Editing 1937 in television

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{Year nav topic5|1937|television|radio|film|music}}

The year '''1937 in television''' involved some significant events.
Below is a list of television-related events during 1937.

__TOC__

==Events==
*January 19 – [[BBC Television]] broadcasts ''The Underground Murder Mystery'' by J. Bissell Thomas from its London station, the first play written for [[television]].<ref>{{cite web|first=David|last=Fisher|title=1937|work=Chronomedia|url=http://www.terramedia.co.uk/Chronomedia/years/1937.htm|publisher=Terra Media|date=2011-12-30|access-date=2014-01-13}}</ref>
*February 6 – The BBC Television service discontinues the [[John Logie Baird|Baird]] system in favour of the [[Marconi Company|Marconi]]-[[EMI]] [[405-line|405 lines]] system.
*March 9 – Experimental broadcasting from Shabolovka Ulitsa television center, in Moscow (USSR).
*May – [[Gilbert Seldes]] becomes the first television critic, with his ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' magazine article, the "Errors of Television".
*May 12 – The BBC use their [[outside broadcast]] unit for the first time, to televise the [[coronation of George VI]]. A fragment of this broadcast is one of the earliest surviving examples of British television – filmed off-screen at home by an engineer with an [[8 mm film|8 mm]] cine camera. A brief section of this footage is used in a programme during the week of the 1953 [[coronation of Elizabeth II]], and this latter programme survives in the BBC's archives.
*May 14 – The BBC broadcasts a thirty-minute excerpt of ''[[Twelfth Night]]'', the first known instance of a [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] play televised. Among the cast are [[Peggy Ashcroft]] and [[Greer Garson]].
*May 15 – [[RCA]] demonstrates projection television, with images enlarged to 8 by 10 feet, at the [[Institute of Radio Engineers]] convention.
*June 21 – [[Wimbledon Championships]] ([[tennis]]) first televised by the BBC.
*July 10 – High definition television with 455 lines is first shown in France at the International Exposition, Paris.
*September – High definition television broadcasts are sent from a new 30&nbsp;kW (peak power) transmitter below the [[Eiffel Tower]] in Paris.
*November 9 – [[Bell Telephone Laboratories]] transmits television signal of 800&nbsp;kHz bandwidth on a coaxial cable laid between New York and Philadelphia.
*November 11 ([[Armistice Day]]) – BBC Television devotes the evening to a broadcast of ''[[Journey's End]]'' by [[R. C. Sherriff]] (1928, set on the [[Western Front (World War I)]] in 1918), the first full-length television adaptation of a stage play. [[Reginald Tate]] plays the lead, Stanhope, a rôle he has performed extensively in the theatre.<ref>{{cite news|title=Televised Drama; ''Journey's End''|newspaper=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=1937-11-12|page=14}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=British Television: An Illustrated Guide|first=Tise|last=Vahimagi|year=1994|publisher=Oxford University Press; [[British Film Institute]]|isbn=0-19-818336-4|page=8}}</ref>
*November 27 – [[NBC]] in the United States broadcasts the first of six live teleplays of ''[[The Three Garridebs]]'' (based closely on [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s story "[[The Adventure of the Three Garridebs]]"), the first known [[television pilot]], in which [[Louis Hector]] becomes the first actor to play [[Sherlock Holmes]] on television.
*December 31 – By this time, 2,121 television sets have been sold in England.
*[[CBS]] announces their efforts to develop television broadcasts.

==Debuts==
* April 17 – ''[[The Disorderly Room]]'' (UK) premieres on the [[BBC One|BBC Television Service]]  (1937-1939).
* April 24 – ''[[For The Children]]'' (UK), the BBC's first programme for children, debuts (1937–1939; 1946–1950).
*April 30 – ''[[Sports Review]]'' (UK), the first regular sports programme, debuts on the [[BBC]] (1937–1939).

==Television shows==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Series
! Debut
! Ended
|-
|rowspan="2"|''[[Picture Page]]'' (UK)
|October 8, 1936
|1939
|-
|1946
|1952
|-
|rowspan="2"|''[[Starlight (TV series)|Starlight]]'' (UK)
|November 3, 1936
|1939
|-
|1946
|1949
|-
|''[[Theatre Parade]]'' (UK)
|1936
|1938
|-
|''[[The Disorderly Room]]'' (UK)
|April 17, 1937
|August 20, 1939
|-
|rowspan="2"|''[[For The Children]]'' (UK)
|April 24, 1937
|1939
|-
|July 7, 1946
|1950
|-
|''[[Sports Review]]'' (UK)
|April 30, 1937
|1939
|}

==Births==
*January 1 - [[Matt Robinson (actor)|Matt Robinson]], American actor and screenwriter, ''[[Sesame Street]]'' (d. 2002)
*January 3 - [[Glen A. Larson]], American musician and screenwriter, (d. 2014)
*January 11 - [[Felix Silla]], Italian-born actor, ''[[The Addams Family (1964 TV series)|The Addams Family]]'' (d. 2021)
*January 25 - [[Gregory Sierra]], actor, ''[[Sanford and Son]]'', ''[[Barney Miller]]'' (d. 2021)
*February 1 – [[Garrett Morris]], actor and comedian, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''
*February 2 - [[Tom Smothers]], comedian, ''[[The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]'' (d. 2023)
*February 25 - [[Bob Schieffer]], American television journalist
*February 27 - [[Barbara Babcock]], actress, ''[[Hill Street Blues]]''
*March 3 - [[Bobby Driscoll]], actor (died 1968)
*March 6 - [[Norman Coburn]], actor
*March 10 - [[Joe Viterelli]], actor (died 2004)
*March 22 - [[Angelo Badalamenti]], composer (died 2022)
*March 23 - [[Tony Burton]], actor (died 2016)
*March 30 - [[Warren Beatty]], actor
*April 1 - [[Jordan Charney]], actor
*April 6 - [[Billy Dee Williams]], actor
*April 11 - [[Jill Gascoine]], actress (d. 2020)
*April 14 - [[Paul Kangas]], anchor (d. 2019)
*April 15 - [[Frank Vincent]], actor (d. 2017)
*April 19 - [[Elinor Donahue]], actress, ''[[Father Knows Best]]''
*April 20 - [[George Takei]], actor, ''[[Star Trek]]''
*April 22 – [[Jack Nicholson]], actor
*May 2 - [[Lorenzo Music]], voice actor, ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' (d. 2001)
*May 12 - [[George Carlin]], actor (d. 2008)
*May 13 - [[Beverly Owen]], actress, ''[[The Munsters]]'' (d. 2019)
*May 16 - [[Yvonne Craig]], actress (d. 2015)
*May 28 - [[Freddie Roman]], comedian (d. 2022)
*May 30 - [[Deanna Lund]], actress, ''[[Land of the Giants]]'' (d. 2018)
*June 1 – [[Morgan Freeman]], actor, ''[[The Electric Company]]''
*June 2 – [[Sally Kellerman]], actress (d. 2022)<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chung |first1=Christine |title=Sally Kellerman, Oscar-Nominated ‘MASH’ Actress, Is Dead at 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/movies/sally-kellerman-dead.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=25 February 2022 |date=25 February 2022}}</ref>
*June 3 – [[Edward Winter (actor)|Edward Winter]], American actor and director (d. 2001)
*June 4 – [[Gorilla Monsoon]], [[WWE|WWF]] wrestler and commentator (d. 1999)
*June 10 – [[Luciana Paluzzi]], actress
*June 11 – [[Chad Everett]], actor, ''[[Medical Center (TV series)|Medical Center]]'' (d. 2012)
*June 19 – [[Pamela Lincoln]], actor (d. 2019)
*July 2 - [[Polly Holliday]], actress, ''[[Alice (American TV series)|Alice]]'', ''[[Flo (TV series)|Flo]]''
*July 5 - [[Brooke Hayward]], actress
*July 6 - [[Ned Beatty]], actor (died 2021)
*July 7 - [[Carol Nugent]], actress
*July 12 – [[Bill Cosby]], actor and comedian, ''[[Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids]]'', ''[[The Cosby Show]]''
*July 19 – [[Richard Jordan]], American actor (d. 1993)
*July 27 – [[Don Galloway]], American actor (d. 2009)
*July 28 – [[Walter Jacobson]], news personality
*August 2 – [[Billy Cannon]], football player (d. 2018)
*August 3 – [[Steven Berkoff]], actor
*August 7 – [[Barbara Windsor]], actress (d. 2020)
*August 8 – [[Dustin Hoffman]], actor
*September 6 
**[[Jo Anne Worley]], actress
**[[Sergio Aragonés]], cartoonist
*September 7 – [[John Phillip Law]], actor (d. 2008)
*September 13 – [[Fred Silverman]], producer (d. 2020)
*September 14 – [[Carol Christensen]], actress (d. 2005)
*September 26 – [[Jerry Weintraub]], voice actor (d. 2015)
*September 28 – [[Rod Roddy]], voice actor (d. 2003)
*October 2 - [[Johnnie Cochran]], lawyer (d. 2005)<ref>{{Cite news |date=2005-03-30 |title=Lead OJ Simpson trial lawyer dies |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4392577.stm |access-date=2024-07-05 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
*October 5 - [[Linda Lavin]], actress, ''[[Alice (American TV series)|Alice]]''
*October 11 - [[Ron Leibman]], actor, ''[[Archer (2009 TV series)|Archer]]'' (d. [[2019 in American television|2019]])<ref>{{cite web |last1=Genzlinger |first1=Neil |title=Ron Leibman, Tony Winner for ‘Angels,’ Is Dead at 82 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/theater/ron-leibman-dead.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=7 December 2019 |date=6 December 2019}}</ref>
*October 16 - [[Tony Anthony (actor)|Tony Anthony]], actor
*October 21 - [[Irán Eory]], Iranian-Mexican actress (d. [[2002]])
*November 4 - [[Loretta Swit]], actress, ''[[M*A*S*H (TV series)|M*A*S*H]]''
*November 10 - [[Albert Hall (actor)|Albert Hall]], actor
*November 21
**[[Ingrid Pitt]], actress (d. 2010)
**[[Marlo Thomas]], actress, ''[[That Girl]]''
*November 30 - [[Ridley Scott]], director
*December 4
**[[Max Baer Jr.]], actor, ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]''
**[[Donnelly Rhodes]], Canadian actor, ''[[Soap (TV series)|Soap]]'' (d. 2018)
*December 7 – [[Larry Hankin]], actor
*December 21 – [[Jane Fonda]], actress
*December 29 – [[Barbara Steele]], actress
*December 31 - [[Anthony Hopkins]], Welsh actor, ''[[Westworld (TV series)|Westworld]]''

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Years in TV by country|1937}}
{{Years in television}}

[[Category:1937 in television| ]]