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The Television Portal

Flat-screen televisions for sale at a consumer electronics store in 2008

Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, entertainment, news, and sports.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the 1920s, but only after several years of further development was the new technology marketed to consumers. After World War II, an improved form of black-and-white television broadcasting became popular in the United Kingdom and the United States, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the U.S. and most other developed countries.

In 2013, 79% of the world's households owned a television set. The replacement of earlier cathode-ray tube (CRT) screen displays with compact, energy-efficient, flat-panel alternative technologies such as LCDs (both fluorescent-backlit and LED), OLED displays, and plasma displays was a hardware revolution that began with computer monitors in the late 1990s. Most television sets sold in the 2000s were flat-panel, mainly LEDs. Major manufacturers announced the discontinuation of CRT, Digital Light Processing (DLP), plasma, and even fluorescent-backlit LCDs by the mid-2010s. LEDs are being gradually replaced by OLEDs. Also, major manufacturers have started increasingly producing smart TVs in the mid-2010s. Smart TVs with integrated Internet and Web 2.0 functions became the dominant form of television by the late 2010s. (Full article...)

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KYOU-TV (channel 15) is a television station licensed to Ottumwa, Iowa, United States, serving Ottumwa and Kirksville, Missouri, as an affiliate of Fox, NBC and The CW Plus. The station is owned by Gray Television and maintains studios on West 2nd Street in Downtown Ottumwa; its transmitter is located one mile (1.6 km) east of Richland, Iowa. A translator, K30MG-D, offers additional coverage in the Kirksville area.

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Credit: Robert Lawton

Pixelization is a video- and image-editing technique where an image, or part of it, is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. A familiar example of pixelization can be found in television news and documentary productions, where vehicle license plates and faces of suspects at crime scenes are routinely obscured to maintain the presumption of innocence, as in the television series COPS.

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... that Angelito de Canal 13, the mascot of the Chilean television network Canal 13, was inspired by its creator's son?
... that the exclusive secret society Hamilton House from the television show Gossip Girl was based on St. Anthony Hall, a social and literary fraternity?
... that in 1982, a news anchor for Phoenix television station KOOL-TV was held hostage on set for five hours?
... that Gloria Cameron was the first native Jamaican in the UK to appear on the British television programme This Is Your Life?
... that John Seigenthaler hosted a literary interview program which ran for 42 years on Nashville Public Television?
... that North Carolina television station WNAO-TV operated from a converted supper club?

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I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

— Groucho Marx

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...that The Simpsons' history began when Matt Groening conceived of the dysfunctional family in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office?

...that the 1994 Guinness television advertisement Anticipation used jump cutting techniques to make an actor appear to be performing a physically impossible dance?

...that children up to the age of five can find it difficult to distinguish between television programmes and toy advertising campaigns?

...that the television drama Hill Street Blues imitated the visual style of The Police Tapes, a low-budget documentary about a police precinct in the South Bronx?

...that British television programmes including Cluedo and The Forsythe Saga were partly filmed at Arley Hall in Cheshire?

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Nichols at the San Diego Comic-Con in 2012

Austin Nichols (born April 24, 1980) is an American actor and director, known for his role as Julian Baker in The CW drama series One Tree Hill. He is also known for his roles in the films The Day After Tomorrow and Wimbledon. He starred as John Monad in the HBO drama series John from Cincinnati, and portrayed Spencer Monroe in the AMC horror drama series The Walking Dead. (Full article...)

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James T. Aubrey Kroger Babb Rudolph Cartier Sydney Newman Eric Bana Kylie Minogue Peter Jennings KaDee Strickland Aaron Sorkin Jake Gyllenhaal Dan Rather Brad Pitt Walter Cronkite Tom Brokaw John Le Mesurier George Formby Dan Castellaneta Perry Como Red Skelton Rose Catherine Pinkney

