Philo T. Farnsworth is generally acknowledged to have developed the first practical electronic television sytem, way back in 1927. Electro-mechanical systems had been demonstrated earlier but it was Philo’s system that led directly to the TV systems we know and loathe today. He didn’t get filthy rich from it, though, because RCA essentially stole it from him.
Farnsworth went on to a distinguished career as an engineer and inventor. He died in 1971.

He had a low opinion of commercial television later in life:

Farnsworth is sometimes quoted as telling his son Kent, with regard to television:

“There’s nothing on it worthwhile, and we’re not going to watch it in this household, and I don’t want it in your intellectual diet.”

Yet, his family’s website makes it clear that this is Kent’s summation of his father’s view, rather than a direct quote.

His wife, Elma, died in 2006 at the age of 98:

In a 1996 videotaped interview by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, available on YouTube,[46] Elma Farnsworth recounts Philo’s change of heart about the value of television, after seeing how it showed man walking on the moon, in real time, to millions of viewers:

Interviewer: The image dissector was used to send shots back from the moon to earth.
Elma Farnsworth: Right.
Interviewer: What did Phil think of that?
Elma Farnsworth: We were watching it, and, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon, Phil turned to me and said, “Pem, this has made it all worthwhile.” Before then, he wasn’t too sure.