Doubts raised over Australia's 'first face' on TV
"A Queensland local councillor believes today's 50-year anniversary of Australia's first television broadcast is wrong.
"Ipswich Councillor Paul Tully believes Bruce Gyngell was not the first face to appear on Australian television, and says a group of amateurs in Brisbane first broadcasted on the medium 72 years ago."
ABC
I was born in 1953 and my parents owned a radio/electrical shop, which came to be a radio/TV/electrical shop, so when TV came in 1956, we had TVs everywhere. At this time, a television cost about a man's wages for two-three months, so I was pretty lucky, though of course I had no idea at the time. I've always been very blase about the device.
Even before broadcasting began 50 years ago today, people used to watch the test pattern in the shop window, and Dad used to put on demonstrations in people's homes ... well-of families would organise parties and crowds of people would watch the test patterns.
Maybe my excessive exposure to TV in my childhood -- Davy Crockett hat, Mickey Mouse ears, endless reruns of Superman ... the works ... is why I have never actually owned a TV, and why I find it so boring today. While I watch some shows on my computer, I haven't the slightest interest in owning a TV. My view is that television, war and global warming are the three greatest problems faced by the world today. Not so much because the programming is crap, but because the medium itself damages imagination. I heartily recommend to all people that they try one year, or even just one month, without TV, and I guarantee they'll be surprised how their imagination improves.
Tagged: television, australia
"Ipswich Councillor Paul Tully believes Bruce Gyngell was not the first face to appear on Australian television, and says a group of amateurs in Brisbane first broadcasted on the medium 72 years ago."
ABC
I was born in 1953 and my parents owned a radio/electrical shop, which came to be a radio/TV/electrical shop, so when TV came in 1956, we had TVs everywhere. At this time, a television cost about a man's wages for two-three months, so I was pretty lucky, though of course I had no idea at the time. I've always been very blase about the device.
Even before broadcasting began 50 years ago today, people used to watch the test pattern in the shop window, and Dad used to put on demonstrations in people's homes ... well-of families would organise parties and crowds of people would watch the test patterns.
Maybe my excessive exposure to TV in my childhood -- Davy Crockett hat, Mickey Mouse ears, endless reruns of Superman ... the works ... is why I have never actually owned a TV, and why I find it so boring today. While I watch some shows on my computer, I haven't the slightest interest in owning a TV. My view is that television, war and global warming are the three greatest problems faced by the world today. Not so much because the programming is crap, but because the medium itself damages imagination. I heartily recommend to all people that they try one year, or even just one month, without TV, and I guarantee they'll be surprised how their imagination improves.
Tagged: television, australia
Pip Wilson posted item above at 11:51 PM | Permalink
2 Comments:
I think you're largely right about TV. Passive (in)digestion of pap.
But I still think it can be very informative, if used with 'discretion'. I watched a documentary about the Doomsday Code on Channel 4 last night (described here)
which was quite alarming regarding some Evangelicals in the United States and their reasons for NOT wanting to see peace in the Middle East. And according to the programme, these people are very close to the White House. Scary stuff, IMHO. It didn't stifle my imagination -- if anything it had it working overtime about the dangers of the 'End Timers'! And according to the programme, nobody knows for sure if Bush is one or not ...
This guy is one, apparently. And he claims that rather than them calling the White House, with Bush in office the White House calls them.
I'm not really saying "no TV at all, ever", and that looks like a good documentary, one that I would probably watch too. However, subjects like this one are well covered in books and the Internet, so it's more like a "want" than a "need", I would think. Still, I am not opposed completely to the watching of TV, but I doubt that by not watching it we would miss out very much (particularly as so much info is available online), and there is so much to be gained by cutting down TV consumption to a bare minimum. It's a case of the less we watch, the better our lives become -- I hold it as a basic tenet of life, although I know it is hard to prove (I base it on personal experience). The gains in consciousness by having a minimum intake of TV viewing are incredible, and make one feel much better in one's spirit and mind. About that, I have no doubt. Thanks for the stimulating comment.
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