Portal:Television
The Television Portal

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 still CRT, and it was only in early 2010s that flat-screen TVs decisively overtook CRT. 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.[better source needed] (Full article...)
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First Sergeant Martin Christopher Keamy is a recurring fictional character played by Kevin Durand in the fourth season of the American ABC television series Lost. Keamy is introduced in the fifth episode of the fourth season as a crew member aboard the freighter called the Kahana that is offshore the island where most of Lost takes place. In the second half of the season, Keamy served as a primary antagonist. He is the leader of a mercenary team hired by billionaire Charles Widmore (played by Alan Dale) that is sent to the island on a mission to capture Widmore's enemy Ben Linus (Michael Emerson) from his home, then torch the island. Unlike Lost's ensemble of characters who, according to the writers, each have good and bad intentions, the writers have said that Keamy is evil and knows it. Durand was contacted for the role after one of Lost's show runners saw him in the 2007 film 3:10 to Yuma. Like other Lost actors, Durand was not informed of his character's arc when he won the role. Throughout Durand's nine-episode stint as a guest star, little was revealed regarding his life prior to his arrival on the island and Durand cited this as a reason why the audience "loved to hate" his villainous character. Critics praised the writers for breaking Lost tradition and creating a seemingly heartless character, while Durand's performance and appearance were also reviewed positively.
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A teleprompter (also known as an autocue) is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script. Using a teleprompter is similar to the practice of using cue cards.
Did you know (auto-generated) -

- ... that Oliver Hutchinson was the subject of the first successful live demonstration of the television on 26 January 1926?
- ... that Gloria Cameron was the first native Jamaican in the UK to appear on the British television programme This Is Your Life?
- ... that ChatGPT developer John Schulman said that his first period of serious self-directed study was inspired by the television show BattleBots?
- ... that an NFL scheduling decision forced ESPN to change the kickoff times and television networks of the 2022 Las Vegas Bowl and the 2022 New Mexico Bowl?
- ... that Episode 8055 of the Australian television soap opera Neighbours is the first episode in the show's history to star and be directed and written entirely by women?
- ... that singer Karin Ann made headlines after performing live on Polish state television wrapped in a rainbow flag?
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More did you know
- ...that copies of the 1982 biopic Will: G. Gordon Liddy, about a Watergate co-conspirator, are stored in the Nixon Presidential Materials collection at the U.S. National Archives?
- ...that the 1994 Guinness television advertisement Anticipation used jump cutting techniques to make an actor appear to be performing a physically impossible dance?
- ...that model Albert Reed, selected to appear in September 2007 on the United States television show Dancing with the Stars, admits that he cannot dance?
- ...that Robert Raymond founded Australia's longest running current affairs television program?
- ...that the television series ER aired an episode based on the 2003 Chicago balcony collapse?
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John Le Mesurier (/lə ˈmɛʒərə/, born John Elton Le Mesurier Halliley; 5 April 1912 – 15 November 1983) was an English actor. He is probably best remembered for his comedic role as Sergeant Arthur Wilson in the BBC television situation comedy Dad's Army (1968–1977). A self-confessed "jobbing actor", Le Mesurier appeared in more than 120 films across a range of genres, normally in smaller supporting parts.
Le Mesurier became interested in the stage as a young adult and enrolled at the Fay Compton Studio of Dramatic Art in 1933. From there he took a position in repertory theatre and made his stage debut in September 1934 at the Palladium Theatre in Edinburgh in the J. B. Priestley play Dangerous Corner. He later accepted an offer to work with Alec Guinness in a John Gielgud production of Hamlet. He first appeared on television in 1938 as Seigneur de Miolans in the BBC broadcast of The Marvellous History of St Bernard. During the Second World War Le Mesurier was posted to British India, as a captain with the Royal Tank Regiment. Following the war, he returned to acting and made his film debut in 1948, starring in the second feature comedy short Death in the Hand, opposite Esmé Percy and Ernest Jay. (Full article...)
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- December 28: US professional wrestler Jon Huber dies aged 41
- September 2: Tributes paid to recently deceased US actor Chadwick Boseman
- May 24: Japanese professional wrestler and Netflix star Hana Kimura dies aged 22
- January 16: BBC newsreader Alagiah to undergo treatment for bowel cancer
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Main topics
History of television: Early television stations • Geographical usage of television • Golden Age of Television • List of experimental television stations • List of years in television • Mechanical television • Social aspects of television • Television systems before 1940 • Timeline of the introduction of television in countries • Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries
Inventors and pioneers: John Logie Baird • Alan Blumlein • Walter Bruch • Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton • Allen B. DuMont • Philo Taylor Farnsworth • Charles Francis Jenkins • Boris Grabovsky • Paul Gottlieb Nipkow • Constantin Perskyi • Boris Rosing • David Sarnoff • Kálmán Tihanyi • Vladimir Zworykin
Technology: Comparison of display technology • Digital television • Liquid crystal display television • Large-screen television technology • Technology of television
Terms: Broadcast television systems • Composite monitor • HDTV • Liquid crystal display television • PAL • Picture-in-picture • Pay-per-view • Plasma display • NICAM • NTSC • SECAM
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You are invited to participate in WikiProject Television, a WikiProject dedicated to developing and improving articles about Television. |
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- Sub-projects
Television Stations • American animation • American television • Australian television • British TV • BBC • Canadian TV shows • Television Game Shows • ITC Entertainment Productions • Digimon • Buffyverse • Doctor Who • Degrassi • EastEnders • Episode coverage • Firefly • Futurama • Grey's Anatomy • Indian television • Lost • Nickelodeon • The O.C. • Professional Wrestling • Reality TV • The Simpsons • Seinfeld • South Park • Stargate • Star Trek • Star Wars • Soap operas • Avatar: The Last Airbender • House
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Animation • Anime and manga • Comedy • Comics • Fictional characters • Film • Media franchises
What are WikiProjects?
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- Place the {{WikiProject Television}} project banner on the talk pages of all articles within the scope of the project.
- Write: Possible Possum
- Cleanup: color television, Alien Nation: Body and Soul, The Sopranos, Alien Nation: Dark Horizon, Alien Nation: The Enemy Within, Alien Nation: Millennium, Aang
- Expand: Timeline of the introduction of color television in countries
- Stubs: Flow (television), Just for Kicks (TV series), Play of the Month, Nova (Dutch TV series), More stubs...
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