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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 still CRT, it was only in early 2010s that flat-screen TVs decisively overtook CRT. 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.^{[better source needed]} (Full article...)

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"Goodbyeee", or "Plan F: Goodbyeee", is the sixth and final episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, the fourth and final series of British historical sitcom Blackadder. The episode was first broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom on 2 November 1989, shortly before Armistice Day. Apart from the one-off short film Blackadder: Back & Forth made a decade later, it was the last episode of Blackadder to be produced and transmitted.

The episode depicts its main characters" final hours before a major British offensive on the Western Front of the First World War, and Captain Blackadder"s attempts to escape his fate by feigning madness; after he fails to convince General Melchett, and Field Marshal Haig"s advice proves useless, he resigns himself to taking part in the offensive. "Goodbyeee" has a darker tone than other episodes in the series, culminating in its acclaimed ending in which the main characters are assumed to have died. The episode"s theme of death ties in with the series" use of gallows humour, its criticism and satire of war, and its depiction of authority figures contentedly sending their subordinates to face the enemy, while unwilling to do so themselves.

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Credit: Cecil Stoughton

John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and others watching flight of Astronaut Alan Shepard on television. Shepard was the second person and the first American in space. He later commanded the Apollo 14 mission, and was the fifth person to walk on the moon.

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... that a scene from the television adaptation of the manga It"s All About the Looks was filmed at the Tokyo Girls Collection fashion show?
... that Ruslana Pysanka, who hosted a Ukrainian television program with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, died as a refugee in Germany?
... that the sentencing phase of the Jemma Mitchell case was the second to be filmed in England and Wales since a change in the law permitted television cameras into court?
... that due to her leftist beliefs, journalist Ana Amado was told not to come to work by her public television employer while her husband was on the death list of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance?
... that an episode of the children"s TV show Arthur featuring a same-sex wedding was not aired on Alabama"s PBS network?
... that Gloria Cameron was the first native Jamaican in the UK to appear on the British television programme This Is Your Life?

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Television is business, and business is America.

— Bill Cosby

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...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?

...that despite British Conservative MP Denis Keegan winning a marginal constituency by over 7,000 votes, he ended his political career after one term, preferring to work for the trade association for television shops?

...that model Albert Reed, selected to appear in September 2007 on the United States television show Dancing with the Stars, admits that he cannot dance?

...that the television drama Hill Street Blues imitated the visual style of The Police Tapes, a low-budget documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx?

...that like the characters in his television series The Practice and Boston Legal, David E. Kelley worked as a lawyer in a Boston law firm?

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Rather in 2017

Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (/ˈræðər/; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. He began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurricane Carla in September 1961. In his first national broadcast, he helped initiate the successful evacuation of 350,000 people. He reported on some of the most significant events of the modern age, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the war on terror.

Rather also famously reported from Dallas in November 1963 at the time that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. Based on such reporting, he was promoted at CBS News, where he served as White House correspondent beginning in 1964. He served as foreign correspondent in London and Vietnam over the next two years before returning to the White House correspondent position. He covered the presidency of Richard Nixon, including Nixon"s trip to China, the Watergate scandal, and the president"s resignation. (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 2Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 3The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 4Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 5Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 6Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 7The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children"s Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 8The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 9LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 10Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 11Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 12This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird"s first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 13An RCA Victor Color TV ad featuring milliner Lilly Daché in 1959. (from Color television)
Image 14The earliest photograph of a television picture, showing the face of Oliver Hutchinson in June 1926. The television picture was projected using Baird"s television camera. (from History of television)
Image 15Samsung"s discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 16First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 17RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 18Tihanyi" Radioskop patent (1926) was recognized as Document of Universal Significance by the UNESCO (from History of television)
Image 19Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 20LG smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 21RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 22Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 23Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 24DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 25An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 26A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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Louie is an American television comedy created, written, directed by, and starring stand-up comedian Louis C.K. The series has aired for five seasons on the cable channel FX since June 29, 2010. The show centers on a fictionalized version of C.K."s life as a comedian, father, and divorcé.

