David Bauder, The Associated Press<\/p>\n
\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n
Add CityNews Ottawa as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n
CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 If the TV remote hadn\u2019t been invented, channel surfers and couch potatoes would have to argue about something else. Come to think of it, those surfers and potatoes might not even exist.<\/p>\n
It may be difficult for anyone under 40 to understand, but there was a time when changing a channel meant getting up, walking over to the \u201ctelevision set\u201d and turning a \u201cdial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists at Zenith Electronics recognized a problem that needed to be solved fairly quickly. The first TV remote, called \u201cLazy Bone,\u201d was put on the market in 1950. It wasn\u2019t wireless. People tripped.<\/p>\n
The first wireless remote, the \u201cFlash-Matic,\u201d five years later, looked disturbingly like a gun and used light signals. The TV wasn\u2019t discriminating, and on sunny days false signals could cause spontaneous channel changes. The next year, Zenith\u2019s \u201cSpace Command\u201d was introduced using sound waves. On those early models, the press of a button produced a clicking noise \u2013 hence the term \u201cclicker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Remotes using infrared signals emerged in the 1980s when, with the dawn of cable\u2019s multichannel universe, the device became indispensable. <\/p>\n
\u201cLosing the remote in the couch cushions became as frantic an event as losing a phone is today,\u201d says David Bianculli, TV critic for NPR\u2019s \u201cFresh Air\u201d and a professor at Rowan University in New Jersey.<\/p>\n
Remotes influenced how TV was programmed and consumed. The flow of a network\u2019s schedule was essential: How do you prevent a viewer from changing channels? CBS\u2019 Saturday night schedule in the 1970s, from \u201cAll in the Family\u201d through to \u201cThe Carol Burnett Show,\u201d was a masterpiece in program flow. NBC once considered Thursday nights \u201cmust-see TV.\u201d<\/p>\n
The early days of cable produced the surfer, who aimlessly pressed the remote to scan channels. That put a premium on flashy; you had to catch the eye.<\/p>\n
Remotes have downsides. They amplify selfishness. They reproduce uncontrollably until you don\u2019t know which to use. Batteries die at inopportune moments.<\/p>\n
Now that appliances can listen, maybe remotes fade away. Until then, it\u2019s back to searching for wherever you left the clicker. In the refrigerator while you were getting a snack? In the bathroom?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll pause, as it were, until you find it. In the meantime, we\u2019ll leave you with this: <\/p>\n
\u201cThe flush toilet may have been the most civilized invention ever devised, but the remote control is the next most important. It\u2019s almost as important as sex.\u201d <\/p>\n
That\u2019s from the late Zenith scientist Eugene Polley, who together with colleague Robert Adler was considered the pioneer of wireless remote technology.<\/p>\n
Polley may have been feeling pride of ownership. Then again, there\u2019s no firmer upper hand in a relationship than who has control of the clicker.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
David Bauder wrote about television for The Associated Press for 30 years before retiring this year. Part of a recurring series, \u201cAmerican Objects,\u201d marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here<\/a>. For more stories on the anniversary, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n David Bauder, The Associated Press<\/p>\n \t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n Add CityNews Ottawa as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788601939_261_google-trusted-badge.png\"){kind=icon}