1950's To 2012
1950's: Through the 1950's television became pretty popular. It was becoming less expensive which made more and more people buy a television. With televisions becoming more popular many directors created some of the classic television shows we still watch today. I Love Lucy, Dennis The Menace, The Three Stooges, Father Knows Best, and Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. All of these television shows started in the 1950's and are still kind of popular today. This was really the start of television and it started off good and led to better things in the future. In the 1950's television was used more for entertainment instead of news. All these things made television popular in the 1950's and made it even more popular in the 1960's and beyond.
1960's: Starting in the 1960's television was not just for entertainment anymore, it was used more for news starting in the 1960's. The first CBS evening news host was Walter Cronkite and he got very famous because of his accurate global news broadcasting skills. The first presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon on September 26th 1960 was viewed all over the world. It was the first time something like this was ever televised, this was a big mark on television history. In October 1962 the world watched John F. Kennedy talk to Nikita S. Khrushchev about the Bay of Pigs. Another example is on November 22nd 1963 people watched in horror as John F. Kennedy was assassinated on live television. The political riots in 1968 was on television also. People watched casualty reports on the Vietnam war and for the first time people saw a different point of view on the the reactions from people all over the world, mostly from protesters here in the United States. Another large milestone was when Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969. At the beginning of the 60's, 87% of all households owned a television, mostly black and white sets but by the end of the decade, 95% of all households had a television.
1970's: A big step in television happened early in the decade. Cigarette advertising was banned by the government because of health hazards. This happened on January 1st 1971. President Nixon's trip to China was aired on ABC, CBS, and NBC. The first live coverage of the summer Olympics was aired live on ABC. In 1974 people all over the world watched as Richard Nixon resigned from presidency on live television. By 1975 cable television was spreading rapidly and was allowing isolated areas to get more television stations for them. By 1975 Los Angeles television viewers had 17 stations and could listen to television in 5 different languages (English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean).
1980's: In the year 1980 Ronald Reagan becomes president, and obviously was on television. The 22nd Olympic Games was boycotted by over 50 nations. Ronald Reagan's attempted assassination was showed live on television. A popular television show called M*A*S*H ends after 251 episodes. Los Angeles hosts the Olympic Games in 1984. The space shuttle "Challenger" explodes after lift off. George Bush becomes the president of the United States in 1988. The biggest thing that happened in the 80's on television was the Berlin Wall being taken down in 1989 and was live on television.
1990's: Reality show genre became wildly popular in the 1990's and its popularity still comtinues to this day. A great deal of controversy was started in the 90's. Beavis & Butthead, an animated program on MTV was blamed for a boy burning down his family's mobile home. Another animated show that was very controversial was South Park because of the characters and how they act in the show. Animated television shows became wildly popular with both kids and adults. Many programs in the 90's came to a dramatic end. For example: Seinfeld, The Cosby Show, Cheers, and Johnny Carson said his last on air joke in May of 1992, making way for Jay Leno to take the Tonight Show over. In the 90's the world saw a huge increase of the production and smuggling of drugs into the United States and other countries, and drug use increased also.
2000-2012: When the millennium struck everyone thought that everything would shut down and it would go back to the early 1900's technology wise. The year 2000 was a very good year though. It was the new millennium and everybody was starting a new. The partying quickly stopped on September 11th 2001 though. Terrorists hijacked planes and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City. It is said to be the most aired disaster in the history of disasters. After this everything got serious with protection on planes. Technology started advancing rapidly from 2001-2012. Cellphones and Computers grew so quickly and now they are apart of all our lives. In early 2009 the inauguration of the first African American president was sworn in. Nobody knew at the time but now we know that it is a 2 term presidency. Of course all of this was live on television.