Alternate TV History

[Stanislav]

There is quite a sizable group of people who conduct discussions of "alternate history." Questions such as: "What if the South had won the Civil War?" "What if Hitler and the axis powers won World War II?" "What if Lincoln had not been assassinated?" (Or JFK, or RFK.) More recently, "what if Gore won the 2000 election and was President when 9/11 occurred?"

So, I wonder....what are some of the ways the history of TV technology and development in the U.S. could have been significantly different? Milestones that could have been reached earlier, later, or not at all?

Example: what if manufacturers, either on their own initiative or by government decree, had routinely included decent UHF tuners in TVs from the very dawn of UHF broadcasting? How many victims in the "UHF Morgue" would have survived? How many more additional stations would have signed on? Would ABC have been more competitive? Might DuMont have even survived to become a viable fourth network? (Of course, you still would have had the problems of poor tuner and antenna design at UHF, as well as feedlines like open-wire "ladder line" and 300-ohm twin-lead that were very unsuitable loss-wise for UHF reception, but the mere inclusion of the tuners might have had a profound enough effect.)

What are some other potential turning points that might have changed TV history? Like, what if the non-compatible CBS color system had won the battle? What if early TV sound had remained AM as in the earliest days -- would they at some later date have risked changing to FM and encountering another "incompatibility" problem after millions of older sets were already in use? What if videotape had been perfected earlier, perhaps by Bing's labs in the early 50's, or significantly later, like well into the 60's? And I'm sure you could come up with some other examples.

 

[w9wi]

Example: what if manufacturers, either on their own initiative or by government decree, had routinely included decent UHF tuners in TVs from the very dawn of UHF broadcasting? How many victims in the "UHF Morgue" would have survived? How many more additional stations would have signed on? Would ABC have been more competitive? Might DuMont have even survived to become a viable fourth network? (Of course, you still would have had the problems of poor tuner and antenna design at UHF, as well as feedlines like open-wire "ladder line" and 300-ohm twin-lead that were very unsuitable loss-wise for UHF reception, but the mere inclusion of the tuners might have had a profound enough effect.)

I suspect even most engineers today have no idea just how bad UHF receivers were until the 1970s. Nor just how few UHF stations were running any substantial power. As recently as 1965 *NO* UHF station was running more than 1,000kw ERP and many stations weren't even running 100kw. Even with modern receivers, most UHF stations in the 1960s would be lucky to reach a 25-mile radius with rooftop antennas and maybe ten miles on an indoor antenna. With the primitive receivers available at the time one almost has to wonder if indoor antennas were pointless.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Here's another direction that this thread could go: What would have happened if the history of certain TV shows and/or their stars was different? For example, what would have happened if David Letterman had been chosen to replace Johnny Carson as the host of the Tonight Show instead of Jay Leno? What would late night TV look like now? I think that Leno would have ended up on either CBS or ABC, but who would be tops in the ratings, and would both shows still be on today? And if this were the case who would have replaced Letterman on Late Night? Would it still have been Conan O'Brien or someone else?

Another Tonight Show thought, what would have happened if Joan Rivers hadn't defected to Fox and stayed as Carson's guest host until she became the new host? I don't think she would have lasted as long as Leno has.

Perhaps even further back with Tonight Show history might be what would have happened if Steve Allen had been replaced by Ernie Kovacs, who was hosting some nights by the time Allen left, of if Allen had gotten his wish and been replaced by radio host Jean Shepherd (The author of A Christmas Story - Would Shepherd have written the story if he replaced Allen?)? Would any of the later hosting history of Paar, Carson, Leno, and O'Brien even have happened?

 

[Rob Jason]

Some possibilities:

What if WWII had not interrupted TV's development? Or, was were the technical requirements of WWII (radar, etc) and the post-WWII consumer society responsible and necessary for TV's growth?

What if Paley had gotten his way with the FCC in 1946/47, and convinced the FCC to move all TV to UHF? What if the FCC followed one of it's ideas, and created just regional "superstations" with megapower?

WHAT IF...There was not a man such as David Sarnoff at the head of RCA? His influence on TV's development is everywhere -- our color system, the "VHF standard" of the 40s, television's development as an entertainment medium in the 30s...

WHAT IF...Vladimir Zworikyn had settled in Los Angeles? What if the movie moguls -- for whatever reason -- saw television not as the enemy, but as THEIR tool? Or, squelched it?

What if RCA's engineers had bought into the idea of helical scanning for videotape earlier than Ampex developed it?

