1959 in television

Events

• January 15 – Tyne Tees Television, the Independent Television 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 is 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 of Japan, operating as a for-profit educational television station for its first year.
• March 1 - Fuji Television commences its regular operations in Japan.
• April 6 – KYW-TV in Cleveland, Ohio becomes the first station to use the Eyewitness News name.
• May 28 – Initiation of Lebanon's first television station, Télé Liban.
• July 13–17 – The Hate That Hate Produced, a documentary on Black nationalism in the United States, airs on WNTA-TV.
• July 24 – The Kitchen Debate occurs in Moscow, recorded on color videotape.
• August 10 – HCJB-TV, the first television station in Ecuador, starts a regular broadcasting service in Quito. The station was later sold to private interests and is now Teleamazonas.
• August 21 – The Catholic University of Chile begins broadcasting a partial service over Channel 2, the first TV station in Santiago, Chile.
• October 16 – OBXY-TV, predecessor of Panamericana Television, Peru, starts the first regular official broadcasting service in Lima.
• October 22 – Take a Good Look, an innovative comedy series created by Ernie Kovacs, premieres on ABC in the United States.
• October 27 – Anglia Television, the ITV franchise for Eastern England, begins broadcasting.
• October 31 – Ulster Television, the ITV franchise for Northern Ireland, begins broadcasting.
• October 31 – Western Nigeria Television is launched in Nigeria, making it the first country to introduce television in Africa.
• November 22 – Sandmännchen, a children's bedtime stop motion series, premieres on East German television channel Deutscher Fernsehfunk. The series will continue airing on Rundfunk Berlin–Brandenburg into the 2000s, making it the longest-running animated television series in history with the greatest episode count for a single series.
• 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, the first television station in Bulgaria, starts a regular official broadcasting service in Sofia.

Programs/programmes

• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• American Bandstand
• Armchair Theatre
• As the World Turns
• Blue Peter
• Bozo the Clown
• Candid Camera
• Captain Kangaroo
• Cheyenne
• Come Dancing
• Dixon of Dock Green
• Face the Nation
• General Motors Presents
• Gillette Cavalcade of Sports
• Grandstand
• Gunsmoke
• Hallmark Hall of Fame
• Hancock's Half Hour
• Have Gun – Will Travel
• Howdy Doody
• I Love Lucy
• Jubilee USA
• KPIX Dance Party
• Leave It to Beaver
• Love of Life
• Man with a Camera
• Meet the Press
• Men Into Space
• Opportunity Knocks
• Panorama
• Perry Mason
• Peter Gunn
• Search for Tomorrow
• Take a Good Look
• The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
• The Army Game
• The Bell Telephone Hour
• The Brighter Day
• The Donna Reed Show
• The Ed Sullivan Show
• The Edge of Night
• The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
• The [Gale Storm Show, Oh! Susanna]
• The [Good Old Days (UK TV series)|The Good Old Days]
• The Guiding Light
• The Huckleberry Hound Show
• The Jack Benny Program
• The Lawrence Welk Show
• The Milton Berle Show
• The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom
• The Price Is Right
• The Real McCoys
• The Secret Storm
• The Sky at Night
• The Steve Allen Show
• The Texan
• This Man Dawson
• The Today Show
• The Tonight Show
• The Voice of Firestone
• This Is Your Life
• This Is Your Life
• Truth or Consequences
• Walt Disney Presents
• Wanted [Dead or Alive (TV series)|Wanted Dead or Alive]
• Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
• What the Papers Say
• What's My Line
• ''Zoo Quest''

Debuts

• January 9 – Rawhide, CBS
• January 12 – The Bell Telephone Hour on NBC
• February 4 – Face to Face on BBC Television
• February 12 – As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me on West Germany's ARD
• February 16 – Emergency , one of the earliest Australian dramatic TV series
• April 4
• * Charlesworth on BBC Television
• * Shell Presents , Australian dramatic anthology series
• May 2 – Markham, featuring Ray Milland, on CBS
• June 1 – Juke Box Jury on BBC Television
• September 11 – The Troubleshooters on NBC
• September 12 – Bonanza on NBC, the first weekly television series broadcast completely in color
• September 12 – The Man and the Challenge on NBC
• September 15 – Laramie on NBC
• September 20 – NBC Sunday Showcase on NBC
• September 21 – Love and Marriage on NBC
• September 30 – Men Into Space on CBS
• October 2 – Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone debuts on CBS
• October 4
• *Dennis the Menace on CBS
• *The Rebel on ABC
• October 5 – Bourbon Street Beat on ABC
• October 7 – Hawaiian Eye on ABC
• October 15 - The Untouchables on ABC
• November 19 - The [Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends|Rocky & His Friends] on ABC
• Unknown date
• *Adelaide Tonight – 1959–1973
• *Bandwagon
• *The Bert Newton Show
• *The Bobby Limb Show
• *Club Seven
• *The [Quick Draw McGraw Show] in syndication
• *Tales of the Riverbank.
• *This Man Dawson in syndication

Deaths

• February 3 – Beulah Zachary, American director and producer
• June 16 – George Reeves, American actor

Television debuts

• Peter Bowles – Dial 999
• Veronica Cartwright – Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
• Seymour Cassel – Naked City
• Robert Duvall – Armstrong Circle Theatre
• Julian Glover – A [Midsummer Night's Dream (1959 film)|A Midsummer Night's Dream]
• Ron Howard – Playhouse 90
• Jill Ireland – The Voodoo Factor
• Sally Kellerman – Playhouse 90
• Telly Savalas – NBC Sunday Showcase
• George Takei – ''Playhouse 90''