TV News became a force to be reckoned with. At the beginning of the decade it consisted largely of 'newsreel' type footage, featuring 'light' news. On BBC TV, Television was only allowed to do serious news if it was read by an invisible announcer with a simple picture. Radio protected its patch fiercely. In the US, TV news was further advanced - though the problems of getting pictures from anywhere more than a few miles from the studio was always a problem. Technology moved on, and by the end of the decade it was commonplace to be able to show pictures of news events within hours of them happening.
The World's A Stage
Drama was not an easy thing to do on TV in the fifties. Because there was no videorecording, much of it was done live. While a lot of it was pretty dire, there were series and serials that became required viewing. Many series were made by Hollywood studios, such as Dragnet from Warner Brothers. These were shot on film, using well-established movie techniques. They made true multi-camera TV drama difficult to achieve, though there were notable successes.
The BBC glued a nation to its screens with its series of science fiction serials about Professor Quatermass ... US TV gave many major stars their first break at a big role... including Paul Newman, Steve MacQueen, and Clint Eastwood. One-off plays such as "Marty" gave critics something to think about - they could no longer dismiss the medium as 'a tuppeny Punch and Judy show' (as Churchill so eloquently put it) because it was capable of serious, thought-provoking, exciting drama.
Gateway to the Future
It was in the fifties that the foundation for Television as we know it today was laid. It was often boring, predictable and safe... but managed to reach important milestones. It was television that paved the way for the flowering of British pop music through series like "Juke Box Jury" and "6-5 special". The first TV adaptation of Shakespeare, the first Children's TV programmes, the first situation comedy... the decade was full of firsts.
Many series and/or stars established in the fifties continued into later decades to entertain us. ("I Love Lucy" survived in various forms through three decades - and the urban legend goes that somewhere in the world at any one moment, there's an episode of Lucy screening). Television had been weighed in the balance in the fifties - and come out on top. By the 1960s, the medium had become the message, and Television was to change the way of the western world.
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