The mid-1940s through the 1950s marked the period of Rockwell’s most important paintings, when he transcended pure illustration without relinquishing a clearly understood, often humorous narrative. The transformation was apparent in the paintings he made for the Saturday Evening Post covers beginning around the mid-1940s. The change was encouraged by a new layout of the cover that separated the title from the illustration and the appointment of Ken Stuart as art editor in 1944. Stuart wanted the covers to be portraits of a nation in change. The subject of this painting could not have been more topical, since the general public only started purchasing televisions during the late 1940s. During the decade Rockwell increasingly used photographs in his preparatory work so that he could pay more attention to the setting, rather than the figures, as he had earlier. Consequently a new concern for architectural subjects, seen most often in detailed interiors, appeared in his art. He depicted architectural exteriors less frequently. By setting The New Television Set on the roof of a house, Rockwell used architecture not only to structure the composition but also to convey the contrast of the old, the house, with the new, the television. The scene epitomizes the rapid modernization of America, for the house was one of many large Victorian structures characteristic of the district around Adams Street in Los Angeles, where it was painted. Rockwell’s association with Los Angeles was long and close, beginning in 1930, when he met his wife, Mary Barstow, on his first trip to the city. During the 1940s he wintered here and was artist-in-residence at Otis Art Institute (Los Angeles County Art Institute). He became friendly with his students and asked some of them to serve as his models. For The New Television Set Robert H. Horton, at the time an architecture student, posed as the television serviceman, and Jack Farman, another student, served as the model for the elderly customer. The painting was reproduced on the cover of the November 5, 1949, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. Rockwell presented the painting to Ned Crowell, a close friend who was West Coast district manager for the Curtis Publishing Company, among whose many publications was the Saturday Evening Post.

Four years after the stock market crash of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the New Deal, a program of domestic reform meant to revive the economy and alleviate the problem of mass unemployment. Toward these ends, he established various new federal agencies, putting many more people to work to do the increased business of government. Thousands of artists were employed, most through the largest program, the Works Progress Administration. Although the government did not dictate the type of art that was to be produced, it did encourage the use of a representational style and American themes. As a result, most of the art created in the decade prior to World War II was humanistic in orientation.
Artists, writers, and philosophers of the period became obsessed with the social relevance of art. Although a small group of American artists did attack the societal ills of the nation (housing shortages, unemployment) and of the world in general (the rise of fascism and militarism), most adopted a more pragmatic and even positive attitude. American scene painters captured busy city dwellers on streets, in buses, at work, and at play. Occasionally artists infused an element of humor into the pathos of everyday existence, even in scenes that allude to the political disasters of the day. Regionalists were particularly fond of idealizing the past and aggrandizing the present accomplishments of the country. In fact, the myth of America as a country where everyone lives a pastoral, carefree existence emerged with new vigor in the art of the 1930s.
The diversity of the people also emerged as a strong current of social realism. Artists who were accustomed to working in their studios now looked beyond their immediate circles for models. Individuals of various races, professions, or creeds inspired some of the most moving portraits of the century and demonstrated the soul of the people.