"Television enables you to be entertained in your…

English television host David Frost (1939-2013) is frequently credit with this line:

“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.”

The quotation has been cited in print since at least 1984. It is sometimes credited to the David Frost Revue on CBS television in 1971. “Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldn’t have in your home” is a slight variation of the words, cited in print since at least 1988.

Wikipedia: David Frost
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE (7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013) was an English journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and television host.

5 September 1984, Rockford (IL) Register Star, “Collector of Great Quotations” by Pat Cunningham, pg. 8A, col. 4:
“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.”—David Frost.

3 June 1986, The Sun (Baltimore, MD), “ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ at second place in ratings” by Liz Smith, pg. 2C, col. 2:
“TELEVISION is an invention that permits you to be entertained i your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home,” said David Frost.

Google Books
1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
By Robert Byrne
New York, NY: Fawcett, Columbine
1988
Pg. 358:
434
Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldn’t have in your home.
David Frost

Google Books
Says Who?:
A Guide to the Quotations of the Century
By Jonathon Green
Harlow: Longman
1988
Pg. 316:
Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.
on the David Frost Revue, CBS-TV 1971

Google Groups: alt.quotations
Help!
David Milsted
10/13/99
(...)
Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.
David Frost, attrib on CBS, 1971.

Google Books
A Companion to Television
By Janet Wasko
Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
2010
Pg. 9:
David Frost: “Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.”

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Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldnt have in your home. -David Frost
11:02 PM - 30 Mar 2016