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The Television Portal

Flat-screen television receivers on display for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

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...)

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Nikki Fernandez and Paulo are fictional characters on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of over forty people after their plane crashes on a remote island somewhere in the south Pacific. American actress Kiele Sanchez and Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro play the survivors of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. The couple is introduced early in the third season. The producers of the show were often asked what the rest of the plane-crash survivors were doing because the show only focuses on approximately fifteen of the survivors, and the characters of Nikki and Paulo were created in response. Reaction to the characters was generally negative because of their abrupt introduction onto the show. Lost's co-creator/executive producer/head writer show runner Damon Lindelof even acknowledged that the couple is "universally despised" by fans.

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Credit: Jebulon

French Outside broadcasting vans

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... that Ice King, the antagonist of television series Adventure Time, was at first received negatively by critics but later praised for representing mental health issues such as Alzheimer's disease?
... that Bell Labs' TD-2 microwave-relay system was used to carry television signals and telephone calls across North America?
... that when her boss told her to quit her unpaid television commenting role, Katie Phang quit her paid job instead?
... that the 1999 television film Down Will Come Baby aired two weeks after the Columbine High School massacre and was criticized for exploiting parental fears with its depiction of child violence?
... that Monika Salzer, a systematic psychotherapist and Protestant pastor, was a columnist for the Kronen Zeitung and appeared on television in Dancing Stars?
... that Digital pulled their HiNote Ultra laptop out of a manila envelope on television nearly 15 years before Apple did the same?

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If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.

— Marlon Brando

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...that Richard Hanley's book South Park and Philosophy: Bigger, Longer, and More Penetrating analyzes issues of applied ethics as presented in South Park?

...that despite British Conservative MP Denis Keegan winning a marginal constituency by over 7,000 votes, he ended his political career after one term, preferring to work for the trade association for television shops?

...that the proposed BBC television special Planet Relief, created to raise awareness of climate change, was cancelled before it was made, for fear that it would be biased against climate sceptics?

...that Olivia Newton-John made at least 16 appearances on The Go!! Show, an Australian popular music television series which aired between 1964 to 1967, before she found international success?

... that The Owl Service, a 1969 TV adaptation of the novel, was the first fully-scripted colour production by Granada Television?

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Sorkin in 2016

Aaron Benjamin Sorkin (born June 9, 1961) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and film director. Born in New York City, he developed a passion for writing at an early age. As a writer for stage, television, and film, Sorkin is recognized for his trademark fast-paced dialogue and extended monologues, complemented by frequent use of the storytelling technique called the "walk and talk". Sorkin has earned numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and three Golden Globes.

Sorkin rose to prominence as a writer-creator and showrunner of the television series Sports Night (1998–2000), The West Wing (1999–2006), Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (2006–07), and The Newsroom (2012–14). He is also known for his work on Broadway including the plays A Few Good Men (1989), The Farnsworth Invention (2007), To Kill a Mockingbird (2018), and the revival of Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot (2023). (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Austin Nichols Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 2Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 3DBS satellite dishes (from History of television)
Image 4The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 5This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 6First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 7Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 8LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 9LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 10Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 11Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 12A color television test at the Mount Kaukau transmitter site, New Zealand in 1970.
A test pattern with color bars is used to calibrate the signal. (from Color television)
Image 13Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available (from History of television)
Image 14The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 15RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 16RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 17Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 18A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 19Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 20Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right) (from History of television)
Image 21Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 22An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 23Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 24Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was given annually from 1985 to 2019 to honor a young actress below the age of 25, who had delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1985, Tracey E. Bregman was the first winner of this award, for her role of Lauren Fenmore on The Young and the Restless. The awards ceremony had not been aired on television for the prior two years, having been criticized for voting integrity. The award was originally called Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series, the criteria of the new category were deemed confusing, performers of differing ages were nominated, and critics argued some were of supporting or lead actress standards. Adding to the confusion, the first winner, Bregman, and the Outstanding Supporting Actress winner that year, Beth Maitland, played characters near to the same age. The category was re-named Outstanding Juvenile Female in a Drama Series in 1989, and began using its current title in 1991. The criteria were later altered, requiring that the actress be aged 25 or below. (Full article...)
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Matt Groening, shown here in 2010, created The Simpsons, which premiered on December 17, 1989.

