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Dynasty (TV Series)

Dynasty (TV series)

Dynasty was an American primetime television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 10, 1989. The series revolved around the Carringtons, a wealthy oil family living in Denver, Colorado. Dynasty epitomized the era of the primetime soap, in which the characters either had money and power and wanted more, or didn't have either but wanted it badly.

Beginnings

The working title for Dynasty was Oil -- the starring role originally went to George Peppard. In early drafts of the pilot script the two main families featured in the series, the Carrington and Colby families, were written as Parkhurst and Corby respectively. Peppard, who had difficulties dealing with the somewhat unsympathetic role of Blake, was replaced with John Forsythe. In the final production drafts the names Parkhurst and Corby were changed to Carrington and Colby, and their rivalry was written to emulate the Montagues and Capulets of Romeo & Juliet, that is, crossed in love and war. The first season, which was taped in 1980, was delayed by animosity between the networks and the partnership of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which caused a strike. Many new shows were delayed for months, and Dynasty did not see the light of day on ABC until the first weeks of 1981. As the series opened, tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) was about to marry Krystle Jennings (Linda Evans), a younger woman whom he met when she took a job as a secretary at his company, the monolithic Denver-Carrington. Krystle was young, beautiful and vulnerable, described by the show's creator Esther Shapiro as "an American Aphrodite". She found a hostile reception in the Carrington household - the staff patronised her, Blake's daughter Fallon (Pamela Sue Martin) resented her, and her husband was too preoccupied with his work. Krystle's only ally in the Carrington house was her stepson, the sexually ambivalent Steven (Al Corley). The first season heavily featured Matthew Blaisdel (Bo Hopkins), Krystle's first love, who worked for Blake Carrington as a geologist and was unhappily married to the emotionally fragile Claudia (Pamela Bellwood). While their daughter Lindsay (Katy Kurtzman) suffered from their marital strife, Claudia had a fling with Steven. Blake grew paranoid that Krystle was having an affair with Matthew, and raped her - a plot development ignored in later seasons. When Claudia testified at Blake's murder trial, she was forced to confess her affair with Steven. A hurt Matthew took Lindsay and left town in early season two. They were presumed dead in an accident, but the season premiere for the 1987-1988 season featured an enraged Matthew's return from the dead. He held the Carrington family hostage and was killed by Steven. At the conclusion of the show's first season, as Blake Carrington stood trial for the murder of his son's lover, Ted Dinard (Mark Withers), the script called for the return of Blake's former wife, the sultry, elegant Alexis Carrington. (In early drafts of the script the character was named Madelaine Carrington.) With the role uncast, a model was used in the season finale.

"Enter Alexis"

In the first episode of the second season, titled "Enter Alexis," the mysterious stranger removed her sunglasses to reveal English actress Joan Collins who chewed her way through the scripts, and confirmed Alexis Carrington, later Alexis Colby, as one of the greatest TV characters of all time. Alexis blazed a trail across the show and its storylines and the program quickly shot up in the ratings. By the end of the 1981-1982 season Dynasty entered the Top 20 in the Nielsen ratings, and eventually hit #1 in the ratings in 1985. The show epitomized an era of glamour and decadence and was the talk of the nation. Even former President Gerald Ford guest-starred as himself on 21 December 1983. With Alexis settled as Krystle's implacable nemesis, mother and stepdaughter Fallon settled their differences, forging a bond which riled the displaced and resentful Alexis even further.

Krystle and Alexis

In the seasons that followed, the rivalry between Blake Carrington's current and former wives became a driver for the melodrama. Alexis, in particular, resented Krystle's supplication of her position as mistress of the Carrington household and, at every opportunity, tried to undermine her. Alexis caused Krystle's miscarriage and tried repeatedly to ruin her marriage, most notably by finding Krystle's former husband (Samuel) Mark Jennings and proving that their divorce was never finalised (and that, consequently, Krystle's marriage to Blake was invalid). They had many verbal confrontations. On one occasion Krystle overheard Alexis gossiping about her in an adjoining cubicle at the beauty parlour. Krystle appeared and announced that she too could "throw mud", and tossed a bowl of face mud over Alexis. But their rivalry is best remembered in a handful of trademark catfights, beginning with one in the Carrington estate's art studio, another in the lily pond, one in a mud pool in a park and a final spat (in Dynasty: The Reunion) in a fashion studio. The fights were reportedly toned down after Joan Collins wrenched her back during one altercation.

Cliffhangers and the "Moldavian Massacre"

The most memorable aspects of the series, outside the high camp scripts from writer/creators Richard and Esther Shapiro and writers Robert Mason Pollock and Eileen Pollock, were a stream of infamous cliffhanger storylines. These included Blake left for dead on a mountain after a fight with Nick Toscanni, Alexis and Krystle being lured to Steven's cabin one night, and locked inside while the cabin was set ablaze, and another where the hotel La Mirage burned down, killing Claudia, as Blake was strangling Alexis to death back at the Carrington mansion. The most famous cliffhanger is the so-called "wedding massacre", when Blake's daughter Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) married Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed) on the eve of a military revolution in his country. It is largely remembered for its disappointing resolution. Nearly every character attended the "overseas" wedding. In the final scene of the episode, aired in May 1985, revolutionaries gunned down everyone in the palace chapel. The scene gave the impression that anyone and everyone could have died and in the summer that followed, many magazines published stories speculating which characters would survive the massacre. In the end, however, fans learned that fall that only two minor characters perished - unpopular guest character Lady Ashley Mitchell (Ali MacGraw) and Steven's gay lover Luke Fuller. The underwhelming resolution disenfranchised fans who felt the storyline had built to nothing. Aside from the glamour and campy drama, the show's later years were remembered for the controversy surrounding a storyline involving former matinee idol Rock Hudson. Hudson's scenes required him to kiss Linda Evans and, as news that he had contracted AIDS broke, there was speculation Evans would be at risk.

The end of the Dynasty

The lackluster reaction to the Moldavian storyline, combined with a poorly received dual role for Evans, the difficult recasting of key character Fallon, and excessive time spent introducing characters to be spun off onto The Colbys, caused a ratings slump. Two other factors perhaps also account for the ratings decline: the revival of sitcoms, especially on NBC, whose Cosby Show took the number one position from Dynasty in the 1985-86 season, and Cheers (consistently in the top ten from 1985 until 1993), which aired opposite Dynasty in the 1988-89 season, and more realistic, low-key dramas such as thirtysomething which gained favor in the late eighties. After the characters returned from Moldavia, Blake spurned Alexis and in retaliation she found his long-departed brother Ben (Christopher Cazenove) and they swindled Blake out of his fortune. Later, Blake recovered his money, but was rendered an amnesiac in an explosion. In the 1986-1987 season premiere, Alexis found him and convinced him they were still married, but felt guilty and told him the truth. Blake and Krystle also had to deal with their daughter Krystina being kidnapped. Other stories in that season featured Adam's romance with Dana Waring, Sammi Jo's doomed marriage to Clay Fallmont (Ted McGinley) and reconciliation with Steven (who had recently broken up with closeted politician Bart Fallmont). The season ended with Matthew Blaisdel holding the family hostage. When The Colbys was cancelled, Fallon and Jeff returned for the 1987-1988 season. Blake and Alexis each ran for governor of Colorado, Alexis married Sean Rowan (who planned to kill her due to her part in the death of his father, Joseph, the former Carrington butler), and Steven's marriage to Sammi Jo collapsed due to her affair with a drug-addicted football player. In the 1988-1989 season, Stephanie Beacham was brought in to reprise her role as firecracker Sable Colby (Tracy Scoggins also recreated her role as Sable's daughter Monica). Beacham's bravura performance made many deem the final season as one of the best in some time, but ABC had had enough and pulled the plug in 1989. Many believe that the show was a creation perfect for the Ronald Reagan era and could never have outlived his Presidency.

Dynasty commercial tie-ins

A perfume, Forever Krystle, was marketed in 1985. In addition, the Crystal Light beverage had Linda Evans as a spokesperson, due to her character's name on Dynasty. A book, The Authorized Biography of the Carringtons, was also published, written by series creator Esther Shapiro. There were also two fictional novels, based on the scripts from early episodes. They were Dynasty, and Alexis Returns. Both were written by Eileen Lottman.

