Latest Episodes
August 16, 2026
E52: How ABC's Wide World of Sports Transforms The Network - And the Medium
For most of the 1950s, ABC was the forgotten third network—outgunned by NBC and CBS in affiliates, programming, and advertising. But a series of...
00:18:07
August 09, 2026
E51: The Parlor Presidency: How Television Changed American Politics (1960) | Countdown to the Centennial #56
Long before presidents dominated television, they were distant figures known mainly through newspapers and occasional public appearances. Radio brought Franklin Roosevelt’s voice into American...
00:18:24
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