General images

The following are images from various television-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Comparison of image quality between ISDB-T (1080i broadcast, top) and NTSC (480i transmission, bottom) (from Digital television)
Image 2Color bars used in a test pattern, sometimes used when no program material is available. (from History of television)
Image 3Manfred von Ardenne in 1933 (from History of television)
Image 4First television test broadcast transmitted by the NHK Broadcasting Technology Research Institute in May 1939 (from History of television)
Image 5Public television in France uses 819 line b&w high definition, from 1959 until 1983 (TF1). (from History of television)
Image 6RCA CT-100 at the SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention playing Superman. The RCA CT-100 was the first mass-produced color TV set. (from Color television)
Image 7LG Smart TV using the Web browser (from Smart TV)
Image 8Samsung's discontinued Orsay platform (from Smart TV)
Image 9Philo Farnsworth in 1924 (from History of television)
Image 10A map depicting digital terrestrial television standards (from Digital television)
Image 11The first mass-produced Czechoslovak TV-set Tesla 4001A (1953–57) (from History of television)
Image 12Smart TVs on display (from Smart TV)
Image 13Hovannes Adamian c. 1900s (from Color television)
Image 14The Philco Predicta, 1958. In the collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis (from History of television)
Image 15DBS satellite dishes. (from History of television)
Image 16Ferdinand Braun (from History of television)
Image 17An early Smart TV from 2012 running the discontinued Orsay platform (from History of television)
Image 18Family watching TV, 1958 (from History of television)
Image 19Baird in 1925 with his televisor equipment and dummies "James" and "Stooky Bill" (right). (from History of television)
Image 20LG Electronics smart TV from 2011 (from Smart TV)
Image 21A color television test at the Mount Kaukau transmitter site, New Zealand in 1970.
A test pattern with color bars is used to calibrate the signal. (from Color television)
Image 22The Nipkow disk. This schematic shows the circular paths traced by the holes, which may also be square for greater precision. The area of the disk outlined in black shows the region scanned. (from History of television)
Image 23This live image of actress Paddy Naismith was used to demonstrate Telechrome, John Logie Baird's first all-electronic color television system, which used two projection CRTs. The two-color image would be similar to the basic Telechrome system. (from Color television)
Image 24RCA 630-TS, the first mass-produced television set, which sold in 1946–1947 (from History of television)
Image 25Ad for the beginning of experimental television broadcasting in New York City by RCA in 1939 (from History of television)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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Myself ; Yourself is a Japanese animated television series, directed by Tetsuaki Matsuda, animated by the Japanese animation studio Dogakobo and produced by the Myself ; Yourself Production Committee, which is composed of Happinet Pictures, Marvelous Entertainment, The 5pb and Pony Canyon Enterprises. The series is based on the visual novel Myself ; Yourself by Yeti, adapting the source material over thirteen episodes. The episodes' plots follows Sana Hidaka and his return to the town of Sakuranomori after leaving the town and his friends five years earlier.

The series was broadcast from October 3 to December 26, 2007, on TV Kanagawa, and later on Chiba TV, TV Aichi, TV Saitama, TV Osaka and AT-X. The AT-X broadcast was notably late, starting on November 22, 2007. (Full article...)
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The episodes of the 2007 anime television series Blue Drop are based on the manga of the same name written by Akihito Yoshitomi, constituting a prequel to the manga. The episodes are directed by Masahiko Ohkura and animated by the Japanese animation studios Asahi Production and BeSTACK, with the 3D modeling done by Gonzo. The plot of the episodes follows Mari Wakatake's relationship with the enigmatic Hagino Senkōji, a member of an alien race known as the Arume, and the prelude to an invasion by the Arume.

The episodes aired from October 2, 2007, to December 25, 2007, on Chiba TV and KBS Kyoto, with AT-X, Mie TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Kanagawa, TV Saitama, and TV Wakayama showing the episodes at later dates. The AT-X broadcast started much later than its counterparts, with the first episode airing in November, while most other stations started showing the episodes in October. Unlike most Japanese anime, the title of each episode is given in English. Each title is the name of a flower shown in that episode. (Full article...)
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The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series was an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It was given annually from 1985 to 2019 to honor a young actor below the age of 25, who had delivered an outstanding performance in a role while working within the daytime drama industry.

At the 12th Daytime Emmy Awards held in 1985, Brian Bloom was the first winner of this award for his portrayal of Dusty Donovan on As the World Turns. The awards ceremony had not been aired on television for the prior two years, having been criticized for voting integrity. The award category was originally called Outstanding Young Man or Outstanding Juvenile Male in a Drama Series, and began using its current title in 1991. Years before this category was introduced, networks declined to broadcast the show during a time of voting integrity rumors and waning interest. Confusion rose around the criteria of the new category due to the varying ages of the nominees. Within the first set of nominees, Bloom became the youngest actor nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award at the time at age 15, while the other actors nominated in the category were over 25. The criteria were later altered, requiring that the actor be aged 25 or below. (Full article...)
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Timberlake at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con

American entertainer Justin Timberlake has released four video albums and has been featured in thirty-seven music videos, seventeen films, fifteen television shows, and six commercials. He achieved early fame when he appeared in the Disney Channel television series The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, alongside singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera and actor Ryan Gosling. Timberlake rose to fame in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the boy band NSYNC. In 2002, he launched his solo career and released his solo debut single "Like I Love You", the music video for which was directed by Bucky Chrome. Francis Lawrence directed the video for "Cry Me a River". The video features Timberlake's character as he spies on a former lover, who according to the director portrays his former romantic interest Spears. At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, the video won the accolades for Best Male Video and Best Pop Video.

