James Monaco
Did you know?
Kinescope, originally a trademark for the cathode-ray tube in a TV, later became the name for a film of a TV screen showing a live broadcast. In order for a program to be seen beyond New York in the early days of TV, a kinescope had to be shipped from station to station. Though grainy and fuzzy, these were for a time the only way of capturing live shows. But in 1951 Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball decided to film their comedy show rather than to broadcast it live, and in a few years live broadcast comedy and drama had vanished from the airwaves.
Examples of kinescope in a Sentence
Frank Rizzo, Variety, 4 Apr. 2025
Arnaz asked to shoot using 35-millimeter film, rather than the lesser-quality kinescope.
—Raj Tawney, Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Sep. 2024
For me, watching Hayes as Levant — like watching kinescopes of Levant himself — is excruciatingly sad.
—Jesse Green, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2023
In order to produce the best quality, Desi also asked to shoot with the costlier 35mm film rather than grainy kinescope technology.
—Raj Tawney, Fortune, 4 Jan. 2022
Maria Riva, the only child of Marlene Dietrich who as a rare contract player with CBS was one of the top television personalities in the medium’s early days of live, kinescope broadcasts, died Wednesday.
—Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
On the surface the old episodes—some of them represented by clips from fuzzy black-and-white kinescopes—are charming antiques, what with their leisurely pace and production values that seemed quaintly retro even way back when.
—Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 7 June 2018
It was captured via kinescope, a primitive technique that aimed a camera at a TV screen to record the broadcast on film.
—Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 15 Apr. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Kinescope.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kinescope. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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