WI: A world without TV

I was thinking, about what things had a huge impact on the 20th century, and it came a cross my mind, what would the world look like if TV was never invented.
 
A much nicer world.:)
Whe do not go into our individual caves and ignore the outside.

With no TV, people still sit on their front porch and listen to the Radio Shows, And radio still produces Shows for Broadcasting.
[And houses are still designed with front porches]

This means that that gang of kids running down the street knocking over thrash cans, has to do it under Everyone's Eyes.

Without the competition from TV, the Movie Code Board lasted longer, so the movies didn't deteriorate into Blood and gore,
The coarsening of Society caused by the graphic violence in the media didn't take place, or is taking place a lot slower.

Without TV, Kids continued to play outside after School, This requiered Moms to suppervise.
Less women in the work force, requires the Business to make greater efforts, to attract the more marginal employable [Minorities].
This leads to greater Business Training programs, and to greater pay for those employed, so one paycheck families can make it.
 
There would also be other large changes if you think about it. Think what Vietnam would be like without live TV to cover it, or the other major events, such as the challenger's explosion, JFK's assassination, or the moon walk. Even think about cultural things like football without TV, or presidential debates not being on TV.
 

67th Tigers

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There would also be other large changes if you think about it. Think what Vietnam would be like without live TV to cover it, or the other major events, such as the challenger's explosion, JFK's assassination, or the moon walk. Even think about cultural things like football without TV, or presidential debates not being on TV.

Well, JFK wouldn't have been President. The decisive debate between Kennedy and Nixon was televised (the first one that was). Those listening on radio were generally convinced Nixon won the debate (based on content), while those who watched went the other way.
 
Well, JFK wouldn't have been President. The decisive debate between Kennedy and Nixon was televised (the first one that was). Those listening on radio were generally convinced Nixon won the debate (based on content), while those who watched went the other way.
Except without the televised Checkers speech, Nixon would have been dropped in 1956.
 
Well no TV, means no CRTs and thus no useful computer age. TV sped up the reduction in racism and increased the pace that we learned as a world. It's hard to feel for people that you can't see.



I know it's popular to trash TV, but honestly it's popular to trash any tech that changes the old order. Before TVs is was radio and Phonographs. Before that it was those new fangled novels/Phones.
 
Before that it was those new fangled novels/Phones.
Everyone hates phones, Even Bell refused to have on in His house.
Well no TV, means no CRTs and thus no useful computer age.
Except LEC's were invented back in the early 1900's, Whe could have had flat panels earlier
 
Bell also thought that there would one day be a telephone in every major US city :eek:, so let's not take his word as gospel.
 
Except LEC's were invented back in the early 1900's, Whe could have had flat panels earlier

Not from the quick research I just did on LECs. To be a useful displace screen you need to be able to 2 things: Pick a single part of to light up and be able to quickly adjust the birghtness level of that spot. I saw nothing on LECs that indicated that they could do that.

If LEC could act as a monitor then TVs would be the first thing they where used for.
 
There would also be other large changes if you think about it. Think what Vietnam would be like without live TV to cover it, or the other major events, such as the challenger's explosion, JFK's assassination, or the moon walk. Even think about cultural things like football without TV, or presidential debates not being on TV.

I imagine many of these things would still be covered by the cinema newsreels- though in this country, would these be more limited by the lack of a BBC- bowing more to commercial pressure- not that you have that in the USA.

I guess the impact of breaking news would be much less immediately felt. A lot less iconic images, unles they come from the newspapers.

Sports as you say might be impacted considerably- am I right in thinking that American Football was split into quarters for the purposes of allowing advertising breaks on TV, for example? A lot less demands on, say, the scheduling of events to fit the demands of TV audiences and schedules, contrary to tradition, and even minor things might be affected- before TV, most tennis balls were white, not yellow- the change was there to make them more visible on TV. I guess sports would be less money and business orientated, maybe football/soccer might still be an amateur game (or at least semi-professional), not so many big sponsorship deals, etc.

Well no TV, means no CRTs and thus no useful computer age.

They would still develop, and there were working computers before VDUs became commonplace. CRTs were used in oscilloscopes I dare say, beforehand. What you might get is much more expensive technology as CRT display units will be very expensive without TVs arouind to make them cheap, and the home computer revolution will be slow if at all to take off, probably not progressing much beyond the Altair-type enthusiast's kits with flashing lights- maybe moving on to a line-printer based system or simple calculator-type LCD displays to start off with. and since games played a major role in the development of the home-computer market in the early days (I guess, anyway) you are more likely to see them only as educational-type machines at most, and more likely to see word-processing machines or jumped-up electronic typewriters on people's desks than a full-fledged computer. Unless display tecnnology deveops, and so does the Net...

TV sped up the reduction in racism and increased the pace that we learned as a world. It's hard to feel for people that you can't see.

Atitudes might change, and there is always cinema. Especially if you get cinema breaking the boundaries outside of the mainstream. But then, with no TV, this might be less pronounced.
 
