1967 in television

The year 1967 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in 1967.

Events January 7 – Debut of The Forsyte Saga in the UK, a blockbuster BBC dramatisation (the last to be made in black and white) in 26 50-minute episodes originally shown on BBC2. Because of the restricted number of viewers who can receive this channel, it is not until it begins BBC1 Sunday evening repeats on September 8 that it reaches a large audience which will build to 18 million and cause some church services to be rescheduled; it is also popular internationally and becomes the first British television programme ever to be sold to the Soviet Union. January 15 The inaugural Super Bowl American football game is simulcast on CBS and NBC. The Rolling Stones appear on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show, where, at Sullivan's insistence, they perform "Let's Spend the Night Together" as "Let's Spend Some Time Together." January 29 – The first CBS Playhouse presentation, The Final War of Olly Winter, is televised in the US. February 16 – The first airing of "Space Seed", the Star Trek television episode that introduces popular villain Khan Noonien Singh, as played by Ricardo Montalbán, is aired on NBC. February 23 – The Beatles make a taped appearance on ABC's American Bandstand, where they premiere their new music videos for the songs "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever". February 25 – Gene Kelly stars in Jack and the Beanstalk; airing on NBC and produced by Hanna-Barbera, it is the first TV special to combine live action and animation. March – Gunsmoke is renewed by CBS for the fall 1967 season. Aging (it is completing its 12th season) and declining in the ratings, CBS planned to cancel the western, but protests from viewers, network affiliates and even members of the United States Congress and especially William S. Paley (Gunsmoke is Paley's wife's favorite show), the head of the network, lead the network to move the series from its longtime late Saturday time slot to early Mondays for the fall — displacing Gilligan's Island, which initially had been renewed for the fall but is cancelled instead. Gunsmoke would remain on CBS until 1975. March 6 – Mark Twain Tonight! starring Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain, premieres on CBS. March 11 – This is the last day that French-language TV stations in Canada are required to run "personals" (classified advertising) between 6–7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. March 29 – 13-day strike by American Federation of Television and Radio Artists television staff announcers and newsroom staff begins. April 4 – BBC1 in the UK shows a Tom and Jerry cartoon for the first time. April 8 – The United Kingdom wins the 12th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. The winning song is "Puppet on a String" performed (barefoot) by Sandie Shaw. April 10 – The AFTRA strike is settled just in time for the 39th Academy Awards ceremony to be held. May 1 – The United Network (initially known as the Overmyer Network) launches broadcasting with the talk/variety show The Las Vegas Show — which will be the only show it airs, as both network and show disappear in June due in part to transmission expenses. May 13 – TV Bandeirantes São Paulo, the first network television station of Rede Bandeirantes, an officially regular broadcasting service, starts in Brazil. May 15 – CBS News and BBC host the "Town Meeting of the World" with governor Ronald Reagan and senator Robert F. Kennedy. May – David Dortort appoints himself executive producer of Bonanza, a move which takes him out of the day-to-day running of the show but allows him to focus on another NBC western, The High Chaparral. June 12 The fourth Peanuts special, You're in Love, Charlie Brown, with a springtime theme, has its premiere on CBS. Major changes to ITV franchises in the UK which will take effect next year are announced. June 15 – ATV0, Melbourne, launches color television in Australia with live coverage of the Pakenham races. June 25 – The special Our World becomes the first live worldwide "via satellite" TV broadcast, transmitting to 30 countries. Performers include Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Eric Clapton, Pattie Harrison, Jane Asher, Graham Nash, Hunter Davies and The Beatles (who perform "All You Need Is Love", a song composed especially for the occasion). July 1 – With live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships of tennis, BBC2 becomes Europe's first color TV broadcaster, although it is still in the experimental stage. July 28 – First of three episodes broadcast in the Netherlands of VPRO's deliberately-provocative youth-oriented television show Hoepla, in which female artist Phil Bloom flashes nude in front of the cameras, resulting in complaints in the press. August 6 – Formula One auto racing has its first colour TV broadcast as the 1967 German Grand Prix, racing at Nürburgring, is colorcast to a West German audience on an experimental basis. August 21 – ABC's Dark Shadows and CBS's As the World Turns are the first daytime soaps on their respective US networks to go color. August 25 – Color television is officially launched in West Germany (simultaneously by ARD and ZDF) at precisely 9:30 am with a symbolic launch button pressed by Willy Brandt at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin. August 29 – US crime drama The Fugitive finale proves to be one of the most-watched episodes of the decade. September 2 – At 12:30 pm, Channel 9 in Sioux City, Iowa switches from being KVTV (CBS basic) to KCAU-TV (ABC full-time). Three days later, CBS returns to the area when KMEG-TV signs-on. September 9 – NBC airs what will prove to be the pilot of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, which has its actual series premiere on January 22, 1968. September 17 The Who destroy their instruments during a performance on CBS's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire". Sullivan requested that the line "Girl we couldn't get much higher" be changed for the show, but Jim Morrison performs it the way it was written, and the band is banned from the show as a result. September 18 – Love Is a Many Splendored Thing debuts on US daytime television and is the first soap opera to deal with an interracial relationship, involving an Amerasian woman. CBS censors find this too controversial and ask for script changes, causing show creator Irna Phillips to quit and 20th Century-Fox to withdraw as co-producers. September 29 Cult drama series The Prisoner, created by and starring Patrick McGoohan, has its UK premiere on ATV and Grampian Television. The world premiere was on September 5 when it debuted on CTV in Canada. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, the popular science fiction Supermarionation series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson debuts on ITV in the UK. October 1 First colour television broadcasts are introduced in France, the RSFSR and BSSR using the SECAM system. In the second episode of VPRO show Hoepla, broadcast in the Netherlands, Phil Bloom is revealed in a sketch to be completely naked, with a deliberate allusion to the controversy aroused by her appearance in the previous episode. November 7 United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Golden Jubilee October Revolution Day Parades in Moscow, Leningrad and Minsk are the first major events to be broadcast in color in the Soviet Union using the SECAM system. November 19 – TVB launches free-to-air television in Hong Kong. November 26 – A taped appearance by The Beatles is presented on the Ed Sullivan Show, premiering their new music video for the song "Hello Goodbye". November 27 – Thai Army Television converts from System M (a 525-line screen) to System B (625 lines) in preparation for PAL color (to be launched in 1969). December 2 – Color television is officially launched on BBC2 in the UK. December 11 – NBC airs the all-star special Movin' With Nancy, featuring Nancy Sinatra and guests. December 21 – The only guests for a highly rated holiday episode of The Dean Martin Show are the family members of Martin and Frank Sinatra. December 26 – The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour airs on BBC1 in the UK. The band and their manager are critical of the decision to run it on this channel which can transmit only in black and white at this time. Also in 1967 All CBS soap operas in the US transition from live to tape broadcasts. PAL and SECAM video standards are introduced. The Federal Communications Commission in the US orders that cigarette ads on television, radio and in print must include a warning about the health risks of smoking. Country music entertainer Porter Wagoner invites Dolly Parton to join his weekly syndicated The Porter Wagoner Show, replacing singer Norma Jean. Cissy King replaces Barbara Boylan as Bobby Burgess's dance partner on The Lawrence Welk Show.

