Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Television

Walter Cronkite in 1985, four years after he retired from a 44-year-long career in television broadcasting.

Trending Today

Five Things to Know About Walter Cronkite

Over four decades of TV broadcasting, “Uncle Walter” defined a nation’s news

Listening to Norman Lear tell his stories is to hear the last 100 years.

Norman Lear Talks Art, Activism and the 2016 Election

For the famed showrunner, TV has always been a chance to make the political personal

New Research

Pediatricians Switch Up Screen Time Rules for Tots

Doctors say there’s no “one size fits all” approach to introducing kids to technology

Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols on Uhura’s Radical Impact

Star Trek’s decision to cast Nichelle Nichols, an African American woman, as major character on the show was an almost unheard-of move in 1968

Osgood says he can walk peacefully in total anonymity if he leaves his bow tie at home; but people always make him cakes with bow ties.

Charles Osgood’s Love Affair With the Bow Tie Began With a Dire Warning About Clip-Ons

As one of his iconic bow ties arrives at the Smithsonian, Osgood reflects on good and bad doggerel and how to tie a good knot

On September 26, 1960, presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy stood before cameras for the first-ever televised presidential debate.

Debating on Television: Then and Now

Kennedy and Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debate decades ago and politics have never been the same

None

The $10 Million Race to Invent Star Trek’s Tricorder

Star Trek’s fictional tricorder is far from becoming a reality. But a $10 million prize from the XPRIZE Foundation is hoping to motivate inventors

Boldly going where no curatorial object has gone before.

The Innovative Spirit fy17

The Mission to Restore the Original Starship Enterprise

The beloved 1960s studio model stars in Building Star Trek, a documentary premiering on Smithsonian Channel this Sunday

President Ronald Reagan, just moments before he was shot by John Hinckley

History of Now

The Media Learned Nothing After Misreporting the Reagan Assassination Attempt

As the shooter John Hinckley returns to life outside of imprisonment, it’s worth looking back at every thing the media got wrong that day

The new statue of Lucille Ball

Trending Today

“New Lucy” Is Unveiled Nearby “Scary Lucy” in Lucille Ball’s Hometown

It’s a tale of two Lucys

Convicted bank robber, Patty Hearst arrest photo

How the Abduction of Patty Hearst Made Her an Icon of the 1970s Counterculture

A new book places a much-needed modern-day lens on the kidnapping that captivated the nation

History of Now

What the Candidates (and Journalists) Can Learn From the 1948 Democratic Convention

The first time television was beamed into millions of homes meant that presidential politics would have to change

What Gives “Seinfeld” Its Staying Power?

In a new book, pop culture writer Jennifer Keishin Armstrong analyzes how the show about nothing changed everything

ABC's "Scandal" stars Jeff Perry as Cyrus Beene, Joshua Malina as David Rosen, Darby Stanchfield as Abby Whelan, Portia de Rossi as Elizabeth North, Tony Goldwyn as President Fitzgerald Grant, Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, Bellamy Young as Mellie Grant, Scott Foley as Jake Ballard, Katie Lowes as Quinn Perkins, Cornelius Smith Jr. as Marcus Walker and Guillermo Diaz as Huck.

Shonda Rhimes and the Cast of ‘Scandal’ Dish on the Show’s Behind-the-Scenes Secrets

The stars of the Washington, D.C.-inspired show reveal the method behind the magic

An Oral History of “Star Trek”

The trail-blazing sci-fi series debuted 50 years ago and has taken countless fans where none had gone before

Left to Right: Mitch Pileggi, David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and William B. Davis—there has been no official announcement about whether an 11th season will pick up where the recent cliffhanger left off.

I Want to Believe (In the Science of “The X-Files”)

In some scenes, the television show is theater of the absurd, but in others, you can bet the science is solid with biologist Anne Simon on the job

Actor Kevin Spacey arrived at the National Portrait Gallery in character as President Frank Underwood for a "presidential" portrait unveiling.

Francis J. Underwood’s Presidential Portrait Goes On View at the Smithsonian

A portrait of actor Kevin Spacey, in his Netflix role as the world’s most devious president, proves that fiction is as good as real life

Dennis the Menace

Dennis the Menace Has an Evil British Twin

Meet the lovable American cartoon character’s sinister counterpart

A photograph from a staged production of "R.U.R." ("Rossum's Universal Robots").

Cool Finds

78 Years Ago Today, BBC Aired the First Science Fiction Television Program

And no, it wasn’t ‘Doctor Who’

The distinctive black outfit, with topping ears, now held in the collections of the American History Museum, was made just for actress Julie Newmar, and clung to her frame.

When Batman Went “Bam!” and “Pow”

The original Catwoman, Julie Newmar recalls fitting into that distinctive costume—now at the Smithsonian

Page 17 of 23