1938 in television

Events

• February 11 – BBC Television in England broadcasts the first ever television science-fiction, a 35-minute adaptation of a segment of the play R.U.R. by the Czech playwright Karel Čapek.
• March 12 – First news bulletin aired by BBC television, in sound only. Previously, the service had broadcast British Movietone News cinema newsreels.
• April 1 – The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is first televised by the BBC.
• April 19 – The first televised association football match, England vs. Scotland, shown by the BBC.
• April 23 – The FA Cup Final is televised for the first time by the BBC.
• May 12 – W2XBS telecasts the 1937 film Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The staff projectionist accidentally plays the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early. NBC is unable to obtain the rights to first run movies for many years to follow.
• May 14 – The first quiz show, Spelling Bee, is televised by the BBC.
• May – Communicating Systems, Inc. of New York introduces the first electronic television sets available to the general public in the U.S. Model with tube is $125–$150, 5-inch tube is $195–$250. Image only; sound apparatus is $15 more. Sets become available in department stores in June.
• June – DuMont, an electronics company, introduces television sets in the US, receiving both pictures and sound. $650 for a 10 by 8-in. screen, $395 for 8¼ by 6½ in.
• June 7 - An excerpt from Susan and God was the first Broadway play with its original cast to be broadcast on television. Station W2XBS used exact replicas of the stage sets, with Nancy Coleman, Gertrude Lawrence, and Paul McGrath appearing on the broadcast.
• June 24 – Test Match Cricket is broadcast for the first time by the BBC, with coverage of the second test of The Ashes series between England and the Australian team, live from Lord's Cricket Ground.
• September 29 – License for W9XAT Minneapolis, Minnesota, granted in 1929, expires. Television does not resume in the area for a decade.
• October 26 – The first televised ice hockey match, Harringay Racers vs. Streatham Redskins, shown by the BBC.
• November - Due to freak atmospheric conditions, a BBC TV broadcast is received in New York City. A film camera is used to record the silent images which included the performance of a play, a cartoon, and other matter. A four-minute excerpt from this filmed recording survives and is, as of 2014, considered the only surviving example of a pre-war BBC television transmission.
• November 12
• *NBC's W2XBS broadcasts what is the first telecast of an unscheduled event, a fire on Wards Island near Manhattan.
• *John Logie Baird gives the world's first public demonstration of a colour television broadcast. The 120-line image is projected at the Dominion Theatre, London on a 12 by 9 feet screen in front of an audience of 3,000 people.
• December 12 – Start of daily television broadcasting in Moscow.
• December 31 – 9,315 television sets are sold in England.

  Television shows

Debuts

• August 10 – Telecrime, the first television crime series, debuts on the BBC.
• December 31 – the first television adaption of Romeo and Juliet is broadcast

  Programs ending during 1938

Births

• January 8 – Bob Eubanks, game show host
• January 13 – Billy Gray, actor, Father Knows Best
• February 1 – Sherman Hemsley, actor, The Jeffersons
• February 20 - Richard Beymer, actor, Twin Peaks
• March 9 - Charles Siebert, actor, director, Trapper John, M.D.
• April 6
• *Paul Daniels, magician
• *Roy Thinnes, actor, The Invaders
• April 20 - Tamási Eszter, Hungarian television announcer and actress
• April 28 – Madge Sinclair, actress
• May 24 - Tommy Chong, American-Canadian actor, comedian, That '70s Show
• June 2 - Ron Ely, actor, Tarzan
• June 5 - Howard Platt, actor, Sanford and Son
• June 27 - Ene Riisna, Estonian-American television producer
• July 9 – Brian Dennehy, actor
• July 20 – Diana Rigg, actress, The Avengers
• July 29 – Peter Jennings, journalist
• July 30 - Michael Bell, actor, voice actor
• August 6 – Peter Bonerz, actor, director, The Bob Newhart Show
• August 8 - Connie Stevens, actress, Hawaiian Eye
• August 19 - Diana Muldaur, actress, L.A. Law,
• August 28 - Marla Adams, actress, The Secret Storm, The Young and the Restless
• August 29 – Elliott Gould, actor
• September 2 – Mary Jo Catlett, actress, Diff'rent Strokes, SpongeBob SquarePants
• September 17 – Paul Benedict, actor, The Jeffersons
• October 18 – Dawn Wells, actress, Gilligan's Island
• October 22 – Christopher Lloyd, actor, Taxi
• October 27 - Lara Parker, actress, Dark Shadows
• November 19 – Ted Turner, network executive
• December 6 - Patrick Bauchau, actor, The Pretender, House, M.D.
• December 14 - Hal Williams, actor, Sanford and Son, 227
• December 18 - Roger E. Mosley, actor, Magnum, P.I.
• December 29 - Jon Voight, actor, Ray Donovan