Retropod is sponsored by Tito's handmade vodka. Drink responsibly.

Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

If I could be anything in life, I would be a TV historian. I love TV. Just ask my family.

What amazes me is just how connected television is to the modern history of our politics,

culture, and daily lives.

Here's an example.

In early March, 1951, a Philadelphia man was watching TV so intently that he became, as Life magazine reported,

quote, unaware of a fire until it had destroyed a shed in his backyard and swept into the

upper story of his home.

No, the man was not watching the Howdy Duty show.

Like other popular TV shows, it had been preempted for a new form of television,

a live congressional hearing like the ones that have come to regularly grip the country.

Back then, in 1951, millions of Americans tuned in as Senator Estes Keefeffer, a Democrat from Tennessee,

conducted a sweeping investigation into organized crime on live TV.

Here's how Life magazine described the moment.

Quote, it became apparent that at least one-fifth of the population had absented itself from normal pursuits.

All along the television cable, it had gone suddenly indoors, into living rooms, taverns and club rooms, auditoriums, and back offices.

There, in eerie half-light,

looking at millions of small frosty screens, people sat as if charmed. Reporters even called housewives for the reactions. One said, it is positively the most wonderful thing I ever saw.

Keith Oliver did not set out to create a television circus, as critics and media scholars later called the hearings.

It went viral on its own.

How?

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