By Kristina Malsberger

Lucille Ball. Tony Soprano. Gilligan and the Skipper, too. We know them because of Philo Farnsworth, the precocious Idaho farm boy who in 1922 first sketched a primitive television on the blackboard in his Rigby High School chemistry classroom.

Some five years later, Farnsworth demonstrated a working TV, forever changing media—and living rooms. It’s an achievement that Rigby, Idaho, still honors at the Farnsworth TV & Pioneer Museum with displays of the inventor’s early patents, his hat and violin, and a Farnsworth-brand TV set. Considering how often you’ve laughed, cried, cuddled, and snoozed in front of Farnsworth’s creation, you might want to stop in to pay your respects. Open Tuesday through Saturday. $2. 118 West First South, (208) 745-8423.