AAAAH!

[Rumpled Fedora]

Ha! No wonder the "model" didn't wanna show his face...!

 

[jamespowers]

Man! Imagine that shirt worn with that jacket. That could give one nightmares.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Matt Deckard]

Test patterns are nice, though I preffer the old Indian with the feather headress and the circle.

 

[jamespowers]

Oh no! This is even worse than the other one!
You have to stop looking at the clothiers web sites that supply the Clown College. That is hideous! PU. Does it glow in the dark?

Regards to all,

J

 

[Mycroft]

I am getting a headache from just looking at it.

 

[Wild Root]

Test Pattern

Here we go, just for you Matt!

Root.

 

[jamespowers]

Root.

Now I would rather wear this than that lousy looking clown coat.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Wild Root]

Yeah, it would make a nice looking T-shirt I think.

Root.

 

[Mycroft]

Here we go, just for you Matt!

Root.

What is that, a non-ppoliticly coreect BB gun target or a Civil War Era hypnotist divice. (reference Wild Wild West)

 

[jamespowers]

What is that, a non-ppoliticly coreect BB gun target or a Civil War Era hypnotist divice. (reference Wild Wild West)

Target for my 44 Magnum. No politics involved.

Regards to all,

J

 

[The Wingnut]

What is that, a non-ppoliticly coreect BB gun target or a Civil War Era hypnotist divice. (reference Wild Wild West)

It's actually an RCA early television test pattern.

 

[jamespowers]

It's one of the most classic TV testpatterns ever made! It was designed in 1935 or so and was used all the way into the 50's and 60's. Maybe even later then that.

Here, take a look at it like this...

I can see a cation over the guys head "Does the Indian ever move? Duh."

Regards to all,

j

 

[Wild Root]

Yeah, hahaha.

Root.

 

[Dismuke]

Hmmmmm. The people in that picture sure seem focused in on watching that test pattern.


I have seen old television listings published in late '40s newspapers - back in the days when the number of hours daily that a television station broadcast were rather limited - that actually listed in the schedule the time that the test pattern would be transmitted at the start and/or conclusion of the broadcast day. I have always wondered if some gentleman reading the paper ever looked up and said: "Gee, Myrtle it says here in the newspaper that they are showing the test pattern on Channel 5. Let's tune in and watch it!"

 

[Wild Root]

Well, we have a new member here.

I have to say, I love Radio Dismuke on Live 365! Great station for sure. I have made a list of the songs I really love I’ve heard on there. I’ll have to talk to you about music some time.

Any way, I have that test pattern on my PC and I just dropped into the picture with photo shop.

I think it’s funny the way it looks.

Root.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

My mother's parents got the first TV on their block back in the fifties, and she told me that at the time, TV was so new that people would actually come over to her house and tune in to watch the test pattern.

It seems crazy now, but at the time it made sense I suppose.

 

[Wild Root]

Wow, serious! It can be said with most new modern tech today! I remember how cool Atari was when I was a kid. Four bit graphics man, it didn't come any better! But, now looking back, some of that stuff is like watching a test pattern.... Boring!

Root.

I could just see it: Honey, hurry up! The test pattern is on! You're missing it!

 

[Dismuke]

Well, we have a new member here.

I have to say, I love Radio Dismuke on Live 365! Great station for sure.

Gee, thanks! I am glad you enjoy it.

My mother's parents got the first TV on their block back in the fifties, and she told me that at the time, TV was so new that people would actually come over to her house and tune in to watch the test pattern.

It seems crazy now, but at the time it made sense I suppose.

What is also amazing is how seriously people took television - and the broadcast media in general. Today with so much of the information media becoming explicitly partisan - i.e "liberal" and "conservative" talk shows and cable news networks - people are developing what I consider to be a healthy inclination to question what they hear and often take it with a grain of salt. But back in the day if it was in the newspaper, or on the radio or on television - well, by jingo, that must have meant that it was TRUE. The panic that resulted from Orson Well's famous Mercury Theatre of the Air broadcast of War of the Worlds is certainly a famous example.

Does anyone remember that I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel got a job on an assembly line in a chocolate factory and were so inept at it that they engaged in rather unhygienic behavior with the chocolate? My mother remembers when that particular episode first aired in England when she was a child. Someone down the street from my grandparents happened to be the first person on their block to have a television set and my mother and her parents would sometimes go over to watch. Not long before that episode aired, some relatives in Canada had sent my grandmother a box of American chocolates - which was considered quite a luxury due to the fact that wartime rationing in England continued well into the 1950s. My mother tells me that when she and her parents were watching that chocolate factory episode, my grandmother got a funny look on her face and asked my grandfather with genuine concern in her voice: "Do you suppose that sort of thing really does happen in American chocolate factories?"

One would think after a few decades people would have become a little bit more sophisticated. However, some 25 or so years later, when the JR character on the television program Dallas got shot as part of the storyline of a season cliffhanger, hospital switchboards in the Dallas area were hit with phone calls from television viewers inquiring about the medical status of "JR." The same thing happened again some days later after the episode was aired in England where it was quite popular. Hmmmmm. Perhaps some people need to spend more time staring at the test pattern!

 

[Mycroft]

Now that is the most intersting test pattern I have ever seen in my life. It beats those multi-color bars on today's TV's.

 

[Wild Root]

I'm glad you liked it. You must remember that back in those days, it was all about looks! The littlest things had a design! Test patterns were there to have something on the TV when there was no shows on.

Here is a Test Pattern from 1938. Yes, 1938! TV has been around for way longer then the 50's. You see, it came about in the 30's and by the end of 1939 one could buy a TV for the price of a car! It took a world war to stop the progress of this new idea.

Root.