Five years later Kenneth McGowan’s article ‘Screen Wonders of the Past – And to Come?’ paid tribute to the rapid advances in technology that had radically improved the quality of television: notably lighter cameras, more sophisticated sound equipment, and the development of magnetic tape rather than the kinescope. To regard it as an extension of the neighbourhood cinema is therefore to misunderstand its function ( Gould, 1952: X17). Despite its commercial roots, television could educate and entertain in the spirit of public service. By contrast live television drama offered the immediacy of the theatre for television audiences – even if there were occasional fluffs or awkward camera movements. The New York Times’ long-serving television editor Jack Gould complained in 1952 that filmed shows for television were often of poor quality and rudimentary acting. Christopher Anderson writes that this was ‘one of the most well-rehearsed narratives’ centred on a struggle for the hearts and minds of the viewing public ( Anderson, 1994: 13). The apparent ‘decline’ of standards in American television drama due to the intervention of the major Hollywood film studios in television was a major subject of discussion in the Fifties.
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