Since its debut, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim and has been nominated for a variety of different awards, including twenty-two Primetime Emmy Awards (three wins for the series), eight Television Critics Association Awards (three wins), two Golden Globe Awards, four Writers Guild of America Awards (three wins), three Directors Guild of America Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Producers Guild of America Awards. (Full article...)
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Mad Men is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner, produced by Lionsgate Television and broadcast on the cable network AMC. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and ended on May 17, 2015, after seven seasons and ninety-two episodes. Set in New York City amid the social changes of the 1960s, the show follows the people working at an advertising agency on Madison Avenue. It stars Jon Hamm as Don Draper, an advertising executive at the fictional Sterling Cooper agency (later Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce) who, despite his professional successes, struggles to handle secrets from his past and to maintain his personal and family life. Other members of the show"s original ensemble cast include Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson, Vincent Kartheiser as Pete Campbell, January Jones as Betty Draper, Christina Hendricks as Joan Holloway, and John Slattery as Roger Sterling; the cast saw numerous changes during its run.

Mad Men has been widely praised as one of the greatest television series of its era and of all time, and during its run, it earned numerous accolades for its acting, writing, directing, and technical achievements. Among these recognitions, it won sixteen Primetime Emmy Awards from 116 nominations. The series won the award for Outstanding Drama Series four times from eight nominations, tying the record for most wins in the category. Its win in 2008 for its first season made it the first basic cable series to win the award. Hamm was also nominated eight times for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, ultimately winning the award once in 2015. However, despite these successes, the show often came up notably empty-handed; its seventeen nominations without a win in 2012 set an Emmys record for largest shutout in a year, and Hamm"s win in 2015 was the show"s only acting win from thirty-seven nominations. (Full article...)
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The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series is an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It is given to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a supporting role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 6th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1979, Suzanne Rogers was the first winner of this award, for her role as Maggie Horton on Days of Our Lives. The awards ceremony was not aired on television in 1983 and 1984, having been criticized for voting integrity. Following the introduction of a new category in 1985, Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series, one criterion for this category was altered, requiring all actresses to be aged 26 or above. (Full article...)
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Fate/stay night is an anime television series based on the visual novel Fate/stay night by Type-Moon. The episodes are directed by Yūji Yamaguchi, animated by Studio Deen and produced by the Fate Project, which included Geneon Entertainment, TBS, CREi, Type-Moon and Frontier Works. The series premise is primarily based on the Fate storyline in the Fate/stay night visual novel, although certain elements of the other two storylines, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven"s Feel, are also incorporated into the anime.

The episodes were originally aired from January 7 to June 17, 2006, in Japan on Television Saitama and at later dates on CTC, KBS, tvk, Tokyo MX, SUN, TV Aichi and AT-X. The series later received its international television premieres on the anime television network Animax in 2007, also receiving its English-language television premiere on Animax"s English networks in Southeast Asia from June 2007, as well as its other networks in South Korea, Hong Kong and other regions. (Full article...)
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Sim as the Laird in Geordie, 1955

The Scottish actor Alastair Sim (1900–1976) performed in many media of light entertainment, including theatre, film and television. His career spanned from 1930 until his death. During that time he was a "memorable character player of faded Anglo-Scottish gentility, whimsically put-upon countenance, and sepulchral, sometimes minatory, laugh".

After studying chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, he was employed, between 1925 and 1930, as a lecturer in elocution at New College, Edinburgh, and also established his own school of drama and speech training. In 1930 he made his professional stage debut as a messenger in Othello at the Savoy Theatre, London—with Paul Robeson and Peggy Ashcroft in the lead roles. During the next five years he appeared on stage in New York and the UK, and spent two years at the Old Vic. (Full article...)
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The tenth season of the Bleach anime series, released on DVD as the Arrancar vs. Shinigami arc (破面・VS.死神篇, Arankaru VS. Shinigami Hen), is directed by Noriyuki Abe, and produced by TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Studio Pierrot. The season adapts Tite Kubo"s Bleach manga series from the rest of the 32nd volume to the 35th volume (chapters 286–315), with the exception of episodes 204 and 205 (filler). The episodes" plot continues to follow Ichigo Kurosaki"s and his friends" battle against the Espada, the strongest of former Soul Reaper Captain Sōsuke Aizen"s army, to rescue Orihime Inoue.

The season aired from October 2008 to February 2009 on TV Tokyo. The English adaptation of the anime is licensed by Viz Media, and aired on Cartoon Network"s Adult Swim from February to May 2011. Aniplex released the season in a series of DVD compilations, with each of the four volumes containing four episodes. The first DVD volume was released on May 27, 2009, and the fourth one on August 26 of the same year. (Full article...)
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Moonlight is an American paranormal romance television drama created by Ron Koslow and Trevor Munson, who was also executive producer for all episodes with Joel Silver, Gerard Bocaccio, Gabrielle Stanton and Harry Werksman. The series follows private investigator Mick St. John (Alex O"Loughlin), who was turned into a vampire by his bride Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) on the couple"s wedding night fifty-five years earlier. In the present day, he struggles with his attraction to a mortal woman, Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), his friendship with his mentor and fellow vampire Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), and his dealings with other vampires in Los Angeles.

The series was commissioned by Warner Bros. Television in 2007 as a presentation lasting 14–20 minutes. Alex O"Loughlin, Shannon Lucio, Rade Šerbedžija and Amber Valletta were cast in the lead roles, and Rod Holcomb was hired as director. David Greenwalt joined the staff in May 2007 as showrunner and executive producer with Joel Silver; however, health reasons forced Greenwalt to leave the series. All of the original actors, apart from the male lead role, were recast in June 2007 with Sophia Myles, Jason Dohring and Shannyn Sossamon. A retooled, full-length pilot for television audiences was then shot. (Full article...)
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The Devil May Cry anime series is directed by Shin Itagaki and produced by Madhouse. The English adaptation of the anime has been licensed by Funimation Entertainment. They are based on the Devil May Cry video game series produced by Capcom. The background of the storyline is primarily based on the first and third installments of the series, Devil May Cry and Devil May Cry 3: Dante"s Awakening respectively. The series follows the daily life of demon hunter Dante as he adopts a young girl named Patty Lowell and faces off against a demon seeking to attain godhood.

The anime was originally announced at the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, with plans to release twelve episodes of the series. Unlike most anime, the episode titles were released in English instead of the customary Japanese. The first episode aired on June 14, 2007, with the twelfth shown on September 6, 2007. The episodes aired on WOWOW. On June 30, 2007, at Anime Expo 07, it was announced that ADV Films had licensed the show. However, in 2008, it became one of more than 30 titles that were transferred to Funimation. The series made its North American television debut on the Funimation Channel in September 2010 and it began airing on Chiller"s Anime Wednesdays block on July 15, 2015. (Full article...)
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Turner as Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)

Lana Turner (1921–1995) was an American actress who appeared in over fifty films during her career, which spanned four decades. Discovered in 1937 at age 16, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. but soon transferred to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The studio"s co-founder, Louis B. Mayer, helped further her career by casting her in several youth-oriented comedies and musicals, including Dancing Co-Ed (1939) and Ziegfeld Girl (1941), the latter of which was a commercial success and helped establish her as one of the studio"s leading performers. Turner subsequently co-starred with Clark Gable in the drama Somewhere I"ll Find You (1943), the first of four films she would appear in with him.

Turner"s role as a femme fatale in the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) advanced her career significantly and established her as a dramatic actress. It earned her acclaim with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times deeming it "the role of her career." In addition to her film roles, Turner frequently appeared on radio programs throughout the 1940s, including Suspense and The Orson Welles Almanac. In 1952, she co-starred in the drama The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) opposite Kirk Douglas, portraying an alcoholic actress. Turner made her final film appearance with Gable in the drama Betrayed (1954). After the critical and commercial failure of Diane (1956), MGM opted not to renew Turner"s contract. At the time, her films with the studio had collectively earned over $50 million (Full article...)
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The Jimmy V Award (sometimes called the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance) is awarded as part of the ESPY Awards to "a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination". The award is named in honor of North Carolina State University men"s basketball coach Jim Valvano, who gave an acceptance speech after receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 1993 ESPY Awards ceremony which "brought a howling, teary-eyed Madison Square Garden to its feet". Valvano died from adenocarcinoma two months after receiving the award. The Jimmy V Award trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented at the annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles by The V Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 1993 by ESPN and Valvano to raise money to fund cancer research grants across the United States.

The accolade"s inaugural winner in 2007 was basketball coach Kay Yow, who successfully led the North Carolina State University women"s team to the ACC tournament championship game, and the Sweet 16 (regional semi-finals) of the NCAA Division I Tournament after returning from sessions of breast cancer chemotherapy. Although the award has usually been given to coaches or athletes, it has been presented to two reporters: Stuart Scott (2014) and Craig Sager (2016). The award has been shared twice: Team Hoyt (2013), consisting of the father and son team of Dick and Rick Hoyt, and the father and daughter combination of Devon Still and Leah Still (2015). The 2024 recipient of the Jimmy V Award was Dawn Staley. (Full article...)
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John Ford with portrait and Academy Award, circa 1946

John Ford (1894–1973) was an American film director whose career spanned from 1913 to 1971. During this time he directed more than 130 films; however, nearly all of his silent films are lost. Born in Maine, Ford entered the filmmaking industry shortly after graduating from high school with the help of his older brother, Francis Ford, who had established himself as a leading man and director for Universal Studios. After working as an actor, assistant director, stuntman, and prop man – often for his brother – Universal gave Ford the opportunity to direct in 1917. Initially working in short films, he quickly moved into features, largely with Harry Carey as his star.