WHAT if the FCC ignored educational TV in 1952, and set aside NO channels?

What if the Supreme court ruled in 1984 that home VCRs and tape, by their very existence, WERE copyright violators because they encouraged the copying and trading of copywritten programming (which they said Napster did)?

I'll just leave these here...Chew on those for a while...

 

[gr8oldies]

If the JFK asssasination had never happened, what would have happened to Dan Rather's career?

What if Ft. Wayne and South Bend, IN had had VHF stations?

What if Ron Howard's parents had declined to let him appear on the Andy Griffith Show.

What if BETA had won the day?

 

[Bob1370]

Lots of things to chew on here.

As to early TV, the biggest difference might have been if TV and FM channel allocations had been sorted out more logically before World War II instead of being the subject of repeated changes of mind by the FCC. The war itself advanced the state of the art a bit, but better decision making before the war started would have avoided such roadblocks as the 1948-52 TV freeze, which really harmed the medium's early growth and development. FM logically belonged from the start where it finally ended up, in roughly the 3 meter (88-108 mHz) wavelength area; its original 42-50 mHz band was too frequently disrupted by skip signals bouncing off the ionosphere. If low band TV had then been ensconced at 46-88 mHz, and high band VHF TV between 156 and 288 mHz, more or less as originally envisioned in the 1941 plan, there would have been something like 30 distinct 6-mHz VHF channels to go around. With the low banders running 50 to 100 kW erp with antennas at 1000 feet above average terrain, and high-banders running in the 200 to 300 kW erp realm at that height (something that was doable even with 1941 technology) every station could have had a good 60 to 75 mile service range given the receivers and antennas of the day. Let's assume that seven or eight channels would have been about as many as even the largest markets could support in television's first generation (which turned out, in fact, to be the case in New York and Los Angeles, where seven channels did survive continuously from the 1940s to today, but for a while, about half of them struggled). We would have seen every sizable city get all the broadcast TV allocations it could economically support. There would also have been enough of a channel supply that FCC Commissioner Frieda Hennock's plan for noncommercial educational/cultural channel reservations (a good idea as things turned out) could have set one channel aside per metro area without cutting significantly into the supply of channels available and desired for commercial use. There would also have been enough channels available to put an NBC, CBS, ABC, DuMont and public station in every one of the top 100 markets, and another independent channel on the air in many or most. That would have been more than enough to allow all four of the pioneer networks to survive and reach every major metro--if they all programmed well enough, and marketed their programs well enough, to remain viable as the country's population and appetite for TV grew in the 1950s and 1960s. It would have been enough for the first 25 or 30 years of television growth in this country, and might have even seen us all the way into the cable, satellite and digital TV era. UHF wouldn't have been needed for many years, if ever, and more of that band (maybe all of it) would have been available for things like mobile phones and police/fire dispatch right from the get-go as those technologies emerged. Color, stereo sound and eventually digital TV would have followed the same path they finally did, and maybe arrived a little sooner; color TV in particular might not have been temporarily sidetracked if the whole issue of channel scarcity hadn't emerged to freeze TV's growth between 1948 and 1952 and throw into question everything from how we were going to parcel out TV channel assignments to what technical standards we'd use for color broadcasting.

Now to the separate question of programming and alternate timelines. Ernie Kovacs as successor to Steve Allen on the Tonight Show would have been a major hit, and he'd have been a star. Eventually he'd probably have taken the same career path as Allen and moved into prime time TV, where his style anticipated Laugh-In and might have brought cutting edge sketch comedy to NBC's prime time schedule years before Laugh-In premiered. He also would have stayed in New York, rather than moving to LA where he was starting to slowly build a prime time audience on ABC before his tragic death in a car crash in 1962. Kovacs on NBC in New York through the 1950s into the 60s and beyond...that crash might never have happened, he might well have lived and continued to do cutting edge TV if he'd stayed in NYC and on NBC through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and into the 90s. TV comedy might be different, and better, today. What a loss...

Assuming Kovacs had stayed at NBC and done the Tonight show for 5 or 6 years before going to prime time, then Carson, who had a growing reputation, probably would have followed him in the early 1960s and the rest of late night TV history through the early 1990s would have taken on the shape we know today. If Letterman then succeeds Carson, Leno jumps to CBS, Letterman ends up the one moving to 10 PM this fall, and Conan probably emerges as successor on the Tonight Show and competing with Leno instead of following him.

Jean Shephed's name comes up--can't imagine him being happy in the constraints of network TV, he'd have probably bolted just like Jack Paar did if the show had come into his hands, and then we're back to the timeline that puts Carson on the Tonight Show in the early 60s in any event.

The what-ifs actually take you pretty much where we are now...except that they remind us of what might have been, if Ernie Kovacs hadn't been taken away at 42 but given us 30 more years of inspired TV humor.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I've always thought that if Dave had gotten "Tonight" instead of Jay, that Mr. Leno would have become kind of our generation's Bob Hope...Killer guest on "Tonight", could walk in on Dave whenever he pleased (implying that they'd still be friends), and would probably have half a dozen prime time specials a year,one of which would feature him entertaining the troops.

Not sure what the impact of The Fort having a VHF would have been, other than attracting bigger market talent (kind of like how WOWO was able to attract major market caliber people by virtue of its monster signal)...As for South Bend, think of a VHF owned by Notre Dame...

EDIT: What if...The Television Code were still in effect? Or, what if the FCC had never relaxed the limit of commercial time for broadcast stations, thus paving the way for the Age Of The Infomercial?

 

[fybush]

I think if Fort Wayne had had a VHF, the antennas on the rooftops would have looked different...

Seriously, though, because the market was all-UHF, and not intermixed, it ended up with three fairly equally-matched stations over the years. If there'd been one V there (and channel 12 comes awfully close to fitting under the old analog rules, doesn't it?), the Fort might have ended up more like Binghamton, with one big news player (WOWO-TV?) and a bunch of also-ran Us.

What if Fresno and Bakersfield had kept their Vs?

 

[gr8oldies]

We'd have still had an antenna pointed toward Dayton one maybe a UHF and VHF pointed to the Fort. and still one pointed to Lima

 

[mleach]

What if...The Washington DC and Baltimore markets ( both radio & TV ) would had became one market? What would be the channel line-up?

What would became of Bob Crane had he never got into the homemade porn game?

If they weren't banned from advertising on TV in the early 70's, would we still see cigarette/cigar ads on TV now? On a limited basis such as airing only late at night and on certain channels ( Spike TV & ESPN, Letterman for examples ) ?

 

[mleach]

What if the Supreme court ruled in 1984 that home VCRs and tape, by their very existence, WERE copyright violators because they encouraged the copying and trading of copywritten programming (which they said Napster did)?

Had the Supreme Court ruled the other way, chances are there would have been some sort of tax attached to machines and tapes ( copyright tax perhaps ) also I could see the same thing applying to AUDIO cassettes down the road as well. In the 70s I believe there were some radio stations /record companies that actually wanted to stop home audio recordings. I remember one jock on Buffalo's WKBW 1520 back in the late 70's who actually went off on the air one night at the idea that someone who he didn't even know would actually be taping his show.

But going back to Video...I doubt anyone on both sides of the fence really believed the machines would have been totally outlawed regardless how the Supreme Court would had ruled.

 

[gr8oldies]

Not on;y would some stranger be taping the WKBW guy;s show, 20 years later they'd post it on the internet!

 

[anotherguyTN]

What if the Supreme court ruled in 1984 that home VCRs and tape, by their very existence, WERE copyright violators because they encouraged the copying and trading of copywritten programming (which they said Napster did)?

Perhaps video discs would have sold more, and pay per view cable and DVDs (or something similar that was non-recordable) may have developed sooner? Although I agree that video tapes would probably not been totally banned, a tax on recorders and tape may have hampered its growth and caused discs to become the favored format for home video sooner. Also, would this have caused technology like Tivo to not be developed?

Or, what if the FCC had never relaxed the limit of commercial time for broadcast stations, thus paving the way for the Age Of The Infomercial?

That's one area where TV would definitely have been better. With no infomercials perhaps local TV and cable would carry more classic TV reruns and movies in the off hours, although it might still be where some stations would sign off overnight. But between infomercials and dead air, I'll take the dead air.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

I remember one jock on Buffalo's WKBW 1520 back in the late 70's who actually went off on the air one night at the idea that someone who he didn't even know would actually be taping his show.

Why do I get the feeling that was Joey Reynolds?

As far as cigarette/cigar ads, what would offend you more...Endless commercials for Winston, Marlboro and Dutch Masters, or endless commercials for Viagra, Cialis, and Enzyte? (with Smilin' Bob, no less)

I'm a editin' fool today...Bob Crane's what-if was brought up on another topic somewhere. He had a hugely successful morning show on KNX in Los Angeles back in their music days, and the story was that he was being looked at to replace Dick Whittinghill on KMPC, but the porn rumors scared them off.

