Articles and Features
Television
Week of January 27, 1997
Since there aren't any big holidays this week (anyone got any good Groundhog Day quotes?) I thought
it would be interesting to focus on television, which was first demonstrated publicly by John L. Baird on
January 27, 1926. (Who invented it? That's a very long story.)
Few of us can claim not to watch any television, and it certainly impacts our lives - whether by keeping us constantly
informed of news events, allowing us to be entertained by people across the world, or simply providing a convenient
way to waste time. (And of course, without the cathode-ray tube at the heart of the television screen, computers
would still be in their infancy.)
All that's well and good, but I'm not much of a TV addict, and chances are you're not either--or you'd be watching
it right now. As such, I've assembled a collection of quotations about television, most by people who weren't exactly
big fans of it themselves. If you are a TV addict, you may want to go see what's on rather than reading. You have
been warned.
One more thing: after you've read through these quotes, re-read them, and substitute "The Internet" for "Television". You'll
be surprised how many of them still ring true...
- "Television is democracy at its ugliest."
- Paddy Chayefsky
- "Television is the first truly democratic culture -- the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what
the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want."
- Clive Barnes
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"I can think of nothing more boring for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half
hour looking at my face on their television screens."
- Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969)
- "Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well-done."
- Ernie Kovacs
- "It is a medium of entertainment which permits millions of people to listen to the same joke at
the same time, and yet remain lonesome."
- T. S. Eliot
- "Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldn't have in your home."
- David Frost
- "Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other."
- Ann Landers
- "All television is children's television."
- Richard P. Adler
- "Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it."
- Alfred Hitchcock
- "Television has raised writing to a new low."
- Samuel Goldwyn
- "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."
- Groucho Marx (1890-1977)
More about television:
- See old TV's - and old TV programs - at the MZTV Television Museum.
- For more television-related links than you know what to do with, refer to Yahoo's Television category.
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