The End

What an interesting class TV in America was. I have always watched television and not thought much about it. This class has shown me that there is much more involved than one would think. It has been a unique serious of events to get where we are today. I wonder what the future holds for the Television industry.

Commercials

I had never thought much about commercials. Yeah, they are an advertisement, because someone wants to spark your interest to buy there product. Have you really looked at the entire commercial, beyond the product being advertised? If you notice some of your car ads are trying to portray that if you buy there car you will get hot, sexy women. Other commercials like you to believe you can get sexual enhancement buy using there product. I wonder if that stuff is all it is cracked up to be. So if you are man there are beer commercials, sexual enhancement commercials, and big four wheel drive truck commercials targeted at you. If you are a woman there are commercials for you too. Such as diet pills, makeup, clothing, etc. Come on do people really fall for these commercials? Do they have to have it, because they saw it on TV? Perhaps a friend will buy it, now you have to have it too. I like to see the actual product working and hear what people I know say before I waste money on it.

Question the Media

Being a coffee lover I decided to check out the commercials of three different brands of coffee. Of course the major two that everyone knows about is Folgers and Maxwell House. I had to research to come up with a third one that people might recognize; I chose to use Eight O’ Clock Coffee. I looked at ads like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, but they are mainly going into there store and purchasing a fresh cup of coffee, they are not about the consumer making it at home. It is said that coffee awakens all of your senses and is a morning staple of many people world wide. Coffee is supposed to be good for you; it is supposed to help lower your risk of type II diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and colon cancer. It is also supposed to help headaches. Of course the warning is that there needs to be more research.

At home I drink Folgers, because that is the one my husband prefers. However at work I drink Maxwell House, because that is the choice of my co-worker who makes me a pot of coffee everyday, she drinks one cup the rest is mine.

Folgers ads are showing the consumer that anyone can make coffee as long as you use the right kind. Many of the commercials show young couples where the woman can not make coffee. However, there is an older lady or man who comes to there rescue. Hands them a can of Folgers and uses the punch line that Folgers is mountain grown coffee that know one can fail with. As time went on the Folgers commercials played a catchy tune to catch the audiences’ attention. I believe all of there commercials are targeted to the consumer who wants to have the best to start the day right.

Retro Folgers Coffee Commercial

Folgers – Farm Morning (1984)

Maxwell House is shown to the consumer in much the same way as Folgers. However, the punch line used is Good to the last drop. The first commercial I linked shows a celebrity drinking Maxwell House. The commercial is telling the consumer if it is good enough for him it is good enough for you. The second commercial link shows that it is the only coffee that is drunk by the fire men and women at Ladder 59 and it should be the only coffee drank by everyone because it is the coffee of choice.

Ricardo Montalban Maxwell House Coffee Commercial

Maxwell’s House Coffee – Ladder 59

Eight O’ Clock coffee commercial shows that the woman couldn’t do anything right. She missed everything she tried to throw into a spot until she finally gets that cup of coffee. Then she throws the basketball behind her which goes through the hoop. It is showing once you drink your Eight O’ Clock coffee you can’t miss.

Coffee Commercial

As far as I could see all three brands were targeting the coffee drinkers of the world, as well as those that don't drink coffee hoping to interest them in something besides there regular drinks. The language that each company uses is catchy slogans and tunes that make the consumer interested in the product. The advertisers hope we will actually take time to watch it, if it catches our attention. The messages warm me from the inside out, perhaps I will go get a hot cup of coffee.

Daisy Girl ad was important in its own time because it set the standards for nasty political campaigns. It changed campaigning ads as they were known. Although the ad was only shown once as an ad the controversy around it made it so that it was showed on news programs and in magazines.

Political cartoons

Since we were discussing politicians and the money spent on campaigns and bashing each other I decided to check out some political cartoons. I thought this following time line was an interesting piece. Political timeline

I had no idea that Dr. Seuss was a political cartoonist.

There are more sites than I could have imagined with political cartoons.

Diet Pills

Should we believe everything we see on TV? Can the commercials about diet pills do more harm than good? Will they fall into the wrong hands? Check out YouTube.com, there are several different links about diet pills. Here are a few:

The 5-7 Day Fat Burner & Diet Pill Free Trial Scam!

The Truth About Fat Burning Diet Pills

Kimkins Diet Scam Uncovered On FOX's 'The Morning Show' #1

http://www.tvparty.com/

This is one of the best websites I have seen so far. I absolutely love that I can read about some of my favorite shows that I enjoyed as a child, such as Captain Kangaroo. I will never forget picture pages, pictures pages. I always wished for Captain Kangaroo reruns so that my children could have enjoyed it. I guess now at 16 and 17 they probably wouldn't appreciate it.

The Smothers Brothers

As a child I absolutely loved watching The Smothers Brothers. My favorite part was the Yo-Yo man. No matter what I tried I could never get a yo-yo to do what Tom Smothers could. I was lucky to be able to get it down and back up without it spinning. I was amazed to learn that they are still performing. I just assumed when the show was no longer televised that they were done. The Smothers brothers knew how to provide people with an hour of entertainment, where they could forget everything else that was going on around them.

