Latest Episodes
August 02, 2026
E50: Color, Style – and Scandal: Television Grows Up (1958–1959) | #57
By the end of the 1950s, television was no longer a novelty—it had become the center of American life. In this episode, we explore...
00:21:34
July 26, 2026
E49: The Only Time Philo Farnsworth Appeared on Television | #58
By 1957, television had become America’s dominant medium—but almost no one recognized the man who had invented it. On June 3, Philo T. Farnsworth...
00:11:48
July 19, 2026
E48: We’re Not in Kansas Anymore: The Wizard of Oz Brings Hollywood to Television |#59
On November 3, 1956, CBS took a gamble that changed the relationship between Hollywood and television. When The Wizard of Oz made its television...
00:11:42
July 12, 2026
E47: This Changes Everything: The Invention of Videotape (1956) | 100 Years of Television #60
Before 1956, television was fleeting. If a live broadcast wasn’t preserved on film through pointing a film camera at a studio monitor, the show...
00:17:01
July 05, 2026
E46: Is The Couch Potato There? (1956) | Enter The Remote Control | 100 Years of Television #61
Before streaming, before cable, and before anyone had ever heard the phrase “binge watching,” television viewers had one thing in common: if they wanted...
00:12:58
June 28, 2026
E45: Shake, Rattle, and Ratings: Elvis On The Ed Sullivan Show (1956) | 100 Years of Television #62
On September 9, 1956, more than 60 million Americans tuned in to witness a cultural earthquake: Elvis Presley’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan...
00:15:22