Events

• January 3 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
• January 22 – The first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River
  Mississippi River
  The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
  
  , KTLA
  KTLA
  KTLA, virtual channel 5, is a television station in Los Angeles, California, USA. Owned by the Tribune Company, KTLA is an affiliate of the CW Television Network. KTLA's studios are on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson...
  
  , begins operation in Hollywood, California.
• January 29 – RCA
  RCA
  RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor...
  
   demonstrates an all-electronic color television system using live images, to the Federal Communications Commission
  Federal Communications Commission
  The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
  
  .
• January 30 – The FCC rejects CBS
  CBS
  CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
  
  ' color television system.
• February 10 to March 11 – BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
   television service in the UK
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
   is temporarily suspended due to a national fuel crisis.
• March 11 – The first successful American children's television series, Movies for Small Fry debuts on the DuMont Network
  DuMont Television Network
  The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
  
  .
• July 16 – RCA demonstrates the world's first all-electronic color camera to the Federal Communications Commission
  Federal Communications Commission
  The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
  
  . (Only television receivers were present at the demonstration on January 29; the camera was at a remote studio.)
• September 30 – The opening game of the World Series
  World Series
  The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
  
   is the first World Series game to be telecast. The 1947 World Series
  1947 World Series
  The 1947 World Series matched the New York Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the Yankees winning the Series in seven games for their first title since , and the eleventh championship in team history...
  
   brought in an estimated 3.9 million people, becoming television's first mass audience.
• October 5 – The first presidential address from the White House
  White House
  The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
  
   is telecast. President Truman
  Harry S. Truman
  Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
  
   speaks about the world food crisis. It is preceded by a Jell-O
  Jell-O
  Jell-O is a brand name belonging to U.S.-based Kraft Foods for a number of gelatin desserts, including fruit gels, puddings and no-bake cream pies. The brand's popularity has led to it being used as a generic term for gelatin dessert across the U.S. and Canada....
  
   commercial, and features the president discussing his program for food rationing. The address was televised by WTVW-TV (today's WJLA-TV
  WJLA-TV
  WJLA-TV, channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Washington, D.C.. It is the flagship station of the Allbritton Communications Company, which also operates local cable station NewsChannel 8. The two stations share broadcast facilities in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia...
  
   Channel 7 in Washington DC) on its inaugural broadcast. It was also simulcast on radio. It was long believed that no copy of this broadcast existed, but segments are preserved on kinescope
  Kinescope
  Kinescope , shortened to kine , also known as telerecording in Britain, is a recording of a television program made by filming the picture from a video monitor...
  
   in the Library of Congress. (For the record, President Franklin Roosevelt
  Franklin D. Roosevelt
  Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
  
  's address on experimental TV at the 1939 New York World's Fair
  1939 New York World's Fair
  The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...
  
   preceded the 1947 Truman broadcast.)
• October 13 – The puppet show Junior Jamboree, later known as Kukla, Fran and Ollie
  Kukla, Fran and Ollie
  Kukla, Fran and Ollie is an early American television show using puppets, originally created for children but soon watched by more adults than children. It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed...
  
  , premieres on WBKB in Chicago, Illinois.
• November 6 – Meet the Press
  Meet the Press
  Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
  
  first appears as a local program in Washington
  Washington, D.C.
  Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
  
  .
• November 8 – Memorial service broadcast from the Cenotaph
  Cenotaph
  A cenotaph is an "empty tomb" or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere. The word derives from the Greek κενοτάφιον = kenotaphion...
  
   by the BBC, using tele-recording for the first time.
• The first Hollywood film production for TV, The Public Prosecutor.
• There are 14,000 television sets in use in the United States.

Debuts

• May 7 – Kraft Television Theater premieres on NBC
  NBC
  The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
  
  , the first regularly scheduled drama series on a network (1947–1958).
• October 13 – Junior Jamboree (later called Kukla, Fran and Ollie
  Kukla, Fran and Ollie
  Kukla, Fran and Ollie is an early American television show using puppets, originally created for children but soon watched by more adults than children. It did not have a script and was entirely ad-libbed...
  
