Today the TV set is part of our daily life. It’s often switched on continuously even if nobody is actually watching it. We’ll walk through the living room and glance at it while doing something else. But in the sixties, watching television was a separate activity. You scheduled time for it, and it was likely you just turned it on for specific shows (in the way people used to treat radio before TV came along).
In the USA until 1965 and in England until 1967, television was in black and white (if you wanted colour you went to the cinema and watched a movie) and everyone was learning on the job. Viewing hours were also limited. TV did not broadcast 24 hours a day. It did not even broadcast continuously. There were scheduled breaks throughout the day and during the sixties there were many unscheduled breaks as well during which a piece of cardboard would be slung in front of the camera urging “Please do not adjust your set”
If the Fifties were the innocent childhood of Television, the Sixties were definitely the period of rebellious adolescence. Just as the world underwent dramatic social and cultural change, so television led the way in reflecting the Swinging Sixties.
A considerable amount of old shows will never be seen again. It’s a tragedy, isn’t it? But so many programs have been wiped, destroyed or lost that we can reasonably assume they will never be viewed again. Ever!
There are several reasons why this is the case: In the 1960s, few people (including TV stations) foresaw the long term cultural and historical value of television programs, or their commercial potential. The future significance of popular culture such as comedy or pop music was especially underestimated. Right up until the 1970s, many television broadcasts frequently went out live and were just not recorded, and for years the only television recording technology was film, and filming was too expensive just to keep programs in the vaults.