1954 in television
Overview of the events of 1954 in television
The year 1954 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television -related events in 1954.
Events
January 1 – NBC broadcasts the Rose Parade from Pasadena, California in NTSC color. The broadcast uses a new mobile color TV studio (truck) and the program is carried across the continent on 21 stations. RCA strategically places Color TV sets in public viewing areas such as hotel lobbies because the first sets only become available to the public in the spring.
January 3 – Programma Nazionale began transmissions in Italy , making it the first TV network in Italian television.
January 5 – WAYS-TV, predecessor of WCCB , signed on the air. It was North Carolina's second UHF station (after WNAO-TV in Raleigh ), as well as the second television station in the Charlotte market.
January 10 – CBMT opens in Montreal , making that city the first in Canada to have 2 stations operating. The new station uses the English language, leaving CBFT to continue entirely in French.
January 11 – The first weather forecast with an in-vision presenter is televised in the UK .
January 12 – Experimental television begins in Norway .
February 28 – Telma became the first television station in Morocco. It was closed down after 15 months on the air and was left without an official TV station until 1962.
March 28 – WKAQ-TV became the first television station in Puerto Rico .
April – The American Broadcasting Company broadcasts the Army-McCarthy hearings live and in their entirety.
May 1
May 17–23 – One week (the so-called "Sandrewsveckan" or "Sandrews week") of experimental television broadcasts are aired in Sweden, the first such programs in the country.
June 5 – The last new episode of the comic variety program, Your Show of Shows , airs.
June 6 – The Eurovision network makes its first official transmission: it broadcasts the Narcissus Festival in Montreux , Switzerland, followed by an evening program from Rome, including a tour of the Vatican City , an address from Pope Pius XII and an apostolic blessing .[1] [2]
June 13 – Canal Nacional, predecessor of Canal 1 , launched as the first Colombian television station.
July 5 – First actual news bulletin, News and Newsreel , aired on BBC Television , replacing Television Newsreel .
September 11 – The Miss America Beauty Contest airs for the first time on national television in the United States . 27 million viewers watched as Lee Ann Meriwether wins the title. Meriwether would later become a television actress, co-starring in Barnaby Jones (1973–1980).
September 16 – CBET-DT began transmissions as CKLW-TV at 2:50 p.m., it was the first television station in Windsor.
September 26 – WCAX-TV signs on the air as WMVT, making it the first television station in Vermont.
October 2 – The Jimmy Durante Show premieres on NBC (1954–1956).
October 29 – Sveriges Radio begins broadcasting TV in Sweden and apart from news and a weather forecast, the first Swedish TV programme is "En skål för televisionen" ("A Toast to Television") led by Lennart Hyland . For the first few months (until spring 1955), Swedish TV is broadcast one evening a week and for about an hour each time.
November 3 – Disney 's Alice in Wonderland airs on ABC in the United States.
November 6 – LTV began broadcasting for the first time in Latvia and the oldest in the Baltic countries .
November 19 – Télé Monte-Carlo launched in Monaco , the first microstate to have a television network.
December 12 – BBC Television broadcasts its famous, and controversial, adaptation of George Orwell 's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four .[3]
The Television Act 1954 authorises setting up the infrastructure for British commercial television.
The British Academy Television Awards , the most prestigious awards of the British television industry, are first awarded.
The RCA CT-100 and Westinghouse 15" color sets hit the market. Neither are big sellers.
Programs/programmes
Series on the air in 1954
Debuts
January 1 – Annie Oakley (1954–1957)
January 4 – The Brighter Day (1954–1962)
January 23 – Stories of the Century (1954–1955)
February 1 - The Secret Storm (1954–1974)
March 11 – The Public Defender on CBS (1954–1955)
April 2 – The Grove Family , on BBC Television (1954–1957); generally considered the first British TV soap opera
April 8 – Justice on NBC (1954–1956)
April 18 – The Martha Wright Show on ABC
April 26 – The Tony Martin Show on NBC
July 5 - Concerning Miss Marlowe on NBC.
