1961 in Television - Events

Events

  • January 20 – John F. Kennedy is the first U.S. president to be sworn in, in a color telecast. NBC covers the inauguration in color.
  • February 19 – CFTM-TV, future flagship of Quebec's TVA network, opens in Montreal.
  • April 29 – Westward Television, the first ITV franchise for South West England, goes on air.
  • May 5 - Alan B. Shepard, the first U.S. astronaut in space aboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft in a 15-min. suborbital flight. The launch is watched by 45 million U.S. viewers.
  • May 9 - Newton Minow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gives the "vast wasteland speech" to the National Association of Broadcasters, telling them that they could do a better job of serving "the public interest."
  • July 1 – The soap opera The Brighter Day airs its first episode after moving taping locations from New York City to Los Angeles. As a result, key character Babby Dennis and her love interest are mysteriously written out of the show; the actors who played them didn't want to move.
  • September 1 – Border Television, the ITV franchise for the English-Scottish Border and Isle of Man, goes on air.
  • September 30 – Grampian Television, the ITV franchise for North East Scotland, goes on air.
  • September – NBC begins its long-running NBC Saturday Night at the Movies participating, with an airing of the 1953 Marilyn Monroe picture How to Marry a Millionaire.
  • 1 October – CTV is launched in Canada, the first privately owned network in the country.
  • November 4 – RAI's second television channel (now called Rai Due) first airs to 52% of the available households in Italy.
  • December 15 - Sam and Friends airs their last episode, it didn't air on TV (according to Muppet Wiki).
  • December 31 – RTÉ starts television broadcasts, bringing television to the Republic of Ireland for the first time.
  • January 25 – John F. Kennedy holds the first live televised Presidential press conference.
  • Danger Man (UK) (1960–1961, 1964–1966) is cancelled due to lack of interest from Australian broadcasters. The series would be revived and revamp
  • May 29 – Dave Garroway announces his decision to leave the Today show.
  • November 19 – Lucille Ball marries Gary Morton.
  • WBNB brings television to the Virgin Islands for the first time. (It would be destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989.)

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Famous quotes containing the word events:

    “The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
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    “Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!”
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