The Infamous TV Remote Control - Breathing Space Blog

2007: Robert Adler, co-inventor of the television remote control, died recently. “Adler had worked for Zenith for six decades, winning more than 180 U.S. patents, including the 1956 Zenith ‘Space Command’ remote control, which did not actually control space, but did make it possible to sit still while flipping through the then limited channel selection.’

“A 2004 interview with The Associated Press showed Alder to be a modest man, who worked with 24 other engineers to create a way for viewers to remain seated while searching for their programming preference. Although some felt that he and his fellow engineers should feel guilt about the results of their creation, Adler told the AP that the idea was ‘ridiculous,’ explaining that he felt it was ‘reasonable and rational to control the TV from where you normally sit and watch television.’"

Adler's widow recalls her husband having been ‘more of a reader’ than a television watcher. "He was a man who would dream in the night and wake up and say, 'I just solved a problem,'" Ingrid Adler recalls. "He was always thinking science." He had little use for TV. Given that we all did, our lives would be filled with Breathing Space.