Main Characters


- Blake Carrington (John Forsythe): The son of Tom and Fallon Carrington (in one episode later erroneously referred to as Ellen) who became the self-made CEO of Denver-Carrington. The husband of Alexis Morrell Carrington (with whom he fathered Adam, Fallon, Steven and Amanda), and Krystle Jennings Carrington (with whom he fathered Krystina). Forsythe and John James were the only actors to appear in both the first and last episodes.
- Krystle Jennings Carrington (Linda Evans): The wife of Blake Carrington, former wife of tennis pro Samuel Mark Jennings (known as Mark) and the one-time lover of Matthew Blaisdel (Bo Hopkins), a married geologist who worked for Denver-Carrington. Krystle was the mother, with Blake, of Krystina (Jessica Player), and the aunt of Sammy Jo Dean (see below), the only child of her late sister Iris and her husband Frank. Evans left the show midway in the final season (in the story Krystle began to unravel mentally, had to have delicate surgery, and lapsed into a coma), but she returned for the reunion movie.
- Alexis Carrington Colby (Joan Collins): Former socialite turned businesswoman, married to - in order - Blake Carrington, Cecil Colby, Dex Dexter and Sean Rowan. She famously held a torch for Blake, though she later fell deeply in love with Dex Dexter. Her marriage to Colby was ordered on his deathbed, and intended to enable her to ruin Blake after Colby was gone, while her wedding to Rowan was on a whim. Mother, with Blake, to Adam, Fallon, Steven and Amanda Carrington. Alexis was romantically attached to a number of men, including Carrington architect and estate manager Roger Grimes, tennis pro Mark Jennings, oilman Rashid Ahmed, King Galen of Moldavia, and shipping tycoon Zach Powers.
- Fallon Carrington Colby (Pamela Sue Martin (1981-1984), then Emma Samms (1985, 1987-1989): The daughter of Blake and Alexis Carrington, the wife of Jeff Colby and the mother, with Jeff, of Blake Carrington Colby (known as LB) and Lauren Constance Colby. As a young woman, she was famously indiscreet and enjoyed affairs with chauffer Michael Culhane, playboy Peter de Vilbis, tennis pro Mark Jennings, doctor Nick Toscanni, and Colby heir, Miles Colby, whom she married briefly. Martin stayed with the show from 1981-1985. When Martin left the series, the story had Fallon fleeing in her car on the eve of her remarriage to Jeff. Her wrecked car was later found by the road however there was no sign of Fallon. She was absent for much of the season that followed, a period during which Amanda Carrington surfaced. At the end of the season Fallon was reintroduced: she was suffering from amnesia and was now played by Emma Samms, with no on-air explanation given for Fallon's change of appearance. Soon afterwards she and Jeff left Denver and their characters were switched to the spin-off series The Colbys. That series was cancelled after two seasons, and Fallon and Jeff were returned to Dynasty in 1987. In the storyline, Jeff found Fallon unconscious in the desert (after being dropped off by a UFO), and they returned to Denver where Fallon fought with Sammy Jo over Jeff before dropping Jeff for good and becoming involved with a cop who helped her unlock her memories of Roger Grimes' murder. Samms was unpopular with many viewers, due in large part to the writing, which presented Fallon at this time as a teary-eyed, put-upon victim. In the show's final season, Fallon was written more like her old self, and Samms rose to the challenge.
- Steven Carrington (Al Corley (1981-1983; 1991, then Jack Coleman (1984-1988): The sexually confused son of Blake and Alexis Carrington who, despite his conviction that he was homosexual, married - at times, happily - Sammy Jo Dean and Claudia Blaisdel. With Sammy Jo, he fathered Steven Daniel Carrington (known as Danny). At different times, the lover of Ted Dinard, Luke Fuller and Bart Fallmont. He was accused of having an affair with his friend Chris Deegan, but their relationship was never clarified. (And Steven denied it.) The role was recast during the series run, and the change of appearance was explained by plastic surgery after an oil rig explosion. Eventually Steven ran most of Denver/Carrington, but after he had to kill his close friend Matthew Blaisdel (who had taken the Carrington family hostage) and Sammy Jo had an affair with a football player, Steven had a breakdown. Steven was written out of the series at the start of the final season, with the explanation that he could no longer tolerate the pressures of his personal and professional life. At the conclusion of Dynasty: The Reunion Steven (reprised by Al Corley, with no scripted explanation for Steven's pre-surgery face returning) was living in DC and was in a relationship with Bart Fallmont.
- Adam Carrington (Gordon Thomson) (1982-1989 ; then Robin Sachs 1991): Kidnapped at birth and raised as Michael Torrance, in Billings, Montana, Adam Carrington did not learn of his true identity until adulthood at which point he returned to the Carrington home. Married to Claudia Blaisdel and Dana Waring, he was a ruthless schemer - plotting to enhance his position in the dynasty. His only lasting relationship was with Kirby Anders (Kathleen Beller). The character of Adam was not seen nor mentioned in the first season of Dynasty, and was devised during the second season as a replacement son for Blake and Alexis to squabble over after the character of Steven was written out of the series. Steven was later returned to the storyline, though the character of Adam had proved to be a success and was retained in the series until its close. Adam was also featured in the 1991 Dynasty reunion movie however the role was recast as Thompson could not get out of his contract with Santa Barbara.
- Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg (1984-1986), then Karen Cellini, 1986-1987): Amanda was not seen nor heard-of in the series until the fourth season; the character was devised as a replacement for the departing Fallon. Amanda was the second daughter of Blake and Alexis. She was raised in London as Amanda Bedford, by Alexis' cousin Rosalind Morell, and hidden from her father Blake out of spite by Alexis who discovered she was pregnant after she separated from her husband. Married to Prince Michael of Moldavia, and onetime lover of Dex Dexter (on whom she had a crush), Clay Fallmont and chauffeur Michael Culhane. The role was re-cast after Oxenberg left the series when her demands for a payrise were not met, and no on air explanation was given for Amanda's change in appearance. The replacement actor Karen Cellini proved to be wildly unpopular and partway through Cellini's first season in the role the character was abruptly written out of the series, and Amanda was never heard from again.
- Claudia Blaisdel (Pamela Bellwood, 1981-1986): The emotionally fragile wife of Matthew Blaisdel, and at one time a close friend of Krystle. After her affair with Steven Carrington was revealed during the Ted Dinard murder trial, her husband Matthew took their daughter Lindsay and left Denver, and were presumed dead in an accident (Matthew would return some years later). This pushed Claudia into a succession of breakdowns, interrupted only by marriages to Steven, and later Adam, Carrington. Claudia died in a fire at La Mirage (which she started accidentally) at the conclusion of the show's sixth season. Dynasty creator Esther Shapiro felt Blaisdel was the "everywoman" of the show.
- Jeff Colby (John James, 1981-1985, 1987-1989; 1991): The nephew and protege of Cecil Colby. Born (supposedly) to Philip and Francesca Colby, he was raised by Cecil on the Colby estate in Denver, Nine Oaks (which neighbored the Carrington estate) because his father died before coming into his inheritance. It was later revealed that Cecil had pressured the penniless Francesca to surrender Jeff for his own good. Married (and later re-married) to Fallon Carrington and briefly to Kirby Anders. The father of Blake Carrington Colby (known as LB) and Lauren Constance Colby. At different times, the lover of Nicole Simpson, Lady Ashley Mitchell and Sammy Jo Reece. See also The Colbys
- Sammy Jo Dean, aka Samantha Josephine Reece (Heather Locklear): Greedy, trouble-making niece of Krystle Carrington, wife of Steven Carrington and Clay Fallmont, and mother of Danny Carrington. Onetime lover of Josh Harris and Jeff Colby. The show's secondary villainess for much of the show's run, though she was an amateur compared to the far more polished Alexis. Locklear split her time between Dynasty and another Spelling-produced series, T.J. Hooker, and made many sporadic appearances between 1982-1989 and 1991.
- Dominique Deveraux (Diahann Carroll, 1984-1987), born Millie Cox: Successful and wealthy chanteuse, illegitimate daughter of Tom Carrington and Laura Matthews, making her a half-sister to Blake and Ben Carrington. Carroll joined the cast in the fourth season as a foil for Joan Collins, though when the character was originally written, the producers had not decided how to use her. A number of scenes were filmed to introduce her (to cirvument any chance the storyline would leak to the press) including alternative lines that revealed Dominique to be the mother of Kirby Anders, and also the former wife of Cecil Colby. Dominique was initially conceived as a strong, tough schemer and fighter who loved going toe-to-toe with Alexis, but after reconciling with the Carrington family she mellowed considerably. Her daughter Jackie (Troy Beyer), came to town and learned her father, lawyer Garrett Boydston (Ken Howard), was white. Jackie ran away but soon made up with her parents. Dominique left town in 1987 and was never mentioned again.
- Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter (Michael Nader, 1983-1989): Alexis' third husband, and arguably the second great love of her life, beside Blake. Dex carried on a brief affair with her daughter Amanda. Following the dissolution of his marriage to Alexis, he was involved with Leslie Carrington and Sable Colby. At the conclusion of the original series, Sable Colby was pregnant with his child, and Dex and Alexis fell off a balcony while fighting. (The eventual fate of Dex, and his relationship with Sable, was not included in Dynasty: The Reunion; Alexis briefly mentioned that she had landed on him.)