Programs/Programmes American Bandstand (1952–89) Another World (1964–99) Armchair Theatre (1956–68) As the World Turns (1956–2010) Batman (1966–68) Bewitched (1964–72) Blue Peter (UK) (1958–present) Bonanza (1959–73) Bozo the Clown (1949–present) Candid Camera (1948–present) Captain Kangaroo (1955–84) Come Dancing (UK) (1949–95) Coronation Street (UK) (1960–present) Crossroads (UK) (1964–88, 2001–03) Daniel Boone (1964–70) Dark Shadows (1966–71) Days of Our Lives (1965–present) Dixon of Dock Green (UK) (1955–76) Doctor Who (UK) (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) Face the Nation (1954–present) Family Affair (1966–71) Four Corners (Australia) (1961–present) General Hospital (1963–present) Get Smart (1965–70) Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (1964–70) Grandstand (UK) (1958–2007) Green Acres (1965–71) Gunsmoke (1955–75) Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951–present) Hockey Night in Canada (1952–present) Hogan's Heroes (1965–71) I Dream of Jeannie (1965–70) I Spy (1965–1968) It's Academic (1961–present) Jeopardy! (1964–75, 1984–present) Lost in Space (1965–68) Love of Life (1951–80) Match Game (1962–69, 1973–84, 1990–91, 1998–99) Meet the Press (1947–present) Mission: Impossible (1966–73) Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (1963–88, 2002–present) My Three Sons (1960–72) Opportunity Knocks (UK) (1956–78) Panorama (UK) (1953–present) Petticoat Junction (1963–70) Peyton Place (1964–69) Play School (1966–present) Run for Your Life (1965–1968) Search for Tomorrow (1951–86) Star Trek (1966–69) That Girl (1966–71) The Andy Griffith Show (1960–68) The Avengers (UK) (1961–69) The Bell Telephone Hour (1959–68) The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–71) The Dean Martin Show (1965–74) The Doctors (1963–82) The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–71) The Edge of Night (1956–84) The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–68) The Good Old Days (UK) (1953–83) The Guiding Light (1952–2009) The Hollywood Palace (1964–1970) The Late Late Show (Ireland) (1962–present) The Lawrence Welk Show (1955–82) The Lucy Show (1962–68) The Mavis Bramston Show (Australia) (1964–68) The Mike Douglas Show (1961–82) The Money Programme (UK) (1966–present) The Monkees (1966–68) The Mothers-in-Law (1967–69) The Newlywed Game (1966–74) The Saint (UK) (1962–69) The Secret Storm (1954–74) The Sky at Night (UK) (1957–present) The Today Show (1952–present) The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–92) The Wednesday Play (UK) (1964–70) This Is Your Life (UK) (1955–2003) Tom and Jerry (1965–72, 1975–77, 1980–82) Top of the Pops (UK) (1964–2006) Truth or Consequences (1950–88) Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1961–69) What the Papers Say (UK) (1956–2008) World of Sport (1965–85) Z-Cars (UK) (1962–78)

Debuts January 7 The Forsyte Saga, BBC drama in 26 50-minute episodes A prime-time edition of The Newlywed Game (1967–1971) on ABC January 9 – Mr. Terrific on CBS (last aired on August 27, 1967) January 13 – Rango on ABC (last aired on September 1, 1967) February 5 – The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967–1969) on CBS February 13 – Mr. Dressup (1967–1996) on CBC