was a new decade, and television owners were only beginning to get a glimpse of the potential that the set could bring. Cartoons, stand up comics, scenes from Broadway plays, and a concert by George Gershwin could all be viewed in their very own living room. Sports broadcasts came into existence as a live Princeton v. Columbia baseball game was aired. There was live coverage of a man threatening to jump from a 20-story office building. NBC and CBS's programming took off in the early 1940's, and by the middle of the decade, over twenty different stations flourished. Soon however, World War II was upon us as a nation.
             Wartime changed many businesses, and television was no exception. World War II basically turned off the TV business. Transmission lines were taken over for the war needs. TV set makers, like Westinghouse, General Electric, and RCA, converted their assembly lines for the military actions. Factories that once churned out TV's began making radar parts and bombsights. Production slowed to a snail's pace across the entire country until the war ended in 1945. GI's came home looking for the stability of a family and home, and television sales rebounded with the rest of the U.S. economy. Within a few years, the word television became a mandatory part of the American culture. In fact, 7,464,000 TV sets were sold in 1950, at an average price of $300. (Sherlock, p.1)
             In the late 1940's and early 1950's, television techniques and technologies were all in their infancy. The language of television was literally being invented as television struggled to define itself out of a host of already established formats. Much of that inspiration came from the radio. Many of the popular comedy or quiz shows borrowed heavily from the radio formats. Gradually however, television began to discover all that could be done with the medium.
             With the advent of TV, other forms of media declined in popular...