Other Characters


- Cecil Colby (Lloyd Bochner, 1981-1982): Blake Carrington's sometimes friend and business rival who ran the oil company ColbyCo. Raised his nephew Jeff on his Denver estate and arranged a marriage between him and Fallon Carrington as part of a business deal where Cecil would help Blake out of financial difficulty if Fallon married Jeff. Cecil later became involved with the vengeful Alexis Carrington and the two plotted against Blake. After suffering a heart attack whilst having sex with Alexis, the two married on Cecil's deathbed, leaving Alexis in control of ColbyCo, which she used to continue her fight against Blake.
- Michael Culhane (Wayne Northrop, 1981, 1986-1987): Blake Carrington's shady chauffeur, secretly having an affair with his daughter Fallon. When Blake found out, he had Michael beaten up. Michael left Denver, but returned a few years later to have a relationship with Blake's other daughter Amanda after rescuing her from the La Mirage fire.
- Dr. Nick Toscanni (James Farentino, 1981-1982): Psychiatrist and surgeon who is out for revenge against Blake Carrington and comes close to having an affair with Krystle in the process.
- Kirby Anders Colby (Kathleen Beller, 1982-1984): The daughter of Joseph Anders, the Carrington major-domo. She was schooled in Europe at Blake Carrington's expense, but returned to Denver in 1982, eventually securing work as LB's nanny. She became the second wife of Jeff Colby, and then began a relationship with Adam Carrington, after he raped her. The storyline, controversial at the time, echoed of a similar storyline from the daytime soap General Hospital in which Laura Webber fell in love with her rapist Luke Spencer. Kirby and Adam's relationship was re-kindled in Dynasty: The Reunion.
- Mark Jennings (Geoffrey Scott, 1982-1984): Handsome tennis pro and former husband of Krystle Carrington brought to Denver due to the machinations of Alexis, who wished to break up Blake and Krystle's marriage.
- Tracy Kendall (Deborah Adair, 1983-1984): Employee of Denver Carrington, who worked in public relations. Scheming and ambitious, Tracy sought to advance her career either by subterfuge or by sleeping her way to the top.
- Peter De Vilbis (Helmut Berger, 1983-1984): Devilish playboy who seduces Fallon while trying to exploit the Carringtons for his own financial advantage.
- Brady Lloyd (Billy Dee Williams, 1984-1985): Former husband of Dominique Devereux, who follows her to Denver.
- Daniel Reece (Rock Hudson, 1984-1985): Wealthy businessman and the real father of Sammy Jo, Daniel falls in love with Krystle and nearly succeeds in taking her away from Blake.
- Lady Ashley Mitchell (Ali McGraw, 1984-1985), American-born widow of a British diplomat and renowned photographer who has romantic feelings for Blake Carrington and assists him in battling Alexis for the control of valuable South China oil leases. She later becomes involved with Jeff Colby, only to be killed during the infamous Moldavian massacre.
- Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed, 1985-February 1986): The heir to the (fictional) European kingdom of Moldavia, and widely regarded as a playboy prince. Prior to his engagement to Amanda Carrington, he was linked to Elena, the Duchess of Brana (Kerry Armstrong). His wedding to Amanda Carrington, at the conclusion of the show's fourth season, was interrupted by machine-gun-wielding rebels in what was widely regarded as the series most ostentatious cliffhanger. It is also the point at which TV critics consider the series jumped the shark.
- Joel Abrigore (George Hamilton, January 1985-February 1986): Film director who plots with Sammy Jo to arrange the kidnapping of Krystle and her substitution in the Carrington household with a doppelganger Rita Leslie (also played by Linda Evans).
- Ben Carrington (Christopher Cazenove, 1986-1987): The vengeful brother of Blake, who was cut off by Blake after the death of their mother because Ben was supposed to be caring for her at the time of her death (he was in fact, having an affair with Emily Fallmont). Blake blamed Ben for her death. Ben returned to Denver to destroy Blake, with Alexis' help, but reconciled with his brother and left Denver.
- Cassandra Morrell (Kate O'Mara, 1986): who styled herself as "Caress", was the manipulative sister of Alexis, rescued from a South American prison by Dex Dexter, and reunited with her sister Alexis. She wrote a memoir, Sister Dearest, about Alexis Carrington Colby, but Alexis discovered the plan, bought the publishing house and scuttled the project. Caress left town and was never mentioned again. When Alexis wanted to rile her she called her "Cassie", her birth name. Caress was only on the show for a limited number of episodes in the 1985-1986 season, but O'Mara's exotic beauty and theatrical performances made a lasting impression.
- Clay Fallmont (Ted McGinley, 1986-1987): The illegitimate son of Ben Carrington and Emily Fallmont, who engaged in affairs with Amanda Carrington, Sammy Jo Reece and Leslie Carrington. The last relationship ended, and he left Denver, when it was confirmed that Leslie may have been his sister by blood. (Although it was never clarified, Ben Carrington may have been his biological father.) Clay was on the show from 1986-1987.
- Dana Waring/Carrington (Leann Hunley 1986-1988): Beautiful young woman from Billings, Montana who had had a one-night stand with Adam Carrington when he lived as Michael Torrance. Dana follows Adam to Denver, where she gains employment as a secretary at Denver Carrington. Dana and Adam fall in love and marry, but Dana's inability to conceive a child places a strain on their marriage.
- Leslie Carrington (Terri Garber, 1987-1988): Daughter of Ben Carrington and Melissa Saunders. At one time the lover of Clay Fallmont, Michael Culhane, Dex Dexter and Sean Rowan. Leslie was introduced with some fanfare in 1987 but was quietly written out after little more than a year.
- Sean Rowan (James Healey, 1987-1988): Handsome stranger who saves Alexis from drowning after a car accident, whom Alexis falls for and marries. It turns out that Sean is the long-lost son of the Carringtons' major-domo, Joseph Anders, and is out for revenge for Alexis' treatment of both his father and his sister Kirby, eventually attempting to kill her.
- Sable Colby (Stephanie Beacham, 1988-1989): The ex-wife of Colby Enterprises magnate Jason Colby and the cousin of Alexis. Sable leaves Los Angeles and comes to Denver where she supports Blake after Krystle's departure to a Swiss clinic and becomes a formidable opponent of Alexis, getting her hands on the Carlton hotel, Alexis' oil tankers and her former husband Dex, becoming pregnant with his child. Former top bitch of Dynasty spin-off The Colbys, Sable was written into the final season of the series due to the great popularity of the character.
- Monica Colby (Tracy Scoggins, 1988-1989): The half-sister of Jeff Colby and the daughter of Sable Colby, Monica follows her mother to Denver, helping her in her efforts to fight Alexis. Monica had previously been a popular character in spin-off The Colbys.

Dynasty spin-offs and television events

The Colbys, an unsuccessful spin-off came in 1985. A miniseries, Dynasty: The Reunion, aired in 1991. On January 2, 2005, ABC aired a TV-movie, Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, purporting to tell of the creation and backstage details of Dynasty. The movie received mixed reviews both for content and for historical accuracy, and was criticized by all three of Dynasty's leads, John Forsythe, Linda Evans, and Joan Collins, in different press releases. The movie was filmed in Australia (rather than Los Angeles) and a good majority of the cast members were non-Americans. Much dramatic licence was taken with the script of Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, so the show is not an accurate guide to either behind-the-scenes nor the on-screen storylines of Dynasty. Misleading events include Al Corley being written-out in the oil-rig explosion (Corley had already long left the show when the explosion was devised as a way to reintroduce the character of Steven and to explain his change in appearance), Sammy Jo at the Moldavian wedding massacre (her character was actually in New York, involved in a separate storyline) and Amanda killed-off in a car accident when her portayer asked for a raise (she was not; Catherine Oxenberg left the show and the role was recast with Karen Cellini). Furthermore, the TV movie made no reference at all to long-running original characters Fallon Carrington, Jeff Colby, and Claudia Blaisdel. In April 2005, the first season of Dynasty was released on Region 1 DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The cable channel SOAPnet currently airs repeats of all nine seasons. In January 2004 Esther Shapiro participated in a marathon of the show's episodes, giving behind-the-scenes tidbits and factoids.

Place in Popular Culture

Dynasty has inspired a rash of parodies and imitations. A much-discussed MAD Magazine parody, "Die-Nasty", ran in the mid-80's. In the mid-1990's the sitcom The Nanny featured Fran (Fran Drescher) and her rival CC (Lauren Lane) as Alexis and Krystle, complete with catfight. Collins herself appeared in another episode, but played a low-class, uncouth figure.

