Back in the Dark Ages — before the internet, before Amazon — there were other ways to satisfy your craving for impulse buying from the comfort of your home.

You could sit down in front of your television at the appointed hour, pick up the receiver on your telephone — if the cord stretched that far — and order from the Home Shopping Network.

When Joseph Segel, a marketing expert and entrepreneur who had founded the Franklin Mint, the maker of commemorative coins and other collectibles, saw a video of the Home Shopping Network in 1986, he thought it rather primitive. He was sure he could create a better, more professional shopping experience.

What he came up with was QVC, which became a powerhouse television shopping network that would rival the Home Shopping Network and later eclipse it. (Both are now owned by a conglomerate called Qurate Retail Group.)