The Locator

Has anyone checked out "The Locator"? It is a realty show, but not one where you have to do things that may embarrass you. Mr. Dunn helps people find there missing family(ies). Last nights episode was about a woman who wanted to find her mother. It was quite sad, because her mother didn't want anything to do with her or her brother. She even wrote a letter to them stating that the only regret in her life was meeting there father. However, the second part was so cool. He found the missing sister of five. They finally were are reunited with each other as well as there mother who was found to be incompetent of taking care of them. However, they all forgave her and truly loved each other as well as there mom. Mom was the only common link between them, they had five different fathers.

Faulk

I find it truly amazing that an estate can be substituted for the defendant. I am at ah and wonder how that can possibly work. How do they put someone on the bench to testify? It just doesn't make sense to me. Possibly there could have been written documentation that was substituted for the actual testimony.

Why the negativity?

I think people started looking at television in a negative way, because they didn't know who or what information they could trust. Such as the game shows who were cheating there way through to make people excited about the prospect of the game and maybe even becoming a contestant. Then others who were said to be communist running away until the Faulk case was settled. Then they dared to show their faces again, how sad they had to go through that kind of event. Another negative aspect was the attack on Cuba that the U.S. was trying to persuade people they were not part of. After being affected by these crooked events, how did they know what they could or could not trust?

Media Watch

I find that the media watches posted by classmates as well as Ms. Grant to be intriguing. Everyone has a chance to find a topic that interest them and look for feedback that may differ from there original opinions. I wonder how many of us have walked away with a different perspective on a subject than when we went into it. I know I find reading everyone's opinion and thinking about what they have said to be a very valuable lesson.

Bay of Pigs

The Bay of Pigs played an important role in the history of the US Government as well as television. The way reports and the public were manipulated into believing just what the government wanted was astounding. It makes me nervous about how much is being hidden from us now. Providing us with just what they want us to know and nothing else. How much of it is real and how much are lies?

Interesting Tidbits

I found it to be quite interesting the different views on the Nixon/Kennedy debate. While I feel personal appearances are great so that you can read there body language others feel that the content is what really matters. However, I feel that the content has been drilled into there heads. I wonder how much prep goes into possible questions and answers.

Week 6 Already

I am so amazed at the turn of events leading up to this point. I can say without hesitation that I continue to learn something new each week. Week 6 is almost over, where has the time gone? I am a new fan of You Tube. I am finding it useful for watching old favorites, as well as watching a video on installing laminate flooring.

Amos n' Andy

My favorite part from last week was viewing the Amos n' Andy clips. I found them to be entertaining. I Love Lucy has always been a favorite of mine. However, my family doesn't seem to enjoy it much. I am happy that You Tube carry's many of the old time favorites. Now I can enjoy them whenever I want.

McCarthy with a president

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/assets/aa/marshall/aa_marshall_mcarthy_3_m.jpg

Thus far, what have I learned that was particularly interesting, surprised me and was new information.

One of the things that I learned that was intriguing to me was that radio was as an evolution to TV being invented. One thing that surprised me was the company names RCA, GE, and AT & T all companies that are still in existence today. Everything has been new information for me. I can't say one thing sticks out more than another, because I had never cared enough to know before this class. However, I find it really interesting and now if I had the courage to open up a TV to see what really makes it work would be even more exciting.

Not much TV this week

This week I have not seen very much TV. I have seen parts of the Gatorade 150 Nascar races as well as part of the Busch race today. I think I even watched one episode of One Life To Live. I watched the morning news at 5:00 each day, that can be depressing. I mainly watch the weather portion. Perhaps once basketball season is over I won't have to run every day which will allow me to watch more TV. I haven't even had a chance to watch House this week. :(

Comparisson of Magnum PI and whatever someone else was watching

This week I have been trying to get some TV time. Usually whatever someone else was watching. It is not always easy to get my own TV time around my house. However, this morning I finally got to sit down and watch an episode of Magnum P.I. that I recorded a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited that it fit into the assignment this week. While watching it I tried to pay attention to a couple of details. One the colors are not so vibrant as they are today. Such as the green grass really wasn't that green, almost brown. However, it was a favorite of mine in the early 80's and I enjoyed it just as much today as I did then. Secondly, I was trying to hear if there were any differences in the audio. I didn't notice any, but will continue to listen for them.
Another thing I noticed was that the men wore extremely short shorts.

One Life to Live

Each day the dvr is set to record the Soap Opera "One Life to Live". Usually I try to find time at night to watch it. However, between my son buying a Xbox 360 and my husband being home evenings I had to wait until Sunday morning to watch three of the episodes.

House

It is so amazing that my family has finally found a program that we all enjoy. I like the TV show House because of the cranky Dr. House. Some of the things he comes out with get me laughing. Thankfully we got to watch House for a great share of Sunday night instead of the Superbowl, because I am not a football fan.

Channel 3 News

Weekday mornings you can find me sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in hand watching the news. The main reason I watch the news is for the weather forecast. Since I drive the little yellow bus I like to know what to expect. The other reason I watch the news is so that I can keep up with current news.