External links


-
- [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/D/htmlD/dynasty/dynasty.htm Encyclopedia of Television]
- [http://www.der-denver-clan.de/de/home.cfm Der Denver Clan fan site (German language)]
- [http://www.ultimatedynasty.net/editorial.html Ultimate Dynasty]
- [http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Guild/1405/dynasty.html Dynasty Fan Network]
- [http://soapnet.go.com/thesoaps/dynasty/currentseason/getcurrentepisode.html SOAPnet Dynasty Page] Category:Soap operas Category:1980s TV shows in the United States Category:ABC network shows Category:Pop culture television

Television

: Television is a telecommunication system for broadcasting and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance. The term has come to refer to all the aspects of television programming and transmission as well. programming ]]

History

The development of television technology can be partitioned along two lines: those developments that depended upon both mechanical and electronic principles, and those which are purely electronic. From the latter descended all modern televisions, but these would not have been possible without discoveries and insights from the mechanical systems. The word television is a hybrid word, created from both Greek and Latin. Tele- is Greek for "far", while -vision is from the Latin visio, meaning "vision" or "sight". It is often abbreviated as TV or the telly.

Electromechanical television

The German student Paul Gottlieb Nipkow proposed and patented the first electromechanical television system in 1885. Nipkow's spinning disk design is credited with being the first television image rasterizer. However, it wasn't until 1907 that developments in amplification tube technology made the design practical. Meanwhile, Constantin Perskyi had coined the word television in a paper read to the International Electricity Congress at the International World Fair in Paris on August 25, 1900. Perskeyi's paper reviewed the existing electromechanical technologies, mentioning the work of Nipkow and others. 1900 In 1911, Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Kosma Zworykin achieved a television system that used a mechanical mirror-drum scanner to transmit, in Zworykin's words, "very crude images" over wires to the electronic Braun tube (cathode ray tube) in the receiver. Moving images were not possible because, in the scanner, "the sensitivity was not enough and the selenium cell was very laggy." Zworykin later went to work for RCA to build a purely electronic television, the design of which was eventually found to violate patents by Philo Taylor Farnsworth. On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave a demonstration of televised silhouette images at Selfridge's Department Store in London. But if television is defined as the transmission of live, moving, half-tone (grayscale) images, and not silhouette or still images, Baird achieved this privately on October 2, 1925, and gave the world's first public demonstration of a working television system to members of the Royal Institution and a newspaper reporter on January 26, 1926 at his laboratory in London. Unlike later electronic systems with several hundred lines of resolution, Baird's vertically scanned image, using a scanning disc embedded with a double spiral of lenses, had only 30 lines, just enough to reproduce a recognizable human face. In 1928 Baird's company (Baird Television Development Company / Cinema Television) broadcast the first transatlantic television signal, between London and New York, and the first shore to ship transmission. He also demonstrated an electromechanical colour, infrared (dubbed "Noctovision"), and stereoscopic television, using additional lenses, disks and filters. In parallel he developed a video disk recording system dubbed "Phonovision"; a number of the Phonovision[http://www.tvdawn.com/tvimage.htm] recordings, dating back to 1927, still exist. In 1929 he became involved in the first experimental electromechanical television service in Germany. In 1931 he made the first live transmission, of the Epsom Derby. In 1932 he demonstrated ultra-short wave television. Baird's electromechanical system reached a peak of 240 lines of resolution on BBC television broadcasts in 1936, before being discontinued in favor of a 405 line all-electronic system. In the U.S., Charles Francis Jenkins was able to demonstrate on June 13, 1925, the transmission of the silhouette image of a toy windmill in motion from a naval radio station to his laboratory in Washington, using a lensed disc scanner with 48 lines per picture, 16 pictures per second. AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories transmitted half-tone images of transparencies in May 1925. But Bell Labs gave the most dramatic demonstration of television yet on April 7, 1927, when it field tested reflected-light television systems using small-scale (2 by 2.5 inches) and large-scale (24 by 30 inches) viewing screens over a wire link from Washington to New York City, and over-the-air broadcast from Whippany, New Jersey. The subjects, which included Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, were illuminated by a flying spot beam and scanned by a 50-aperture disc at 16 pictures per second.

Electronic television

Herbert Hoover Although the discoveries of Nipkow, Rosing, Baird and others were extraordinary, little of their technology is used in modern television. By 1934, all electromechanical television systems were outmoded, although electromechanical broadcasts continued on some stations until 1939. A.A. Campbell-Swinton wrote a letter to Nature on the 18 June 1908 describing his concept of electronic television using the cathode ray tube, which had been invented in 1897 by the German physicist and Nobel prize winner Karl Ferdinand Braun. He proposed using an electron beam in both the camera and the receiver, which could be steered electronically to produce moving pictures. He lectured on the subject in 1911 and displayed circuit diagrams, but no one, including Swinton, knew how to realize the design. Although his system was never built, the cathode ray tube did come to be used to display images in almost all television sets and computer monitors until the invention of the LCD panel. A fully electronic system was first achieved by Philo Taylor Farnsworth on September 7, 1927, although the low-resolution, light-insensitive camera tube limited the image to a plate of glass painted black, with a straight line etched across it, rotated in front of a bright carbon arc lamp. Seven years later, on August 25, 1934, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Farnsworth gave the world's first public demonstration of a working, all-electronic television system, with 220 lines per picture, 30 pictures per second. Over a three week period, vaudeville acts, athletic and sports demonstrations, politicians, and hundreds of ordinary citizens were captured on Farnsworth's cameras in the open air and simultaneously shown on his receiving sets. Farnsworth, a Mormon farm boy from Rigby, Idaho, first envisioned his system at age 14. He discussed the idea with his high school chemistry teacher, who could think of no reason why it would not work (Farnsworth would later credit this teacher, Justin Tolman, as providing key insights into his invention). He continued to pursue the idea at Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University). At age 21, he demonstrated a working system at his own laboratory in San Francisco. His breakthrough freed television from reliance on spinning discs and other mechanical parts. All modern picture tube televisions descend directly from his design. Vladimir Kosma Zworykin is also sometimes cited as the father of electronic television because of his invention of the iconoscope in 1923 and his invention of the kinescope in 1929. His design was one of the first to demonstrate a television system with all the features of modern picture tubes. His previous work with Rosing on electromechanical television gave him key insights into how to produce such a system, but his (and RCA's) claim to being its original inventor was largely invalidated by three facts: a) Zworykin's 1923 patent presented an incomplete design, incapable of working in its given form (it was not until 1933 that Zworykin achieved a working implementation), b) the 1923 patent application was not granted until 1938, and not until it had been seriously revised, and c) courts eventually found that RCA was in violation of the television design patented by Philo Taylor Farnsworth, whose lab Zworykin had visited while working on his designs for RCA. The controversy over whether it was first Farnsworth or Zworykin who invented modern television is still hotly debated today. Some of this debate stems from the fact that while Farnsworth appears to have gotten there first as an inventor, RCA brought television sets to market before Farnsworth, and it was RCA employees who first wrote the history of television. Even though Farnsworth eventually won the legal battle over this issue, he was never able to fully capitalize financially on his invention.

