1951 in television

Events

• March 22 – RCA introduces an eight-pound monochrome television camera with a 53-pound backpack transmitter, both operated by batteries. It is the first portable television camera.
• May 28 – Then US Supreme Court upholds the Federal Communications Commission's approval of the CBS color television system.
• May 31 – Nederlandse Televisie Stichting, as predecessor of Nederlandse Omroep Stichting Televisie, a first regular television broadcasting service start in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• June 25 – CBS presents its first commercial color telecast featuring Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, and Faye Emerson.
• June – RCA demonstrates its new electronic color system.
• August 11 – The first baseball game is televised in color, a double-header between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves.
• September 4 – The first live transcontinental television broadcast occurs in San Francisco, California from the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference.
• September 29
• *The first live sporting event broadcast coast-to-coast, a college football game between Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh, is televised by NBC.
• *CBS broadcasts the first American football game in color, between the University of California and the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia.
• October 2 – Danish language television station, DR1, first launched in Copenhagen.
• October 3 – The first live coast-to-coast network telecast of a World Series baseball game.
• October 12 – The Holme Moss transmitter is initiated in Northern England, making BBC Television available to the region for the first time.
• October 17 – Television broadcasts begin in Argentina from Primera Televisora Argentina on channel 7, Buenos Aires.
• October 20 – The CBS Eye logo makes its television debut.
• November 11 – Bing Crosby Enterprises demonstrates black-and-white video recording using a modified Ampex tape recorder.
• November 18 – Edward R. Murrow on See It Now presents a split screen view of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. It has erroneously been referred to as the first live transcontinental telecast.
• December – TV Tupi in São Paulo begins broadcasting Sua Vida Me Pertence starring Vida Alves, pioneering the telenovela genre.
• December 24 – The first televised opera composed for television, Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti, is broadcast by NBC.
• Ernie Kovacs' Time for Ernie and Ernie in Kovacsland television series premiere. Kovacs explores the boundaries of television technology with his use of camera tricks and special effects.

  Programs/programmes

Debuts

• January 3 – Dragnet, crime drama, on NBC
• January 8 - Say It with Acting, game show, on NBC.
• March 3 – Watch Mr. Wizard on NBC
• March 12 - Miss Susan, soap opera on NBC
• June 2 - The daytime version of A Date with Judy debuts on ABC.
• June 16 – Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, variety show, with Faye Emerson and Skitch Henderson, on CBS
• July 6 – Front Page Detective debuts on Dumont.
• July 16 – A British version of the What's My Line?, game show, on BBC
• August 3 - The Ad-Libbers, comedy sketch game show, on CBS.
• August 3 - Tales of Tomorrow, a science fiction anthology series on ABC
• September 3 – The first long-running soap opera, Search for Tomorrow, on CBS
• September 11 - The Bill Goodwin Show, a talk/variety program on NBC.
• September 24 – Love of Life on CBS
• October 15 – Situation comedy I Love Lucy, starring Lucille Ball with her real-life husband, Desi Arnaz, on CBS ; produced on film in front of a studio audience, using three film cameras, instead of being broadcast live, and making Ball the world's first major female television star
• October 28 - Out There, a science fiction program on CBS
• Television version of Amos & Andy
• The Roy Rogers Show, on NBC, starring Roy Rogers and his wife, Dale Evans
• Hallmark Hall of Fame

  Ending during 1951

Births