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The Very First Television Shows The first television sets were part electrical and part mechanical, consisting of spinning discs that replicated the action of a larger spinning disc in the studio. The first moving images - of a ventriloquist's dummy - were transmitted by Scot John Logie Baird in 1925.In 1927 the first tv show was aired. It was a demonstration by Bell TelephoneLabs and AT&T with contributions from various executives of these companiesand a speech by the secretary of commerce, Herbert Hoover.This was followed by many ad-hoc broadcasts from Whippany, N. J. These wereexperiments and were picked up by just one tv set - at Bell Laboratories, NewYork City. These broadcasts consisted of images transmitted using radio wavesand sound transmitted via cable. They were not entertainment shows - justa few engineers and scientists testing out the new medium.The first shows that aired to the public were those of WRGB (known officiallyas W2XB but popularly known as WGY's Television). Broadcasts werebeamed locally to Schenectady, N.Y. This happened to be the home town oftelevision (and radio) pioneer Ernst Alexanderson. Schenectady was also the homeof just four television receivers. The early WRGB broadcasts usually consisted of aperson sitting in a chair not doing very much except the odd hand or facemovement or a drag on a cigarette. In fact, watching people smoke cigarettesseems to have been the main feature of early tv test transmissions!The first scheduled tv shows, and from what I can make out, the world's firstregular tv shows were farming and weather bulletins aired twice a day, 3 daysper week on WRGB. These broadcasts were simply extensions of the output of radiostation WGY. The first remote location broadcast, or outside broadcast, tookplace in 1928, once again by WRGB. The subject of this broadcast was Governor Al Smith'sacceptance speech of the Democratic nomination for office President of the United States.Due to inclement weather, the ceremony was switched from outside to an indoorlocation and the short notice didn't allow enough time to test the lighting andequipment. Hence the resulting live pictures were of poor quality. Meanwhile, inWheaton, Maryland, Charles Jenkins' W3XK transmitter started tests followed byregular programs in July 1928.These broadcasts were never really meant or designed for wide public consumption,however, some enthusiasts managed to build crude receivers and got to enjoy theoutput. Charles Jenkins' estimated that W3XK had an audience of 20,000.Many incorrectly quote the BBC's The Man with the Flower in his Mouth from1930 as being the first broadcast play, but it was actually The Queen's Messenger,written by J. Harley Manners and directed by Mortimer Stewart. This was aired onWRGB in 1928.It must be noted that in those early days television screens were about 3inches by 3 inches. So small, in fact, that most output consisted of a person'supper body. "Radio with pictures" is what it was called, and that wasnot far off! The images consisted of varying shades of pink or brown, dependingon the illumination used. The presenters and performers would often need to weardark lipstick and green makeup so that their features would not be bleached inthe extremely bright studio lights. True color television came later. Thespinning discs were eventually replaced by all-electric systems. All tv shows,including dramas, were live to air - there was no videotape or digital recordingin those days!These pioneering broadcasts were effectively experiments (and were licensedas such by the federal government). Most viewers were either wealthy and curiousor were hobbyists. It is unlikely that television had any real worth as anentertainment or information medium in these early days. The extent to whichtelevision could expand and could be networked was severely hampered by a lackof a national standard for telecasting. There were also many technicaldifficulties not least with the revolving disc system. It wasn't until theforties when these issues had been ironed out that tv took off in earnest.The rest, as they say, is history, but a very rich history indeed. Have a lookat bygonetv.com and you see what I mean.Vernon Stent is the marketing consultant to http://www.bygonetv.com, specializing in old tv shows.