1963 in television

Events

• January 13 – BBC Television broadcasts the play Madhouse on Castle Street in the Sunday-Night Theatre series. The play co-stars a young American folk music singer named Bob Dylan.
• April 1 – German terrestrial channel ZDF begins broadcasting.
• May 15 – First television pictures transmitted from a US manned space capsule. Due to the poor picture quality, only NBC carries the transmission, and on tape-delay, not live.
• July 22 – Bob Crane quits his DJ job at radio station KNX to become a regular on The Donna Reed Show after dividing time between the Screen Gems TV show and the CBS Radio affiliate. Crane had been a top five morning drive radio DJ since the mid-1950s in the Los Angeles market.
• September 2 – CBS Evening News becomes network television's first half-hour weeknight news broadcast, when the show is lengthened from 15 to 30 minutes.
• September 9 – NBC also expands its evening network news program to 30 minutes.
• September 27 – The Littlest Hobo makes its debut on TV across North America with the first episode entitled "Blue Water Sailor".
• September 29 – The Judy Garland Show makes its debut on CBS.
• September 30 – BBC Television begins using a globe as its symbol. They would continue to use it in varying forms until 2002.
• October 1 – ABC News at last drops its dependence on outside sources of news film and begins to rely on its own camera crews.
• November 22 – All three major U.S. networks start pre-emptions for a week following the news of John F. Kennedy's assassination. The pre-emptions unofficially begin a few minutes after Kennedy was shot; on the top-rated American soap opera As the World Turns, Nancy Hughes was in the middle of a discussion with Grandpa about Bob's decision to invite Lisa to Thanksgiving dinner. Walter Cronkite interrupted Wagner mid-speech to deliver the bulletin. As the World Turns continued for one more scene before Cronkite cut in permanently. News of the assassination, and later the funeral procession, were the first television broadcasts across the Pacific Ocean.
• November 23 – UK BBC tv That Was The Week That Was broadcasts its famous dramatic Kennedy tribute episode. William Hartnell stars in the very first episode of Doctor Who. So many people complained of having missed it that the following Saturday episode 1 was repeated before the broadcast of episode 2.
• November 24 – Jack Ruby murders John F. Kennedy's suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald live on television.
• December 7 – Instant Replay is used for the first time during the live transmission of the Army Navy Game by its inventor, director, Tony Verna.
• For the first time, most Americans say that they get more of their news from television than newspapers.
• The television remote control is authorized by the FCC.

  Programs/programmes

• ABC's Wide World of Sports
• American Bandstand
• Armchair Theatre
• As the World Turns
• Ben Casey
• Blue Peter
• Bonanza
• Bozo the Clown
• Candid Camera
• Captain Kangaroo
• Combat!
• Come Dancing
• Coronation Street, UK
• Death Valley Days
• Dixon of Dock Green
• Doctor Who, UK
• Face the Nation
• Four Corners, Australia
• Grandstand
• Gunsmoke
• Hallmark Hall of Fame
• Have Gun Will Travel
• Hockey Night in Canada
• It's Academic
• Juke Box Jury
• Lassie
• Love of Life
• Mack & Myer for Hire
• Match Game
• Meet the Press
• Mister Ed
• My Three Sons
• Opportunity Knocks
• Panorama
• Petticoat Junction,
• Professional Bowlers Tour
• Search for Tomorrow
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
• The Amos 'n Andy Show
• The Andy Griffith Show
• The Avengers, UK
• The Bell Telephone Hour
• The Beverly Hillbillies
• The Danny Kaye Show
• The Dick Van Dyke Show
• The Donna Reed Show
• The Ed Sullivan Show
• The Edge of Night
• The Flintstones
• The Fulton Sheen Program
• The Good Old Days
• The Greatest Show on Earth
• The Guiding Light
• The Jack Benny Program
• The Jetsons
• The Judy Garland Show
• The Late Late Show, Ireland
• The Lawrence Welk Show
• The Lucy Show
• The Mike Douglas Show
• The Milton Berle Show
• The Patty Duke Show,
• The Price Is Right
• The Saint, UK
• The Secret Storm
• The Sky at Night
• The Today Show
• The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
• The Tonight Show
• The Twilight Zone
• The World Tonight, Philippines
• This Is Your Life
• Truth or Consequences
• Twelve O'Clock High
• Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
• What the Papers Say
• What's My Line
• Z-Cars, UK
• Zoo Quest

  Debuts

• January 1 – Astro Boy, on Fuji TV
• January 6 – Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on NBC
• January 7 – World in Action, investigative current affairs series, on Granada Television in Britain
• January 14 - The Magilla Gorilla Show on Syndication
• April 1 – General Hospital and The Doctors ABC and NBC respectively
• June 6 – Die fünfte Kolonne on ZDF
• August 9 – Ready Steady Go! on ITV
• September 16 – The Outer Limits on ABC
• September 17 – The Fugitive on ABC
• September 18 – The Patty Duke Show on ABC
• September 20 – Burke's Law on ABC
• September 24 – Petticoat Junction on CBS
• September 25 - The Danny Kaye Show on CBS
• September 28 - Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales on CBS
• September 29 – The Judy Garland Show and My Favorite Martian, both on CBS
• October 7 – Hafenpolizei on Deutsches Fernsehen
• October 20 – Ritorna il tenente Sheridan on Programma Nazionale
• October 27 – Memorandum van een dokter
• November 23 – Doctor Who on BBC Television ; with William Hartnell as the Doctor
• December 1 – Den tänkande brevbäraren on SVT
• December 30 - Let's Make a Deal on NBC
• The Littlest Hobo in Canada
• Mack & Myer for Hire this year in syndication

  Ending this year

Births

Deaths