'The Idiot Box'


The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation Presents

02:26

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Interviewees discuss the notion of television as lacking educational value or redeeming qualities.

Highlights
Former FCC Chairman Newton Minow on what he was trying to convey in his 1961 "Vast Wasteland" speech
02:21
Charlie Andrews on the decline in the quality of television from the 1950s to the 1960s
05:41
Norman Felton on the need for media literacy
06:18
Howard Rosenberg on television at its worst
02:48
Fred Silverman on the reaction of television critics to ABC programs The Love Boat and Fantasy Island
02:00
Who talked about this topic

Charlie Andrews

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Charlie Andrews on the decline in the quality of television from the 1950s to the 1960s
05:41

Norman Felton

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Norman Felton on the need for media literacy
06:18

Louise Lasser

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Louise Lasser on the second season of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and on the show's critique of television
02:06

Jim McKay

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Jim McKay on the challenge for TV to fill thousands of hours with quality programming
00:35

Nolan Miller

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Nolan Miller on working on negative critical reaction to Charlie's Angels and on it being dubbed "jiggle TV"
04:46

Thomas W. Moore

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Thomas W. Moore on Newton N. Minow's "vast wasteland" speech, critical of television
05:06

Sterling Quinlan

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Sterling "Red" Quinlan on Newton N. Minow's comment, "television is a vast wasteland"
03:43

Howard Rosenberg

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Howard Rosenberg on television at its worst
02:48

Lauren Zalaznick

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Lauren Zalaznick on television and society, and how television tends to reflect the national psyche (the topic of her 2011 TED Talk)
10:35

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