Portal:Television

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports. The medium is capable of more than "radio broadcasting," which refers to an audio signal sent to radio receivers.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were still CRT, it was only in early 2010s that flat-screen TVs decisively overtook CRT. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s.^{[better source needed]} (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

"Over There" is the two-part second season finale of the Fox science fiction drama series Fringe. They are the 21st and 22nd episodes of the season, and the 42nd and 43rd episodes of the series overall. Both parts were written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, together with showrunners Jeff Pinkner and J. H. Wyman. Goldsman also served as director, his first such credit since the season premiere.

Fringe's premise is based on the idea of two parallel universes, our own and the Other Side, each of which contains historical idiosyncrasies. The two universes began to clash in 1985, after Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) stole the parallel universe version of his son, Peter, following his own son's death. The finale's narrative recounts what happens when Peter (Joshua Jackson) is taken back to the Other Side by his real father, dubbed "Walternate" (Noble). FBI agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Walter lead a team of former Cortexiphan test subjects to retrieve him, after discovering that Peter is an unwitting part of Walternate's plans to bring about the destruction of our universe using an ancient doomsday device.

More selected articles

Read more

Selected image - show another

Credit: Adam Kliczek, [1]

CRT TV set "Wisła" ("Vistula") made in Poland, since 1955, by Warszawskie Zakłady Telewizyjne

More selected pictures

Read more

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that a federal marshal seized a car and a truck because there was no other way to satisfy a debt owed by Arkansas television station KRZB-TV?
... that the Fox television network successfully moved to strip an Iowa TV station of its affiliation?
... that Colin Mackay, the political editor at Scottish Television, was "very sad" when Colin MacKay, the political editor at Scottish Television, died?
... that the television series The Owl's Legacy was modelled after the ancient Greek symposium?
... that Fred Rogers created and hosted a television documentary series titled Old Friends ... New Friends due to his concern that older generations were getting more isolated from younger generations?
... that in 1982, a news anchor for Phoenix television station KOOL-TV was held hostage on set for five hours?

Selected quote - show another

You go to your TV to turn your brain off. You go to the computer when you want to turn your brain on.

— Steve Jobs

More selected quotes

More at Wikiquote

More did you know

...that the Simpsons short Good Night aired April 19, 1987 on The Tracey Ullman Show and was the first ever appearance of the Simpson family on television?

...that the television adaptation of the BBC Radio 2 sitcom Teenage Kicks, originally for BBC Two, has been taken over by ITV?

...that model Albert Reed, selected to appear in September 2007 on the United States television show Dancing with the Stars, admits that he cannot dance?

...that Melbourne rock band The Strangers appeared on weekly television for nine years straight?

...that a Spokane, Washington, television station devoted the first 11 minutes of its Saturday evening newscast to the February 2007 arrests of Gonzaga University basketball player Josh Heytvelt and his teammate?

More did you know facts

Selected biography - show another

James Thomas Aubrey Jr. (December 14, 1918 – September 3, 1994) was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, with his "smell for the blue-collar," he produced some of television's most enduring series on the air, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Under Aubrey's leadership, CBS dominated American television, leading the other networks NBC and ABC, by nine points and seeing its profits rise from $25 million in 1959 to $49 million in 1964. The New York Times Magazine in 1964 called Aubrey "a master of programming whose divinations led to successes that are breathtaking". Aubrey had replaced CBS Television president Louis G. Cowan, who was dismissed after the quiz-show scandals. Aubrey's tough decision-making earned him the nickname "Smiling Cobra" during his tenure. (Full article...)

List of selected biographies
Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 2The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 3RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 4Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 5An RCA Victor Color TV ad featuring milliner Lilly Daché in 1959. (from Color television)
Image 6Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 7Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 8Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 9LG smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 10RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 11Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 12First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 13Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 14Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)
Image 15Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 16LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 17The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 18A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 19DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 20Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 21This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 22An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 23The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 24Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)

Featured lists - load new batch

Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

Image 1
Survivor is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program Expedition Robinson. Contestants are referred to as "castaways", and they compete against one another to become the "Sole Survivor" and win one million U.S. dollars. First airing in 2000, there currently have been a total of 47 seasons aired; the program itself has been filmed on five continents.

