In the early 1950s, Lucille Ball (of “I Love Lucy” fame) became pregnant. She and her husband Desi knew how dangerous this was for their careers: they had the most popular show on TV, but pregnancy in a lead actress during the 50s could be a career-ending death kiss.
Lucy soldiered on, and she and Desi managed to write Lucy’s pregnancy into the plot, no doubt leveraging their number one status on TV. Still, they were especially concerned that, as the expectancy date approached, this plan wasn’t going to work for much longer.
There’s nothing quite like being under pressure for coming up with novel ideas. That’s what Desi and Lucy did: they insisted on re-airing previous episodes of the show. This bought them the time they desperately needed, and the rerun was born.
You’re thinking: “born”? Why weren’t shows re-aired (rerun) before this?
Ever try to take a video of a video? It doesn’t typically work all that well. Or, have you ever seen a bootleg video of a movie that’s currently in theaters? Same terrible effect.
In the earliest days of television, live broadcasts were recorded with something called a kinescope: filming a television monitor's screen using motion picture cameras. While kinescope recordings made it possible to store and rebroadcast live performances, I think you can see the problem: very low quality, with grainy and dirty footage, with poor contrast and clarity.
"I Love Lucy" wasn’t just groundbreaking on a social level (Lucy was the first pregnant woman ever to appear on TV). They also innovated new production techniques, using their far-reaching vision to recognize the limitations of kinescopes. They chose to shoot their show on 35mm film using a multi-camera setup.
This setup was itself innovative, and this trailer (a good documentary, by the way) gives you a peek inside the studio during the opening scene:
Desi and Lucy's innovative switch to film was a game-changer. Not only did it elevate the visual standard of TV shows, but it also set the stage for the television industry to reconsider its approach to content production, storage, and rebroadcasting.
No longer were TV shows aired once and then forgotten.
With the birth of reruns, the television landscape transformed.
Individual episodes of a show transformed from a throwaway vaudeville show to a work of art. This transition took decades and it continues today, but without reruns, we wouldn’t have binge-watching, one of my favorite weekend activities.
Binge-watching has reshaped our habits and behaviors in subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways. Water-cooler conversations (which now take place on Zoom as often as in-person) have evolved from everyone talking about last night’s Twin Peaks to first asking what shows someone is watching.
And, of course, there are certain things about the shows people haven’t seen that you just can’t talk about. This makes binging inherently less social overall than live, one-off TV shows that everyone collectively watches, but the trade-off is that we each get much, much more choice.
Back in the days of live shows, there was no concept of a spoiler because everyone watched events unfold in real time. Now, with the luxury of time-shifting our viewing, the idea of a spoiler has taken on significant weight.
With great power comes great responsibility. We have to preserve the magic of discovery for everyone else.
With that baby history lesson in mind, I wanted to talk about some shows where even a tiny bit of information about the show could be considered a spoiler. After all, there was no such thing as a “spoiler” for a live TV show, and we’re dealing with a living, evolving medium.
Without much ado, here are some TV shows that I don’t want to describe for you, but you should maybe check out (no spoilers!):
The Good Place (here’s a trailer that won’t spoil everything)
Mr. Robot (Rami Malek, Christian Slater, and mind-bending storytelling)
Dark (I wrote a bit about this show here)
Severance (I wrote about Severance here)
Better Call Saul (Netflix page)
These are all shows I’ve enjoyed a great deal. They all give you plenty to think about, and all have phenomenal casts. Just be careful not to read any commentary!
Today, streaming is the norm. You can watch any past episode you want by clicking or speaking into your phone or TV, so it’s tough to remember that this isn’t how it’s always been.
Watching an entire season in one sitting (or over a weekend) has spawned its own new form of consuming television. What started as a practical solution to a real-world challenge has now transformed into a cultural phenomenon. Producers are thinking about this effect, and crafting shows around this concept. In a way, a new form of art has been created.
Let’s just make sure not to spoil any of this magic for others.
No spoilers!
Very cool bit of trivia here. I had no idea Lucille Ball was groundbreaking.
Mr Robot is great, although we somehow managed to drop off at Season 3. Maybe it's time to pick it up again!
I didn't know any of these details about the evolution of pre-recorded TV, pretty cool.
I just started on the New Testament, and I'm feeling pretty good about this Jesus guy. Hope nothing bad happens to him. No spoilers!