Television was first broadcast to the general public in the 1930s, but in those early days its potential was limited by the very small number of TV sets. It wasn't until after the end of World War 2 that TV began to grow. In 1946 there were only about 6000 tv sets in the United States but by 1951 over 12 million sets were active...

In 1966 all-color broadcasting began in primetime and the three networks, ABC, CBS and NBC dominated programming. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s their approach was generally to create programs that would appeal to the lowest common denominator of viewer...