 

[bpatrick]

I may be repeating something here, but the FCC in the '40s
obviously had no idea about the signal strength of certain
channels: it allocated Channel 4 to New York, Washington, and
Lancaster, PA; viewers in Lancaster were bothered by all the
interference from the other two stations on the same channel,
so WGAL was moved to Channel 8. Likewise, the FCC had assigned
Channel 4 to both Birmingham and Nashville; Birmingham's was
short-spacing Nashville's, so WBRC was moved to Channel 6 while
WSM(V) stayed on 4. The FCC put Channel 8 in Atlanta and Channel
9 in Rome, GA, only about 70 miles away. The problems there caused
Channel 9 to be moved to Chattanooga and Channel 8 to Athens, when
the University of Georgia got the Channel 8 license and WLW-A (now
WXIA) was kicked upstairs to Channel 11. Incidents like that were the
reason for the "freeze" of 1948-52.

I have a "what if": what if ABC's experiment in starting prime time at
7:30 against news and music on CBS and NBC back in '53 and '54 had
not paid off, and the news still came on at 7:30? Would news ratings
be higher today?

 

[Bob1370]

"What if...The Washington DC and Baltimore markets ( both radio & TV ) would had become one market? What would be the channel line-up?"

Could possibly have happened if someone had put up a master tower 1000 to 1200 feet in height, somewhere along I-95 equidistant from DC and Baltimore. That's about a 17-18 mile shot in each direction, and lots of markets locate transmitter sites at least that far from their market centers (Buffalo, NY comes to mind, with their transmitters all at least 17 or 18 miles south of downtown in the hill country of southern Erie County, NY).

In that case, channel lineup would have been just like New York's, with channels 2, 4, 5. 7, 9, 11 and 13. It's anyone's guess which of the four major networks would have landed on which channel (that would have been determined by which network bought which channel), which stations if any would have been indies, which ones might have hooked up with minor nets like CW and MyNetwork, and which one might have become the PBS channel. It's easy to imagine even the network lineup looking like New York's with CBS on 2, NBC on 4, Fox on 5 and ABC on 7, with 9 and 11 being indies or minor net outlets and 13 being the PBS station in the united Baltimore-Washington market.

 

[Stanislav]

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[Stanislav]

Here's a thought.....what if World War II, which stopped TV's spread just as it was taking off, had never happened? Or, at the very least, if the U.S. had not gotten involved? The technology was basically set pre-war with the 525-line standard, and there were no significant advances during wartime. We could surmise that certain developments might have occurred 5-6 years earlier. There might have been an established coast-to-coast coaxial network by the mid 40's, color TV by the late 40's, videotape by the early 50's.

And what if, additionally, the FCC had stuck with the original compliment of 18, not 12, VHF channels? (After all, a big reason for the cutback to 12 channels was to give the military space above 220 mHz.) That would be 50% more spectrum, which might have allowed better spacing, avoiding early CCI issues that led to the "freeze," and more channels, giving ABC and DuMont a better shot at some quality affiliates. It would have provided enough space for all but the smallest markets to have at least 2-3 channels available. And while ultimately UHF would have been needed for expansion, there would have been more time (with less pressure) to iron out the kinks in the technology and insure that once UHF was opened up, it would have been on a par (or at least close) to VHF's coverage and reception quality.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Or, what if the FCC had never relaxed the limit of commercial time for broadcast stations, thus paving the way for the Age Of The Infomercial?

That's one area where TV would definitely have been better. With no infomercials perhaps local TV and cable would carry more classic TV reruns and movies in the off hours, although it might still be where some stations would sign off overnight. But between infomercials and dead air, I'll take the dead air.

I had another thought that if the commercial restrictions hadn't been lifted we wouldn't have to put up with home shopping channels. And it might be that PAX/I/ION might have not come into existence, or at least they would have had a larger lineup of programs.

 

[kirkiefan]

What if Tony Newman(James Darren) and Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert)got recued by their bosses back at the control point of "The Time Tunnel" ?
(1966-67 series on ABC...classic campy sci-fi from producer Irwin Allen)

After the final episode it went into chronological reruns drung the series first and only season....no lead-in to a second season which leaves Tony and Doug lost in "the corridors of time" as did Scott Bakula (as Sam Beckett) in Quantum Leap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Tunnel