The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a satirical depiction of a dysfunctional middle-class American lifestyle starring the eponymous family: Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Set in the town of Springfield, the show lampoons both American culture and the human condition. The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with producer James L. Brooks. Groening named each character (other than Bart) after members of his own family. The shorts became part of the Fox series The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime-time hit show.

From the series debut on December 17, 1989, to May 17, 2009, The Simpsons had broadcast its first 441 episodes, to the end of the twentieth season. The show holds several American television longevity records. It is the longest-running prime-time animated series and longest-running sitcom in the United States. On April 28, 1994, The Simpsons reached its 100th episode in the fifth season. With its twentieth season (2008–09), the series tied Gunsmoke in seasons as the longest-running American prime-time scripted television series, and surpassed Gunsmoke in this record with the twenty-first season premiere on September 27, 2009. (Full article...)
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Stone at the UK premiere of Maniac in 2018

Emma Stone is an American actress who aspired to an acting career from an early age. She had her first role onstage at age 11, and followed with parts in sixteen plays in a regional theater in Arizona. Stone made her television debut in the unsold pilot for the reality show The New Partridge Family (2005). After brief television roles in Medium, Malcolm in the Middle, and Lucky Louie, she made her film debut in the comedy Superbad (2007).

Stone appeared as a ghost in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009), and found commercial success with the horror comedy Zombieland. Her breakthrough came with her first leading role as a high school student perceived to be sexually promiscuous in the comedy Easy A (2010). In 2011, she starred in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love and in the period drama The Help, which were both commercial successes. Stone's success continued with her role as Gwen Stacy in the 2012 superhero film The Amazing Spider-Man that became her highest-grossing release, with a worldwide revenue of $757 million, and she later reprised the role in its 2014 sequel. Critical success followed with her performance as a recovering drug addict in Alejandro González Iñárritu's black comedy-drama Birdman (2014). It earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Later that year, she made her Broadway debut in a revival of the musical Cabaret. (Full article...)
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The Apprentice, later called The Celebrity Apprentice, is an American reality television show created by Mark Burnett in which candidates compete to become Donald Trump's apprentice, as determined by Trump and his boardroom associates. The series first broadcast in 2004, and twelve complete seasons have aired on NBC as of May 2012.
Each season, competitors are progressively eliminated based on their performance during an assigned task. After each task, the winning team receives a reward, while the losing team faces a boardroom showdown in order to determine which team member should be fired, and therefore eliminated from the show. Trump hires one of the finalists to be his apprentice. Starting with season 7, celebrities participated as a way to revitalize the series, with the winners donating their proceeds to charity. Trump departed the series after the fourteenth season to focus on his 2016 presidential campaign, in which actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger would now serve as host of the series. The fifteenth season, featuring Schwarzenegger was branded as The New Celebrity Apprentice.

As of season 14, 229 candidates have competed, one of whom has competed three times—Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth competed in both season 1, season 7, and season 13. The youngest competitors include Jessie Connors and Chris Shelton, who appeared on the show at age 21. At age 75, Joan Rivers of season 8 was the oldest candidate to both appear on the show and win the competition. There have been six instances in which a candidate left The Apprentice for reasons other than being eliminated by Trump. Overcome by stress, Verna Felton of season 3 "just packed up and walked out". Michelle Sorro of season 6 quit after determining that the competition was "too much" and "not worth it". Actor Vincent Pastore of season 7 resigned due to a conflict with Piers Morgan. Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson of season 9 quit due to a personal family situation. During season 11, baseball player Jose Canseco quit due to his father's illness and NeNe Leakes left due to a conflict with Star Jones. The fifteen winners of the show, in chronological order, are Bill Rancic, Kelly Perdew, Kendra Todd, Randal Pinkett, Sean Yazbeck, Stefanie Schaeffer, Piers Morgan, Joan Rivers, Bret Michaels, Brandy Kuentzel, John Rich, Arsenio Hall, Trace Adkins (the first All-Star Celebrity Apprentice), Leeza Gibbons, and Matt Iseman. (Full article...)
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Text logo for the series