Contestants usually apply to be on the show, but the series has been known to recruit contestants for various seasons. For Survivor: Fiji, the producers had hoped to have a more racially diverse cast, and hoped that a more diverse group would apply after the success of the racially segregated Survivor: Cook Islands. When this did not happen, the producers turned to recruiting and in the end, only one contestant had actually submitted an application to be on the show. For the most part, contestants are virtually unknown prior to their Survivor appearance, but occasionally some well-known people are cast. (Full article...)
Image 2
The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was given annually from 1985 to 2019 to honor a young actress below the age of 25, who had delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1985, Tracey E. Bregman was the first winner of this award, for her role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless. The awards ceremony had not been aired on television for the prior two years, having been criticized for voting integrity. The award was originally called Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series, the criteria of the new category were deemed confusing, performers of differing ages were nominated, and critics argued some were of supporting or lead actress standards. Adding to the confusion, the first winner, Bregman, and the Outstanding Supporting Actress winner that year, Beth Maitland, played characters near to the same age. The category was renamed Outstanding Juvenile Female in a Drama Series in 1989, and began using its current title in 1991. The criteria were later altered, requiring that the actress be aged 25 or below. (Full article...)
Image 3
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance was a Creative Arts Emmy Award given out by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It was awarded to a performer for an outstanding "continuing or single voice-over performance in a series or a special." Prior to 1992, voice actors could be nominated for their performance in the live-action acting categories. The award was first given in 1992 when six voice actors from The Simpsons shared the award. From 1992 to 2008, it was a juried award, so there were no nominations and there would be multiple or no recipients in one year. In 2009, the rules were changed to a category award, with five nominees.

Usually, winners would be voice actors from animated shows, but some narrators of live-action shows won such as Keith David in 2005 and 2008. No winner was named in 1996 or 2007. (Full article...)
Image 4
The anime series Buso Renkin is based on the manga series of the same name written by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The series is directed by Takao Kato and produced by Xebec. The episodes follow Kazuki Muto who becomes an Alchemic warrior in the battle against Alchemic monsters known as Homunculi.

The production of the Buso Renkin anime was announced by the release of a minute-long internet trailer. Buso Renkin aired between October 5, 2006, and March 29, 2007, on TV Tokyo. The episodes were later released in nine DVD compilations between January 25, 2007, and September 21, 2007, by Geneon Universal Entertainment. A DVD box set containing the whole series was released on November 26, 2009. (Full article...)
Image 5
The sixth season of the Canadian teen drama television series Degrassi: The Next Generation commenced airing in Canada on 28 November 2006, concluded on 14 May 2007 and contains nineteen episodes. This season depicts the lives of high school juniors, seniors and graduates as they deal with some of the challenges and issues young adults face such as imprisonment, online predators, burglary, substance abuse, stress, gambling addiction, financial difficulties, school rivalries, pregnancy scares and death. This is the first season in franchise history to feature college aged characters in prominent roles. Unlike the previous seasons, which took place over the course of an entire school year, season six only covers the fall semester (September to December) of the school year, utilizing a semi-floating timeline. It also marks the first death of a main character in the series.

Production took place between May and December 2006. (Full article...)
Image 6
Rihanna at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017

Rihanna has released four video albums and appeared in 62 music videos, 12 films, 13 television programs, and several television commercials. In 2005, Rihanna signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings and released her debut single "Pon de Replay", taken from her first studio album Music of the Sun (2005). Like its lyrical theme, the music video for the song was inspired by disco and dance; it was directed by Little X. Three separate videos were released for "SOS", the lead single from her second studio album A Girl like Me (2006), all of which contained various dance sequences. The same year, American director Anthony Mandler directed the accompanying music video for the second single "Unfaithful", which featured Rihanna in a dangerous love triangle with her lover and her husband. "Unfaithful" was Rihanna's first collaboration with Mandler; they later worked together regularly. Also in 2006, Rihanna played herself in the third installment of the Bring It On film series, entitled Bring It On: All or Nothing.

The music video for "Umbrella", the lead single from her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad (2007), was directed by Chris Applebaum and featured scenes of Rihanna naked and covered in silver paint. It won the Video of the Year accolade at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards. Seven more singles, accompanied with separate music videos directed by Mandler, were released from the album. Rihanna flew to Europe to shoot the music videos for the 2007 singles "Shut Up and Drive" and "Don't Stop the Music" in Prague. "Russian Roulette", the lead single from Rihanna's fourth studio album Rated R (2009), featured a cameo appearance by American actor and model Jesse Williams. The music video for the second single, "Hard", was directed by Melina Matsoukas, who also directed the videos for Rihanna's 2010 singles, "Rude Boy" and "Rockstar 101". The same year, Rihanna provided vocals for Eminem's "Love the Way You Lie". The song's accompanying music video features actors Dominic Monaghan and Megan Fox in a love-hate relationship while Eminem and Rihanna perform in front of a burning house. In 2010, Rihanna also filmed the scenes for her second film appearance in Battleship, which was released in April 2012. (Full article...)
Image 7
Popotan is a 2003 anime series based on the visual novel of the same name produced by the company, Petit Ferret. The story follows three girls, sisters Ai, Mai and Mii, and their maid, Mea, as they travel through time without aging, along with the mansion they live in. One of the sisters occasionally gathers crucial intelligence from conversations with dandelions—referred to as popotan—as they search for the mysterious figure of Shizuku. Popotan is a play on the Japanese word for "dandelions", tanpopo. It was developed by Shaft, directed and storyboarded by Shinichiro Kimura, and written by Jukki Hanada. The characters were designed by Haruka Sakurai and originally created by Akio Watanabe, under the alias of Poyoyon Rock.

