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The Television Portal

Television studio, with subject in person, with blue screen background, and on television

A television, commonly referred to as TV, telly or the tube, is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting sound with moving images in monochrome (black-and-white), or in colour, and in two or three dimensions. It can refer to a television set, a television program, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium, for entertainment, education, news and advertising.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, an improved form became popular in the United States and Britain, 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 US and most other developed countries. The availability of storage media such as VHS tape (1976), DVDs (1997), and high-definition Blu-ray Discs (2006) enabled viewers to watch recorded material such as movies. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity. Another development was the move from standard-definition television (SDTV) (576i, with 576 interlaced lines of resolution and 480i) to high-definition television (HDTV), which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats: 1080p, 1080i and 720p. Since 2010, with the invention of smart television, Internet television has increased the availability of television programs and movies via the Internet through services such as Netflix, iPlayer, Hulu, Roku and Chromecast.

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"Premiere" is the series premiere of the television series The O.C., which first aired on the Fox network on August 5, 2003. Written by series creator Josh Schwartz (pictured) and directed by executive producer Doug Liman, the episode depicts the introduction of troubled teenager Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie) into the wealthy lifestyle of the Cohen family in Newport Beach, Orange County, California. The casting directors, Patrick J. Rush and Alyson Silverberg, began selecting the principal cast eight to ten weeks before filming started. Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) was based on Schwartz's experiences at the University of Southern California as a "neurotic Jewish kid from the East Coast in a land of water polo players". Other central characters in the episode are Seth's parents—Sandy (Peter Gallagher) and Kirsten (Kelly Rowan)—and teenage neighbor Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton). The series premiere led the first half-hour of its time slot in viewership. It was generally well received by critics, and earned Schwartz a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Best Screenplay in an Episodic Drama. Originally broadcast and released in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, the episode was remastered in a widescreen ratio for the series DVD, released in November 2007.

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Cable News Network, commonly referred to by its initialism CNN, is a major news cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. The network is now owned by Time Warner; the news network is a division of the Turner Broadcasting System. CNN introduced the idea of 24-hour television news coverage, celebrating its 25th anniversary on June 1, 2005.

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Did you know...

...that David Letterman parodied Werner Erhard in the 1978 Mork & Mindy episode Mork Goes Erk?

...that popular 1950s game show Down You Go is one of the only U.S. television series to air on all four networks of television's Golden Age: ABC, NBC, CBS and DuMont?

...that the participants of the Channel 4 programme Dumped were not told that they would be living on a landfill site for three weeks?

...that the television drama Hill Street Blues imitated the visual style of The Police Tapes, a low-budget documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx?

...that Judy Morris, co-writer of the Academy Award winning Happy Feet has also acted in many of the most popular North American and Australian television programs since the age of 10?

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Howard W. "Kroger" Babb (December 30 1906–January 28 1980) was an American film and television producer and showman. His marketing techniques were similar to a travelling salesman's, with roots in the medicine-show tradition. Self-described as "America's Fearless Young Showman," he is best known for his presentation of the 1945 exploitation film Mom and Dad, which was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2005. Babb was involved in the production and marketing of many films and television shows, promoting each according to his favorite marketing motto: "You gotta tell 'em to sell 'em." His films ranged from sex education–style dramas to "documentaries" on foreign cultures, intended to titillate audiences rather than to educate them, maximizing profits via marketing gimmicks.