Color television

Most television researchers appreciated the value of color image transmission, with an early patent application in Russia in 1889 for a mechanically-scanned color system showing how early the importance of color was realized. John Logie Baird demonstrated the world's first color transmission on July 3, 1928, using scanning discs at the transmitting and receiving ends with three spirals of apertures, each spiral with filters of a different primary color; and three light sources at the receiving end, with a commutator to alternate their illumination. Color television in the United States had a protracted history due to conflicting technical systems vying for approval by the Federal Communications Commission for commercial use. Mechanically scanned color television was demonstrated by Bell Laboratories in June 1929 using three complete systems of photoelectric cells, amplifiers, glow-tubes, and color filters, with a series of mirrors to superimpose the red, green, and blue images into one full color image. In the electronically scanned era, the first color television demonstration was on February 5, 1940, when RCA privately showed to members of the FCC at the RCA plant in Camden, New Jersey, a television receiver producing images in color by a field sequential color system. CBS began non-broadcast color experiments using film as early as August 28, 1940, and live cameras by November 12. The CBS "field sequential" color system was partly mechanical, with a disc made of red, blue, and green filters spinning inside the television camera at 1,200 rpm, and a similar disc spinning in synchronization in front of the cathode ray tube inside the receiver set. RCA's later "dot sequential" color system had no moving parts, using a series of dichroic mirrors to separate and direct red, green, and blue light from the subject through three separate lenses into three scanning tubes, and electronic switching that allowed the tubes to send their signals in rotation, dot by dot. These signals were sorted by a second switching device in the receiver set and sent to red, green, and blue picture tubes, and combined by a second set of dichroic mirrors into a full color image. The first field test (i.e., broadcast) of color television was by NBC (owned by RCA) on February 20, 1941. CBS began daily color field tests on June 1, 1941. These color systems were not compatible with existing black and white television sets, and as no color television sets were available to the public at this time, viewership of the color field tests was limited to RCA and CBS engineers and the invited press. The War Production Board halted the manufacture of television and radio equipment for civilian use from April 1, 1942 to October 1, 1945, limiting any opportunity to introduce color television to the general public. The post-war development of color television was dominated by three systems competing for approval by the FCC as the U.S. color broadcasting standard: CBS's field sequential system, which was incompatible with existing black and white sets without an adaptor; RCA's dot sequential system, which in 1949 became compatible with existing black and white sets; and CTI's system (also incompatible with existing black and white sets), which used three camera lenses, behind which were color filters that produced red, green, and blue images side by side on a single scanning tube, and a receiver set that used lenses in front of the picture tube (which had sectors treated with different phosphorescent compounds to glow in red, green, or blue) to project these three side by side images into one combined picture on the viewing screen. After a series of hearings beginning in September 1949, the FCC found the RCA and CTI systems fraught with technical problems, inaccurate color reproduction, and expensive equipment, and so formally approved the CBS system as the U.S. color broadcasting standard on October 11 1950. An unsuccessful lawsuit by RCA delayed the world's first network color broadcast until June 25 1951, when a musical variety special titled simply Premiere was shown over a network of five east coast CBS affiliates. Viewership was again extremely limited: the program could not be seen on black and white sets, and Variety estimated that only thirty prototype color receivers were available in the New York area. Regular color broadcasts began that same week with the daytime series The World Is Yours and Modern Homemakers. While the CBS color broadcasting schedule gradually expanded to twelve hours per week (but never into prime time), and the color network expanded to eleven affiliates as far west as Chicago, its commercial success was doomed by the lack of color receivers necessary to watch the programs, the refusal of television manufacturers to create adaptor mechanisms for their existing black and white sets, and the unwillingness of advertisers to sponsor broadcasts seen by almost no one. In desperation, CBS bought a television manufacturer, and on September 20, 1951, production began on the first and only CBS color television model. But it was too little, too late. Only 200 sets had been shipped, and only 100 sold, when CBS pulled the plug on its color television system on October 20, 1951, and bought back all the CBS color sets it could to prevent law suits by disappointed customers. Starting before CBS color even got on the air, the U.S. television industry, represented by the National Television System Committee, worked in 1950-1953 to develop a color system that was compatible with existing black and white sets and would pass FCC quality standards, with RCA developing the hardware elements. When CBS testified before Congress in March 1953 that it had no further plans for its own color system, the path was open for the NTSC to submit its petition for FCC approval in July 1953, which was granted in December. The first publicly announced experimental TV broadcast of a program using the NTSC-RCA "compatible color" system was an episode of NBC's Kukla, Fran and Ollie on August 30, 1953. NBC made the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it covered the Tournament of Roses Parade on January 1 1954, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers. A few days later Admiral brought out the first commercially made color television set using the RCA standards, followed in March by RCA's own model. Television's first prime time network color series was The Marriage, a situation comedy broadcast live by NBC in the summer of 1954. NBC's anthology series Ford Theatre became the first color filmed series that October. NBC was naturally at the forefront of color programming because its parent company RCA manufactured the most successful line of color sets in the 1950s. CBS and ABC, which were not affiliated with set manufacturers, and were not eager to promote their competitor's product, dragged their feet into color, with ABC delaying its first color series (The Flintstones and The Jetsons) until 1962. The Du Mont network, although it did have a television-manufacturing parent company, was in financial decline by 1954 and was dissolved two years later. Thus the relatively small amount of network color programming, combined with the high cost of color television sets, meant that as late as 1964 only 3.1 percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. NBC provided the catalyst for rapid color expansion by announcing that its prime time schedule for fall 1965 would be almost entirely in color (the exception being I Dream of Jeannie). All three broadcast networks were airing full color prime time schedules by the 1966–67 broadcast season. But the number of color television sets sold in the U.S. did not exceed black and white sales until 1972, which was also the first year that more than fifty percent of television households in the U.S. had a color set. In Mexico, Guillermo González Camarena (1917–1965), invented the early color television transmission system. He received patents for color television systems in 1940 (U.S. Patent 1942 (2296019), 1960 and 1962. The 1942 patent was for a mechanically scanned color filter adapter for an existing monochrome electronic transmission system. In August 31, 1946 he sent his first color transmission from his lab in the offices of The Mexican League of Radio Experiments in Lucerna St. #1, in Mexico City. The video signal was transmitted at a frequency of 115 MHz. and the audio in the 40 metre band. European color television was developed somewhat later and was hindered by a continuing division on technical standards. Having decided to adopt a higher-definition 625-line system for monochrome transmissions, with a lower frame rate but with a higher overall bandwidth, Europeans could not directly adopt the U.S. color standard, which was widely perceived as wanting anyway, because of its tint control problems. There was also less urgency, since there were fewer commercial motivations, European television broadcasters being predominantly state-owned at the time. As a consequence, although work on various color encoding systems started already in the 1950s, with the first SECAM patent being registered in 1956, many years had passed till the first broadcasts actually started in 1967. Unsatisfied with the performance of NTSC and of initial SECAM implementations, the Germans unveiled PAL (phase alternating line) in 1963, staying closer to NTSC but borrowing some ideas from SECAM. The French continued with SECAM, notably involving Russians in the development. The first regular colour broadcasts in Europe were by BBC2 beginning on July 1, 1967, using PAL. Germans did their first broadcast in September (PAL), while the French in October (SECAM). PAL was eventually adopted by West Germany, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, much of Africa, Asia and South America, and most Western European countries except France. In addition to France and Luxembourg, SECAM was adopted by Soviet Union, much of Eastern Europe, much of Africa and of the Middle East. Both systems broadcast on UHF frequencies, the VHF being used for legacy black and white, 405 lines in UK or 819 lines in France, till the beginning of the eighties. It should be noted that some British television programmes, particularly those made by or for ITC Entertainment, were made in colour before the introduction of colour television to the UK, for the purpose of sales to US networks. The first British show to be made in colour was the drama series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956-57), which was initially made in black and white but later shot in colour for sale to the NBC network in the United States. In Japan, NHK introduced color television in the year 1960.

Broadcast television

NHK The first regularly scheduled television service in the United States began on July 2, 1928. The Federal Radio Commission authorized C.F. Jenkins to broadcast from experimental station W3XK in a suburb of Washington, D.C. But for at least the first eighteen months, only silhouette images from motion picture film were broadcast due to the narrow 10kHz bandwidth allotted by the FRC. General Electric's experimental station in Schenectady, New York, on the air sporadically since January 13, 1928, was able to broadcast reflected-light, 48-line images via shortwave as far as Los Angeles, and by September was making four television broadcasts weekly. CBS's New York City station W2XAB began broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the United States on July 21, 1931, with a 60-line electromechanical system. The first broadcast included Mayor Jimmy Walker, the Boswell Sisters, Kate Smith, and George Gershwin. The service ended in February 1933. By 1935, electromechanical television broadcasting had ceased in the United States except for a handful of stations run by public universities that continued to 1939. The Federal Communications Commission saw television in the continual flux of development with no consistent technical standards, hence all such stations in the U.S. were granted only experimental and not commercial licenses, hampering television's economic development. Just as importantly, Philo Farnsworth's 1934 demonstration of an all-electronic system pointed the direction of television's future. On June 15, 1936, Don Lee Broadcasting began a month-long demonstration of all-electronic television in Los Angeles on W6XAO (later KTSL) with a 300-line image from motion picture film. RCA demonstrated in New York City a 343-line electronic television broadcast, with live and film segments, to its licensees on July 7, 1936, and made its first public demonstration to the press on November 6. By April 1939, regularly scheduled 441-line electronic television broadcasts were available in New York City and Los Angeles, and by November on General Electric's station in Schenectady. With the adoption of NTSC television engineering standards in 1941, the FCC saw television ready for commercial licensing, with the first such licenses issued to NBC and CBS owned stations in New York on July 1, 1941, followed by Philco's station in Philadelphia. Electromechanical broadcasts began in Germany in 1929, but were without sound until 1934. Network electronic service started on March 22, 1935, on 180 lines using only telecine transmission of film or an intermediate film system. Live transmissions began on January 15, 1936. The Berlin Summer Olympic Games were televised, using both direct television and intermediate film cameras, to 28 public television rooms in Berlin and Hamburg in August 1936. The Germans had a 441-line system on the air in February 1937, and during World War II brought it to France, where they broadcast off the Eiffel Tower. The first British television broadcast was made by Baird Television's electromechanical system over the BBC radio transmitter in September 1929. Baird provided a limited amount of programming five days a week by 1930. On August 22, 1932, BBC launched its own regular service using Baird's 30-line electromechanical system, continuing until September 11, 1935. On November 2, 1936 the BBC began broadcasting a dual-system service, alternating on a weekly basis between Marconi-EMI's 405-line standard and Baird's improved 240-line standard, from Alexandra Palace in London, making the BBC the world's first regular high-definition television service. The corporation decided that Marconi-EMI's electronic picture gave the superior picture, and the Baird system was dropped in February 1937. The outbreak of the Second World War caused the BBC service to be suspended on September 1, 1939, resuming from Alexandra Palace on June 7, 1946. The Soviet Union began offering 30-line electromechanical test broadcasts in Moscow on October 31, 1931, and a commercially manufactured television set in 1932. The first experimental transmissions of electronic television took place in Moscow on March 9, 1937, using equipment manufactured and installed by RCA. Regular broadcasting began on December 31, 1938. The first regular television transmissions in Canada began in 1952 when the CBC put two stations on the air, one in Montreal, Quebec on September 6, and another in Toronto, Ontario two days later. two days later The first live transcontinental television broadcast took place in San Francisco, California from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference on September 4, 1951. In 1958, the CBC completed the longest television network in the world, from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Victoria, British Columbia. Reportedly, the first continuous live broadcast of a breaking news story in the world was conducted by the CBC during the Springhill Mining Disaster which began on October 23 of that year. Programming is broadcast on television stations (sometimes called channels). At first, terrestrial broadcasting was the only way television could be distributed. Because bandwidth was limited, government regulation was normal. In the U.S., the Federal Communications Commission allowed stations to broadcast advertisements, but insisted on public service programming commitments as a requirement for a license. By contrast, the United Kingdom chose a different route, imposing a television licence fee on owners of television reception equipment, to fund the BBC, which had public service as part of its Royal Charter. Development of cable and satellite means of distribution in the 1970s pushed businessmen to target channels towards a certain audience, and enabled the rise of subscription-based television channels, such as HBO and Sky. Practically every country in the world now has developed at least one television channel. Television has grown up all over the world, enabling every country to share aspects of their culture and society with others. By the late 1980s, 98% of all homes in the U.S. had at least one TV set. On average, Americans watch four hours of television per day. An estimated two-thirds of Americans got most of their news about the world from TV, and nearly half got all of their news from TV. These figures are now estimated to be significantly higher.

