1967 in Television - Events

Events

• January 15 - The inaugural Super Bowl is simulcast on CBS and NBC.
• January 15 - The Rolling Stones appear on 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.
• 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.
• February 23 - The Beatles make a taped appearance on 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 was completing its 12th season) and declining in the ratings, CBS planned to cancel the western, but protests from viewers and even members of Congress 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 canceled instead. Gunsmoke would remain on CBS until 1975.
• March 11 - This was the last day that French-language TV stations in Canada were required to run "personals" (classified advertising) between 6-7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
• June 15 - ATV0, Melbourne, launches color television in Australia with live coverage of the Pakenham races.
• 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 spend his efforts on another NBC western, The High Chaparral.
• May 1 - The United Network (initially known as the Overmyer Network) launches broadcasting with the talk/variety show The Las Vegas Show—which would be the only show it airs, as both network and show disappear in June due in part to transmission expenses.
• July 10 - The 4th Peanuts TV special, You're in Love, Charlie Brown, with a springtime theme, has its premiere on CBS.
• 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, BBC2 becomes Europe's first colour TV broadcaster, though it is still in an experimental stage.
• July 28 - In the VPRO television show Hoepla, model Phil Bloom flashes nude in front of the cameras. Several angry viewers complain by sending letters of protests.
• August 6 - Formula One has its first colour TV broadcast, as the 1967 German Grand Prix raced 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 networks to go color.
• August 25 - Color television is officially launched in West Germany (simultaneously by ARD and ZDF) at precisely 9:30 a.m., with a symbolic launch button pressed by Willy Brandt at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin.
• August 29 - The Fugitive finale proves to be one of the most-watched episodes of the decade.
• September 9 - NBC airs what will prove to be the pilot of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In; which would have its actual series premiere on January 22, 1968.
• September 10 - The Who destroys their instruments during a performance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.
• September 17 - The Doors appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and perform "Light My Fire". Sullivan had 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.
• October 1 - First colour television was introduced in France using SECAM system.
• October 1 - In the VPRO TV show Hoepla, model Phil Bloom is seen reading a newspaper claiming that she will not appear naked again since the previous scandal on July the 28th. When she folds the newspaper however; she is completely nude. The emission creates a big scandal with even questions in the Dutch parliament about her nude appearance. It's the first time a nude woman appears in a television program.
• November 19 - TVB launches free-to-air television in Hong Kong.
• December 2 - Colour television is officially launched on BBC2.
• December 11 - ABC airs the all-star special Movin' With Nancy
• December 26 - The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour airs on BBC1 in the UK.

Also in 1967

• All CBS soap operas transition from live to tape broadcasts.
• PAL and SECAM video standards introduced.
• A taped appearance by The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. The band premieres their new music video for the song "Hello Goodbye".
• The FCC orders that cigarette ads on television, radio and in print must include a warning about the health risks of smoking.
• The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is established.
• Cissy King replaces Barbara Boylan as Bobby Burgess's dance partner on The Lawrence Welk Show.