When Jack Paar ruled late-night television in the late 1950s and early 1960s, color TV was a rarity, few households owned more than one set, and the three major broadcasters still dominated the airwaves. Today, color is ubiquitous, each American household has 2.3 TVs, 65% of all TV households are wired for cable, and high-definition digital TV is set for wide distribution once the price is right. It's a long way from the pioneering work of inventor Philo T. Farnsworth, who in the 1920s and 1930s developed scanners, picture tubes, and other key parts, and Vladimir Zworykin, a Russian-born engineer who made vital improvements to tubes and led the rca team that developed the first commercial-quality TV system, unveiled at the New York World's Fair in 1939.

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PBS: "Big Dream, Small Screen"