The Television Portal
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 flat-panel, mainly LEDs. 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. (Full article...)
Selected article -
"No Such Thing as Vampires" is the pilot episode of the American paranormal romance television drama Moonlight, which premiered on CBS on September 28, 2007. It was written by series creators/executive producers Trevor Munson and Ron Koslow, and directed by executive producer Rod Holcomb. The pilot introduces Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin), a private investigator who has been a vampire for over 50 years; Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), St. John's love interest; Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), St. John's mentor and friend; and Coraline Duvall (Shannyn Sossamon), St. John's ex-wife and sire.
Selected image -
Early television model, from 1936, produced by Telefunken, Germany
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that Svalbard Minute by Minute, a 221-hour-long television broadcast, is credited with increasing tourism in Svalbard by 25 percent?
- ... that DTK Computer was one of the first companies to have its computers sold via satellite television?
- ... that Laura Robinson invented Canada's best-selling board game before becoming a successful actress and television producer?
- ... that John Seigenthaler hosted a literary interview program which ran for 42 years on Nashville Public Television?
- ... that television production companies working in Bhadun, Bangladesh, can hire a local woman as an extra for ৳500 (US$5.30) per day?
- ... that Montana television station KOPR-TV brought forward its start date by several months, only to last just one year?
Selected quote -
More did you know
- ...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?
- ...that the 1994 Guinness television advertisement Anticipation used jump cutting techniques to make an actor appear to be performing a physically impossible dance?
- ...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 Melbourne rock band The Strangers appeared on weekly television for nine years straight?
- ...that British television programmes including Cluedo and The Forsythe Saga were partly filmed at Arley Hall in Cheshire?
Selected biography -
Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-American television journalist, best known for serving as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. Despite dropping out of high school, Jennings transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.
Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at age 9. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting the teen dance show Saturday Date on Saturdays. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. Critics and others in the television news business attacked his inexperience, making his job difficult. He became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East. (Full article...)General images
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress who has appeared in films, television series, video games and stage plays. Johansson made her debut in the 1994 comedy-drama North. Her first lead role was as the 11-year-old sister of a pregnant teenager in Manny & Lo (1996), for which she received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Johansson starred in Robert Redford's drama The Horse Whisperer (1998), and appeared with Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi in the black comedy Ghost World (2001). Two years later, Johansson played a woman in her 20s stuck in a listless marriage who befriends an aging American actor (Bill Murray) in Japan in the Sofia Coppola-directed Lost in Translation, and also played a servant in Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's household in Girl with a Pearl Earring with Colin Firth. She was nominated at the 61st Golden Globe Awards for both films, and received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the former.
Two years later, Johansson starred in Woody Allen's psychological thriller Match Point, for which she garnered a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. In 2006, she appeared in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller The Prestige, and played a journalism student in Allen's Scoop. In the same year, Johansson made her first appearance as host of the television variety show Saturday Night Live, which she has since hosted a further five times as of 2019. Two years later, Johansson starred in Allen's romantic comedy-drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and portrayed Queen of England Anne Boleyn's sister Mary in the historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) with Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. She received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut performance in the 2010 revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. (Full article...)
The Mandalorian is an American space Western television series created by Jon Favreau for the streaming service Disney+. It is the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise, beginning five years after the events of Return of the Jedi (1983). Pedro Pascal stars as the title character, a lone bounty hunter who goes on the run after being hired to retrieve "The Child". The first season premiered on Disney+ on its United States launch day, November 12, 2019, and the second season premiered on October 30, 2020.
The series received numerous awards and nominations for its acting, directing, writing, visual effects, and production values. Among these recognitions, it has been nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards and forty-two Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (winning fourteen Creative Arts Emmys). The series' first two seasons were nominated for Outstanding Drama Series. At the 2021 ceremony, it tied for most nominations with twenty-four, and it tied for most awards at the Creative Arts ceremony in 2020 with seven wins. Giancarlo Esposito, Timothy Olyphant, Taika Waititi, and Carl Weathers have received Emmy nominations for their performances. Episodes "Chapter 1: The Mandalorian", "Chapter 2: The Child", and "Chapter 16: The Rescue" each won two Emmy awards for their technical achievements. (Full article...)