Technology

Broadcasting

There are many means of distributing television broadcasts, including both analogue and digital versions of:
- Terrestrial television
- Stratovision (From aircraft flying in a loop)
- Satellite television
- Cable television
- MMDS (Wireless cable)

Receiving

Television sets

In television's electromechanical era, commercially made television sets were sold from 1928 to 1934 in the United Kingdom, United States, and Russia. The earliest commercially made sets sold by Baird in the U.K. and the U.S. in 1928 were radios with the addition of a television device consisting of a neon tube behind a mechanically spinning disk (the Nipkow disk) with a spiral of apertures that produced a red postage-stamp size image, enlarged to twice that size by a magnifying glass. The "televisor" was also available without the radio. The Baird televisor sold in 1930-1933 is considered the first mass-produced set, selling about a thousand units. The first commercially made electronic television sets with cathode ray tubes were manufactured by Telefunken in Germany in 1934, followed by other makers in Britain (1936) and America (1938). The cheapest of the pre-War World II factory-made American sets, a 1938 image-only model with a 3-inch (8 cm) screen, cost US$125, the equivalent of US$1,732 in 2005. The cheapest model with a 12-inch (30 cm) screen was $445 ($6,256). An estimated 19,000 electronic television sets were manufactured in Britain, and about 1,600 in Germany, before World War II. About 7,000-8,000 electronic sets were made in the U.S. before the War Production Board halted manufacture in April 1942, which resumed in October 1945. Television usage in the United States skyrocketed after World War II with the lifting of the manufacturing freeze, war-related technological advances, the gradual expansion of the television networks westward, the drop in set prices caused by mass production, increased leisure time, and additional disposable income. While only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television set in 1946, 55.7% had one in 1954, and 90% by 1962. In Britain, there were 15,000 television households in 1947, 1.4 million in 1952, and 15.1 million by 1968. For many years different countries used different technical standards. France initially adopted the German 441-line standard but later upgraded to 819 lines, which gave the highest picture definition of any analogue TV system, approximately four times the resolution of the British 405-line system. Eventually the whole of Europe switched to the 625-line PAL standard, once more following Germany's example. Meanwhile in North America the original NTSC 525-line standard from 1941 was retained. NTSC Television in its original form involves sending images and sound over radio waves in the VHF and UHF bands, which are received by a television set. Over-the-air broadcast television requires an antenna (aerial). This can be an outdoor Yagi antenna. In strong signal areas the antenna can be indoors, attached to or near the receiver, such as an adjustable dipole antenna called "rabbit ears" for the VHF band and a small loop antenna for the UHF band.

Specifications

Modern displays
Starting in the 1990s, modern television sets diverged into three different trends:
- standalone TV sets;
- integrated systems with DVD players and/or VHS VCR capabilities built into the TV set itself (mostly for small size TVs with up to 21" screen, the main idea is to have a complete portable system);
- component systems with separate big-screen video monitor, tuner, audio system which the owner connects the pieces together as a high-end home theater system. This approach appeals to videophiles who prefer components that can be upgraded separately. There are many kinds of video monitors used in modern TV sets. The most common are direct view CRTs for up to 40in (100cm) (in 4:3) and 46in (115cm) (in 16:9) diagonally; most big screen TVs (up to over 100 inch (254 cm)) use projection technology. Three types of projection systems are used in projection TVs: CRT-based, LCD-based, and DLP(reflective micromirror chip)-based. Modern advances have brought flat panels to TV that use active matrix LCD or plasma display technology. Flat panel LCDs and plasma displays are as little as 4in (10cm) thick and can be hung on a wall like a picture or put over a pedestal. They are multifunctional, because they are used like computer monitors too (VGA and DVI or HDMI connections). Some TVs integrate a pair of ports to connect computer cases and peripherals to it or to connect the set to an A/V home network (HAVI) (USB port for cord connection and BlueTooth/WiFi for wireless). Today, some LCD and Plasma sets have SD Card slots, so users can view pictures from a digital camera. On the new Panasonic LCDs and Plasmas (Viera), users have the capability to record onto SD card and then play it back on a hand-held PC or digital camera (anything that allows MPEG4). With SD cards now available with 1G of memory (soon 2GB, and Panasonic is also working on one that contains over 30GB of memory), a user can record over 1,000 minutes at low quality, and around 80 minutes on the highest quality. The playback of the recording is not brilliant, but these are the first generation. They will get better with time.
Signal connections
The number of ways to connect a video device to a television has increased over the years: WiFi
- HDMI - a compact 19 to 29 pin connector that carries digital video and digital audio signals. Essentially an enhanced version of DVI that includes digital audio. This is the most advanced form of connection currently available. DVI
- DVI - a 17 to 29 pin connector that carries digital video signals, designed to carry HDTV but also used in current DVD players and latest digital displays. Copy protection is available using HDCP. HDCP
- Component video - three separate RCA jacks (colored red, green and blue) carry three video signals, one brightness (luminance) and two colors (chromas), and is usually referred to as "Y, B-Y, R-Y", "Y Cr Cb" (interlaced) or "Y Pr Pb" (progressive), or YUV. Audio is not carried on this cable. This connection provides for picture quality superior to S-Video and is typically used in home theater for DVDs, satellite and analogue HDTV; less common in Europe but is starting to become more widely available. Europe
- SCART - a large 21 pin connector that may carry: one video signal composite video; or two video signals S-Video; or for picture quality similar to component video, three signals of separate red, green and blue or RGB; or for best picture quality, four video signals of separate red, green, blue and sync or RGBS; plus right and left line-level audio channels; along with a number of control signals including an aspect-ratio flag (e.g. widescreen). This system has been standard in Europe since mid-1980s for all consumer electronics, which meant that RGBS was available on even the earliest PAL DVD players and satellite receivers. Japan uses a 21 pin RGB connector which is visually similar to SCART but with different pin configurations. Japan
- S-Video - small round connector with two separate video signals, one carrying brightness (luminance), the other carrying color (chroma). Also referred to as Y/C video. Provides most of the benefit of component video, with slightly less color fidelity. Use started in the 1980s for S-VHS, Hi-8, and early NTSC DVD players to relay high quality video before component was available. Audio is not carried on this cable. Hi-8
- Composite video - The most common form of connecting external devices, putting all the video information into one signal. Most televisions provide this option with a yellow RCA jack. Audio is not carried on this cable, though two separate cables with similar red and white RCA jacks for right and left line-level audio are commonly bonded to composite video cables.
- Coaxial RF - All audio channels and picture components are transmitted through one coaxial cable and modulated on a radio frequency. Most TVs manufactured during the past 15–20 years accept coaxial connection, and the video is typically "tuned" on channel 3 or 4. This is the type of cable usually used for cable television. Most modern DVD players and other video devices no longer modulate RF output, so very old TV sets made before composite video jacks became commonplace will need a modulator.
Aspect ratios
Mechanically scanned television as first demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1926 used a 7:3 vertical aspect ratio, oriented for the head and shoulders of a single person in close-up. Most of the early electronic TV systems from the mid-1930s onward shared the same aspect ratio of 4:3 which was chosen to match the Academy Ratio used in cinema films at the time. This ratio was also square enough to be conveniently viewed on round cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), which were all that could be produced given the manufacturing technology of the time. (Today's CRT technology allows the manufacture of much wider tubes, and the flat screen technologies which are becoming steadily more popular have no aspect ratio limitations at all.) The BBC's television service used a more squarish [http://tcc.members.beeb.net/tchistory.html 5:4] ratio from 1936 to circa 1949, when it too switched to a 4:3 ratio. In the 1950s, movie studios moved towards widescreen aspect ratios such as Cinerama in an effort to distance their product from television. Although this was initially just a gimmick widescreen is still the format of choice today and square aspect ratio movies are rare. Some people argued that widescreen is actually a disadvantage when showing objects that are tall instead of panoramic, others would say that natural vision is more panoramic than tall, and therefore widescreen is easier on the eye. The switch to digital television systems has been used as an opportunity to change the standard television picture format from the old ratio of 4:3 (approximately 1.33:1) to an aspect ratio of 16:9 (approximately 1.78:1). This enables TV to get closer to the aspect ratio of modern widescreen movies, which range from 1.78:1 through 1.85:1 to 2.35:1. There are two methods for transporting widescreen content, the better of which uses what is called anamorphic widescreen format. This format is very similar to the technique used to fit a widescreen movie frame inside a 1.33:1 35mm film frame. The image is squashed horizontally when recorded, then expanded again when played back. The anamorphic widescreen 16:9 format was first introduced via European PAL-Plus television broadcasts and then later on "widescreen" DVDs; the ATSC HDTV system uses straight widescreen format, no image squashing or expanding is used. Recently "widescreen" has spread from television to computing where both desktop and laptop computers are commonly equipped with widescreen displays, and it remains to be seen whether Work or movie enjoyment will take over. There are some complaints about distortions of movie picture ratio due to some DVD playback software not taking account of aspect ratios; but this will subside as the DVD playback software matures. Furthermore, computer and laptop widescreen displays are in the 16:10 aspect ratio both physically in size and in pixel counts, and not in 16:9 of consumer televisions, leading to further complexity. This was a result of widescreen computer display engineers' uninformed assumption that people viewing 16:9 content on their computer would prefer that an area of the screen be reserved for playback controls or subtitles, as opposed to viewing content full-screen.
Aspect ratio incompatibility
The television industry changing aspect ratios is not without teething difficulties, and can present a considerable problem. Displaying a widescreen aspect (rectangular) image on a conventional aspect (square) display can be shown:
- in "letterbox" format, with black horizontal bars at the top and bottom
- with part of the image being cropped, usually the extreme left and right of the image being cut off (or in "pan and scan", parts selected by an operator)
- with the image horizontally compressed A conventional aspect (square) image on a widescreen aspect (rectangular) display can be shown:
- in "pillarbox" format, with black vertical bars to the left and right
- with upper and lower portions of the image cut off
- with the image horizontally distorted A common compromise is to shoot or create material at an aspect ratio of 14:9, and to lose some image at each side for 4:3 presentation, and some image at top and bottom for 16:9 presentation. Horizontal expansion has advantages in situations in which several people are watching the same set, as it compensates for watching at an oblique angle.
Sound
Television add-ons
Today there are many add-ons for the television set. A few add-ons include Video Game Consoles, VCRs, Cable Boxes, Satellite Boxes, DVD players, or Digital Video Recorders, the television add-on market is ever growing.

