"It was a big goddammed deal!"
For one hundred weeks that started in October, 2025 this podcast is going to recall the “Top 100 Milestones in the First 100 Years of Television and Video.” The Countdown is pegged to culminate on September 7, 2027 – the 100th anniversary of the day television was invented.
In this week's episode, commercial television finally arrives in the United States on July 1, 1941 with a 10-second ad for Bulova watches broadcast before a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game.
With the airing of that first Bulova commercial in 1941, let’s back up for a second and revisit the purpose of this project, which is unashamedly dedicated to commemorating the invention of television and recognizing its actual inventor, Philo T. Farnsworth
The merit of Farnsworth’s achievement is a source of endless debate – and often outright dismissal – among the few who care to give the topic any consideration at all.
But the point to all ths is: Farnsworth’s first electronic video transmission on September 7, 1927 – how ever crude it was – was actually some kind of big goddammed deal, and not just another link in a long chain of inventions that led to formal television service in starting 1936 or 1939 or 1941.
There is sure to be lots of pushback on that assertion from those that still cling to the orthodoxy that 'television was to complex..." to be invented by any single individual. But a closer examination of the actual record shows that without Farnsworth's contributions, we'd all still be staring at our radios.
Episode post: https://farnovision.com/wp/countdown/91
Visit: https://100YearsTV.com
Read: The Boy Who Invented Television: https://amz.run/6ag1
