Television

T he history of television
Way back in the early 1800s the
television was being invented, It all
started with the idea that you could
scan images and broadcast those
images to people and you would
see these images as frames and you
would see multiple frames a second
to create a moving picture. Unlike
cinemas there wasn’t a projector just
a wheel with holes. In the wholes
where small images which would be
magnified onto the screen. This was
created in the 1920s.

Later on they changed the idea due

to the fact that it wasn’t very effec-
tive and there were more efficient
way of showing moving images. The BBC
Philo Taylor Farnsworth was the The BBC aired there first show in 1934 and were the only show on TV for quite a
creator of the first electric TV and while in the UK. There first show was called By the Baird Process and it was an op-
the young age of 21. His home town era that was filmed and then shown on the TV, this was what a lot of the early BBC
didn’t have electricity and yet he was looked like. After opera news started to pop up which showed a presenter reading
so interested in it. From about 1926 headlines and was similar to the news on the radio already but it was still quite
to 1931 they began to refine the popular among the few that owned a TV. In 1936 more shows starting showing
electric television. America started like one show in which a bus driver explains the creation of a special boat and it
to jump on TV trend when there was called the golden hind and there were quite a lot of shows similar to this one
population became obsessed with but with different people explain different things.
modern entertainment. TVs started
to become a massive hit and started There was also a film in 1936 called television Comes to London but it is
selling well. There were four chan- unknown to me what this is about because of the lack of any info about but from
nels in America at the time which what I have seen it looks like a sort of documentary film in which they show how
were NBS, CBS, CCN and ABC. CCN TV was brought to people’s homes in London, like the name suggests. There
came a bit later and was a 24 hour was another show called starlight which aired around the same time and it was a
channel dedicated to broadcasting sort of comedy skit which lasted about 25 minutes. About 10 years later TVs had
news. developed and longer shows could be broadcasted. For example they would film
plays and they broadcast them on the BBC but they would be plays that you could
Later on at around the 1980s MTV go and watch; not plays that were done epically for the BBC. They would show
popped up. The channel showed multiple showing of one show thought out the space of a month because back
music videos of all your favourite them there wasn’t much to show. Later on, when there was a lot more to show,
songs and became very popular, so BBC became BBC one and BBC two was created in 1964 this meant that they could
much that you could say it killed the air a lot more shows and also it didn’t stop there today it goes up to 4.
radio star. The immense popularity Doctor Who
of the TV was shown when it started Doctor Who is a serial television drama that first aired in 1963 and consisted of a
to beat out the radio and cement- race that look like humans called time lords. The Doctor is the last time lord and
ed it as the biggest entertainment he can travel though time in a blue police box called the TARDIS which stands for
product. time and relative demission in space. He would normally travel with some sort of
companion which was normally a young adult. They would go on adventure to try
In the UK TV was dominated by the and stop the creatures of the universe from destroying it or part of it.The show
BBC which was the first channel in was an instant hit because of its originality and amazing effects for the time. The
the UK and is still one of the biggest.show also managed to appeal to every age group because of its dark themes and
Instead of being run of many adverts scary characters but also because of its assurance that the doctor would always
the BBC was funded by a TV li- win in the end which made it appeal to the whole family. The also had another
cence, which was a tax you have cleaver mechanic which was whenever the doctor died he would regenerate in to a
to pay if you have a TV or watch new person. This meant they could refresh the cast whenever it got tiring or some
TV on a device in the UK. of the cast could not act any more. The only issues with this format was that if
you had a weak cast for a while the show would start to drop in views and review
ratings. Because of this the show went of air in 1989. This wasn’t the end of
Doctor Who though because after much demand and 16 years the show returned
in 2005 and it as good as ever capturing the next generation of families in its fun
and interesting plots about time travel.
Comedy in TV The Office
A lot of comedy TV shows are better known as The Office has played a big part in the world of TV
sitcoms which stands for situational comedies. The comedies. The show first aired in 2001 and at the
situational part is usually referring to a location in time the two directors were seen as absolute no-
which most of the show takes place for example in bodies. Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant were on
friends the bulk of the scenes take place in Chandler a radio station together they got a chance create a
and Moniker’s apartment, Joey’s apartment and cen- pilot for a TV show with a low budget they managed
tral perk café. This works because it means they can to create something good enough that the BBC gave
focus more on the characters and the jokes between them the ok to make the first season and it also ran
them instead of the location it also helps people for a second season and Christmas special finale. The
recognise the show and not feel lost in an episode show was so popular that an American version was
because every episode is taking in the same place so made and that lasted for a very popular 10 seasons.
no expiation needed.
The show is about an office that makes sales of pa-
Most comedies have a laughing track this is so when per to companies that need paper. The show would
there jokes are either unfunny or really awkward. The go through the day in a life of working there and
laughing track will make people think the joke is fun- did it in a hand held documentary style which to a
ny or they will just gloss over it because the laughing lot of people made it so real that they thought they
track distracts you. It also makes people laugh more were actual people. The appeal of the show was the
because when other people are laughing you are characters. David Brent (the boss) is a character who
psychologically more likely to laugh with them to be is not funny but wants to be cool and seen as a role
not seen as an outcast. The issues comes when the model but in fact he isn’t funny and instead annoying
laugh track just gets annoying and it makes episodes and the awkwardness of the jokes he makes is am-
hard to watch and makes the jokes unfunny. Shows plified by the fact that there is no laughing track. Be-
like Seinfeld and Friends are vastly popular because cause they have made the characters so well you can
there charters are easy to relate to and their stories see that he isn’t that bad of a person and they some-
are simple but the jokes are funny and also relatable. how make you feel bad for him. The fact that they
were able to make one of the best shows in comedy
When looking closer in to what makes certain jokes for such a low budget is amazing and is a brilliant ex-
funny context is key because it is the whole joke, ample of how important the writing is when it comes
without context it’s just like saying any other sen- to making a comedy.
tence. When writing a joke the writers need to think
about their target audience so that they can make
the jokes relate to them. For example in The Big Bang
Theory there jokes relate to their target audience
which is nerds and geeks and what makes the jokes
funny is the fact that they are relatable. Some might
not find the jokes as funny or not funny at all be-
cause they may have to not heard of the thing men-
tioned and there don’t understand the joke. Jokes
take a long time, the writer of Seinfeld spent two
hours on a joke because they are not easy to think
off because you have think about a lot epically as a
lot of thing can be considered offensive to certain
people.

Credits
When looking for research for TV it was difficult but I found a few really useful sources. For the research on
BBC I found that all there shows that have aired from their first show in 1934 right up to 2007, this made
it quite easy to look at all the work of the BBC and because they have taken it from the radio times there
are air times, dates and most of them have descriptions so that it was pretty easy to understand what each
show was about. If you are interested I suggest checking it out at https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/
bbctv. It is really good that the BBC have done this and I think more channels should do things like this.

When looking up comedy I used more old fashioned techniques and read books, the book I used was the
television hand book by Jonathan Bignell and Jeremy Orlebar and is useful I you want to look into TV re-
gardless of what genre you are doing. I would recommend reading it if you are into TV and want to create
your own TV show. I also looked at videos. I found and interview with Seinfeld done by the New York Times
which was really useful about writing jokes. For the office I found that they have made a 40 minute long
documentary on it and it was really interesting I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys The Office. The arti-
cle is written and researched by Joseph Ruffell.