New developments


- Broadcast flag
- CableCARD™
- Digital Light Processing (DLP)
- Digital Rights Management (DRM)
- Digital television (DTV)
- Digital Video Recorders
- Direct Broadcast Satellite TV (DBS)
- DVD
- Flicker-free (100Hz)
- High Definition TV (HDTV)
- High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI)
- IPTV
- Internet television
- LCD and Plasma display Flat Screen TV
- Pay Per View
- Picture-in-picture (PiP)
- Video on-demand (VOD)
- Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV)
- Web TV

Geographical usage

Content

Advertising

Since their inception in the USA in 1941, TV commercials have become one of the most effective, most pervasive, and most popular methods of selling products of many sorts, especially consumer goods. U.S. advertising rates are determined primarily by Nielsen ratings. The exception to this is the publicly-funded British Broadcasting Corporation.

Programming

Getting TV programming shown to the public can happen in many different ways. After production the next step is to market and deliver the product to whatever markets are open to using it. This typically happens on two levels: #Original Run or First Run - a producer creates a program of one or multiple episodes and shows it on a station or network which has either paid for the production itself or to which a license has been granted by the producers to do the same. #Syndication - this is the terminology rather broadly used to describe secondary programming usages (beyond original run). It includes secondary runs in the country of first issue, but also international usage which may or may not be managed by the originating producer. In many cases other companies, TV stations or individuals are engaged to do the syndication work, in other words to sell the product into the markets they are allowed to sell into by contract from the copyright holders, in most cases the producers. In most countries, the first wave occurs primarily on FTA television, while the second wave happens on subscription TV and in other countries. In the U.S. however, the first wave occurs on the FTA networks and subscription services, and the second wave travels via all means of distribution. First run programming is increasing on subscription services outside the U.S., but few domestically produced programs are syndicated on domestic FTA elsewhere. This practice is increasing however, generally on digital only FTA channels, or with subscriber-only first run material appearing on FTA. Unlike the U.S., repeat FTA screenings of a FTA network program almost only occur only on that network. Also, affiliates rarely buy or produce non-network programming that isn't intensely local.

Social aspects

Alleged dangers

Paralleling television's growing primacy in family life and society, an increasingly vocal chorus of legislators, scientists and parents are raising objections to the uncritical acceptance of the medium. For example, the Swedish government imposed a total ban on advertising to children under twelve in 1991 (see advertising). In the U.S., the [http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_tveffect.shtml National Institute on Media and the Family] (not a government agency) points out that U.S. children watch an average of 25 hours of television per week and features studies showing it interferes with the educational and maturational process. A February 23 2002 article in [http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=0005339B-A694-1CC5-B4A8809EC588EEDF Scientific American] suggested that compulsive television watching was no different from any other addiction, a finding backed up by reports of withdrawal symptoms among families forced by

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is a television and radio network in the United States. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company. Corporate headquarters are in New York, while programming offices are in Burbank, California, adjacent to the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank) and the Walt Disney Company corporate headquarters. The formal name of the holding company is ABC, Inc, although the company still uses on some on-air copyrights American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., which also was the holding company's name until 1985. It is the last of the Big Three networks to still make on-air use of ether its original name or a variant of it.

History

Creating ABC

From the organization of the first true radio networks in the late 1920s, broadcasting in the United States was dominated by two companies, CBS and RCA's NBC. Prior to NBC's 1926 formation, RCA had acquired AT&T's New York station WEAF (later WNBC, now WFAN). With WEAF came a loosely-organized system feeding programming to other stations in the northeastern U.S. RCA also took control of a second such group, fed by Westinghouse's Newark station WJZ (now WABC (AM), New York.) These were the foundations of RCA's two distinct programming services, the NBC "Red" and NBC "Blue" networks. After years of study the FCC in 1940 issued a "Report on Chain Broadcasting." Finding that two corporate owners (and the co-operatively owned Mutual Broadcasting System) dominated American broadcasting, this report proposed "divorcement," requiring the sale by RCA of one of its chains. NBC Red was the larger radio network, carrying the leading entertainment and music programs. In addition, many Red affiliates were high-powered, clear-channel stations, heard nationwide. NBC Blue offered most of the company's news and cultural programs, many of them "sustaining" or un-sponsored. Among other findings, the FCC claimed RCA used NBC Blue to suppress competition against NBC Red. Since the F.C.C. did not regulate or license networks directly but had influence only by means of its hold over individual stations, it said, "No license shall be issued to a standard broadcast station affiliated with a network which maintains more than one network." NBC argued this indirect style of regulation was illegal and appealed to the courts, but the F.C.C. was upheld, so the Blue network had to be sold. The task of selling of NBC Blue was given to Mark Woods; throughout 1942 and 1943, NBC Red and NBC Blue divided their assets. A price of $8 million was put on the assets of the Blue group, and Woods shopped the Blue package around to potential buyers. One such, investment bank Dillon, Read made an offer of $7.5 million, but Woods and RCA chief David Sarnoff held firm at $8 million. What the Blue package contained was: leases on land-lines and on studio facilities in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles; contracts with talent and with about sixty affiliates; the trademark and "good will" associated with the Blue name; and licenses for three stations (WJZ in New York, San Francisco's KGO, and WENR in Chicago - really a half-station, since WENR shared time and a frequency with "Prairie Farmer" station WLS.) Edward Noble, owner of Life Savers candy and owner of the Rexall Drug chain, was interested. The asking price of $8 million would prove to be the selling price. In order to complete the station-license transfer, Noble had to sell a New York station he owned, and F.C.C. hearings were required. Another stumbling block was Noble's intention to keep Mark Woods on as president, which led to the suggestion that Woods would continue to work with (and for) his former employers. This had the potential to derail the sale. During the hearings Woods was asked if the new network would sell time to the AFofL; Woods responded "No". When Noble was questioned on similar points, Noble hid behind the NAB code to avoid answering. Frustrated, the chairman advised Noble to do some rethinking, which apparently he did, because on October 12, 1943 the sale was approved. The new network sold air time to organized labor. Known until mid-1944 as "The Blue Network," the company was re-christened American Broadcasting Company. This set off a flurry of re-naming; to avoid confusion, CBS changed the call-letters of its New York flagship from WABC to WCBS; seeing a trend, RCA re-named its New York flagship as WNBC. In 1953, ABC's New York flagship WJZ took on the abandoned call-letters WABC. The new ABC radio network began slowly; with few "hit" shows, it had to build an audience. Noble sprang for more stations, among them Detroit's WXYZ; one of the founding stations of the Mutual network, WXYZ was where The Lone Ranger, Sergeant Preston, Sky King and other popular daily serials originated. With this purchase, ABC instantly acquired a bloc of established daily shows. Noble also bought KECA (now KABC) in Los Angeles, to give the network a Hollywood production base. Counter-programming became an ABC specialty, for example, placing a raucous quiz-show like Stop the Music against more thoughtful fare on NBC and CBS. ABC also abolished a long-standing ban on pre-recorded programming; advances in tape-recording brought back from conquered Germany meant that the audio quality of tape could not be distinguished from "live" broadcasts. As a result, several high-rated stars who wanted freedom from rigid schedules, among them Bing Crosby, moved to ABC. Though still rated third, by the late 1940s ABC had begun to close in on the better-established networks.