In 2005, Timberlake starred in the thriller Edison alongside Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. The film received negative reviews from film critics and was a box office bomb. He then portrayed Frankie Ballenbacher in the crime drama Alpha Dog (2006); it received mixed responses from critics and attained box office success. The same year, Timberlake released his second studio album FutureSex/LoveSounds—four music videos for singles from the album were shot. Samuel Bayer directed the music video for "What Goes Around... Comes Around" (2007) in which American actress Scarlett Johansson plays Timberlake's love interest. From 2007 until 2009, he appeared in the music videos for his collaborations with other artists including 50 Cent ("Ayo Technology"), Madonna ("4 Minutes") and T.I. ("Dead and Gone"). (Full article...)
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Alexandra Burke in October 2011

British singer Alexandra Burke has recorded songs for two studio albums. She has collaborated with other artists for duets and featured songs on her albums. Burke has also contributed vocals for charity singles. After she won the fifth series of The X Factor in December 2008, Burke signed a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music. Her first single, "Hallelujah", was made available to purchase the day after she won the singing competition on 14 December 2008.

She began to work with writers for her debut album, Overcome, which was released on 19 October 2009. The album's second single, "Bad Boys" featuring Flo Rida, was released in the same month to coincide with Overcome. American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo co-wrote two songs for the album, "Good Night Good Morning" and "Nothing But the Girl"; he appeared as a featured artist on the former. "Good Night Good Morning" was written in collaboration with Norwegian production team Stargate, while "Nothing But the Girl" was co-written with Stargate along with Chase and Status. British singer-songwriter Pixie Lott received writing credits for the song "You Broke My Heart", while Moroccan-Swedish songwriter RedOne wrote and produced three songs for the album, "The Silence", "Broken Heels" and "Dumb". The re-release of Overcome in December 2010 included new songs which were not on the original album. They included collaborations with Cobra Starship on "What Happens on the Dancefloor" and Laza Morgan on "Start Without You". Burke stated that a newly recorded vocal version of "The Silence" was released as a promotional single for the album. (Full article...)
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Hitohira (ひとひら, lit. Petal) is a Japanese animated television series. The episodes are directed by Akira Nishimori and produced by the Japanese animation studio XEBEC M2 and Genco. They are based on the Hitohira manga by Izumi Kirihara, and adapt the source material over twelve episodes. The episodes aired from March 28, 2007 to June 13, 2007 on AT-X, Chiba TV, Sun TV, TV Aichi, TV Kanagawa and TV Saitama.

Two pieces of theme music are used for the episodes: one opening theme and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Yume, Hitohira" (夢、ひとひら, lit. Dream, Petal) by Yūko Asami, and the ending theme is "Smile" (スマイル, Sumairu) by Mai Mizuhashi. (Full article...)
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The Best Fighter ESPY Award was an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of combat sports. The Best Fighter ESPY Award trophy was presented to the professional or amateur boxer or mixed martial artist adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2007, subsuming the Best Boxer ESPY Award until 2019, when the Best MMA Fighter ESPY Award was established, and the ESPY Awards began awarding boxers and mixed martial arts fighters separately. Balloting for the award was undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It was conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

The inaugural winner of the Best Fighter ESPY Award was American welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr., who defeated the incumbent category title holder Oscar De La Hoya two months prior. He is one of two people to have been presented with the award more than once, winning the accolade a total of six times; Mayweather was also nominated in 2015. Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao has the second most awards won with victories in 2009 and 2011. It has been presented to one woman in its history, American bantamweight mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey in 2015. Between 2007 and 2018, boxers were most successful at the ESPY Awards with nine victories and twenty-four nominations, followed by mixed martial arts with three wins and nineteen nominations. (Full article...)
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Niven in the 1948 film Enchantment

The British actor David Niven (1910–1983) performed in many genres of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. He was also the author of four books: two works of fiction and two autobiographies. Described by Brian McFarlane, writing for the British Film Institute (BFI), as being "of famously debonair manner", Niven's career spanned from 1932 until 1983.

After brief spells as an army officer, whisky salesman and with a horse racing syndicate, he was an uncredited extra in his screen debut in There Goes the Bride; he went on to appear in nearly a hundred films, the last of which was in 1983: Curse of the Pink Panther. During his long film career, he was presented with a Golden Globe Award for his part in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and was nominated for a BAFTA for the titular lead in Carrington V.C. (1955). For his role as Major Pollock in the 1958 film Separate Tables, Niven was awarded the Academy and Golden Globe awards for a performance where "the pain behind the fake polish was moving to observe". According to Sheridan Morley, Niven's other notable works include The Charge of the Light Brigade (1938), The Way Ahead (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946)—judged by the BFI to be one of the top twenty British films of all time—The Guns of Navarone (1961) and the role of Sir Charles Litton in three Pink Panther films. (Full article...)
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The 2023 recipient:
Jacqueline MacInnes Wood

The Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series is an award presented annually by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It is given to honor an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the daytime drama industry.