Penn & Teller: Bullshit! is an American documentary television series that aired for eight seasons from 2003 to 2010 on the premium cable channel Showtime. Penn & Teller: Bullshit! was hosted by professional magicians and skeptics Penn & Teller. Its format consists of debating political topics, often from a naturalist libertarian capitalist point of view (the political philosophy espoused by both Penn and Teller) or aiming to debunk pseudoscientific ideas, paranormal beliefs, popular fads and misconceptions. The hosts examine topics within the analytical structure of science.

The television program has been nominated for 21 awards, winning two. The Writers Guild of America bestowed an award upon the program in 2004 recognizing excellence in its writing quality. It received an award from the Independent Investigations Group in 2008, recognizing the show's contribution to public understanding of scientific skepticism and rational thinking. In addition, over the course of its run Penn & Teller: Bullshit! garnered a Directors Guild of America Award nomination, 13 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and five Writers Guild of America Award nominations. (Full article...)

Series	Episodes	Originally aired
Series	Episodes	First aired	Last aired	Network
1	6	9 July 2001 (2001-07-09)	20 August 2001 (2001-08-20)	BBC Two
2	6	30 September 2002 (2002-09-30)	4 November 2002 (2002-11-04)	BBC Two
Christmas	2	26 December 2003 (2003-12-26)	27 December 2003 (2003-12-27)	BBC One
Revisited		15 March 2013 (2013-03-15)		BBC One

(Full article...)

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Better Call Saul is an American television crime drama series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould that premiered on AMC on February 8, 2015. It is a spin-off, prequel, and sequel of Gilligan's previous series, Breaking Bad. It stars Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Michael Mando, Michael McKean, Giancarlo Esposito, and Tony Dalton. Set in the early-to-mid-2000s in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series develops Jimmy McGill (Odenkirk), an earnest lawyer and former con-man, into an egocentric criminal defense attorney known as Saul Goodman. After six seasons and a total of 63 episodes, the series concluded on August 15, 2022.

Since its release, Better Call Saul has received critical acclaim, with particular praise for its acting, characters, writing, direction, and cinematography. The series has been nominated for numerous accolades, winning five awards for Television Program of the Year from the American Film Institute. For his performance as Jimmy McGill, Bob Odenkirk was nominated for five Golden Globes for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama. Rhea Seehorn's portrayal of Kim Wexler won her two Satellite Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and one Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television. (Full article...)
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The Jimmy V Award (sometimes called the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance) is awarded as part of the ESPY Awards to "a deserving member of the sporting world who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination". The award is named in honor of North Carolina State University men's basketball coach Jim Valvano, who gave an acceptance speech after receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the 1993 ESPY Awards ceremony which "brought a howling, teary-eyed Madison Square Garden to its feet". Valvano died from adenocarcinoma two months after receiving the award. The Jimmy V Award trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented at the annual awards ceremony in Los Angeles by The V Foundation, a charitable organization founded in 1993 by ESPN and Valvano to raise money to fund cancer research grants across the United States.

The accolade's inaugural winner in 2007 was basketball coach Kay Yow, who successfully led the North Carolina State University women's team to the ACC tournament championship game, and the Sweet 16 (regional semi-finals) of the NCAA Division I Tournament after returning from sessions of breast cancer chemotherapy. Although the award has usually been given to coaches or athletes, it has been presented to two reporters: Stuart Scott (2014) and Craig Sager (2016). The award has been shared twice: Team Hoyt (2013), consisting of the father and son team of Dick and Rick Hoyt, and the father and daughter combination of Devon Still and Leah Still (2015). The 2023 recipient of the Jimmy V Award was Liam Hendriks, an Chicago White Sox closer who was diagnosed with stage four Non-Hodgkin lymphoma and returned to play following his being declared cancer free in April 2023. (Full article...)
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Psych is an American comedy-drama television series which was broadcast from 2006 until 2014. Created by Steve Franks, the series aired on USA Network for eight seasons with a total of one-hundred and twenty one episodes. Psych stars James Roday, Dulé Hill, Maggie Lawson, Timothy Omundson, Kirsten Nelson, and Corbin Bernsen, with Roday and Hill earning award nominations for their respective roles.