A much nicer world.:)
Whe do not go into our individual caves and ignore the outside.

Except for all the radio junkies and bookworms...

With no TV, people still sit on their front porch and listen to the Radio Shows, And radio still produces Shows for Broadcasting.

Which still happens in the UK- it's called BBC Radio 4. :p

[And houses are still designed with front porches]

Though this is not necessarily the case this side of the Pond.

This means that that gang of kids running down the street knocking over thrash cans, has to do it under Everyone's Eyes.

More community spirit will probalby do this- less need for delinquents, and will families stay together longer?

Without the competition from TV, the Movie Code Board lasted longer, so the movies didn't deteriorate into Blood and gore,
The coarsening of Society caused by the graphic violence in the media didn't take place, or is taking place a lot slower.

The changing social attitudes will probably do this sooner or later, as for the rest of moral standards. Though having watched a documentary last week about the 'B-movie' in Britain, I learned that the rise of 'exploitaition' cinema had to do with the fact that TV was taking over the sort of genres previously depicted by such movies in the post-war years (probably true elsewhere in the world!)

Without TV, Kids continued to play outside after School, This requiered Moms to suppervise.
Less women in the work force, requires the Business to make greater efforts, to attract the more marginal employable [Minorities].
This leads to greater Business Training programs, and to greater pay for those employed, so one paycheck families can make it.


Social pressures again. there are always childminders, or in my case, the aunties and grandmas...
 
The sports bit that the_lyniezian brought up is interesting.

You ever try to listening to a basketball or football game? It's almost impossible to make a mental image of what's going on. These 2 sports have very visual and action packed nature and I doubt if they would have become very popular without TV.

Baseball on the other hand is perfect for radio. Slow pace action, only 1 or 2 things going on at once, and gives time to add color to what's going on. The correlation between me really liking baseball has a lot to do with how much time I spent listening to it on the radio instead of watching it.
 
The sports bit that the_lyniezian brought up is interesting.

You ever try to listening to a basketball or football game? It's almost impossible to make a mental image of what's going on. These 2 sports have very visual and action packed nature and I doubt if they would have become very popular without TV.

Baseball on the other hand is perfect for radio. Slow pace action, only 1 or 2 things going on at once, and gives time to add color to what's going on. The correlation between me really liking baseball has a lot to do with how much time I spent listening to it on the radio instead of watching it.

I won't have tried listening to such games: I'm British and American sport doesn't feature heavily on our radio. Soccer yes, American football no. Basketball is marginally popular over here but probably isn't likely to get on Radio 5 or Talksport very often: soccer on the other hand...

I gues baseball probably does have a good pace for radio- on this side of the Atlantic (well, and the Carribean/West Indies) cricket is similar- though I don't care for cricket. I've tried listening to tennis on the radio- Wimbledon is on at present so it's a good opportunity.

But I would agree that such games might be a bit fast-paced for the radio, as would ice hockey, say. (I have been to 2 ice hockey matches at some stage in my life as we have a local rink complete with teams that play in the regional league (not big-time stuff mind).)
Soccer probably has just about the right pace to just about work on radio- rugby- like American football?

EDIT: Though to be fair, in the absence of TV one would actuually be going down to see one's favourite team 'in the flesh' rather than on the radio. I should imagine I'd rather be going to the Billingham Forum to see the Bombers (our local ice hockey team) play than whatever boring fare Radio 4 serves up on a Saturday night... or even Doctor Who...
 
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How would this affect films? After all, without tv there would be no real reason for VCRs/DVDs meaning that though some films may be reissued to theatres, other films that didnt do well would be doomed to being gone forever.
 
The sports bit that the_lyniezian brought up is interesting.

You ever try to listening to a basketball or football game? It's almost impossible to make a mental image of what's going on. These 2 sports have very visual and action packed nature and I doubt if they would have become very popular without TV.

Baseball on the other hand is perfect for radio. Slow pace action, only 1 or 2 things going on at once, and gives time to add color to what's going on. The correlation between me really liking baseball has a lot to do with how much time I spent listening to it on the radio instead of watching it.

A giant light bulb is going on over my head. I have never heard such a reasonable explanation for the sudden surge in the popularity of basketball and football in the 1960s and 70s.
 
The sports bit that the_lyniezian brought up is interesting.

You ever try to listening to a basketball or football game? It's almost impossible to make a mental image of what's going on. These 2 sports have very visual and action packed nature and I doubt if they would have become very popular without TV.

Baseball on the other hand is perfect for radio. Slow pace action, only 1 or 2 things going on at once, and gives time to add color to what's going on. The correlation between me really liking baseball has a lot to do with how much time I spent listening to it on the radio instead of watching it.

A local radio station broadcasts my uni's basketball games on the radio, as I work in the evenings sometimes I'll listen to it on the way home. It is kind of hard to visualize mentally what is going on so i just listen for the score and hope I have time to get home, into street clothes, and get to the stadium before its over :D
 
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