1939 in television

Events

• March 4 – The BBC Television Service broadcasts one of the first television plays specially written for the medium, Condemned To Be Shot by R. E. J. Brooke, live from its London studios at Alexandra Palace. The production is notable for the use of a camera as the first-person perspective of the play's unseen main character.
• March 27 – The BBC broadcasts the entirety of Magyar Melody live from His Majesty's Theatre in London. The 175-minute broadcast is the first showing of a full-length musical by television.
• April
• *Television demonstrations are held at the 1939 New York World's Fair on Long Island and the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco.
• *RCA, General Electric, Dumont and others begin selling television sets to the public in the New York City area. Screen sizes typically range from 5 to 12 inches, and Dumont features 14-inch and 16-inch models. Prices start at $200 and go as high as $1000.
• April 30 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, appearing at the opening ceremony of the 1939 New York World's Fair, becomes the first President of the United States to give a speech that is broadcast by television.
• May 17 – The first baseball game is broadcast by television, from Baker Field in New York. Bill Stern is the announcer.
• May 19 – The Walt Disney cartoon Donald's Cousin Gus airs on NBC's experimental station W2XBS in New York. This marks the first movie cartoon to be televised in the United States.
• June 1 – The first heavyweight boxing match is televised,

• August 26
• *The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.
• *Poland broadcasts a feature film for the first time—Barbara Radziwiłłówna —using the experimental transmitter mounted atop the Prudential building in Warsaw.
• August 31 – 18,999 television sets have been sold in England before manufacture stops due to World War II.
• September 1 – The anticipated outbreak of World War II brings television broadcasting at the BBC in Britain to an end at 12:35 p.m. after the broadcast of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, Mickey's Gala Premier, various sound and vision test signals, and announcements by presenter Fay Cavendish. It is feared that the VHF waves of television would act as a homing signal for guiding enemy bombers to central London: in any case, the engineers of the television service would be needed for the war effort, particularly for development of radar. The BBC would resume its broadcasting, with the same Mickey Mouse cartoon, after the war in 1946.
• September 30 – 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game, the first televised American football game, between college teams Fordham University and Waynesburg College at Randall's Island, New York.
• October 22 – The first National Football League game is televised. The Brooklyn Dodgers vs. Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.
• November 8 – CBS television station W2XAB resumes test transmission with an all-electronic system broadcast from the top of the Chrysler Building in New York City.

  Television shows

Programs ending during 1939

Births

• January 17 – Maury Povich, talk show host
• January 22 – Jeff Smith, American chef and presenter
• February 6 – Mike Farrell, actor, M*A*S*H
• April 5 - Roger Davis, actor, Alias Smith and Jones
• April 9 - Michael Learned, actress, The Waltons
• April 11 – Louise Lasser, actress, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
• April 13 - Paul Sorvino, actor, Law & Order
• April 19 - Ellen Weston, actress, S.W.A.T.
• April 23
• *David Birney, actor, Bridget Loves Bernie
• *Lee Majors, actor, The Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy
• April 27 – Judy Carne, actress, comedian, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
• May 1
• *Mark Slade, actor, The High Chaparral
• *Max Robinson, journalist
• May 25 – Dixie Carter, actress, Designing Women
• June 1 – Cleavon Little, actor
• June 9 – Dick Vitale, sportscaster
• July 4 - Ed Bernard, actor, Police Woman, The White Shadow, Hardcastle and McCormick
• July 10 - Lawrence Pressman, actor, Doogie Howser, M.D.
• July 31 – Susan Flannery, actress, Days of Our Lives
• August 21 - Clarence Williams III, actor, The Mod Squad
• August 22 – Valerie Harper, actress, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda
• August 29 – Joel Schumacher, film director
• August 30 - William G. Schilling, actor, Head of the Class
• September 1 – Lily Tomlin, actress, comedian, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
• September 18 - Fred Willard, actor, comedian
• September 29 – Larry Linville, actor, M*A*S*H
• October 7 - Clive James, Australian-born writer, television presenter, talk show host and critic
• October 30 - Danny Goldman, actor, The Smurfs
• October 31 - Ron Rifkin, actor, Alias, Brothers & Sisters
• November 11 - Denise Alexander, actress, General Hospital
• November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, actor,
• November 20 - Dick Smothers, actor, comedian, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
• December 27 – John Amos, actor, Good Times
• December 28 - Yehoram Gaon, Israeli actor and singer