1944 in television
The year 1944 in television involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events during 1944.
Events
- May 22 – The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) increases its limits for single ownership of television stations from three to five.
- May 25 – First commercial U.S. telecast by relay. Eddie Cantor is broadcast from NBC's Manhattan station WNBT to Philco's Philadelphia station WPTZ, via an automatic relay tower halfway between the two cities. (The AT&T corporation's coaxial cable between the cities is unavailable because of the war.) NBC stops broadcasting Cantor in the middle of his rendition of the song "We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me" when it finds some of the lyrics and his gestures "objectionable."
- August 16
- Paris télévision – Fernsehsender Paris stops broadcasting. Broadcasting is resumed by the new French government in October 1944 under the name Télévision française with the same technical equipment.
- John Logie Baird demonstrates the world's first color television picture tube. Color movies are shown from a flying-spot scanner.
Debuts
Television shows
Births
- January 6 – Bonnie Franklin, actress and director (died 2013)
- January 11 – Shelley Fabares, actress and singer
- January 23 – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
- February 3 – Trisha Noble, Australian singer and actress
- February 8 – Roger Lloyd-Pack, English actor (died 2014)
- February 13 – Stockard Channing, actress
- February 29 – Dennis Farina, actor (died 2013)
- March 26 – Diana Ross, singer and actress
- March 28 – Ken Howard, actor (died 2016)
- April 4 – Craig T. Nelson, actor
- April 29 – Richard Kline, actor and director
- May 14 – George Lucas, director and producer
- June 4 – Michelle Phillips, singer and actress
- July 8 – Jeffrey Tambor, actor
- July 15 – Jan-Michael Vincent, actor
- August 7 – John Glover, actor
- August 11 – Ian McDiarmid, Scottish actor
- August 13 – Kevin Tighe, actor
- September 13 – Jacqueline Bisset, English actress
- October 28 – Dennis Franz, actor
- November 17 – Danny DeVito, actor, comedian, director and producer
- December 2 – Cathy Lee Crosby, actress
- December 11 – Lynda Day George, actress
- December 17 – Bernard Hill, English actor
References