Broadcast Television facts
While investigating facts about Broadcast Television, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Mister Rogers once used an egg timer and simply let it run for sixty seconds on a television broadcast—in order to demonstrate how long a minute is. Unlike most TV made for kids, "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" was deliberately slow and contemplative.
In 1956, a magician was performing the "cut a person in half" trick using his wife for a televised performance. Immediately after she was divided, the host ended the show. People were horrified, thinking she had been killed, but time had just run out on the broadcast.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Broadcast Television I managed to collect.
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The day World War II started in 1939, BBC ceased all television broadcasts. They later resumed them in 1945, restarting at the same spot when it had been cut off - during a Mickey Mouse cartoon
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In 2007, the Russian company Rossiya broadcasted television footage showcasing the Russians planting a flag at the bottom of the ocean in the North Pole. A 13 year old boy from Finland noticed some of the footage the station used was from the film Titanic.
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To combat confusion, television broadcasts of Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' in Japan include text in the corner of the screen to remind viewers which level of the dream each scene takes place in.
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In September 1939 the last thing BBC television aired before going off the air was a Mickey Mouse cartoon. When broadcasts resumed in 1946, the same cartoon was replayed.
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When celebrity chef Jamie Oliver slaughtered a live lamb on television, he was praised by PETA for broadcasting it uncensored, as it "could turn the more diehard carnivore into a vegetarian".
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All of our terrestrial radio and television broadcasts become indistinguishable from background noise at only a few light years away from the Earth thanks to the inverse square law
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During a 2006 presidential speech, a CNN reporter's mic was left on while she was in the bathroom. Portions of her conversation, which included calling her sister-in-law a “control freak” were broadcast on live television.
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Thomas & Friends was not the first television adaption of the Railway Series - in 1953, the BBC commisioned a live adaption of "The Sad Story of Henry" During broadcast, a failure to switch the points caused the model of Henry to derail and a human hand to reach out and re-attach it.
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The only way the BBC could record its live broadcasts in the 1950s was to point a film camera at a television. Because of this, the only known recording of the landmark sci-fi serial "The Quatermass Experiment" features an insect walking across the screen.
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In November of 1987, a pirate television broadcast hijacked two Chicago TV stations (WTTW/WGN) featuring a man dressed as 'Max Headroom' who was being spanked with a fly swatter. The people responsible have never been identified.
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In the aftermath of the Iranian Embassy Siege in London an SAS trooper tried to take the only surviving gunman, Fowzi Nejad, back into the building to shoot him, but changed his mind when he realised the raid was being broadcast on live television.
A Dutch television network broadcasted The Big Donorshow, in which a supposedly terminally ill woman chose 1 out of 25 contestants to receive her kidney after she died. The program sparked a major controversy, but led to 50.000 requests for donor forms. - source
Until 1957, British television ceased broadcasting between 6-7pm each weekday so that parents could put their children to bed. - source
In 1968 NBC quit the coverage of the AFL match between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets in the final minute to broadcast the television film Heidi. Oakland scored two touchdowns in that minute to win the game 43–32 in a legendary comeback.
On Nov. 26, 1977 a television station in southern England had their broadcast hijacked by an entity referring to itself as Vrillon of the Ashtar Galactic Command who disrupted regular programming to give a six-minute message about humanity's future. The mystery has never been solved. - source
A Norwegian television company broadcast an average train ride for 7 hours straight and it was so successful that they then broadcast a boat cruise for 134 hours non-stop.
"slow television"—live, nonstop TV coverage of an ordinary event in its complete length. Slow TV was popularized by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation's 7-hour broadcast of the train ride from Bergen to Oslo in 2009, and a 134-hour broadcast of the MS Nordnorge's coastal voyage in 2011.
The Toddler's Truce, where British television stations would stop broadcasting between 6pm - 7pm to allow parents to put their children to bed.
The FCC had a ban on TV/radio media releasing tornado warnings until 1954 when Harry Volkman broadcast the first televised tornado warning in Oklahoma City, due to his belief the ban was costing lives.
The highest rated television film of all-time was 'The Day After', a film about a fictional escalation to nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was watched by over 100 million people during its initial broadcast.
On April 1, 1962, the Swedish national television broadcast a 5-minute special on how one could get color TV by placing a nylon stocking in front of the TV. Thousands tried it.
