# Was There Cable TV BEFORE Broadcast TV? **URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417 **Category:** Factual Questions **Created:** [June 30, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417 "2009-06-30T00:18:05Z") **Posts on this page:** 8 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/1 "2009-06-30T00:18:05Z")
I ask because I just saw an old 3 Stooges short. The boys are at a rich man’s mansion (WRECKING THE PLACE, AS USUAL), when the rich man announces that the guests are going to be treated to a live TV broadcast (of Niagara Falls). He speaks into a telephone , and says “Go ahead , Niagara Falls”!-then the image appeared on a TV set. This short was filmed in 1934-before TV broadcasts (in the USA) began. So was there some kind of limited cable-based TV before broadcast TV? ---
### Author: ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/2 "2009-06-30T00:43:12Z")
I think this may be an example of what Wikipedia categorizes as a [“niche use” of closed-circuit television](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television#Niche_uses). ---
### Author: ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/3 "2009-06-30T01:23:21Z")
Yes, there were closed circuit television broadcasts [as early as 1925, with the first broadcast tests in 1927.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_television) However, television broadcasting in the U.S. was happening as early as 1928. By 1934 (the date of the Stooges short) the U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany and USSR were all doing some telecasts, either broadcast or closed circuit. The first “real” cable television system was in [Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania in 1948](http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcabletelevision.htm). ---
### Author: ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/4 "2009-06-30T01:59:04Z")
Can anyone tell me the title of this specific Three Stooges short? ---
### Author: ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/5 "2009-06-30T02:21:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Can anyone tell me the title of this specific Three Stooges short? Perhaps “A Plumbing We Will Go?” Start out at about the 4:00 mark. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/s8-PlnJ3kkk/hqdefault.jpg "The Three Stooges - A Plumbing We Will Go (2 of 2)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-PlnJ3kkk) ---
### Author: ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/6 "2009-06-30T04:44:22Z")
I guess I’m not following why it would have to be cable? Why couldn’t it have been a live TV broadcast. The guy with the camera had it set on Niagara Falls and the Stooges were in Buffalo or at Niagara Falls (city) working at a house. Then the man talks to the man who either flips the switch or is at a phone and signals a camera man to point his camera at the falls. ---
### Author: ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/7 "2009-06-30T05:03:37Z")
Yeah, the man saying “come in Niagra Falls” is the TV station’s announcer (not someone over a telephone), and he calls it a broadcast. I’m voting it was implied to be over-the-air. But mostly it was just a setup for a funny gag. 🙂 ---
### Author: ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane) #### Post date: [June 30, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-cable-tv-before-broadcast-tv/501417/8 "2009-06-30T05:41:22Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Perhaps “A Plumbing We Will Go?” > > Start out at about the 4:00 mark. > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-PlnJ3kkk&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-PlnJ3kkk&feature=related) Now _THAT’S_ high definition TV! 😃