1947 in television

Events

• January 3 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
• January 22 – The first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, KTLA, begins operation in Hollywood.
• January 29 – RCA company demonstrates an all-electronic color television system using live images, to the US Federal Communications Commission.
• January 30 – The FCC rejects CBS' color television system.
• February 10-March 11 – BBC television service in the UK is temporarily suspended due to a national fuel crisis.
• March 11 – The first successful American children's television series, Movies for Small Fry debuts on the DuMont Network.
• July 16 – RCA demonstrates the world's first all-electronic color camera to the Federal Communications Commission.
• September 30 – The opening game of the World Series is the first World Series game to be telecast. The 1947 World Series is watched by an estimated 3.9 million people, becoming television's first mass audience.
• October 5 – The first telecast of a presidential address from the White House. President Truman speaks about the world food crisis. It is preceded by a Jell-O commercial, and features the president discussing his program for food rationing. The address is televised by WTVW-TV as part of its inaugural broadcast. It is also simulcast by radio. It was long believed that no copy of this broadcast existed, but segments are preserved on kinescope in the Library of Congress.
• October 13 – The puppet show series Junior Jamboree, later known as Kukla, Fran and Ollie, premieres on WBKB in Chicago, Illinois.
• November 6 – Meet the Press first appears as a local program in Washington, D.C..
• November 8 – Memorial service broadcast from the Cenotaph by the BBC, using tele-recording for the first time.
• The first Hollywood movie production for TV, The Public Prosecutor.
• There are 250,000 television sets in use in the United States.

  Debuts

• March 11 – Small Fry Club
• April 3 – Juvenile Jury
• May – The Swift Home Service Club
• May 2 – Doorway to Fame
• May 7 – Kraft Television Theater on NBC, the first regularly scheduled drama series on a network
• May 15 – King Cole's Birthday Party
• May 21 – In the Kelvinator Kitchen
• June 16 – The Walter Compton News
• July 8 – Major League Baseball on NBC
• July 25 – Musical Merry-Go-Round
• October 13 – Junior Jamboree, on WBKB in Chicago
• October 1947 – first telecording by BBC, showing black singer Adelaide Hall performing two songs with chorus and her guitar
• November 18 – situation comedy Mary Kay and Johnny on Dumont network
• November 19 – Missus Goes a Shopping debuts on CBS, becoming that network's first commercial daytime series.
• November 20 – Meet the Press, first network telecast on NBC
• November 27 – Charade Quiz
• November – Swing Into Sports
• December 4 – Television Playhouse
• December 8 – Americana
• December 27 – Puppet Television Theater, a children's television program on NBC
• The Jack Eigen Show
• Café Continental

  Television shows

Ending this year

Births

• January 8 – Laurie Walters, actress
• January 17 - Jane Elliot, actress
• January 21 - Jill Eikenberry, actress
• January 31 - Glynn Turman, actor
• February 2 – Farrah Fawcett, actress
• February 3 - Tonea Stewart, actress
• February 20 – Peter Strauss, actor
• February 24 – Edward James Olmos, actor
• February 28 - Stephanie Beacham, actress
• March 1 – Alan Thicke, actor
• March 6 – Rob Reiner, actor, producer and director
• March 25 - Elton John, English singer, pianist and composer
• April 4 - Luke Halpin, actor
• April 6 – John Ratzenberger, actor
• April 12 – David Letterman, comedian and talk show host
• April 18
• *Dorothy Lyman, actress
• *Cindy Pickett, actress
• *James Woods, actor
• April 19 - Jeff Maxwell, actor
• April 23 – Blair Brown, actress
• May 6 - Alan Dale, actor
• May 10 - Marion Ramsey, actress and singer
• May 25 - Karen Valentine, actress
• May 29 - Anthony Geary, actor
• June 20 - Paul Kreppel, actor and director
• June 21
• * Meredith Baxter, actress
• * Michael Gross, actor
• June 22 – David Lander, comedic actor
• June 25 - Jimmie Walker, actor
• June 29 - Richard Lewis, comedian and actor
• July 1 - Shirley Hemphill, comedian and actress
• July 2 – Larry David, actor, writer and producer
• July 3 – Betty Buckley, actress and singer
• July 22 – Albert Brooks, actor, comedian and director
• July 23 - Larry Manetti, actor
• July 27 - Betty Thomas, actress
• July 28 - Sally Struthers, actress
• July 30 - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austrian-born American actor, bodybuilder and 38th governor of California
• August 8 - Larry Wilcox, actor
• August 19 - Gerald McRaney, actor
• August 20 - Ray Wise, actor
• August 22 - Cindy Williams, actress
• August 28 - Debra Mooney, actress
• September 6 – Jane Curtin, actress and comedian
• September 27 - Liz Torres, actress
• October 1 – Stephen Collins, actor
• October 17 – Michael McKean, actor
• October 29 – Richard Dreyfuss, actor
• October 31 - Deidre Hall, actress
• November 2 - Kate Linder, actress
• November 9 - Robert David Hall, actor
• November 13 - Joe Mantegna, actor
• November 18 - Jameson Parker, actor
• November 24 – Dwight Schultz, actor
• November 25 – John Larroquette, actor
• December 11 – Teri Garr, actress
• December 29 – Ted Danson, actor
• December 31 – Tim Matheson, actor

  Deaths

• February 26 – Kálmán Tihanyi, Hungarian physicist, major contributor to the development of the cathode ray tube, 49