1946 in television
The year 1946 in television involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events during 1946.
Events
- February 4 – RCA demonstrates an all-electronic color television system.
- February 18 – The first Washington, D.C. – New York City telecast through AT&T corporation's coaxial cable, in which General Dwight Eisenhower placed a wreath at the base of the statue in the Lincoln Memorial and others made brief speeches, is termed a success by engineers, although Time magazine calls it "as blurred as an early Chaplin movie."
- February 25 – The prewar U.S. 18-channel VHF allocation is officially ended in favor of a new 13-channel VHF allocation due to the appropriation of some frequencies by the military and the relocation of FM radio. Only five of the old channels are the same as new channels in terms of frequency and none have the same number as before.
- April 22 – CBS transmits a Technicolor movie short and color slides by coaxial cable from Manhattan to Washington (332 kilometers) and return.
- June 7 – The BBC Television Service begins broadcasting again for the first time since 1939. The first words heard are "Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh?". Twenty minutes later, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere, last programme transmitted seven years earlier at the start of World War II, is reshown.
- June 19 – The first televised heavyweight boxing title fight between Joe Louis and Billy Conn is broadcast from Yankee Stadium. The fight was seen by 141,000 people, the largest television audience to see a boxing match to that date.
- July 7 – Broadcasting of the BBC's children's programme For The Children is resumed, it is one of the few pre-war programmes to resume after the reintroduction of the service.
- August 4 – Children's puppet "Muffin the Mule" debuts in an episode of the series For the Children. He is so popular he is given his own show later that same year.
- September 6 - Chicago's WBKB-TV (now WBBM-TV) commences broadcasting as the first U.S. television station outside the Eastern Time Zone.
- October 2 – The first television network soap opera, Faraway Hill, is broadcast by the DuMont Network.
- October 22 – Telecrime, the first television crime series from the 1930s, is resumed by the BBC, retitled Telecrimes.
- December 24 – The first church service is telecast, Grace Episcopal Church in New York, on WABD.
- Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo founded a company, which would later become Sony.
- Zoomar introduces the first professional zoom lens for television cameras.
- In the United States, only the DuMont Network and NBC were broadcasting evenings during 1946. DuMont broadcast a Western movie on Sunday night for an hour, other programming for an hour on Tuesday, and half hours on Wednesday and Thursday nights. NBC broadcast an hour of programming on Sunday, two hours on Thursday, and the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports on Monday and Friday nights, with an additional hour on Fridays.
- The first postwar television sets are released by the companies RCA, DuMont, Crosley, and Belmont.
Debuts
Television shows
| Series |
Debut |
Ended |
| Picture Page (UK) |
October 8, 1936 |
1939 |
| 1946 |
1952 |
| Starlight (UK) |
November 3, 1936 |
1939 |
| 1946 |
1949 |
| For The Children (UK) |
April 24, 1937 |
1939 |
| July 7, 1946 |
1950 |
| Telecrime (UK) |
August 10, 1938 |
July 25, 1939 |
| October 22, 1946 |
November 25, 1946 |
| Thrills and Chills Everywere |
August 27, 1941 |
1946? |
| The Voice of Firestone Televues |
1943 |
1947 |
| 1949 |
1963 |
| Missus Goes A Shopping |
August 1, 1944 |
1949 |
| The World in Your Home |
1944 |
1948 |
| Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena |
1946 |
1948 |
| You Be the Judge |
1946 |
194? |
| See What You Know |
1946 |
1949 |
| Hour Glass |
May 9, 1946 |
March 1947 |
| Face to Face |
June 9, 1946 |
January 26, 1947 |
| Geographically Speaking |
June 9, 1946 |
October 1947 |
| Cash and Carry |
June 20, 1946 |
July 1, 1947 |
| Serving Through Science |
August 15, 1946 |
1947 |
| I Love to Eat |
August 30, 1946 |
1947 |
| Play the Game |
September 24, 1946 |
December 17, 1946 |
| Kaleidoscope (UK) |
November 2, 1946 |
1953 |
| Pinwright's Progress (UK) |
November 29, 1946 |
May 16, 1947 |
| Faraway Hill |
October 2, 1946 |
December 18, 1946 |
| You Are an Artist |
November 1, 1946 |
1950 |
| Gillette Cavalcade of Sports |
November 8, 1946 |
June 24, 1960 |
| Let's Rhumba |
1946 |
1947 |
| Television Screen Magazine |
1946 |
1949 |
| Campus Hoopla |
1946 |
1947 |
| Muffin the Mule (UK) |
1946 |
1955 |
| Paging You (UK) |
1946 |
1948 |
Programs ending
Births
- January 19 – Dolly Parton, country, singer and actress
- February 1 – Elisabeth Sladen, English actress, Doctor Who (died 2011)
- February 7 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor (died 2011)
- February 20 – Brenda Blethyn, English actress
- February 21 – Tyne Daly, actress, Cagney & Lacey
- March 21 – Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor
- April 5 – Jane Asher, English actress
- April 12 – Ed O'Neill, actor, Married... with Children
- April 19 – Tim Curry, English actor and singer
- May 1 – Joanna Lumley, English actress
- May 9 – Candice Bergen, actress and model
- June 23 – Ted Shackelford, actor, Knots Landing
- June 28 – Gilda Radner, actress, comedian, Saturday Night Live (died 1989)
- July 13 – Cheech Marin, actor and comedian
- July 22 – Danny Glover, actor and director
- August 16 – Lesley Ann Warren, actress and singer
- September 25 – Felicity Kendal, English actress
- September 29 - Patricia Hodge, English actress
- October 4 – Susan Sarandon, actress
- October 14 – Katy Manning, English actress
- October 15 – John Getz, actor
- October 16 – Suzanne Somers, actress and singer
- October 26 – Pat Sajak, game show host, Wheel of Fortune
- November 6 – Sally Field, actress and singer
- December 14 – Patty Duke, actress
- December 19 – Robert Urich, actor (died 2002)
- December 23 – Susan Lucci, actress, All My Children