Radio Collector's Afficionado's Resource

You don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to grasp (American) football. Granted, it does have a language all it is own and there are more rules to learn than in a lot of of the other major viewer sports, such as baseball, basketball and hockey. But the good news is, with a little patience, and a little desire, you may learn football.

Whether you’ve never watched a game in your life and have been marveling what all the fuss is when it comes to (and there is a lot), or watched a game or two and have given up because you just don’t get it, the bottom line is, you may do it!

Since attempting to explain the game goes way beyond the scope of this article, let me just get started with a few very basics, so that the next (or first) time you turn the TV on to watch a game, you will have some understanding of what is being shown on the screen or is being said by the commentators:

The score of the game is shown, so if for example, it shows as Chicago 7, Detroit 0, you will recognise that Chicago is winning 7 – 0

The time left in the quarter (there are four quarters in a game) is shown winding down, so if it shows as 12:38, you will know that there are twelve minutes and thirty eight seconds left to play in the quarter (each quarter in a professional game is fifteen minutes long as dictated by the game clock). The quarter that the game is in is likewise shown, i.e., 2nd

The down and number of yards to go for a initial down are shown – this requires a little explanation. Each time a team takes possession of the ball (is on Offense), it is given a series of four plays, called downs to advance the ball at least ten yards. The basi play in the series is introductory down, the second is second down, etc. If it is competent to advance the ball at least ten yards in the series, it is awarded a new series of downs beginning with primary down. If it can’t advance the ball at least the ten yards, it may have to give up possession of the ball. The down and number of yards to go for a primary down is shown, i.e., 3rd & 7, which means it is third down, and the Offense needs to advance the ball at least seven more yards for a original down.

When the commentators say they’re “moving the chains”, it means that a team has made a introductory down. The chains they are referring to are two poles connected by a ten yard chain, held along the sidelines; one chain is spotted where a series starts, and the other, where the Offense must move the ball to make a introductory down. Each time a team makes a primary down, the chains are moved ahead, thence “moving the chains”.

The yellow line on the screen that runs throughout the field is not in truth on the field, but rather the result of innovative technology. It shows the TV viewers where the Offense needs to advance the ball for a firstborn down.

The number of seconds that the Offense will have to get started the next play (as dictated by the play clock) is on occasion shown winding down, i.e. 4 …… This means that the Offense has four seconds to get started the next play; other than as supposed or expected it incurs a penalty (an infraction of the rules). The Offense has 40 seconds at the end of a play to start out the next one.

Any time you see the word “FLAG” or listen the commentators say there is a flag on the play, it means that one of the players (on either team) has consecrated a penalty.

Smokin Rockets Technology American Televisio

Science and technology had a substantial influence on American culture and thought in the years without delay following World War II. The new wonders of science and the threat of the Soviet Union as a powerful new enemy made science fiction a frequent genre in radio, television, and film. Mutant creatures spawned by radioactive energy and intergalactic dictators unleashing horrific weapons upon Earth were characteristic of science fiction at the time and served as warnings to the very real dangers posed by the atomic age.

This work examines science and science fiction in American culture beginning in the year World War II ended and going to 1962, the year of John Glenn’s orbital flight and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The radio work of Arch Oboler and the significance of his “Rocket from Manhattan,” which aired only one month after the dropping of the firstborn atomic bomb and asked severe questions with regards to the use of atomic energy, are examined. Other topics are the conflict amongst the free world and the Communist world in the context of science fiction plot lines, the dangers of science as shown in films like Godzilla, Them!, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and radio and television programs, the flying saucer phenomenon and the treatment of such stories in the media (with particular attention given to the 1956 documentary UFO), the altering and more positive depictions of scientists, television programs like Flash Gordon and Space Patrol, the shift in the remainder of world power due to the successful launching of Sputnik I by the Russians in 1957, the “end of the world” theme in science fiction, and the American journeying into space.

About the AuthorPatrick Lucanio and Gary Coville are also the coauthors of Jack the Ripper (1999, $29.95) and American Science Fiction Television Series of the 1950s (1998, $49.95). Lucanio lives in Springfield, Oregon, and Coville lives in Dallas, Oregon.

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Smokin Rockets Technology American Televisio Picture

Smokin Rockets Technology American Televisio Image

Smokin Rockets Technology American Televisio Photo

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3 of 3 persons found the following review helpful.
Links social/political changes to trends in science fiction
By Midwest Book Review
How have science and engineering science been celebrated in American film, radio and TV from 1945-1962? Smokin’ Rockets examines science and science fiction worlds in American culture from a scholarly standpoint; up to the Cuban missile crisis. Shifts in themes and making something publicly available are studied in chapters that link social and political changes to trends in science fiction.

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