Psych received awards from: the Independent Investigations Group, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the People's Choice Awards and the Imagen Foundation. The series also received nominations for several other awards, including four ALMA Awards, two Creative Arts Emmy Awards, eight Image Awards, one People's Choice Award, and one Satellite Award. In total, Psych received thirty-one award nominations in its eight-year tenure. The show has been recognized in terms of awards for its first episode, "Pilot"; its musical team; the series itself; and actor James Roday. Roday and Hill also lead in nominations, with nine. (Full article...)

Season	Episodes	Originally aired
Season	Episodes	First aired	Last aired
Precursors	2	2005 (2005)	2006 (2006)
Pilot		August 14, 2009 (2009-08-14)
1	12	September 6, 2010 (2010-09-06)	November 22, 2010 (2010-11-22)
2	28	November 29, 2010 (2010-11-29)	August 1, 2011 (2011-08-01)
3	39	September 19, 2011 (2011-09-19)	September 3, 2012 (2012-09-03)
4	37	October 1, 2012 (2012-10-01)	August 12, 2013 (2013-08-12)
5	37	September 2, 2013 (2013-09-02)	August 14, 2014 (2014-08-14)
6	28	October 9, 2014 (2014-10-09)	June 25, 2015 (2015-06-25)
7	36	June 26, 2015 (2015-06-26)	June 30, 2016 (2016-06-30)
Film		November 25, 2015 (2015-11-25)
8	27	September 26, 2016 (2016-09-26)	January 16, 2017 (2017-01-16)

(Full article...)

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Jonathan Ross (left) was named by Radio Times as the most powerful person in radio in June 2005. Ricky Gervais (right) was named the most powerful person in TV comedy in January 2003.

Radio Times's Most Powerful People was a series of listings created by the British weekly magazine Radio Times from January 2003 to June 2005. The lists charted who the magazine believed were the most powerful people from three different areas of British media: TV comedy, TV drama and radio. The listing for TV comedy was published three times, every January from 2003 to 2005; the drama and radio lists were produced just once each, in July 2004 and June 2005 respectively.

The first 'Most Powerful People' listing was published by Radio Times in January 2003, and recognised the most influential people in TV comedy in the United Kingdom. It was topped by the British comedian Ricky Gervais, as a result of the success of the award-winning second series of his TV show The Office. The second poll, published a year later in January 2004, was won by the Irish comedian Graham Norton, following his signing of two new contracts during 2003, each worth a reported £5 million. Six months later, in July 2004, Radio Times published their 'Most Powerful People in TV Drama' list. Following a series of votes from industry experts, the magazine named the actress Julie Walters as their choice for the most powerful person in drama. (Full article...)
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The Office is an American television sitcom broadcast on NBC. Created as an adaptation by Greg Daniels of the British series of the same name, it is a mockumentary that follows the day-to-day lives of the employees of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin, a fictional paper supply company. The series ran on NBC in the United States from March 24, 2005, to May 16, 2013. Additionally, nine spin-off series of webisodes of The Office have been aired on NBC.com.

The Office aired a short first season in 2005 that consisted of six episodes. This was followed by a full-length second season in 2005–06 that consisted of 22 episodes, and a third season in 2006–07, with 25 episodes. Due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, the fourth season that aired in 2007–08 consisted of 19 episodes. The fifth season aired during 2008–09 and consisted of 28 episodes. The sixth season aired during 2009–10 and consisted of 26 episodes. The seventh season aired during 2010–11 and consisted of 26 episodes. The eighth season aired during 2011–12 and consisted of 24 episodes. The ninth season aired during 2012–13 and consisted of 25 episodes. A total of 201 episodes of The Office aired over nine seasons. (Full article...)

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