Twelve episodes were produced. They originally aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System's satellite station BS-i, from July 18, 2003, through October 3, 2003, and were also made available at the same time on the Bandai Channel. On August 27 and 28, 2003, an event with the first volume Japanese DVD of Popotan was shown Animate Ikebukuro in Japan. The event featured guest appearances by the anime's voice actress for the three sisters. (Full article...)
Image 8
Kaze no Stigma (風の聖痕, lit. Stigma of the Wind) is an anime series directed by Jun'ichi Sakata and produced by Gonzo. They are based on the light novel series Kaze no Stigma by Takahiro Yamato, and adapt the source material over twenty-four episodes. The plot of the episodes is based on the return of Kazuma Kannagi to Japan after being exiled by his clan, and his subsequent interactions with his clan.

The series aired from April 2007 to September 2007 in Japan on thirteen networks, with Chiba TV, Fukui TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Hokkaido, and TV Saitama airing the episodes first on 11 April 2007. The remaining networks began airing the episodes later in May, with the exception of Kumamoto Broadcasting, which broadcast the first episode on 14 May 2007. (Full article...)
Image 9
Stone at the UK premiere of Maniac in 2018

Emma Stone is an American actress who aspired to an acting career from an early age. She had her first role onstage at age 11, and followed with parts in sixteen plays in a regional theater in Arizona. Stone made her television debut in the unsold pilot for the reality show The New Partridge Family (2005). After brief television roles in Medium, Malcolm in the Middle, and Lucky Louie, she made her film debut in the comedy Superbad (2007).

Stone appeared as a ghost in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), and found commercial success with the horror comedy Zombieland. Her breakthrough came with her first leading role as a high school student perceived to be sexually promiscuous in the comedy Easy A (2010). In 2011, she starred in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love and in the period drama The Help, which were both commercial successes. Stone's success continued with her role as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man that became her highest-grossing release, with a worldwide revenue of $757 million, and she later reprised the role in its 2014 sequel. Critical success followed with her performance as a recovering drug addict in Alejandro González Iñárritu's black comedy-drama Birdman (2014). It earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Later that year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of the musical Cabaret. (Full article...)
Image 10
Writer Steven Moffat, and actors Fiona Gillies and Robert Bathurst recording the DVD audio commentary for the first series in January 2006

Joking Apart is a BBC Television sitcom. The show was produced by Andre Ptaszynski for the independent production company Pola Jones and screened on BBC Two. All twelve episodes from the two series were written by Steven Moffat and directed by Bob Spiers. The pilot was transmitted as part of its Comic Asides series of pilot shows on 12 July 1991. The first episode of the series was transmitted on 7 January 1993, and the final transmitted on 7 February 1995.

The show is about the rise and fall of a relationship, juxtaposing a couple, Mark (Robert Bathurst) and Becky (Fiona Gillies), who meet and fall in love before getting separated and finally divorced. The show is semi-autobiographical; it was inspired by the then-recent separation of Moffat and his first wife. Some of the first series followed a non-linear dual structure, contrasting the rise of the relationship with the separation. Other episodes were ensemble farces, predominantly including the couple's friends Robert (Paul Raffield) and Tracy (Tracie Bennett). Paul Mark Elliott also appeared as Trevor, Becky's lover. (Full article...)
Image 11
The third season of Veronica Mars, an American drama television series created by Rob Thomas, began airing on The CW in the United States on October 3, 2006. The season was produced by Warner Bros. Television, Silver Pictures Television, Stu Segall Productions, Inc and Rob Thomas Productions, and Joel Silver, Diane Ruggiero and Thomas served as executive producers. The third season comprises 20 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 22, 2007.