In 1920, Ford left Universal and began working for the Fox Film Corporation. During the next ten years he directed more than 30 films, including the westerns The Iron Horse (1924) and 3 Bad Men (1926), both starring George O"Brien, the war drama Four Sons and the Irish romantic drama Hangman"s House (both 1928 and both starring Victor McLaglen). In the same year as these last two films, Ford directed his first all-talking film, the short Napoleon"s Barber. The following year, he directed his first all-talking feature, The Black Watch. (Full article...)
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J. J. Abrams, one of the co-creators of Lost, directed the pilot episode.

Lost is an American serial drama television series created by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof for ABC. Abrams directed the pilot episode, which was based upon an original script titled Nowhere written by Jeffrey Lieber. Six seasons of the show aired, in addition to numerous clip shows to recap previous episodes.

The series follows the experiences of the survivors of a plane crash on a passenger jet, Oceanic Flight 815, which crashed on a tropical island in the South Pacific, with each episode typically featuring action on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character"s life. The series also includes stories of the lives of people already living on the island — they include the "Others", who initially antagonize the survivors, as well as a group of people who arrive on the freighter Kahana. Lost: Missing Pieces consists of thirteen original two- to three-minute clips referred to as "mobisodes" which were produced for cell phones and released between seasons three and four. Multiple former and recurring cast members made an appearance in the series finale. (Full article...)
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Rental Magica (レンタルマギカ, Rentaru Magika) is a Japanese animated television series . Its episodes are directed by Itsuro Kawasaki and produced by the Japanese animation studio ZEXCS and Victor Entertainment. ZEXCS produced the animation and Victor Entertainment was responsible for developing the music. They are based on the light novel series Rental Magica by Makoto Sando and illustrated by pako, and adapt the source material over twenty-four episodes. The plot of the episodes follows Itsuki Iba, the newly appointed president of Astral, a company that dispatches magicians to perform jobs involving supernatural phenomena, and his interactions with his employees and Astral"s competitors.

The episodes aired from October 7, 2007, to March 23, 2008, on Chiba TV and TV Saitama, with the episodes later broadcast on KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi, TV Hokkaido, TV Kanagawa, and TVQ Kyushu Broadcasting Co. The order that the episodes air in is nonlinear; for instance, the first episode broadcast is the sixth episode chronologically. The exceptions are episodes four, eight, and episodes sixteen through twenty, which are in the same broadcast and chronological order. (Full article...)
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Dexter is an American television drama that was broadcast on the premium cable channel Showtime from October 1, 2006, to September 22, 2013. A total of 96 episodes of Dexter were broadcast over eight seasons.

The series is based on characters created by Jeff Lindsay for his "Dexter" series of novels, and follows the life of Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), a Miami Metro Police Department blood pattern analyst with a double life. While investigating murders in the homicide division, Dexter hunts and kills murderers and criminals who have escaped the justice system. Although the first season is based on the events of Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the series"s subsequent seasons do not follow the novels in the series. Departing from the narrative of Lindsay"s second Dexter novel Dearly Devoted Dexter, the show"s writer Daniel Cerone said that the writers "didn"t see the opportunity in the second book" to adapt it. (Full article...)
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The Office is an American television sitcom developed by Greg Daniels and based on the British series of the same name created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The show premiered on NBC on March 24, 2005, and concluded on May 16, 2013, after airing 201 episodes across nine seasons. Filmed as a mockumentary, the series depicts the everyday lives of a group of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The Office initially featured Steve Carell as Michael Scott, Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute, John Krasinski as Jim Halpert, Jenna Fischer as Pam Beesly, and B. J. Novak as Ryan Howard; the show"s cast changed significantly during its run.

Despite premiering to mixed reviews during its first season, The Office's subsequent seasons received widespread acclaim and became a success for NBC, though later seasons were criticized for a dip in quality. From 2006 to 2011, the show was nominated six consecutive times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, winning for its second season. The show was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy; five Producers Guild of America Awards for Best Episodic Comedy, winning once; the 2006 TCA Award for Program of the Year; and four TCA Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, winning twice. The Office was named as one of the top television programs of 2006 and 2008 by the American Film Institute, and in 2007, the series was recognized with a Peabody Award. (Full article...)

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