--- title: LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets description: Unapologetically celebrating what is arguably America's true national pastime: watching TV canonical: https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-02-27T20:56:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:04.270Z og:title: LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets og:description: Unapologetically celebrating what is arguably America's true national pastime: watching TV og:url: https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt896f33e2e0446178/698768af5f570fae86b138c8/141113-vintage-television-photos-26.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2322 og:image:height: 1306 og:image:alt: Frank Sinatra, 1964 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets twitter:description: Unapologetically celebrating what is arguably America's true national pastime: watching TV twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt896f33e2e0446178/698768af5f570fae86b138c8/141113-vintage-television-photos-26.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 27, 2012 8:56 PM UTC  Frank Sinatra watches his son, Frank Jr., 21, emcee a TV show, 1964. Frank Sinatra watches his son, Frank Jr., 21, emcee a TV show, 1964. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 27, 2012 8:56 PM UTC Television gets a bad rap. As early as 1961, President Kennedy’s FCC chairman, Newton Minow, famously characterized most programming as a “vast wasteland.” Today, everyone from pediatricians to self-designated protectors of public morals point to TV as a cause of . . . well, you name it: childhood obesity, political apathy, high murder rates, low literacy rates. It sometimes seems that, in many minds, every societal ill is somehow tied to the tube. So be it. But we like television. We like it _a lot_. Here, LIFE offers a photo gallery celebrating, without apology, what is arguably America’s true national pastime: watching TV. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Radio Corporation of America (RCA) executives watch a brand new invention called television, their New York offices before introducing the product to the public, 1939. Carl Mydans—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Writer Russell Finch enjoys a smoke, a bath and a TV show in 1948 George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Men gather to watch TV through a store window in Pennsylvania in 1948. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A boy watches TV in an appliance store window in 1948. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Sisters at St. Vincent's Hospital in Erie, Penn., watch a program on a new local TV station, 1949. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Watching a Western on TV in 1950. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A group of swimmers at an indoor pool watch the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Jacob Malik, filibustering in the UN Security Council in 1950. George Skadding—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Grade school kids in Minneapolis watch a video "classroom lesson" on TV while the city's public schools are on strike in 1951. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A rapt audience in a Chicago bar watches the 1952 World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees. (The Yankees won.) Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Six-year-old girls use a "Winky Dink" drawing kit on their home TV screen as they watch the kids' program, 1953\. The show, which aired for four years in the 1950s, has been cited as "the first interactive TV show," especially in light of its "magic drawing screen" — a piece of plastic that stuck to the TV screen, and on which kids (and, no doubt, some adults) would trace the action on the screen. Walter Sanders—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A performing chimpanzee named Zippy watches TV in 1955. Michael Rougier—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  An adopted Korean war orphan, Kang Koo Ri, watches television in his new home in Los Angeles in 1956. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Milwaukee fans watch the 1957 World Series, when their Braves beat the Yankees in seven, behind three complete-game victories by the gutsy Lew Burdette. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A railroad worker's family watches TV in a trailer at a camp for Southern Pacific employees in Utah in 1957. Frank Scherschel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  An awe-struck baseball fan is seized with utter delight as he watches the Braves win their first and only World Series while based in Milwaukee in 1957. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A traveling businessman watches TV in a hotel room in 1958. Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Tenant farmer Thomas B. Knox and his family watch Ed Sullivan and ventriloquist Rickie Layne on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Picketing workers watch TV in a tent outside the gates of a U.S. Steel plant in Gary, Indiana, during a strike in 1959. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, watch the 1960 GOP convention in Chicago from their hotel suite. Hank Walker—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  The Kim Sisters — a Korean-born singing trio who had some success in the U.S. in the 1960s — watch television in Chicago in 1960. Robert W. Kelley—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Eventual VP candidate Lyndon Johnson watches TV during the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. Thomas D. McAvoy—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A "Three-Eyed TV Monster" created by Ulises Sanabria which permits simultaneous two- and three-screen viewing, 1961. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Astronaut Scott Carpenter's wife, Rene, and son, Marc, watch his 1962 orbital flight on TV. Carpenter's was NASA's second manned orbital flight, after John Glenn's, and lasted nearly five hours. Ralph Morse—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Die-hard New York Giants fans watch the 1962 NFL championship game against the Packers outside a Connecticut motel, beyond the range of the NYC-area TV blackout, December 1962\. Green Bay won, 16-7. John Loengard—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  A crowd watches John F. Kennedy address the nation during the Cuban Missile Crisis, October 1962. Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Frank Sinatra watches his son, Frank Jr., 21, emcee a TV show, 1964. John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Different CATV (Community Antenna Television) stations available to subscribers in Elmira, New York, in 1966. Arthur Schatz —The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Actress Diahann Carroll and journalist David Frost watch themselves on separate talk shows. Carroll and Frost were engaged for a while, but never married. Bill Ray—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/"},"headline":"LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets","datePublished":"2012-02-27T20:56:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:07:04.270Z","description":"Unapologetically celebrating what is arguably America's true national pastime: watching TV","url":"https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/","keywords":["Television","photography","entertainment","TV","LIFE Magazine","black and white photography"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt896f33e2e0446178/698768af5f570fae86b138c8/141113-vintage-television-photos-26.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt896f33e2e0446178/698768af5f570fae86b138c8/141113-vintage-television-photos-26.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Frank Sinatra, 1964","caption":"Frank Sinatra watches his son, Frank Jr., 21, emcee a TV show, 1964.","creditText":"John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3583975/classic-photos-of-people-and-their-television-sets/","name":"LIFE Watches TV: Classic Photos of People and Their Television Sets"}}]}] ```