July 16 - The Best in Mystery on NBC. (1954)
August 5 – So You Want to Lead a Band on ABC (1954–1955)
August 28 – The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan on NBC (1954–1955)
September 7
September 10 – Dear Phoebe on NBC (1954–1955)
September 12 – Lassie on CBS (1954–1973)
September 18 – Willy on CBS (1954–1955)
September 27 – The Tonight Show on NBC (1954–present)
October 2
October 3 - Father Knows Best on CBS (1954-60)
October 5 - The Elgin Hour on ABC (1954-1955)
October 7 – The Mail Story , subtitled Handle with Care , on ABC (1954)
October 14 – Flash Gordon (1954–1955), starring Steve Holland
October 15 – The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin on ABC (1954–1959)
October 21 – The CBS anthology series , Climax! (1954–1958) airs an adaptation of Ian Fleming 's novel, Casino Royale , starring Barry Nelson as an Americanized version of spy James Bond ; the first dramatic adaptation of a Bond novel
October 22 - The Jack Carson Show on NBC (1954-1955)
October 27 – The Walt Disney anthology series debuts as Disneyland (1954–present; as Disneyland 1954–1958)
November 13 – Fabian of the Yard , the first British TV police procedural , debuts on BBC (1954–1956)
December 21 – Zoo Quest on BBC Television (1954–1964)
Face the Nation on CBS (1954–present)
The Jo Stafford Show , a 15-minute primetime variety series, on CBS (1954–1955)
The National premieres as The National News on CBC (1954–present)
That's My Boy on CBS
Ending this year
Births
Date
Name
Notability
January 2
Cynthia Sikes Yorkin
Actress (St. Elsewhere )
January 5
Alex English
NBA basketball player
January 6
Trudie Styler
Actress
January 7
Jodi Long
Actress
January 8
Jerry Vivino
American musician
January 12
Howard Stern
Radio and TV personality (America's Got Talent )
January 19
Katey Sagal
Actress and singer (Married... with Children , Futurama , Sons of Anarchy )
January 24
William Allen Young
Actor (Moesha )
January 27
Ed Schultz
Talk show host and sportscaster (d. 2018)
Adrian Taylor
Producer (d. 2014)
January 28
Simon Templeman
Actor
January 29
Oprah Winfrey
Actress and talk-show host (The Oprah Winfrey Show )
February 1
Bill Mumy
Actor and musician (Lost in Space )
February 2
Christie Brinkley
Model and actress
February 6
David Hart
Actor (In the Heat of the Night )
February 9
René Balcer
Writer
February 15
Matt Groening
Creator of The Simpsons and Futurama
February 17
Rene Russo
Actress
February 18
John Travolta
Actor (Welcome Back, Kotter )
John Mankiewicz
Director
February 20
Anthony Head
English actor (Buffy the Vampire Slayer )
Patty Hearst
Actress
March 1
Catherine Bach
Actress (Daisy Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard )
Ron Howard
Actor (Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show , Richie Cunningham on Happy Days ) and director
March 3
Robert Gossett
Actor
March 4
Catherine O'Hara
Actress
March 5
Marsha Warfield
Actress and comedian (Night Court )
Marla Pennington
Actress (Small Wonder )
March 9
Michele Marsh
Journalist (d. 2017)
Martin P. Robinson
Puppeteer
Kevin Wade
Producer
March 12
Eugene Robinson
Journalist
March 13
Robin Duke
Canadian actress and comedian (Saturday Night Live )
March 14
Adrian Zmed
Actor (T.J. Hooker )
March 15
Craig Wasson
Actor (One Life to Live )
March 17
Lesley-Anne Down
Actress (The Bold and the Beautiful )
March 24
Donna Pescow
Actress and director (Out of This World , Even Stevens )
Robert Carradine
Actor (Lizzie McGuire )
March 29
Dianne Kay
Actress (Eight is Enough )
April 3
Glenn Gordon Caron
Writer
April 7
Jackie Chan
Hong Kong-born Chinese actor, filmmaker, martial artist and stuntman
April 9
Dennis Quaid
Actor
April 10
Peter MacNicol
Actor (Chicago Hope , Ally McBeal , Numb3rs )
Deborah Rush
Actress
April 16
Ellen Barkin
Actress
April 17
Roddy Piper
Actor (d. 2015)
April 18
Cynthia Ettinger
Actress
April 21
James Morrison
Actor (24 )
Janet Zarish
Actress
April 28
John Pankow
Actor (Mad About You , Episodes )
April 29
Jerry Seinfeld
Actor and comedian (Seinfeld )
April 30
Thom Bray
Actor (Riptide )
David Bohrman
American news executive (died 2023)
May 8
Pam Arciero
American voice artist
David Keith
American actor
Stephen Furst
American actor (Babylon 5 , Buzz Lightyear of Star Command , St. Elsewhere ) (d. 2017)[6]
May 10
Mike Hagerty
Actor (d. 2022)
May 15
John Blyth Barrymore
