Maggie's TV (!!) reference in '42
When asked if she needed help setting up for Sheridan's broadcast, she said no "it's not television thankfully". TV in the early-'40s? Must have been in its infancy!
shareAccording to Wikipedia, the first commercial broadcast in the U.S. was on July 1, 1941, from RCA via NBC, which RCA owned. CBS and the DuMont network broadcast more hours per week, but didn't have commercial licenses so they couldn't carry advertising.NBC's first program, preceded by a one-hour telecast of a test pattern, was at 2:30PM – Baseball at Ebbets Field, Dodgers vs. Phillies.
There had been other broadcasts before that, but not regularly scheduled programs as we now think of them. At first programming was limited to a few hours a week in New York and I believe there were very few sets.
Britain and German television broadcasts began earlier the in the U.S. and in fact the first sporting events broadcast "live" were the games of the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Few people owned their own set, but Berliners could sit in "television parlors" built throughout the city to watch the Games. There's a bit (but not a lot) of information on this at
http://www.tvhistory.tv/1936%20German%20Olympics%20TV%20Program.htm