  ), premieres on WBKB
  WLS-TV
  WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
  
   in Chicago (1947–1957).
• November 18 – situation comedy
  Situation comedy
  A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
  
   Mary Kay and Johnny
  Mary Kay and Johnny
  Mary Kay and Johnny is the first situation comedy broadcast on network television in the United States. Starring real-life married couple Mary Kay Stearns and Johnny Stearns, the series is the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first television series to show a woman's pregnancy...
  
  debuts on Dumont network (1947–1950).
• November 20 – Meet the Press
  Meet the Press
  Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
  
  first network telecast on NBC (1947–present).
• December 27 – Puppet Television Theater (later called Howdy Doody
  Howdy Doody
  Howdy Doody is an American children's television program that was created and produced by E. Roger Muir and telecast on NBC in the United States from 1947 until 1960. It was a pioneer in children's television programming and set the pattern for many similar shows...
  
  ), a children's television
  Television
  Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
  
   program, makes its debut (NBC) (1947–1960).
• Café Continental
  Café Continental
  Café Continental was a British television variety show on the BBC Television Service from 1947 to 1953. Broadcast live from the BBC's studios at Alexandra Palace, the programme opened with a "Maître d'hôtel" who welcomed the television audience to the "cafe" set and told them that "your table has...
  
  (UK
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  ) premieres on the BBC Television Service) (1947–1953).
• Eye Witness premieres (1947–1948). Gary Simpson produced this show which featured guests like Vladimir Zworkin, one the pioneer inventors of TV, discussing and showing television technology (explaining how TV worked to the new medium's first viewers.
• In the Kelvinator Kitchen
  In the Kelvinator Kitchen
  In the Kelvinator Kitchen was a NBC Television series which aired from 1947 to 1948. It was a cooking show sponsored by Kelvinator, and the appliances used on the show were from that company. Alma Kitchell was hostess on the short-lived series...
  
  premieres (1947–1948).
• Musical Merry-Go-Round
  Musical Merry-Go-Round
  Musical Merry-Go-Round was a NBC TV series which aired from 25 July 1947 to 1949. The series featured live music performances.-Production history:Each 30 minute episode was hosted by Jack Kilty. Little else is known about this early television series....
  
  premieres (1947–1949).
• Americana
  Americana (TV series)
  Americana is a weekly game show which ran on NBC from December 8, 1947 to July 4, 1949. The series was originally hosted by literary critic John Mason Brown and produced by Martin Stone Productions with NBC Television. Each week's show was sponsored by Encyclopedia Americana...
  
  premieres (1947–1949).
• King Cole's Birthday Party
  King Cole's Birthday Party
  King Cole's Birthday Party is an early American children's television series which aired on the DuMont Television Network. The program was broadcast from 1947 to 1949. Little is known about the series. Each 30-minute episode featured the real birthday of a child...
  
  premieres (1947–1949).
• Charade Quiz
  Charade Quiz
  Charade Quiz is an American game show hosted by Bill Slater which aired on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network from November 27, 1947 to June 23, 1949.-Overview:...
  
  premieres (1947–1949).
• Doorway to Fame
  Doorway to Fame
  Doorway to Fame is an early American television program broadcast on the now defunct DuMont Television Network.-Broadcast history:The series ran from May 1947 to July 1949. It was a talent show hosted by Johnny Olson, who would go on to host the DuMont daytime variety show Johnny Olson's Rumpus...
  
  premieres (1947–1949).
• Author Meets the Critics
  Author Meets the Critics
  Author Meets the Critics was an American talk show which aired on NBC, ABC, and the DuMont Television Network. The series began as a mid-season replacement on NBC on April 4, 1948, but moved to ABC in 1949...
  
  (1947–1954).
• Juvenile Jury
  Juvenile Jury
  Juvenile Jury is an American children's game show which originally ran on NBC from April 3, 1947 to August 1, 1954. It was hosted by Jack Barry and featured a panel of kids aged ten or less giving advice to solve the problems of other kids.-Controversy:...
  
  (1947–1954).
• Adelaide Hall
  Adelaide Hall
  Adelaide Hall was an American-born U.K.-based jazz singer and entertainer.Hall was born in Brooklyn, New York and was taught to sing by her father...
  