Actor
May 18
Patrick St. Esprit
Actor
May 21
Janice Karman
Actress
Jean Kasem
Actress
May 28
Townsend Coleman
Actor (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , The Tick )
June 2
Dennis Haysbert
Actor (24 , The Unit )
June 5
Nancy Stafford
Actress (Matlock )
June 7
Bobby Di Cicco
Actor
June 10
Rich Hall
Writer
June 11
Greta Van Susteren
Television news anchor
June 12
Ella Joyce
Actress (Roc )
June 14
Kim Lankford
Actress (Knots Landing )
Will Patton
Actor
June 15
Jim Belushi
Actor (According to Jim )
June 17
Mark Linn-Baker
Actor (Larry Appleton on Perfect Strangers )
June 22
Chris Lemmon
Actor (Duet )
Freddie Prinze
Actor and comedian (Chico and the Man ) (d. 1977)
June 28
Alice Krige
Actress
July 2
Wendy Schaal
Actress (It's a Living , American Dad! )
July 5
Don Stark
Actor (That '70s Show )
Debra McGrath
Actress
July 7
Ron Jones
Composer
July 9
Kevin O'Leary
Television personality
July 10
Lee David Zlotoff
Producer
July 13
Danitra Vance
Actress and comedian (Saturday Night Live ) (d. 1994)
July 19
Mark O'Donnell
Writer (d. 2012)
Steve O'Donnell
Writer
July 22
Dianne Houston
Screenwriter
July 28
Bruce Abbott
Actor
Andrew Adelson
Producer
July 29
Jeannetta Arnette
Actress (Head of the Class )
July 30
Ken Olin
Actor, director and producer (thirtysomething , Brothers & Sisters )
July 31
Rainer Bock
Actor
August 2
Lisa Brown
Actress (d. 2021)
August 12
Sam J. Jones
Actor
August 16
James Cameron
Canadian filmmaker
August 20
Al Roker
American weather presenter
August 23
Marc Vann
Actor (Early Edition , Angel , CSI: Crime Scene Investigation )
August 30
Jim Vallely
Writer
September 2
Vance DeGeneres
Actor
September 7
Corbin Bernsen
Actor and director (L.A. Law , Psych )
Michael Emerson
Actor (Lost , Person of Interest )
September 8
Anne Diamond
Television presenter (The Wright Stuff )
Joe Cipriano
Voice actor
September 10
Clark Johnson
Actor (Homicide: Life on the Street , The Wire )
September 11
Reed Birney
Actor
September 14
Barry Shabaka Henley
Actor
Michael Patrick King
American director, writer, and producer of television and film
September 15
Barry Shabaka Henley
Actor
September 16
Mark McEwen
TV host
September 21
John Mengatti
Actor (The White Shadow )
September 22
Shari Belafonte
Actress (Hotel ), daughter of Harry Belafonte
September 29
Cindy Morgan
Actress (Falcon Crest ) (d. 2023)
September 30
Barry Williams
Actor (The Brady Bunch )
Patrice Rushen
Singer
October 1
Richard Schlesinger
Journalist
October 2
Lorraine Bracco
Actress
October 3
Al Sharpton
Civil rights activist
October 9
Scott Bakula
Actor (Quantum Leap , Star Trek: Enterprise , NCIS: New Orleans )
John O'Hurley
Actor
October 14
Elizabeth Sung
Actress (d. 2018)
October 15
Ingrid Tarrant
Wife of Chris Tarrant
Jere Burns
Actor
October 18
Arliss Howard
Actor
October 24
Doug Davidson
Actor (The Young and the Restless )
October 26
D. W. Moffett
Actor (For Your Love , Friday Night Lights , Switched at Birth )
James Pickens, Jr.
Actor (The X-Files , Grey's Anatomy )
November 3
Kathy Kinney
Actress and comedian (The Drew Carey Show )
November 6
Catherine Crier
American journalist
November 7
Gil Junger
Director
November 12
Rhonda Shear
TV personality, actress
November 13
Chris Noth
Actor (Law & Order , Sex and the City , The Good Wife )
November 14
Yanni
Composer
November 15
Kevin S. Bright
Producer
November 19
Kathleen Quinlan
Actress
November 23
Bruce Hornsby
Composer
November 24
Emir Kusturica
Actor
November 27
Patricia McPherson
Actress (Knight Rider )
Kimmy Robertson
Actress (Twin Peaks )
November 28
Marty Grabstein
Actor (Courage the Cowardly Dog )
December 1
Bob Goen
Game show host
Alan Dedicoat
English announcer
December 2
Dan Butler
Actor (Frasier , Hey Arnold! )
Patty Petersen
Actress
Stone Phillips
American television reporter
December 4
Tony Todd
Actor and producer
December 7
Priscilla Barnes
Actress (Three's Company )
December 10
Jeff Fager
American producer
December 18
Ray Liotta
Actor (d. 2022)
December 20
Michael Badalucco
Actor (The Practice )
December 26
Tony Rosato
Actor (Saturday Night Live , The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 , Super Mario World ) (d. 2017)
December 28
Gayle King
Television personality
Denzel Washington
Actor (St. Elsewhere , Malcolm X , Training Day )
Lanny Poffo
Actor (d. 2023)
Deaths
Television debuts
References