I watched the first TV broadcast from 1936 so you don't have to

If you are looking for a plot or a three-act structure, just stop now. You won't find it here. This is for the people who like looking at ghosts in the machine.

Is it worth watching today? Only if you want to see what 1936 looked like through a screen made of hopes and prayers. If you hate slow, grainy footage of people standing still, you will absolutely loathe this.

It’s just a demonstration. RCA was trying to prove to the press that this 'television' thing wasn't a total scam. It feels like a high school play that happens to be a miracle of physics.

The Vibes are Weird

The first thing you notice is how much everyone is sweating. Those early studio lights must have been like standing inside a toaster. You can almost smell the ozone and the wool suits.

Betty Goodwin comes on to introduce things and she has this frozen smile that says 'I hope this doesn't explode.' It reminds me of the stiff acting in The Storm, where everyone is just a little too aware of the camera.

Then there is Hildegarde. She’s a cabaret star, and she’s trying so hard to be charming to a tiny lens. It’s kind of heartbreaking and sweet at the same time.

She sings, and the audio is thin. It sounds like she’s trapped in a tin can at the bottom of a well. But man, she’s a pro.

• The makeup is way too thick.
• They had to use purple or green lipstick sometimes just to make it show up on the old sensors.
• Everyone looks like they are wearing a mask of clay.

Eddie Albert shows up too. Yeah, the guy from Green Acres. He’s so young here it’s actually distracting. He wrote some of this, which is a weird bit of trivia I didn't expect.

Technically... it's a mess

The picture quality is about 343 lines of resolution. For context, your phone probably has a couple thousand. It’s like looking at a memory through a screen door during a rainstorm.

There is this one shot where they try to show a fashion show. The dresses look like gray blobs. You have to take their word for it that the clothes are fancy.

It makes me think of the visual experiments in Evergreen, but way more primitive. Like, the very first step of a baby learning to walk.

I found myself staring at the background more than the performers. There are these little flickers and bits of dust. It feels more real than 4K sometimes because it's so fragile.

One of the guys from the press probably walked away thinking this would never catch on. Too much work. Too much heat. Too much flickering. 📺

There's a moment where the camera pans too fast and the whole image just smears. It's beautiful in a way. Like a painting that's melting.

If you enjoy the slapstick energy of The Aero Nut, you might appreciate the unintentional comedy here. Everyone is so serious about something that looks so janky now.

I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing does. They just talk. They show some film clips. They show a map of how the signal travels from the Empire State Building.

It’s basically a corporate PowerPoint presentation but with 100% more soul. You can feel the excitement of the engineers hiding just off-camera.

I wonder what they would think of us watching this on a flat screen in our pockets. They'd probably ask why we aren't wearing more hats. 🎩

The ending is abrupt. No credits, no big finale. Just a fade to black that feels like a door slamming shut in a haunted house.

Should you watch it? If you're the type to read the fine print on a museum plaque, yes. If you want to be entertained, go watch Don't instead. It's a lot shorter and probably more fun.

But for a few minutes, I felt like I was in that room in 1936. My eyes hurt a little bit from the flickering. I think that's part of the experience.

It’s not 'good' cinema. But it is the cinema, or at least the thing that tried to kill it. A very cool, very dusty piece of the past.