  October 1947 – first telecording by BBC (kinescope) showing black singer Adelaide Hall performing 2 songs with chorus and her guitar. Copies of this first English kinescope of live TV broadcast are preserved by BBC, and copy is available for viewing on YouTube.com

Television shows

Ending this year

• May 16 – Pinwright's Progress
  Pinwright's Progress
  Pinwright's Progress was a British sitcom that aired on the BBC Television Service from 1946 to 1947 and was the world's first regular half-hour sitcom. The ten episodes, which aired fortnightly in alternation with Kaleidoscope, were broadcast live from the BBC studios at Alexandra Palace...
  
  (UK) (1946–1947).
• The Voice of Firestone Televues (1943–1947)
• Hour Glass (1946–1947)
• Cash and Carry
  Cash and Carry (TV series)
  Cash and Carry is an American television game show hosted by Dennis James that ran on the then-both affiliates of the DuMont Television Network from June 20, 1946 to July 1, 1947...
  
  (1946–1947)
• Campus Hoopla
  Campus Hoopla
  Campus Hoopla was a game show that ran on the NBC Television network from December 27, 1946 until its cancellation in 1947. The show was centered around a group of teenagers in a soda shop.-Cast:*Bob Stanton - Host*Eva Marie Saint - Commercial Spokeswoman...
  
  (1946–1947)
• Face to Face
  Face to Face (US TV series)
  Face to Face is an early American television game show running 15 minutes. It began broadcasting on the NBC Television network on June 9, 1946 and ran until January 26, 1947 on Sundays at 8:00 pm EST, immediately before Geographically Speaking....
  
  (1946–1947)
• I Love to Eat
  I Love to Eat
  I Love to Eat is a live television series on NBC which aired from 30 August 1946 to 1947, and was a cooking show hosted by chef and cookbook author James Beard. When the show started, each episode was 15 minutes long and presented at 8:30pm EST on Fridays, immediately before The World in Your Home...
  
  (1946–1947)
• Let's Rhumba
  Let's Rhumba
  Let's Rhumba is an American dance instruction program that aired on NBC from November 1946 to January 1947. Each 15 minute episode was hosted by D'Avalos. No episodes are known to survive as NBC had no archival policy at the time....
  
  (1946–1947)
• Serving Through Science
  Serving Through Science
  Serving Through Science is the first educational television series broadcast in the United States. It debuted on the DuMont Television Network on August 15, 1946 and was shown Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST. The weekly program starred Dr. Guthrie McClintock showing short films produced by Encyclopædia...
  
  (1946–1947)

Births

• February 2 – Farrah Fawcett
  Farrah Fawcett
  Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
  
  , actress (d. 2009)
• February 24 - Edward James Olmos
  Edward James Olmos
  Edward James Olmos is an American actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt...
  
  , Mexican-American actor
• February 28 - Stephanie Beacham
  Stephanie Beacham
  Stephanie Beacham is a British television, film and theatre actress. Making her film debut in 1971's The Nightcomers opposite Marlon Brando and becoming more well-known on British television in the BBC series Tenko and the ITV series Connie , her worldwide breakthrough came as a result of playing...
  
  , English actress
• March 1 – Alan Thicke
  Alan Thicke
  Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the patriarch on the ABC television series Growing Pains.- Early life :...
  
  , actor
• March 6 – Rob Reiner
  Rob Reiner
  Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
  
  , actor, comedian, producer and director
• April 6 - John Ratzenberger
  John Ratzenberger
  John Deszo Ratzenberger is an American actor, voice actor, and entrepreneur. He is best known for his role as Cliff Clavin in Cheers.-Early life:...
  
  , actor, Cheers
  Cheers
  Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
  
  
• April 12 – David Letterman
  David Letterman
  David Michael Letterman is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC...
  
  , comedian and talk show host
• April 23 - Blair Brown
  Blair Brown
  Bonnie Blair Brown is an American theater, film, and television actress. She has had a number of high profile roles, including a Tony Award-winning turn in the play Copenhagen on Broadway, as well as a run as the title character in the television comedy-drama The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd,...
  
