Color TV & Catfish

American family watching TV, 1958

There is an innovation many of us take for granted every day: Television. At the time of its first introduction, it was a huge hit! Radios were already prominent in the home, now to put an image with the audio...well, unbelievable but factual!

The first televisions were black & white, often more like myriad shades of grey. So, real life color was left to the imagination. Then, in 1951, an event changed the future of broadcast entertainment literally forever.

Let's celebrate Color TV Day, June 25th...

Today in 1951, the CBS network broadcast the first color television show. The variety show included Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore and Robert Alda with several others, and featured appearances by the chairman of the FCC and the chairman and president of CBS. Only special color-ready TVs could pick up the broadcast, which was sent out to Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore from the network’s New York studio; black-and-white sets couldn’t see the telecast at all.
Source: Color TV Day

Black & White

Living Color!

A Bit of TV History...

Experimentation with television first started in the late 19th century with color TV being in development as early as 1897, but electronics were simply not advanced enough at that point to make the process work effectively. These earlier broadcasts were merely demonstrations still in the testing stages. Another 30 years passed before anything like a successful television broadcast system was put together with color TV coming to fruition in 1928. But even then, it wasn’t until 1935 that the regular black-and-white broadcasts were being sent out, and those only contained 108 lines per frame. This was the beginning of a massive boom in broadcasting, and by 1950 there were 6 million televisions in the United States alone.

RCA CT-100: the first color television set (1954)

It wasn't until the 1960s that the public began buying color TVs in earnest and not until 1965 did an official transition take place. This was a huge turning point for television when the announcement was made that over half of all prime-time broadcasting would be done in color! In the 1970s, the American public finally started purchasing more color TV sets than black-and-white ones. However, sales of new black-and-white TV sets lingered on even into the 1980s. 

Color TV Day is the day to celebrate this wonderful advent of technology, color is now available everywhere inside/outside the realm of reality. Today there is an amazing array of color broadcasting with black-and-white broadcasts being relegated to bursts of nostalgia. Films will always exist that are so loved in their original format to put them through the colorization processes now available would seem a form of heresy.

The best way to celebrate this day is by watching a nostalgic black-and-white that brings back so many memories, then, switch over to a color film maybe of that same movie. Settle down with a bowl of popcorn, invite some buddies over, and watch your way through a series of movies from different eras, taking time to note just how far color TV has come!

Now it is time to shift from Color TV to Catfish! What in the world do they have in common? Would you believe, June 25th is...

National Catfish Day

  

Catfish come in all sizes!

You know mine was no where near this big
but to me it was the biggest catfish
in the lake! Click the image for the story!

Think back to all the fish stories you have heard, the ones where the common line is "I caught one thi-i-i-is BIG!" Of course, you must hold onto the vision of the person relating the fish tale doing so with outstretched arms as far as he (or she) can reach. We are thinking here more on the line of lake fishing, instead of deep-sea fishing where one of the fish species most fun to catch is the catfish.

In the United States, National Catfish Day is a national observance each year on June 25 celebrating “the value of farm-raised catfish”.

• A diverse group of ray-finned fish, catfish are named for their prominent barbels, which resemble cat whiskers.
• Catfish are nocturnal.
• Catfish are a good source of Vitamin D.
• Thriving  in clean freshwater ponds on many American farms, catfish are surface-fed soybean meal, corn, fish meal, vitamins and minerals.
• In the United States, the most commonly eaten species are channel catfish and blue catfish.

A favorite dish to many Americans, this fine finned fish can be prepared many different ways. A popular preparation method is to coat the catfish with cornmeal and fry it Southern style!

“In 1986, catfish comprised the third highest volume of finned fish consumed in the United States.”

A bit of CATFISH DAY history...

National Catfish Day was designated as June 25, 1987, by President Ronald Reagan, who issued the Presidential Proclamation after the United States Congress called for the day to be established in House Joint Resolution 178.   Proclamation 5672 — National Catfish Day, 1987

Recipe of the Day...

 Catfish Cakes

 "If you like Maryland Crab Cakes you'll love these. Plus, catfish is cheaper than crabmeat."

 Enjoy your favorite movie on Color TV along with a plate of Catfish Cakes or perhaps Catfish Nuggets!

yum, yum, yum . . . yummy!