RIGBY, Idaho – Philo T. Farnsworth was on one back in 1983. Now thanks to his invention of the electronic television, the early TV classics he made possible will appear on one as well. It’s a U.S. Postage Stamp, and beginning Aug. 11, a set of 20 stamps celebrating TV classics like The Honeymooners and I Love Lucy, will debut.
In Rigby, the Early TV Memories stamps will be unveiled at 10 a.m. on Aug. 11, at the Philo T. Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum at 118 West 1st St. Museum President Gary Spaulding and other museum officials will join Postmaster Gordon Cole at the event. The public is invited attend. A temporary Post Office at the event will sell sheets of the new stamps.
“What better place to celebrate the issuance of these stamps than the Philo T. Farnsworth Museum,” said Cole. “We encourage everyone to come out and help us celebrate the release of these new stamps.”
An all-electronic moving-image television system somewhat similar to that used today was invented and demonstrated by Farnsworth in 1929.
The Early TV Memories sheet of 44-cent First-Class stamps celebrate 20 productions from television’s golden age:The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet; Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Dinah Shore Show; Dragnet; Ed Sullivan Show; George Burns & Gracie Allen Show; Hopalong Cassidy; The Honeymooners; Howdy Doody; I Love Lucy; Kukla, Fran and Ollie; Lassie; The Lone Ranger; Perry Mason; Phil Silvers Show; The Red Skelton Show; Texaco Star Theater; The Tonight Show; Twilight Zone; and You Bet Your Life.
As a half-hour series, The Honeymooners ran for only one season, 1955-1956. It presented viewers with a comic view of working-class life. Hemmed in by circumstance, Ralph (Jackie Gleason) would threaten to send his wife to the moon, only to be reconciled by the end of the episode, when he would tell her, “Baby, you’re the greatest.”
I Love Lucy premiered in 1951 and became an immediate hit, spending four of its six seasons as the highest-rated show on television. It was filmed before a live audience with an innovative three-camera system that subsequently became an industry standard. Perhaps the most beloved of all sitcoms, it remains popular worldwide in syndication.
The Early TV Memories stamps official First-Day-of-Issue dedication ceremony will be held at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, CA.
# # #
Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.
An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.
