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Broadcast Firsts

Pregnancy - Despite the moral concerns and the attempts at keeping pregnancy in the closet and off of TV, the topic did make it to the tube. The first "birth" to be televised in closed circuit was shown in color on June 14, 1951 at a meeting of the American Medical Association in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Some 2000 physicians and family members viewed the delivery of one Michael Gallagher (9 pounds, 12 ounces).

The first "Public" viewing of a birth was televised via Denver Colorado station KOA-TV over 49 NBC affiliate stations on December 2, 1952. The focus of the blessed event was the delivery via Caesarian section of Gordon Campbell Kerr (5 pounds, 7 ounces). He was delivered at Colorado General Hospital of the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver during a "March of Medicine" program sponsored by the American Medical Association.

The first TV series to show the actual birth of a baby (10/26/55) was the NBC medical anthology series MEDIC starring Richard Boone as Doctor Konrad Styner. Filmed in cooperation with the Los Angeles County Medical Association, the series depicted real hospitals and clinics using doctors and nurses as support actors.

TV's earliest primetime delivery was on the sitcom MARY KAY AND JOHNNY that starred Mary Kay Stearns and Johnny Stearns who played themselves on the series. In December, 1948 Mary Kay gave birth in real-life to a baby boy named Christopher. Within a month of his birth, the baby was written into the script. This happened long before the Little Rickie Ricardo birth on the I LOVE LUCY show.


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