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TELEVISION: Innovation, Disruption and the World's Most Powerful Medium Volume 1
The definitive story of the birth and rise of television. Volume 1 chronicles the ongoing evolution of the medium -- and its unique integration of business, technology and art -- in one seamless, epic narrative. The book brings together the stories of over 50 innovators -- from David Sarnoff and William Paley to Lucille Ball and Norman Lear. These innovators' stories are a goldmine of lessons for entrepreneurs and professionals, because what has happened before is all happening again. How did an impoverished immigrant become the king of all media, creating the first radio network and the first TV network? What caused the inventor of FM radio to jump out of a window to his death? How did NBC, CBS and ABC innovate to build their media monopolies? How did Star Trek create the first fan culture movement? What made The Mary Tyler Moore Show the first great feminist show, and #1 hit? What made Norman Lear the most influential TV comedy producer ever? How did Lucille Ball go from a washed-up B movie actress to a multi-millionaire Hollywood studio mogul? What makes Louis C.K. the Jackie Gleason of the digital age? With unparalleled insider insight from two-time Emmy Award winner Seth Shapiro, it shares critical, practical, behind the scenes lessons from the business of TV. The TELEVISION series is a must-read for media executives, students, entrepreneurs, and fans.
346 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 5, 2016
6 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
About the author
Seth Shapiro
3 books19 followersTwo-time Emmy® Award winner Seth Shapiro is a leading advisor in business innovation, media and technology worldwide. He has worked with clients including The Walt Disney Company, Comcast, DIRECTV, Intel, IPG, NBC, Showtime, RTL, Telstra, Universal, Slamdance Studios, Goldman Sachs, government bodies, NGOs and a wide range of new ventures.
Shapiro is an Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, a Governor of the Television Academy, and a member of its Executive Committee. He has served as a frequent Expert Witness, including before the FCC, and has been quoted in outlets including The Economist, The New York Times. The LA Times, CNBC, The Boston Globe, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, PBS and The Daily Mail UK. As Head of Production at DIRECTV Advanced Services, he launched over 25 services, including TiVo by DIRECTV, the world’s first major DVR platform.
Shapiro sits on the Annenberg Research Council and the Producer Guild's New Media Council. He is a Magna cum Laude graduate of New York University and was Adelbert Alumni Scholar at Case Western Reserve University.
Shapiro is an Adjunct Professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, a Governor of the Television Academy, and a member of its Executive Committee. He has served as a frequent Expert Witness, including before the FCC, and has been quoted in outlets including The Economist, The New York Times. The LA Times, CNBC, The Boston Globe, Bloomberg, The Associated Press, PBS and The Daily Mail UK. As Head of Production at DIRECTV Advanced Services, he launched over 25 services, including TiVo by DIRECTV, the world’s first major DVR platform.
Shapiro sits on the Annenberg Research Council and the Producer Guild's New Media Council. He is a Magna cum Laude graduate of New York University and was Adelbert Alumni Scholar at Case Western Reserve University.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 1, 2018
Great overview of intersections of political power, entrepreneurial invention and TV shows.
January 18, 2019
This book is packed with interesting and useful information (one of my favorite details - that Jackie Gleason's dad stole all the family photos he appeared in when he left the family so Gleason's mom would have nothing to give the police to find him). Frustratingly, it focuses heavily on personalities above all else. The book is about The White Men Who Changed Television, plus a couple of women and one or two men of color. It also spends a LOT of time with Richard Nixon. It's all interesting Nixon stuff, I guess, but I think it somewhat overestimates Nixon's impact on television and is fairly cavalier about Nixon's antisemitic paranoia around the media.
You could do a lot worse, for sure! Plenty to learn in this book! But it sometimes misses the forest for the trees, focusing on luminaries instead of movements.
You could do a lot worse, for sure! Plenty to learn in this book! But it sometimes misses the forest for the trees, focusing on luminaries instead of movements.
July 31, 2024
Great Man history of technology and entertainment, summarized in a way that undersells all the points the author tries to make.
