1946 in television

The year 1946 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 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 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 and viewers, although Time magazine calls it "as blurred as an early Chaplin movie."
• February 25 – The prewar U.S. 18-channel VHF allocation is officially dropped 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 frequency and none have the same number as before.
• April 22 – CBS transmits a Technicolor movie short and color slides over coaxial cable from Manhattan to Washington (332 kilometers) and return.
• June 7 – The BBC Television Service begins broadcasting again. 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 fight to that date.
• July 7 – The BBC's children's programme For The Children returns, 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 For the Children. He is so popular he is given his own show later in that same year.
• October 2 – The first television network soap opera, Faraway Hill, airs on the DuMont Network.
• October 22 – Telecrime, the first television crime series from the 1930s, returns for the final run on the BBC, retitled Telecrimes.
• December 24 – The first church service is telecast, Grace Episcopal Church in New York, on WABD.
• Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo founded, 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 in the evening in 1946. DuMont ran 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 ran 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 RCA, DuMont, Crosley, and Belmont

Debuts

• May 9 – The first regularly scheduled American variety show, Hour Glass, premieres on NBC (1946–1947).
• September 24 – Play the Game (1946)
• November 2 – Kaleidoscope (UK) (1946–1953).
• November 29 – Pinwright's Progress (UK), British television's first sitcom, debuts on the BBC Television Service (1946–1947).
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1946–1960).
• Cash and Carry premieres on the DuMont network (1946–1947).
• Campus Hoopla premieres (1946–1947).
• Face to Face premieres on NBC (1946–1947).
• I Love to Eat premieres on NBC (1946–1947).
• Let's Rhumba premieres on NBC (1946–1947).
• Serving Through Science premieres on DuMont (1946–1947).
• Paging You premieres (1946–1948).
• Television Screen Magazine premieres on NBC (1946–1949).
• You Are an Artist premieres on NBC (1946–1950).
• Muffin the Mule (UK) premieres (1946–1955).
• Faraway Hill, the first network-televised soap opera, debuts on DuMont.

Television shows

Ending this year

• November 25 – Telecrime (UK) (1938–1939; 1946).
• December 17 – Play the Game (1946)

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 14 – 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, comedienne, 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
• October 4 – Susan Sarandon, 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