Sigourney Weaver is an American actress who began her career in the early 1970s by appearing in plays. Throughout her career, she has acted in nearly 40 stage productions. She made her film debut with a minor role in Woody Allen's comedy-drama Annie Hall (1977), but her breakthrough came when she portrayed Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's science fiction film Alien (1979). She reprised the role in Aliens (1986), this time helmed by director James Cameron. Her performance netted her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She returned to the role in two more sequels: Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997), neither of which were as well received. Although originally written as a male role, Ripley is now regarded as one of the most significant female protagonists in cinema history, and consequently, Weaver is considered to be a pioneer of action heroines in science fiction films.
Although best known for her role in the Alien franchise, Weaver has fostered a prolific filmography, appearing in more than 60 films. In 1981, she starred alongside William Hurt in the neo-noir Eyewitness. Her next role was opposite Mel Gibson in the Peter Weir–directed The Year of Living Dangerously (1982). She played Dana Barrett in Ghostbusters (1984), later returning to the franchise in Ghostbusters II (1989), Ghostbusters (2016), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). In 1986, Weaver starred opposite Michael Caine in the erotic thriller Half Moon Street. Her next role was primatologist Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist (1988), for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. That same year, she also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance alongside Harrison Ford in Working Girl. Weaver was the first actor to have two acting wins at the Golden Globes in the same year. She also received an Academy Award nomination for both films. (Full article...)
News
- December 28: US professional wrestler Jon Huber dies aged 41
- September 2: Tributes paid to recently deceased US actor Chadwick Boseman
- May 24: Japanese professional wrestler and Netflix star Hana Kimura dies aged 22
- January 16: BBC newsreader Alagiah to undergo treatment for bowel cancer
- Upcoming events
Featured content
Main topics
History of television: Early television stations • Geographical usage of television • Golden Age of Television • List of experimental television stations • List of years in television • Mechanical television • Social aspects of television • Television systems before 1940 • Timeline of the introduction of television in countries • Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries
Inventors and pioneers: John Logie Baird • Alan Blumlein • Walter Bruch • Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton • Allen B. DuMont • Philo Taylor Farnsworth • Charles Francis Jenkins • Boris Grabovsky • Paul Gottlieb Nipkow • Constantin Perskyi • Boris Rosing • David Sarnoff • Kálmán Tihanyi • Vladimir Zworykin
Technology: Comparison of display technology • Digital television • Liquid crystal display television • Large-screen television technology • Technology of television
Terms: Broadcast television systems • Composite monitor • HDTV • Liquid crystal display television • PAL • Picture-in-picture • Pay-per-view • Plasma display • NICAM • NTSC • SECAM
Categories
WikiProjects
You are invited to participate in WikiProject Television, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Television. |
- Main projects
- Sub-projects
Television Stations • American animation • American television • Australian television • British TV • BBC • Canadian TV shows • Television Game Shows • ITC Entertainment Productions • Digimon • Buffyverse • Doctor Who • Degrassi • EastEnders • Episode coverage • Firefly • Futurama • Grey's Anatomy • Indian television • Lost • Nickelodeon • The O.C. • Professional Wrestling • Reality TV • The Simpsons • Seinfeld • South Park • Stargate • Star Trek • Star Wars • Soap operas • Avatar: The Last Airbender • House
- Related projects
Animation • Anime and manga • Comedy • Comics • Fictional characters • Film • Media franchises
What are WikiProjects?
Things you can do
- Place the {{WikiProject Television}} project banner on the talk pages of all articles within the scope of the project.
- Write: Possible Possum
- Cleanup: color television, Alien Nation: Body and Soul, The Sopranos, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon, Alien Nation: The Enemy Within, Alien Nation: Millennium, Aang
- Expand: Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries
- Stubs: Flow (television), Just for Kicks (TV series), Play of the Month, Nova (Dutch TV series), More stubs...
Subportals
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus