1958 in television

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This is a list of television-related events in 1958.

Years in film: 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
Years in television: 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961
Centuries: 19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades: 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
Years: 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961

Contents

[edit] Events

  • January 14 - TWW, the ITV franchise for South Wales and West of England, goes on air.
  • 17 February 1958 - Pope Pius XII designates St. Clare of Assisi the patron saint of television. Thereafter, placing her icon on a television set was said to improve reception.[1]
  • July 1 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation links television broadcasting across Canada. The CBC's microwave network between Nova Scota and British Columbia, completed this year, makes it the longest in the world.
  • August 30 - Southern Television, the ITV franchise for South Central and South East England, goes on air.
  • November 28 - During the live broadcast of the Armchair Theatre play Underground on the ITV network in the UK, actor Gareth Jones dies between two of his scenes while in make-up. Director William Kotcheff is forced to improvise with his cast to carry on the play to its conclusion, with producer Sydney Newman ordering him to "shoot it like a football match".
  • Senator Estes Kefauver holds congressional hearings on the rising rates of juvenile crime and publishes an article in Reader's Digest called "Let's Get Rid of Tele-Violence."
  • Ampex demonstrates their design for a color Video Tape Recorder.
  • In the United Kingdom, the top-rated show of the year was the ITV game show Dotto, adapted from an American game show which in turn was based on children's Join the Dots puzzles.
  • The original American version of "Dotto" was the first game show to be implicated in the Scandals, and was abruptly cancelled in August.
  • Top-rated prime-time game show "Twenty One" was abruptly dropped by NBC in October after former contestant Herb Stempel charged that the show was rigged and that he had been ordered to lose a match to the popular Charles Van Doren.
  • Fall – The Scandals involving rigged network quiz shows spread, resulting in the cancellation of the original big-money game show, CBS' "The 64,000 Question", and creating havoc within the US television industry.

[edit] Debuts

[edit] Television shows

[edit] Ending this year

[edit] Births

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