“If you think you’re witnessing a new media juggernaut with megashows like American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and Survivor, you’re too young to remember the Golden Age of Television, where Texaco Star Theatre, The Buick Circus Hour, The Colgate Comedy Hour, Pabst Blue Ribbon Bouts, and the Ford Television Theatre dominated the TV screen with exactly the same type of programming as today’s shows. How did the content and advertising industries come full circle?

In the early 1950’s, at the dawn of the broadcast television age, nearly every primetime media show was headlined by a big star, underwritten by an advertiser, and filled with advertising from sponsors whose brand messages were shamelessly trumpeted throughout the sixty or ninety minutes of drama, comedy or music content. Television was a new medium for actors, directors and advertisers. The ad agencies played a role as both brand manager and creative director for the programs, just as they had done for the previous forty years on radio.”

Read this article from Metan Media.