Radio's Golden Age and the Dawn of Television

In this six-week course, we’ll look closely at the early development of radio programming. Using the unprecedented career of Jack Benny as a stepping off point, we will look at the incredibly rapid rise of radio entertainment, its heyday, and its decline only to be supplanted by early television, a medium originally conceived and designed to be just like radio but with pictures.

The impact of commercial radio on our culture cannot be overstated. By the end of the 1930s, 83% of American homes had radios – and radio remained the number one medium of home entertainment until the 1950s when television gradually took its place. Radio, in addition to being an extension of newspapers, was primarily a way of bringing musical entertainment into people’s homes at first. Vaudeville comics were brought on to add variety, mostly to repeat their old stage routines.

Jack Benny was one such comic. He began his radio career to fill in the gaps between musical numbers, but he and his writers developed their shows into something quite different; they pioneered a new kind of program and as a result laid out the rules and tropes that soon morphed into a new genre: the situation comedy.

Join us as we examine radio’s golden age and the dawn of television.

Matthew Weisman received his MFA in Film from Columbia University School of the Arts where he also taught classes in Cinema Studies and directed the Cinematheque film program. His undergraduate degree in English is from Boston University. A professional screenwriter and producer, he taught Graduate Screenwriting at the USC School of Cinema for fifteen years. He is a retired member of The Writers Guild of America. He has taught several continuing education courses in film and television history and appreciation both online and in the classroom.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people 50 and older seeking intellectual stimulation through university level courses (without the pressure of grades) for the sake of learning and social engagement.

Register

Register by Sept. 11 at 3 p.m.