The season continues the story of Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), now a freshman studying at Hearst College while moonlighting as a private investigator under the wing of her detective father. The first mystery is established when her friend Parker Lee (Julie Gonzalo) becomes the latest victim of the Hearst serial rapist in a storyline begun in a second-season episode. Feeling guilty for not helping her, Veronica sets herself to catching the rapist. The next mystery, a murder, commences in the same episode that the identity of the rapist is discovered. (Full article...)
Image 12
Jackson at the White House in 1990

American singer Michael Jackson (1958–2009) debuted on the professional music scene at age five as a member of the American family music group The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still part of the group. Jackson promoted seven of his solo albums with music videos or, as he would refer to them, "short films". Some of them drew criticism for their violent and sexual elements while others were lauded by critics and awarded Guinness World Records for their length, success, and cost.

In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular culture and the first African-American entertainer to have a strong crossover fanbase on MTV. The popularity of his music videos that aired on MTV such as "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller"—credited for transforming the music video from a promotional tool into an art form—helped bring fame to the relatively new channel. The success of these music videos helped shift MTV's focus from its original "rock 'n' roll only" format to pop and R&B and saved the channel from financial ruin.
Michael Jackson's "Thriller" short film marked a growth in scale for music videos and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.
The 18-minute music video for "Bad", directed by Martin Scorsese, depicts Jackson and Wesley Snipes as members of an inner-city gang. Jackson paid cinematic tribute to West Side Story with the choreography. For the "Smooth Criminal" video, Jackson experimented with an anti-gravity lean, in which the performer leans forward at a 45-degree angle, beyond their center of gravity. Although the music video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the United States, it won a Golden Lion Award in 1989 for the quality of the special effects used in its production and a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1990. Jackson received the MTV Video Vanguard Award in 1988, which was renamed the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award in his honor in 1991. He won the MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award in 1990. (Full article...)
Image 13
The seventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons aired on Fox from September 17, 1995 to May 19, 1996. The show runners for the seventh production season were Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein who would executive produce 21 episodes this season. David Mirkin executive produced the remaining four, including two hold overs that were produced for the previous season. The season was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Animated Program and won an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Program. The DVD box set was released in Region 1 on December 13, 2005, Region 2 on January 30, 2006, and Region 4 on March 22, 2006. The set was released in two different forms: a Marge-shaped box and also a standard rectangular-shaped box in which the theme is a movie premiere. (Full article...)
Image 14
The second season of The O.C. commenced airing in the United States on November 4, 2004, concluded on May 19, 2005, and consisted of 24 episodes. It aired Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET in the United States on Fox. In addition to the regular 24 episodes, two special episodes aired before the season premiere. "The O.C.: Obsess Completely" documented the show's influence on popular culture in its first year. The following week, "Welcome to The O.C.: A Day in the Life," provided a behind-the-scenes look at the show.

The season was released on DVD as a seven-disc boxed set under the title The O.C.: The Complete Second Season on August 23, 2005, by Warner Home Video. On September 7, 2008, the season became available to purchase for registered users of the US iTunes Store. In the United Kingdom the season premiered January 11, 2005 on Channel 4. In Canada the season aired on CTV Television Network and in Australia it was broadcast by Network Ten. (Full article...)
Image 15
Four of the six main cast members attend a ceremony in 2009, left to right; Nancy Cartwright (Bart), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Dan Castellaneta (Homer) and Julie Kavner (Marge).

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom that includes six main voice actors and numerous regular cast and recurring guest stars. The principal cast consists of Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer. Pamela Hayden, Tress MacNeille, Maggie Roswell, Chris Edgerly, Eric Lopez, Alex Désert, Kevin Michael Richardson, Jenny Yokobori, Kimberly D. Brooks, Dawnn Lewis, Tony Rodriguez, Melanie Minichino, Jonathan Lipow, and Grey DeLisle have appeared as supporting cast members, along with former supporting cast members Russi Taylor, Karl Wiedergott, Marcia Mitzman Gaven, Doris Grau, Susan Blu, Jo Ann Harris, and Christopher Collins. Repeat guest cast members include Marcia Wallace, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz, Joe Mantegna, Frank Welker, Kelsey Grammer and Albert Brooks. With the exception of "Old Money", episode credits list only the voice actors, and not the characters they voice.

Both Fox and the production crew wanted to keep their identities secret during the early seasons and closed most of the recording sessions while refusing to publish photos of the recording artists. The network eventually revealed which roles each actor performed in the episode "Old Money", because the producers said the voice actors should receive credit for their work. Every main cast member has won an Emmy for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance. Shearer was the last cast member to win, receiving his award in 2014 for the episode "Four Regrettings and a Funeral." Castellaneta and Azaria have won four, while Kavner, Cartwright, Smith, Shearer, Wallace, Grammer, and guest star Jackie Mason have each won one. (Full article...)

More featured lists

News

Wikinews television portal

Upcoming events

Upcoming television series

Featured content

Extended content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Television}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.