It’s been over 50 years since Bruce Gyngell appeared on the tube in a tux and made that gallant, unassuming announcement: “Good evening, and welcome to television”.
Since then the medium has delivered such momentous gems as the moon landing, the Whitlam dismissal, the bogan wedding of Scott and Charlene, and a Big Brother turkey slap that echoed all the way to federal parliament. It’s given us Daryl Somers. It’s brought us Naomi Robson and her docile shoulder-gecko. TV is a reflection of our lives and a documentation of human history. But is it on the way out?
With the Internet offering up video entertainment on tap — via BitTorrent, YouTube and dedicated ventures such as Joost — the notion of having to wait to watch a scheduled program on the idiot box is losing its appeal.
So will TV last another 50 years, or will it succumb to a dramatic death like so many comatose inhabitants of Ramsay Street? In this week’s Whaddyareckon? we’re talking television: the good, the bad and the future.
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