1959 in television

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The year 1959 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during that year.

Events

• January 15 – Tyne Tees Television, the Independent Television (ITV) franchise for North East England, begins broadcasting.
• February 1 - The earliest known interracial kiss on television occurs during a live performance of the play Hot Summer Night, broadcast on the British ABC program Armchair Theatre on the ITV network. The kiss was between Andrée Melly and Lloyd Reckord, the latter of whom would be featured in another early televised interracial kiss three years later in the play You in Your Small Corner.
• February 1 - Nihon Educational Television begins operating to the Kanto region, operating as a for-profit educational television station for its first year.
• March 1 – Fuji Television commences its regular operations..
• May 24 – Television Ecuatoriana, a first television station in Ecuador, a regular broadcasting service to start in Quito and Guayaquil.
• May 28 – Initiation of Lebanon's first television station, Télé Liban.
• July 13–17 – The Hate That Hate Produced introduces the Nation of Islam to most Americans.
• July 24 – The Kitchen Debate occurs in Moscow, recorded on color videotape.
• August 21 - The Catholic University of Chile begins broadcasting a partial service over Channel 2. It's the first TV station in Santiago, Chile.
• October 16 - OBXY-TV, as predecessor for Panamericana Television, Peru, a first officially regular broadcasting service to start in Lima.
• October 22 - Take a Good Look, an innovative comedy series created by Ernie Kovacs, premiered on ABC.
• October 27 – Anglia Television, the ITV franchise for Eastern England, begins broadcasting.
• October 31 – Ulster Television, the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland, begins broadcasting.
• November 22 – Sandmännchen premieres on East German television channel Deutscher Fernsehfunk. The series would continue airing today on Rundfunk Berlin–Brandenburg.
• November 29 – The Grammy Awards are first televised as part of NBC's Sunday Showcase.
• December 26 - BNT 1, a member of Bulgarian National Television, a first television station in Bulgaria, an officially regular broadcasting service start in Sofia.

Programs/programmes

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1962)
• American Bandstand (1952–1989)
• Armchair Theatre (UK) (1956–1968)
• As the World Turns (1956–2010)
• Blue Peter (UK) (1958–present)
• Bozo the Clown (1949–2001)
• Candid Camera (1948–present)
• Captain Kangaroo (1955–1984)
• Cheyenne (1955–1962)
• Come Dancing (UK) (1949–1995)
• Dixon of Dock Green (UK) (1955–1976)
• Face the Nation (1954–present)
• General Motors Presents (Can) (1953–1956, 1958–1961)
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (1946–1960)
• Grandstand (UK) (1958–2007)
• Gunsmoke (1955–1975)
• Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951–present)
• Hancock's Half Hour (1956–1962)
• Howdy Doody (1947–1960)
• I Love Lucy (1951–1960)
• Jubilee USA (1955–1960)
• KPIX Dance Party (1959–1963)
• Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963)
• Love of Life (1951–1980)
• Man with a Camera (1959–1960)
• Meet the Press (1947–present)
• Men Into Space (1959–1960)
• Opportunity Knocks (UK) (1956–1978)
• Panorama (UK) (1953–present)
• Perry Mason (1957–1966)
• Peter Gunn (1958–1961)
• Search for Tomorrow (1951–1986)
• Take a Good Look (1959-1961)
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–1966)
• The Army Game (UK) (1957–1961)
• The Bell Telephone Hour (1959-1968)
• The Brighter Day (1954–1962)
• The Donna Reed Show (1958–1966)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971)
• The Edge of Night (1956–1984)
• The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford (1956–1961)
• The Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna (1956–1960)
• The Good Old Days (UK) (1953–1983)
• The Guiding Light (1952–2009)
• The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958–1962)
• The Jack Benny Program (1950–1965)
• The Lawrence Welk Show (1955–1982)
• The Milton Berle Show (1954–1967)
• The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom (1957–1960)
• The Price Is Right (1956–1965)
• The Real McCoys (1957–1963)
• The Secret Storm (1954–1974)
• The Sky at Night (UK) (1957–present)
• The Steve Allen Show (1956–1960)
• The Texan (1958–1960)
• The Today Show (1952–present)
• The Tonight Show (1954–present)
• The Voice of Firestone (1949–1963)
• This Is Your Life (UK) (1955–2003)
• This Is Your Life (US) (1952–1961)
• Truth or Consequences (1950–1988)
• Walt Disney Presents (1958–1961)
• Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958–1960)
• What the Papers Say (UK) (1956–2008)
• What's My Line (1950–1967)
• Zoo Quest (UK) (1954–1964)

Debuts

• January 9 – Rawhide, CBS (1959–1966)
• January 12 – The Bell Telephone Hour on NBC (1959–1968)
• February 4 – Face to Face on BBC Television (1959–1962)
• February 12 – As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me on West Germany's ARD (1959)
• February 16 – Emergency (1959) (Australia), one of the earliest Australian dramatic TV series
• April 4
  • Charlesworth on BBC Television (1959)
  • Shell Presents (1959–1960) (Sydney and Melbourne Australia), Australian dramatic anthology series
• May 2 – Markham, featuring Ray Milland, on CBS (1959–1960)
• June 1 – Juke Box Jury on BBC Television (1959–1967, 1979, 1989–1990)
• September 12 – Bonanza on NBC, the first weekly television series broadcast completely in color (1959–1973)
• September 15 – Laramie on NBC (1959–1963)
• September 20 – NBC Sunday Showcase on NBC (1959–1960)
• September 30 – Men Into Space on CBS (1959–1960)
• October 2 – Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone debuts on CBS (1959–1964)
• October 4
  • Dennis the Menace on CBS (1959–1963)
  • The Rebel on ABC (1959–1961)
• October 5 – Bourbon Street Beat on ABC (1959–1960)
• October 7 – Hawaiian Eye on ABC (1959–1963)
• October 15 - The Untouchables on ABC (1959–1963)
• Adelaide Tonight – 1959–1973 (Adelaide, Australia)
• Bandwagon (1959–1960) (Melbourne, Australia, on HSV-7)
• The Bert Newton Show (1959–1960) (Melbourne, Australia, on GTV-9)
• The Bobby Limb Show (1959–1964) (Australia) (changed title in 1961 to The Mobil-Limb Show)
• Club Seven (1959–1961) (Melbourne, Australia)
• Tales of the Riverbank premieres (1959–1963).
• Rocky And His Friends Jay Ward's Second series (1959-1964).
• The Quick Draw McGraw Show on Syndication (1959-1962)

Ending this year

Date	Show	Debut
January 13	Jack Wyatt's Confession	1958
January 23	Our Mutual Friend
January 26	Quatermass and the Pit
April 24	Your Hit Parade	1950
June 22	The Restless Gun	1957
June 25	Dragnet	1951
	Mickey Mouse Club	1955
	State Trooper	1956

Births

Date	Name	Notability
January 5	Clancy Brown	Actor (Mr. Krabs on SpongeBob SquarePants)
January 31	Anthony LaPaglia	Australian actor (Without a Trace)
February 3	Fredric Lehne	Actor (Mancuso, F.B.I.)
February 11	Bradley Cole	Actor (Guiding Light)
February 18	Jayne Atkinson	English-American actress (24)
February 22	Kyle MacLachlan	Actor (Twin Peaks, Desperate Housewives)
February 24	Beth Broderick	Actress (The 5 Mrs. Buchanans, Sabrina the Teenage Witch)
March 6	Tom Arnold	Actor and comedian (The Best Damn Sports Show Period)
March 7	Donna Murphy	Actress and singer
March 9	Tom Amandes	Actor (Everwood)
March 14	Tamara Tunie	Actress (As the World Turns, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
April 3	David Hyde Pierce	Actor (Niles Crane on Frasier)
April 4	Phil Morris	Actor (Seinfeld, Smallville)
April 15	Thomas F. Wilson	Actor, voice actor
April 17	Sean Bean	English actor (Sharpe, Game of Thrones)
April 23	Dan Frischman	Actor (Head of the Class)
April 24	Paula Yates	English television presenter (died 2000)
May 3	Ben Elton	English comedian and writer (Blackadder)
May 7	Michael E. Knight	Actor (All My Children)
May 10	Victoria Rowell	Actress (The Young and the Restless, Diagnosis: Murder)
May 20	Bronson Pinchot	Actor (Balki Bartokomous on Perfect Strangers)
May 22	Andrea Thompson	Actress
May 29	Rupert Everett	English actor
June 11	Hugh Laurie	English actor (Jeeves and Wooster, Dr. Gregory House on House)
June 15	Eileen Davidson	Actress (Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills)
June 26	Mark McKinney	Actor and comedian (The Kids in the Hall, Superstore)
June 30	Vincent D'Onofrio	Actor (Law & Order: Criminal Intent)
July 7	Billy Campbell	Actor (Once and Again)
July 8	Robert Knepper	Actor (Prison Break, Heroes)
July 26	Kevin Spacey	Actor (Wiseguy, House of Cards)
	Tom McGowan	Actor (Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, The War at Home)
August 2	Victoria Jackson	Actress (Saturday Night Live)
August 3	John C. McGinley	Actor (Scrubs)
August 13	Danny Bonaduce	Actor (The Partridge Family)
August 14	Marcia Gay Harden	Actress (Pollock, Code Black)
August 18	June Angela	Actress (The Electric Company)
September 11	John Hawkes	Actor (Deadwood, Eastbound & Down)
September 13	Chris Hansen	Television journalist (Dateline NBC)
September 14	Mary Crosby	Actress (Dallas)
September 19	Carolyn McCormick	Actress (Law & Order)
September 21	Dave Coulier	Actor (Joey Gladstone on Full House)
September 23	Jason Alexander	Actor (George Costanza on Seinfeld)
September 27	Stephen Caffrey	Actor (Tour of Duty)
October 3	Jack Wagner	Actor (The Bold and the Beautiful)
October 8	Nick Bakay	Actor (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Angry Beavers)
October 10	Julia Sweeney	Actress (Saturday Night Live)
	Bradley Whitford	Actor (The West Wing)
October 13	Marie Osmond	Actress and singer (Donny & Marie)
October 17	Norm Macdonald	Actor and comedian (Saturday Night Live, Mike Tyson Mysteries)
October 23	"Weird Al" Yankovic	Music parodist
October 26	François Chau	American-Cambodian actor (Lost)
November 10	Mackenzie Phillips	Actress (One Day at a Time)
November 12	Vincent Irizarry	Soap opera actor
November 19	Allison Janney	Actress (The West Wing, Mom)
November 26	Jamie Rose	Actress (Falcon Crest)
November 28	Judd Nelson	Actor (Suddenly Susan)
December 5	Connie Needham	Actress (Eight is Enough)
December 13	Johnny Whitaker	Actor (Family Affair)
December 16	Alison LaPlaca	Actress (Duet)
December 30	Tracey Ullman	Actress, comedian (The Tracey Ullman Show)
December 31	Val Kilmer	Actor

Deaths

Date	Name	Age	Notability
March 6	Lou Costello	52	Actor and comedian (The Abbott and Costello Show)
June 16	George Reeves	45	Actor (Superman on Adventures of Superman)
December 6	Len Doyle	66	Actor (Investigator Harrigan on Mr. District Attorney)