The 1st Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony was held in 1974, with Elizabeth Hubbard receiving the award for her role as Althea Davis on The Doctors. The award has undergone several name changes, originally honoring actresses in leading and supporting roles. Following the introduction of a new category in 1979, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, the award's name was altered to Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series, before changing once again, to its current title, years later. The awards ceremony was not aired on television in 1983 and 1984, having been criticized for voting integrity. In 1985, another category was introduced: Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series; one criterion for this category was altered, requiring all actresses to be aged 26 or above. (Full article...)
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Louie is an American television comedy created, written, directed by, and starring stand-up comedian Louis C.K. The series has aired for five seasons on the cable channel FX since June 29, 2010. The show centers on a fictionalized version of C.K.'s life as a comedian, father, and divorcé.

Since its debut, the series has earned widespread critical acclaim and has been nominated for a variety of different awards, including twenty-two Primetime Emmy Awards (three wins for the series), eight Television Critics Association Awards (three wins), two Golden Globe Awards, four Writers Guild of America Awards (three wins), three Directors Guild of America Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Producers Guild of America Awards. (Full article...)
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Keith Floyd (1943–2009) was an English broadcaster, restaurateur and food writer. He was brought up in Somerset, England, where his mother taught him to cook. He was educated at Wellington, a local public school, although he left at the age of sixteen. He joined the Bristol Evening Post as a cub reporter—where he worked alongside the future playwright Tom Stoppard. He was commissioned into the Royal Tank Regiment in 1963 as a second lieutenant, but his career there only lasted until 1966; he left military service and moved to London and then France, where he worked in several restaurants in various roles.

In 1971 he set up his first restaurant in Bristol—Floyd's Bistro—which proved popular enough for him to open three further outlets in the city. His burgeoning empire soon collapsed and he sailed around the Mediterranean for two years, from where he exported wine to the UK. He also opened a restaurant in the south of France, but this was also unsuccessful and it closed in 1979, when Floyd returned to the UK. He opened another Bristol-based restaurant and wrote a book—Floyd's Food—which was locally published in 1981; this led to a short recipe slot on the local Radio West station. In 1983 one of his customers—David Pritchard, a television producer—suggested to Floyd that he front a television series, which resulted in Floyd on Fish, broadcast on BBC Two in late 1985. Several series followed on the BBC before the Floyd-Pritchard partnership broke up in 1993; a corresponding book appeared with each series. There were no scripts for the programmes, and Floyd ad-libbed throughout; when he ran out of words, he would sip from an ever-present glass of wine to give him time to create the next line. Pritchard's directing style and Floyd's presentation technique produced what the food writer Tom Jaine considers as "cheerful mayhem", although viewers were educated in basic techniques. He went on to say that "Floyd's performances, on or near the stove, were a refreshing departure from the prissy, controlled style then in favour at the BBC, or the alternative mode of half an hour with a French chef whose incomprehensible English made the recipes a mystery." (Full article...)
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The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of a male athlete from the world of action sports. It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2004 after the non-gender-specific Best Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was presented the previous two years (with American snowboarder Shaun White receiving the 2003 award). The Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award trophy, created by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, is presented to the male adjudged to be the best action sports athlete in a given calendar year. Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five choices selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed of a panel of experts. It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months.

The inaugural winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award at the 2004 awards was freestyle BMX rider Ryan Nyquist. During 1997 and 2003, Nyquist won eleven out of eighteen available freestyle BMX medals at the X Games. He became the first freestyle BMX rider to be nominated for, and thus the first to win, an ESPY Award. The 2006 winner of the Best Male Action Sports Athlete ESPY Award was Shaun White. He was nominated a further five consecutive times between the 2008 and 2012 ceremonies, all of which he won, making him the athlete with the most victories with six. The two other athletes to have earned successive awards are street skateboarder Nyjah Huston and motocross rider Ryan Dungey. Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris became the first non-American to win the accolade in 2017 by earning three medals at that year's X Games in Minneapolis. Snowboarders are the most successful sportspeople with seven awards, followed by motocross riders, with four, and street skateboarders, with three. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The most recent winner of the award was American Motocross and Supercross racer Eli Tomac in 2022. (Full article...)
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The anime series Buso Renkin is based on the manga series of the same name written by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The series is directed by Takao Kato and produced by Xebec. The episodes follow Kazuki Muto who becomes an Alchemic warrior in the battle against Alchemic monsters known as Homunculi.

The production of the Buso Renkin anime was announced by the release of a minute-long internet trailer. Buso Renkin aired between October 5, 2006, and March 29, 2007, on TV Tokyo. The episodes were later released in nine DVD compilations between January 25, 2007, and September 21, 2007 by Geneon Universal Entertainment. A DVD box set containing the whole series was released on November 26, 2009. (Full article...)

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