1954-1955
- Raised Lighter Tribute — There are some reports of it at Woodstock in 1969. Audiences for the 1974 tour of Bob Dylan and The Band were the Trope Maker.
- Real After All — Miracle on 34th Street, 1947
- Reality TV — Every show up until the first TV broadcast of Romeo And Juliet around 1937; the contemporary genre is thought to have started with An American Family, 1971
- Recycled IN SPACE! — Forbidden Planet, 1956
- Ret-Canon — Batman radio serials, 1944
- Riding the Bomb — Dr. Strangelove, 1962
- Rock Star Song — "Johnny B. Goode", 1958. For the first-person autobiographical variant, "Teen Age Idol", 1962.
- Rogue Juror — 12 Angry Men, 1954
- Rooftop Concert — The 1969 performance atop 3 Savile Row in London by The Beatles.
- Sampling — "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles, 1967 (snatches of King Lear)
- Saturday Morning Cartoon — The Jetsons, 1962
- Screen-to-Stage Adaptation — Doctor Who: The Curse of the Daleks, 1965
- Seashell Bra — Disney's Peter Pan, 1953
- Season Finale — Faraway Hill, 1946
- Self-Demonstrating Song — "Only a Northern Song", Yellow Submarine, 1969
- Self-Titled Album — Elvis Presley, 1956
- Sentai — Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, 1975
- Serkis Folk — Turn-On, 1969note
- Short Run in Peru — The Avengers (1960s), 1966 (UK to USA)
- Silent Running Mode — Run Silent, Run Deep, 1958
- Snowlems: Der Schneemann, 1944
- Something Else Also Rises — The Lady Eve, 1941
- Spaghetti Kiss — Lady and the Tramp, 1955
- Spider-Man Send-Up: Spider-Man duplicates have been around since his inception into popular culture in 1962.
- Split-Personality Takeover — Psycho, 1960
- Stairway to Heaven — Here Comes Mr. Jordan, 1941
- Standard Fantasy Setting — The Lord of the Rings (revised), 1965
- Studio Chatter — The Kingston Trio, "Greenback Dollar", 1962
- Summer Blockbuster — Jaws, 1975
- Super Multi-Purpose Room — It's a Wonderful Life, 1946 (played by the Swim Gym at Beverly Hills High School, built in 1939)
- Super Robot Genre — Mazinger Z, 1972
- Surreal Music Video — "Strawberry Fields Forever", 1967
- Tabletop Game A.I. — The Amazing Dr. Nim, 1965
- Tabletop RPG — Dungeons & Dragons, 1974
- Textless Album Cover — Blonde on Blonde, 1966
- Theme Initials — at the introduction of Lex Luthor in ''Superman, 1940
- This Is a Song — "This Is My Song" from A Countess from Hong Kong, 1966
- This Page Will Self-Destruct — Foundation and Empire, 1952
- Three-Wall Set — CBS Television Quiz, 1941
- Toad Licking — While scientific knowledge of varieties of toads that secret psychoactive compounds have been known for much longer, stories of teens and others actually licking the backs of toads didn't spring up in Urban Legends until after recreational drug use (and hallucinogenic drugs, like LSD) became more commonplace in the late 1960s and early 1970's
- Toku — Godzilla, 1954
- The Tokyo Fireball — Godzilla, 1954
- Train-Station Goodbye — Since You Went Away, 1944
- Transforming Mecha — Ambassador Magma, 1966
- Used Future — Moon Zero Two, 1969
- Voices Are Mental — 'Turnabout, 1940
- Wagon Train to the Stars — Star Trek: The Original Series, 1966
- Wardrobe Malfunction — The Faye Emerson Show, 1950
- Weird Trade Union — Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories contain an Assassins' Guild and Thieves' Guild, and so on. The Lankhmar Thieves' Guild was introduced in the second story, "Thieves' House", published in 1943.
- White Void Room — The Family Circus, 1960
- Wolverine Wannabe — Wolverine, 1974
- Xylophone Gag — Private Snafu "Booby Traps", 1944
