In 1950, the principal means of recording television programming was transcription from a live CRT to a film camera. Dumont's Electronicam is good example, which is mentioned in the ending credits of first-gen Honeymooners episodes. There are folks on VK who can explain the history of video tape technology, which didn't arrive until about 1956 and were the size of a refrigerator, but home-recording systems didn't really arrive until the mid-1960's,and boy, were they expensive!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTefbj4I8hs