1938 in television
Encyclopedia
The year 1938 in television involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events in 1938.
Below is a list of television-related events in 1938.
Events
- February 21 - The BBC Television ServiceBBC OneBBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
broadcasts the first ever piece of television science-fictionScience fiction on televisionScience fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
, a 35-minute adaptation of a segment of the play R.U.R. by the CzechCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
playwright Karel ČapekKarel CapekKarel Čapek was Czech writer of the 20th century.-Biography:Born in 1890 in the Bohemian mountain village of Malé Svatoňovice to an overbearing, emotional mother and a distant yet adored father, Čapek was the youngest of three siblings...
. - March 12 - First news bulletin carried by BBC television, in sound only. Previously, the service had aired British Movietone News cinema newsreelNewsreelA newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
s. - April 1 - The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race is first televised by the BBC.
- April 19 - The first televised football (soccer)Football (soccer)Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
match, EnglandEngland national football teamThe England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
v ScotlandScotland national football teamThe Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
, shown on the BBC. - April 23 - The FA CupFA CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
Final is televised for the first time by the BBC. - May 12 - W2XBS telecasts the 1937 film Return of the Scarlet PimpernelReturn of the Scarlet PimpernelThe Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a 1937 British thriller film directed by Hanns Schwarz and starring Barry K. Barnes, Sophie Stewart, Margaretta Scott and James Mason. It is a sequel to the 1934 film The Scarlet Pimpernel based on the stories by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.France, 1794. Citizen...
. The staff projectionist accidentally played the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early. NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
was 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 3 inches (76.2 mm) tube is $125–$150, 5-inch tube is $195–$250. Image only; sound apparatus is $15 more. Sets reach department stores in June.
- June - DuMontDuMont LaboratoriesDuMont Laboratories was an American television equipment manufacturer. The company was founded in 1931, by inventor Allen B. DuMont. Among the company's developments were long-lasting cathode ray tubes that would be used for television. Another product out of the lab was a DuMont invention, the...
introduces television sets in U.S. receiving both pictures and sound. $650 for a 10 by 8-in. screen, $395 for 8¼ by 6½ in. - June 24 - Test Match CricketTest cricketTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
is broadcast for the first time by the BBC, with coverage of the second test of The AshesThe AshesThe Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
series between England and AustraliaAustralian cricket teamThe Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
, live from Lord's Cricket GroundLord's Cricket GroundLord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
. - September 29 - License for W9XAT MinneapolisMinneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, granted in 1929, expires. TV doesn't return to the area for a decade. - October 26 - The first televised ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
match, Harringay RacersHarringay RacersHarringay Racers was a British ice hockey club based in Harringay, England.The side was founded in 1936 and initially played alongside Harringay Greyhounds at the Harringay Arena. Both sides entered the English National League, which Racers won in 1937/8. After a break during World War II, the...
v Streatham RedskinsStreathamStreatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
, shown on the BBC.
- November 12 - NBC's W2XBT airs what was the first telecast of an unscheduled event, a fire which broke out on Wards Island.
- John Logie BairdJohn Logie BairdJohn Logie Baird FRSE was a Scottish engineer and inventor of the world's first practical, publicly demonstrated television system, and also the world's first fully electronic colour television tube...
gives the world's first public demonstration of a colour television broadcast. The 120-line image is projected at the Dominion TheatreDominion TheatreThe Dominion Theatre is a West End theatre on Tottenham Court Road close to St Giles Circus and Centre Point Tower, in the London Borough of Camden.-History:...
, London on a 12 by 9 feet (3.7 by 2.7 m) screen in front of an audience of 3,000. - December 12 - Start of daily TV broadcasting in Moscow (USSR).
- December 31 - 9,315 television sets have been sold in England.
