Person to Appear on TV - Elma G. "Pem" Farnsworth was the first person ever to appear on television. Often called, the "Mother of Television," Elma was the wife of researcher Philo T. Farnsworth, who earned the title of the "Father of Television. Elma was on his technical team in San Francisco when Philo demonstrated his invention in San Francisco on September 7, 1927. Elma died Thursday, April 27 in Bountiful, UT at age 98.

Comedian Johnny Carson once said of him: "If it weren't for Philo T. Farnsworth, inventor of television, we'd still be eating frozen radio dinners." A statue of Philo T. Farnsworth stands outside the old Beaver County Courthouse in Beaver, Utah.

TRIVIA NOTE: An earlier television pioneer also touted as "The Father of Television" was US physicist and inventor Vladimir Kosma Zworykin of Wilkinsburg, PA (actually born in Russia). In 1923,  he designed the "iconoscope," the photocell "eye" of the early TV camera. His device was the first element necessary in the development of an all electronic television system. His patent application (No. 2,141,059) was filed December 29, 1923.

The first animal character to appear on television was a papier-mâché statue of the popular cartoon feline "Felix the Cat".