The T.V. of Tomorrow
| The T.V. of Tomorrow | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Tex Avery |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Animation by |
Michael Lah Ray Patterson Robert Bentley Walter Clinton Grant Simmons |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 1953 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7:00 |
| Language | English |
The T.V. of Tomorrow is a 1953 animated theatrical short directed by Tex Avery. It was part of series of cartoons Avery did satirizing technology of the future which included: The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow, and The Farm of Tomorrow. These were parodies of live action promotional films that were commonly shown in theaters at the time.
The short is narrated showcase of different kinds of Television sets of the future, most of them solving normal problems with T.V.'s like picture distortions or mobility.
Plot summary
The cartoon begins with "Your Town, U.S.A.", a quiet, peaceful neighborhood as explained by the narrator, voiced by Paul Frees. But over night, Television mania took over the town, flooding the rooftops with TV antennas. However, as the narrator explains, Television came with problems: eye strain, image distortion, and picture jumping. But these problems are eliminated by the following "Television sets of tomorrow":
- A set that's part television / part stove, so you won't have to drag Dad away from the TV for dinner. But actually, as the narrator says, the house of tomorrow will be built around the TV.
- A set that gets rid of picture distortion from passing airplanes by shooting them down, crashing them into the house. However, it clutters up the living room with crashed planes.
- A set with one knob to control the TV, instead of the billion that came before.(However, the Knob is just as complicated.)
- A set with a long, small vertical screen for people who squint
- A set with a built-in water cooler for people who drink lots of water.
- A lighter with a built-in TV screen for those who smoke. The cartoon also explains that 4 out of 5 people now own Televisions (A line up of five people show that four of them look extremely tired.)
- A set with a windshield wiper to clear up fuzzy distortion.
- A model with a built-in repair man.
- A set for that "Never satisfied Know-it-all" who thinks he can tune your set better than you can (a gun pops out of the TV and shoots him).
- A set with an indoor aerial.
- A "Watch-while-you-wash" model, a washing machine with a TV screen on the door.
- A "Contract Console" that shuffles cards for any card game.
- A model for the bathroom with a "turn-about screen" to avoid people on the screen watching you.
- A set with a built-in garbage disposal for lengthy commercials.
- A new color TV that's half-paid for, being that one side of the screen is in color while the other is in black and white.
- A set with a variety of channels to choose from. However, a man at home discovers that all of the channels are showing westerns. Being so frustrated, he smashes the screen and runs to a local theater that's showing a romance called "My Beloved", which turns out to be a western.
- A set for the barber who is so distracted by the TV, he cuts all of the hair off his female assistant instead of the customer.
- A set with a screen in the shape of a keyhole for peeping toms.
- A "Thrifty Scotsman" model in the shape of a flashlight.
- For businessmen who don't the time for fishing trips, this set has a lake on the screen you to fish in, which pulls one man in.
- A "Las Vegas special", which has three screens so you can gamble on your channels.
- A model with two screens, so you can see all of the picture.
Finally, the short ends with a direct telecast from Mars. A TV in an observatory has millions of scientists gather around the screen as the planet becomes more visible. Finally, the picture is revealed to be the western we saw earlier.