  , actress
• April 30 - Leslie Grantham
  Leslie Grantham
  Leslie Michael Grantham is an English actor best known for his role as "Dirty" Den Watts in the soap opera EastEnders. He is also a convicted murderer, having served 10 years for the killing of a German taxi driver, and he generated significant press coverage as the result of an online sex scandal...
  
  , English actor
• June 21 – Meredith Baxter
  Meredith Baxter
  Meredith Baxter , also known for some years as Meredith Baxter-Birney, is an American actress and producer. She is known for her acting roles including three television series: Family , an ABC television-network drama, Family Ties , an NBC television-network situation comedy, and Dan Vs. , a...
  
  , actress
  • Michael Gross
    Michael Gross (actor)
    Michael Gross is an American television, movie, and stage actor who plays both comedic and dramatic roles. His most notable roles are as the father Steven Keaton from Family Ties and the Graboid hunter Burt Gummer from the Tremors franchise.-Early life:Gross was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son...
    
    , actor
• June 22 - David Lander
  David Lander
  David L. Lander is an American actor, comedian, composer, musician, and baseball scout. David is also the Goodwill Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.- Biography :...
  
  , actor and comedian
• July 2 – Larry David
  Larry David
  Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
  
  , actor, comedian and producer
• July 3 – Betty Buckley
  Betty Buckley
  Betty Lynn Buckley is an American theater, film and television actress and singer. She is a Tony Award winner and Grammy Award nominee.-Early life:...
  
  , actress and singer
• July 22 – Albert Brooks
  Albert Brooks
  Albert Lawrence Brooks is an American actor, voice actor, writer, comedian and director. He received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for his role in Broadcast News...
  
  , actor, comedian and director
• September 6 – Jane Curtin
  Jane Curtin
  Jane Therese Curtin is an American actress and comedienne. She is commonly referred to as Queen of the Deadpan.First coming to prominence as an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975, she went on to win back-to-back Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy Series on the 1980s...
  
  , actress and comedienne, Saturday Night Live
  Saturday Night Live
  Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
  
  , 3rd Rock from the Sun
  3rd Rock from the Sun
  3rd Rock from the Sun is an American sitcom that aired from 1996 to 2001 on NBC. The show is about four extraterrestrials who are on an expedition to Earth, which they consider to be a very insignificant planet...
  
  
• September 30 – Rula Lenska
  Rula Lenska
  Rula Lenska is an English actress. Best known for her work in the United Kingdom, she is remembered in the United States for a television advert that presented her as a celebrity, even though she was not widely known in the US at the time the advert was produced.She has appeared extensively on...
  
  , English actress
• October 1 - Stephen Collins, actor
• October 17 - Michael McKean
  Michael McKean
  Michael John McKean is an American actor, comedian, writer, composer and musician, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Squiggy's friend, Leonard 'Lenny' Kosnowski, on the sitcom Laverne and Shirley; and for his work in the Christopher Guest ensemble films, particularly as David St...
  
  , actor and comedian
• October 26 – Jaclyn Smith
  Jaclyn Smith
  Jacquelyn Ellen "Jaclyn" Smith is an American actress and businesswoman. She is best-known for the role of Kelly Garrett in the television series Charlie's Angels, and was the only original female lead to remain with the series for its complete run...
  
  , actress
• November 25 - John Larroquette
  John Larroquette
  John Edgar Bernard Larroquette, Jr. is an American film, television and Broadway actor. His roles include Dan Fielding on the series Night Court, Mike McBride in the Hallmark Channel series McBride, John Hemingway on The John Larroquette Show, and Carl Sack in Boston Legal.-Personal...
  
  , actor
• November 30 - Dwight Schultz
  Dwight Schultz
  William Dwight Schultz is an American stage, television, film actor, and voice artist. He is best known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action show The A-Team, and as Reginald Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and the film Star Trek: First...
  
  , actor
• December 11 - Teri Garr
  Teri Garr
  -Early life:Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr , was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road...
  
  , actress and comedienne
• December 29 – Ted Danson
  Ted Danson
  Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
  
  , actor