1946 in television

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 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 is seen by 141,000 people, the largest television audience to see a boxing match to this date.
• July 7 – Broadcasting of the BBC's children's programme For The Children is resumed, one of the few pre-war programmes to resume after 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 commences broadcasting as the first U.S. television station outside the Eastern Time Zone.
• September 15 – DuMont Television Network begins broadcasting regularly in the United States.
• October 2 – The first television network soap opera, Faraway Hill, is broadcast by DuMont.
• 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 founds a company, which would later become Sony.
• Zoomar introduces the first professional zoom lens for television cameras.
• The first postwar television sets are released by the companies RCA, DuMont, Crosley, and Belmont.

  Debuts

• January 4 - You Be the Judge premieres on CBS
• May 9 – The first regularly scheduled American variety show, Hour Glass, premieres on NBC.
• May 23 - Let's Play Reporter premieres on WABD-TV, but produced by ABC
• June 9 - Face to Face premieres on NBC.
• June 9 - Geographically Speaking premieres on NBC
• June 20 - Cash and Carry premieres on the DuMont network.
• August 30 - I Love to Eat premieres on NBC.
• September 24 – Play the Game, a US game show.
• October 2 - Faraway Hill, the first network-televised soap opera, debuts on DuMont.
• November 2 – Kaleidoscope .
• November 15 - Let's Rhumba premieres on NBC.
• November 17 - Television Screen Magazine premieres on NBC.
• November 29 – Pinwright's Progress, British television's first situation comedy, debuts on the BBC Television Service.
• December 27 - Campus Hoopla premieres.
• Boxing From St. Nicholas Arena
• See What You Know
• You Are an Artist premieres on NBC.
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports.
• Paging You premieres.
• Muffin the Mule premieres.

  Television shows

Programs ending

Births

• January 19 – Dolly Parton, country singer and actress
• January 20 – David Lynch, director and actor, Twin Peaks
• January 24 – Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor, The Rookies, Twin Peaks
• February 1
• *Elisabeth Sladen, English actress, Doctor Who
• *Bart Braverman, actor, Vega$
• February 2 – Blake Clark, actor, Home Improvement, Boy Meets World
• February 7 – Pete Postlethwaite, English actor
• February 17 – Lynne Moody, actress, Roots
• February 20
• *Brenda Blethyn, English actress, Vera
• *Sandy Duncan, actress, The Hogan Family
• February 21 – Tyne Daly, actress, Cagney & Lacey
• March 5 – Michael Warren, actor, Hill Street Blues
• March 6 – Martin Kove, actor, Cagney & Lacey
• March 12 – Frank Welker, actor, Scooby-Doo
• March 26 – Johnny Crawford, actor, The Rifleman
• March 21 – Timothy Dalton, Welsh actor, Penny Dreadful
• April 5 – Jane Asher, English actress
• April 8 – Tim Thomerson, actor and comedian
• April 12 – Ed O'Neill, actor, Married... with Children, Modern Family
• April 19 – Tim Curry, English actor and singer, It, The Wild Thornberrys
• April 23 – Blair Brown, actress, Fringe
• May 1 – Joanna Lumley, English actress, Absolutely Fabulous
• May 9 – Candice Bergen, actress, Murphy Brown, Boston Legal
• May 20 – Cher, singer and actress, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour
• May 31 – Maeve Kinkead, soap opera actress
• June 19 – Jennifer Darling, actress, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman
• June 23 – Ted Shackelford, actor, Knots Landing
• June 28 – Gilda Radner, actress and comedian, Saturday Night Live
• July 6
• *Fred Dryer, actor, Hunter
• *Sylvester Stallone, actor
• July 7 – Joe Spano, actor, Hill Street Blues, NCIS
• July 13 – Cheech Marin, actor and comedian, Nash Bridges
• July 14 – Vincent Pastore, actor, The Sopranos
• July 22 – Danny Glover, actor and director
• July 28 – Linda Kelsey, actress, Lou Grant
• August 6 – Erika Slezak, actress, One Life to Live
• August 10 – James Reynolds, actor, Days of Our Lives
• August 14
• *Antonio Fargas, actor, Starsky & Hutch
• *Susan Saint James, actress, McMillan and Wife, Kate & Allie
• *David Schramm, actor, Wings
• August 16 – Lesley Ann Warren, actress and singer,
• August 30 – Peggy Lipton, actress, The Mod Squad, Twin Peaks
• September 25 – Felicity Kendal, English actress, Rosemary and Thyme
• September 28 – Jeffrey Jones, actor, Deadwood
• September 29 – Patricia Hodge, English actress, Miranda
• October 4 – Susan Sarandon, actress
• October 13 – Demond Wilson, actor, Sanford and Son
• October 14 – Katy Manning, English actress
• October 15 – John Getz, actor
• October 16 – Suzanne Somers, actress, Three's Company, Step by Step
• October 26 – Pat Sajak, game show host, Wheel of Fortune
• November 4 – Les Lannom, actor, musician, Harry O
• November 6
• *Sally Field, actress, Gidget, The Flying Nun, Brothers & Sisters
• *Fred Penner, actor and musician, Fred Penner's Place
• December 14 – Patty Duke, actress, The Patty Duke Show
• December 16 – Terence Knox, actor, St. Elsewhere, Tour of Duty
• December 19 – Robert Urich, actor, Vega$, Spenser for Hire
• December 23 – Susan Lucci, actress, All My Children

  Deaths

• June 14 – John Logie Baird, engineer, one of the inventors of the mechanical television, 57
• December 25 – W. C. Fields, US actor and comedian, 66