TV "Firsts"

July 2, 2008 11:14 AM

This post about TV "firsts" got me to thinking about other first-time events not mentioned in the article. What was the first closed-captioned show? What was the first Pay-TV station? When did television sets start including a standard UHF dial?
posted by Oriole Adams (14 comments total)

First show to mark the end of American entertainment and culture as we know it?
posted by rooftop secrets at 11:19 AM on July 2, 2008

From the "a standard UHF dial" link: "The longer-term goal was the encouragement of diversity (or the creation of "a multitude of tongues") which was a guiding force behind much FCC rule-making at the time."

...and see how well that's still working for us.
posted by Floydd at 11:25 AM on July 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

First toilet and first flush (at least on American TV).
posted by not_on_display at 11:25 AM on July 2, 2008

First shark jumped.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:53 AM on July 2, 2008 [2 favorites]

First Interracial Kiss (on US Television)
posted by griphus at 11:55 AM on July 2, 2008

First Interracial Kiss (on US Television) FTFM
posted by griphus at 11:56 AM on July 2, 2008

First live murder on TV: Jack Ruby shoots Lee Harvey Oswald
posted by not_on_display at 12:08 PM on July 2, 2008

posted by griphus First Interracial Kiss (on US Television)

Not quite.
posted by optovox at 12:15 PM on July 2, 2008

First couple portrayed as sleeping in the same bed.
posted by not_on_display at 12:32 PM on July 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

A ton of broadcast firsts, courtesy of TVAcres.com
posted by not_on_display at 12:35 PM on July 2, 2008

First instance of a time loop being used as a plot device.
posted by ...possums at 12:36 PM on July 2, 2008

What, no first of nudity? This had to have happened sometime in the 1980s.
posted by tinkertown at 12:51 PM on July 2, 2008

The episode of Mod Squad that NCI keeps talking about – and remember, NCI keeps repeating the falsehood that it invented closed captioning – was clearly not the first “closed-captioned” television program. It didn’t use the actual Line 21 system and only one group of people saw it.

True, the captioning was closed because it was optional. But that isn’t what is meant by “first closed-captioned show”; that means “first show closed-captioned using our system.” I am pretty sure it was a Masterpiece Theatre episode. I don’t feel like rooting through my nine cubic feet of old records to look it up.

The first Canadian show captioned in Canada was Clown White; I watched it.

World System Teletext countries, like the U.K. and Australia, will have their own entries.
posted by joeclark at 2:57 PM on July 2, 2008

Due to its virtual non-use, the UHF dial was the one that didn't break off.
posted by Tube at 4:12 PM on July 2, 2008