Enter Leonard Goldenson

Faced with huge expenses in building a radio network, ABC was in no position to take on the additional costs demanded by a television network. To secure a place at the table, though, in 1947 ABC submitted requests for licenses in the five cities where it owned radio stations; by coincidence, all five applications were for "Channel 7." On April 19, 1948 the ABC television network went on the air. For the next several years, ABC was a television network mostly in name. Except for the largest markets, most cities had only one or two stations. The FCC froze applications for new stations in 1948 while it sorted out the thousands of applicants, and re-thought the technical and allocation standards set down in 1938. What was meant to be a six-month freeze lasted until 1952, and until that time only 101 stations were licensed to broadcast. For a late-comer like ABC, this meant being relegated as a secondary affiliate in many markets. By 1952, it had only fourteen full-time affiliates, of which five were company-owned. Further, without the high-powered radio names that propelled NBC and CBS, ABC and fellow start-up DuMont commanded little affiliate loyalty. Divorced from Paramount Pictures at the end of 1949 by Supreme Court order, United Paramount Theaters was a company with plenty of money and nowhere to spend it. Cash- and real estate-rich, UPT head Leonard Goldenson immediately set out to find investment opportunities. Barred from the film business, Goldenson saw broadcasting as a possibility, and approached Noble about buying ABC. Since the transfer of station licenses was again involved, the F.C.C. set hearings. At the heart of this was the question of the Paramount Pictures-UPT divorce: were they truly separate? And what role did Paramount's long-time investment in DuMont Laboratories, parent of the television network, play? After a year of deliberation the FCC approved the purchase by UPT in a 5–2 split decision on February 9, 1953. Speaking in favor of the deal, one commissioner pointed out that UPT had the cash to turn ABC into a viable, competitive third network. Shortly after the ABC–UPT merger, Goldenson approached DuMont with a merger offer. Though it had been a pioneer in television broadcasting and was especially creative in programming, DuMont was in financial trouble. Under Goldenson's proposal, DuMont would get $5 million in cash; guaranteed advertising time for DuMont television receivers: the merged network would be called "ABC-DuMont" for at least five years; and DuMont staff would have a secure future. However, DuMont's nervous minority shareholder Paramount Pictures vetoed the sale, afraid of reviving anti-trust charges. By 1956, the DuMont network had shut down.

The 1960s

After its acquisition by UPT, ABC at last had the means to offer a full-time television network service. By mid-1953 Leonard Goldenson had begun a two-front campaign, calling on his old pals at the Hollywood studios (he had been head of the mighty Paramount theater chain since 1938) to convince them to move into programming. And he began wooing station owners to convince them that a refurbished ABC was about to burst forth. In some markets, like Seattle, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, he convinced long-time NBC and CBS affiliates to move to ABC. His two-part campaign paid off when the "new" ABC hit the air in October, 1954. Among the shows that brought in record audiences was "Disneyland," produced-by and starring Walt Disney. MGM, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century-Fox were also present that first season. Within two years, Warners was producing ten hours of programming for ABC each week, mostly interchangeable detective and western series. While ABC continued to languish in third place in national ratings, it often topped local ratings in the larger markets. With the arrival of Hollywood's slickly-produced series, with their emphasis on those old standbys sex and violence, ABC began to catch on with younger, urban viewers. As the network gained in the ratings, it became an attractive property, and over the next few years ABC approached, or was approached-by GE, Howard Hughes, Litton Industries, GTE, and ITT. ABC and ITT agreed to a merger in late 1965, but this deal was derailed by FCC and Department of Justice questions about ITT's foreign ownership influencing ABC's autonomy and journalistic integrity. ITT's management promised that ABC's autonomy would be preserved; while the merger was approved by the F.C.C, the Justice Department was not convinced, and the deal was called off on January 1, 1968. As had happened at NBC and CBS, from the mid-1950s ABC's radio audience gravitated to television. By the early 1960s, the radio network schedule consisted of a few long-running serials, Lawrence Welk's musical hour (simulcast from television), and Don McNeill's daily "Breakfast Club" variety show. ABC made a last-ditch effort to retain the radio audience by filling the schedule with talk-shows, but gave in after a few years. In 1968, ABC's remaining programming service was split in four parts, offering customized news and features for pop-music-, news-, or talk-oriented formats. Later, that plan was further broadened to offer seven formats, and ABC returned to programming by offering its more popular local talk shows to national audiences. During this time of expansion, ABC revised its corporate name to American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Success at Last

Despite its relatively small size, ABC found increasing success with television programming aimed at the emerging "Baby Boomer" culture. Producer Roone Arledge helped ABC's fortunes with innovations in sports programming, creating Wide World of Sports and Monday Night Football. By doing so he helped to make sport into a multi-billion-dollar industry, and was rewarded by being made head of ABC News and Sports. By the early 1970s, ABC was showing signs of overtaking CBS and NBC. Broadcasting in color from the mid-1960s, ABC started using the new science of demographics to tweak its programming and ad sales. ABC invested heavily in shows with wide appeal, especially situation comedies, but also offered big-budget, extended-length miniseries, among them QB VII, and Rich Man, Poor Man. The most successful, Roots, based on Alex Haley's novel, became one of the biggest hits in television history. Combined with ratings for its regular weekly series, Roots propelled ABC to a first-place finish in the national Nielsen ratings for the 1976–1977 season— this was a first in the then thirty-year history of the network. Since 1984, the entire family of ESPN networks and franchises have been owned by ABC (80%) and the Hearst Corporation (20%). ABC's dominance carried into the early 1980s. But by 1985, veteran shows like The Love Boat had lost their steam; a resurgent NBC was leading in the ratings. ABC relied on that staple of programming, the situation comedy. During this period ABC seemed to have lost the momentum that once propelled it; there was little offered that was innovative or compelling. Like his counterpart at CBS, William S. Paley, founding-father Goldenson had withdrawn to the sidelines. ABC's ratings and the earnings thus generated reflected this loss of drive. So it was not a total surprise when in 1985 ABC was taken over by media company Capital Cities Communications; the corporate name was changed to Capital Cities/ABC. In 1984-85, ABC began the transition from coaxial cable/microwave delivery to satellite delivery via AT&T's Telstar 301. ABC maintained a West Coast feed network on Telstar 302, and in 1991 scrambled feeds on both satellites with the Leitch system. Currently, with the Leitch system abandoned, ABC operates clear feeds on Intelsat Americas 5 and Intelsat Americas 6, in addition to digital feeds on both satellites.

Acquisition by Disney

In 1996, The Walt Disney Company acquired Capital Cities/ABC, and renamed the broadcasting group ABC, Inc., although the network continues to also use American Broadcasting Companies, such as on TV productions it owns. ABC's relationship with Disney dates back to 1953, when Leonard Goldenson pledged enough money so that the "Disneyland" theme park could be completed. ABC continued to hold Disney notes and stock until 1960, and also had first call on the "Disneyland" television series in 1954. With this new relationship came an attempt at cross-promotion, with attractions based on ABC shows at Disney parks and an annual soap festival at Walt Disney World. The fomer president of ABC, Inc., Robert Iger, now heads Disney. Despite intense micro-managi