1956 in television

Events

• January 28 - Elvis Presley makes his national television debut on The Dorsey Brothers Stage Show
• April 3 - Elvis Presley appears on the Milton Berle show
• May 6 - Elvis Presley appears on the Milton Berle show
• July 1 - Elvis Presley appears on the Steve Allen show
• April - WNBQ Chicago becomes the first TV station to broadcast all its local programming in color.
• April Ampex demonstrates a videotape recorder at the NAB Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The three networks place orders for the recorders.
• August 8 - Final telecast of the DuMont network
• September 9 - Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time.
• October 1 - Ernie Kovacs becomes the host for NBC's Tonight Show on Mondays and Tuesdays.
• October 29 - First use of videotape in network television programming; CBS uses its Ampex VTR to record the evening news, anchored by Douglas Edwards[?]. The tape is then fed to West Coast stations three hours later
• October 29 - Chet Huntley[?] and David Brinkley take over anchor duties of the NBC evening newscast, which is renamed The Huntley-Brinkley Report
• November - The first use of videotape on a network television entertainment program; Jonathan Winters, uses videotape and superimposing techniques to be able to play two characters in the same skit for his NBC television show
• Television broadcasting begins in Australia
• Television broadcasting begins in Uruguay
• Black-and-white portable TV sets hit the market

Popular Television Shows

• The Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna[?] (1956-1960), starring Gale Storm
• Jungle Jim[?] (1956-1957), starring Johnny Weissmuller
• The Price Is Right game show premieres
• The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971)
• Gunsmoke (1955-1975)
• The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Audrey Meadows[?] (1955-1956)
• Lawrence Welk Show (1955-1982)
• The Tonight Show (1954-present)

Births

• January 7 - David Caruso[?], actor

Deaths

• December 7 - Huntley Gordon, pioneer Hollywood actor