This book is more like an organized Wikipedia summary peppered with anecdotes which showcase a belief in simplified narratives. The inconsistency of the chapters - some of which are shockingly brief with no quotations - seem to indicate the shows the author is interested in versus those they are not. One would assume the giant divergence into how radio scheduling worked would serve as a point of comparison to how it worked on early television, but it doesn't.
There are many assumptions given to the audience, which themselves are uneven. Familiarity with certain shows and stars, yet also with the format of TV itself extending beyond tye bounds of the individual programs. Despite the propensity to bring up modern comparisons (which I dislike but I recognize is stylistic), the author makes no effort to draw meaningful contrasts between television viewing in his present and the narrative's.
I would classify this book as amatuerish. Not strictly awful, but not really a good primer for the subject. There's no good narrative tone, a clear lack of deep research, and an unwillingness to make a statement beyond parroting the historical summary of a show's impact. A few decent segments never distracted me from the bad organization, the tangents, and the lack of historical insight even for newbies to the subject. Nothing holds together.
2.5/10
This book is more like an organized Wikipedia summary peppered with anecdotes which showcase a belief in simplified narratives. The inconsistency of the chapters - some of which are shockingly brief with no quotations - seem to indicate the shows the author is interested in versus those they are not. One would assume the giant divergence into how radio scheduling worked would serve as a point of comparison to how it worked on early television, but it doesn't.
There are many assumptions given to the audience, which themselves are uneven. Familiarity with certain shows and stars, yet also with the format of TV itself extending beyond tye bounds of the individual programs. Despite the propensity to bring up modern comparisons (which I dislike but I recognize is stylistic), the author makes no effort to draw meaningful contrasts between television viewing in his present and the narrative's.
I would classify this book as amatuerish. Not strictly awful, but not really a good primer for the subject. There's no good narrative tone, a clear lack of deep research, and an unwillingness to make a statement beyond parroting the historical summary of a show's impact. A few decent segments never distracted me from the bad organization, the tangents, and the lack of historical insight even for newbies to the subject. Nothing holds together.
2.5/10
December 28, 2019
Book 1 of my Media reads. Great story spanning the invention of the telegraph and the radio through 1970s network television, doing justice to dozens of key contributors along the way. Hopefully Shapiro delivers on his promises of publishing volumes 2 and 3 of this series.
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October 26, 2017
Closer to 3.5
August 19, 2016
Seth Shapiro parses the history of television into highly readable stories focused on the people who drove invention and innovation, all the way back to its technology inception with Philo Farnsworth, Armstrong, Sarnoff, and moves into the business wars with a great piece on Paley, and his talent for talent and showmanship. Shapiro is very adept at blending the interrelationship between the three legs of the stool -- business, technology, and content -- giving the reader an easily digestible way to understand how the television business became the most powerful medium, and setting the stage for future volumes covering the cable and digital eras. If you love TV, especially the TV business, you'll love this book.
March 31, 2017
Generation after generation thought they were doing something new.
When we now claim we are cord cutter and move shows from cable to Internet, we think we are doing something very new.
But we are merely repeating what last generation has been doing, maybe in a less magnificent scale.
Telling the history of television, which is a unique combination of art, commerce and technology, this book is a rarely interesting book. TV is the indispensable carrier of the important historical events. In US, the events were from Beattles to Kennedy, the Moon Landing to Water Gate. The book has it all.
And this book also recorded numerous interesting figures, Lucy, Desi, Nixon, Kennedy, the three big networks leaders and their star performers and producers. Very informative and a page turner!
Strongly recommend this book to people who are doing works related to television or the future of television.
When we now claim we are cord cutter and move shows from cable to Internet, we think we are doing something very new.
But we are merely repeating what last generation has been doing, maybe in a less magnificent scale.
Telling the history of television, which is a unique combination of art, commerce and technology, this book is a rarely interesting book. TV is the indispensable carrier of the important historical events. In US, the events were from Beattles to Kennedy, the Moon Landing to Water Gate. The book has it all.
And this book also recorded numerous interesting figures, Lucy, Desi, Nixon, Kennedy, the three big networks leaders and their star performers and producers. Very informative and a page turner!
Strongly recommend this book to people who are doing works related to television or the future of television.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews