A Survey of Science Content in U.S. Television Broadcasting, 1940s through 1950s

On U.S. network television in the 1940s and 1950s, pioneering broadcasters such as Roy K. Marshall, Lynn Poole, and Don Herbert demonstrated that serious science programs could also be entertaining. Developers of early science series embraced television's ability to dramatize. They also mixed facts and fictions, combining real film footage of scientists with scientific explanations from animated cartoon characters, as in the specials underwritten by the Bell Telephone System. This survey examines the science content of early television broadcasting in the United States and the role played by key individuals, associations, and corporations in the development of innovative programming. It also considers the extent to which these programs and techniques were harbingers of trends observable in popular science communication today and identifies a number of topics deserving more research by historians of science communication.