The History of Television Through the Pages of Popular Science Magazine
This is my debut article at Gakwer. Let me know what you think. If you think it’s awesome.
“Television is going to be big, or it isn’t going to be at all.” The crack staff at Popular Science said this in 1944, and beyond the seeming obviousness of its either/or scenario, there’s a lot to think about here.
The Jetsons promised us flying cars and sentient robots by 2062. 2001: A Space Odyssey promised galactic travel - beyond today’s dinky power wheels stuck in mud up in Mars - that’s now already a decade overdue. And while I’ve jumped into damn near 300 hot tubs since I first saw the trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine, Duran Duran is still socially unacceptable listening. Technology has totally failed us.
Except for the television. Where all other advancements have come to a grinding halt in our grayed, spark-less, impotent and crumbling-from-the-inside science and technology sector, television has, by all measures, delivered on its promise.
Looking back on 70+ years of Popular Science Magazine, we can trace the timeline of the TV as it grew from pipe dream radio descendant to the reason why people like Snookie and Dog The Bounty Hunter are rich instead of in jail. Think of it as an HD History Channel special. Just don’t think of the alternative history.