Television shows
| Series | Debut | Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Page Picture Page Picture Page is a British television programme, broadcast on the BBC Television Service from 1936 to 1939, and again after the service's hiatus during the Second World War from 1946 until 1952... (UK) |
October 8, 1936 | 1939 |
| 1946 | 1952 | |
| Starlight Starlight (TV series) Starlight was an early British television programme, one of the first regular series to be shown on the BBC Television Service in the 1930s... (UK) |
November 3, 1936 | 1939 |
| 1946 | 1949 | |
| Theatre Parade Theatre Parade Theatre Parade was a British television programme, one of the world's very first regular shows, running on the BBC Television Service from its inception in 1936 until 1938... (UK) |
1936 | 1938 |
| The Disorderly Room The Disorderly Room The Disorderly Room was a very early British television comedy production, written by Eric Blore and starring Tommy Handley. Blore was also an actor who played roles such as butlers in various Hollywood films, while Handley later found greater fame in the BBC radio comedy show It's That Man... (UK) |
April 17, 1937 | August 20, 1939 |
| For The Children For The Children For The Children is a British television programme, the first to be designed especially for young children of school age. First broadcast on the BBC Television Service at 3pm on Saturday 24 April 1937, for its first two years the series was only ten minutes in length... (UK) |
April 24, 1937 | 1939 |
| July 7, 1946 | 1950 | |
| Sports Review Sports Review Sports Review was an early British television programme, produced by the BBC and screened on their BBC Television Service in the late 1930s. It was the first regular sports programme to be transmitted on television.... (UK) |
April 30, 1937 | 1939 |
| Telecrime Telecrime Telecrime was a British drama series that aired on the BBC Television Service from 1938 to 1939 and in 1946. One of the first multi-episode drama series ever made, it is also one of the first television dramas written especially for television not adapted from theatre or radio... (UK) |
August 10, 1938 | July 25, 1939 |
| October 22, 1946 | November 25, 1946 |
Debuts
- August 10 – TelecrimeTelecrimeTelecrime was a British drama series that aired on the BBC Television Service from 1938 to 1939 and in 1946. One of the first multi-episode drama series ever made, it is also one of the first television dramas written especially for television not adapted from theatre or radio...
(UK), the first television crime series, debuts on the BBC (1938–1939; 1946). - December 31 – the first television adaption of Romeo And JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
is broadcast
Births
- January 8 - Bob EubanksBob EubanksRobert Leland "Bob" Eubanks is an American television/radio personality and game show host, best known for hosting the game show The Newlywed Game on and off since 1966, where he was known for using the catchphrase, "Makin' Whoopee"...
, game show host - January 13 - Billy GrayBilly Gray (actor)William Thomas "Billy" Gray , is a former American actor known primarily for his role as James "Bud" Anderson, Jr., in 193 episodes of the NBC and CBS situation comedy, Father Knows Best, which aired between 1954 and 1960. Gray's fellow cast members were Robert Young, Jane Wyatt, Elinor Donahue,...
, child actor - February 1 - Sherman HemsleySherman HemsleySherman Alexander Hemsley is an American actor, most famous for his role as George Jefferson on the CBS television series All in the Family and The Jeffersons, and as Deacon Ernest Frye on the NBC series Amen. He also played Earl Sinclair's horrifying boss, a Triceratops named B.P...
, African American actor - April 6 - Paul DanielsPaul DanielsPaul Daniels, born Newton Edward Daniels on 6 April 1938, is a British magician and television performer. He achieved international fame through his television series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran on the BBC from 1979 to 1994.-Early life:...
, magician - April 28 - Madge SinclairMadge SinclairMadge Dorita Sinclair was a Jamaican American character actress.-Early years:Sinclair was born Madge Dorita Walters in Kingston, Jamaica, to Herbert and Jemima Walters. She was a teacher in Jamaica until 1968 when she left for New York to pursue her career in acting.-Career:In 1978, she starred in...
, actress (d. 1995) - May 28 - Jerry WestJerry WestJerry Alan West is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . His nicknames include "Mr...
, basketball player - July 9 - Brian DennehyBrian DennehyBrian Mannion Dennehy is an American actor of film, stage and screen.-Early years:Dennehy was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Hannah and Edward Dennehy, who was a wire service editor for the Associated Press; he has two brothers, Michael and Edward. Dennehy is of Irish ancestry and was...
, actor - July 20 - Diana RiggDiana RiggDame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
, actress - July 29 - Peter JenningsPeter JenningsPeter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM was a Canadian American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 until his death in 2005 of complications from lung cancer...
, journalist (d. 2005) - August 6 - Peter BonerzPeter BonerzPeter Bonerz is an American actor and director who is best known as the character Dr. Jerry Robinson on The Bob Newhart Show....
, actor, director - August 29 - Elliott GouldElliott GouldElliott Gould is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s, and has remained prolific ever since. Some of his most notable films include M*A*S*H and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he received an Oscar nomination...
, actor - September 2 - Mary Jo CatlettMary Jo Catlett-Life & career:Catlett was born in Denver, Colorado, the daughter of Cornelia M. and Robert J. Catlett. She is best-known for her role as housekeeper Pearl Gallagher on Diff'rent Strokes....
, actress - September 17 - Paul BenedictPaul BenedictPaul Benedict was an American actor who made numerous appearances in television and movies beginning in the 1960s...
, actor (d. 2008) - October 18 - Dawn WellsDawn WellsDawn Elberta Wells is an American actress known for playing Mary Ann Summers on the sitcom Gilligan's Island during its run from 1964 until 1967.- Early life :...
, actress - October 22 - Christopher LloydChristopher LloydChristopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...
, actor - November 19 - Ted TurnerTed TurnerRobert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
, broadcaster