Top 10 Most Groundbreaking Moments in TV History

I Love Lucy (1951-57)

Lucille Balls wildly successful sitcom I Love Lucy made her a household name, guaranteeing her a place of honor in the entertainment industry. Being a successful woman in the 1950s wasnt an easy feat, but it did come with some perks. Ball was able to use her star power to push the envelope by incorporating her real life pregnancy into her sitcoms storyline. Previously, pregnancy had been considered too taboo and intimately private to be shown on television. CBS approved the storyline with the stipulation that the word pregnant be replaced with the less risqué expecting. It sounds ridiculous to us in the modern day, but Ball being able to continue working while pregnant was truly a revolutionary moment for women in entertainment.

The Facts of Life (1979-88)

Geri Jewell made television history in the 1980s when she appeared in a recurring role on The Facts of Life as Blairs cousin, Geri Tyler. Born with cerebral palsy, Jewell was the first actor with a disability to have a recurring role on a TV series. For decades prior, characters with disabilities on television were played by actors without disability, giving the impression that there was no place for disabled actors on TV. Jewells appearance on one of the most popular and longest running sitcoms was historic and inspirational. After her time on The Facts of Life, Jewell went on to become an activist and motivational speaker advocating for people with disabilities.

The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-71)

By 1964, The Beatles were already making waves across the pond, but their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show launched them into the stratosphere. Their first appearance in front of an American audience was viewed by a record-breaking 73 million people. Beatlemania had officially begun. More than a career-defining moment for the band, their performance marked a significant shift in music and American culture as a whole. From their music to their haircuts, The Beatles were something brand new that Americans couldnt get enough of, if the background noise of screaming fans didnt already clue you in to that. A cultural shockwave, The Beatles changed music forever with this performance.

Ellen (1994-98)

Ellens current reputation aside, nothing will change the fact that this was a trailblazing moment for the LGBTQ community. DeGeneres, one of the most famous female comedians at the time, publicly came out as a lesbian to her therapist Oprah Winfrey in an infamous two-parter called The Puppy Episode. At the time, this was an incredibly controversial and risky move for DeGeneres and her sitcom. She faced intense backlash from anti-LGBTQIA+ groups and individuals, and her show was cancelled the following year. Still, DeGeneres brave move is credited with inspiring more LGBTQIA+ representation in television over the following years. Eventually, DeGeneres was able to reclaim her career with her popular talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Roots was a television miniseries that, over eight straight nights, told the saga of one African-American family from Colonial America through the aftermath of the Civil War. The miniseries was a brutally honest depiction of the horrors that slaves and freed African-Americans endured throughout American history. There was no sugarcoating; Roots was a realistic look at Americas dark past and the strength enslaved communities had to demonstrate to endure it. Tens of millions of Americans watched Roots as it aired and empathized with the story it told. The miniseries proved that television could be a vehicle for serious stories that would produce a big impact.

Every year, football fans and the sports-indifferent come together to watch the biggest stage in America: the Super Bowl halftime show. While today each halftime performance is massive and always draws one of musics biggest superstars, it wasnt always this way. In an effort to fight falling ratings, in 1993 the NFL decided to eschew the usual marching band and instead have Michael Jackson take the stage. Jacksons performance featured his most iconic songs and choreography, plus a healthy dose of his trademark showmanship. For the first time in Super Bowl history, viewership actually increased in the second half of the game. Thanks to the King of Pop, the halftime show would never be called boring again.

The popularity of television changed campaigning forever by bringing candidates right into voters living rooms, and no event better signified this change than the televised Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960. Suddenly, the way candidates looked mattered just as much as what they were saying, and Nixon wasnt looking too good. Nixon refused makeup and looked pale, sweaty and nervous next to the tanned, cool, and confident Kennedy. Famously, television viewers walked away thinking Kennedy had won the debate while radio listeners favored Nixon. Kennedy went on to win the election, an early indicator of the impact of television on political campaigns in the modern age.

Star Trek: The Original Series (1966-69)

In the 1968 Star Trek episode Platos Stepchildren, Kirk and Uhuras kiss made history as the first scripted and televised kiss between an African-American and a Caucasian. The kiss occurred just one year after the Supreme Court officially legalized interracial marriage nationwide. According to William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, broadcaster NBC wanted a more toned down version of the kiss. In order to preserve the version they thought was best, Shatner and Nichols deliberately messed up other takes in which the kiss would be obscured or taken out entirely. NBCs fear of backlash was almost entirely unfounded, the general reaction to the kiss was positive. To viewers, the kiss represented a vision of the future in which hatred toward interracial relationships no longer existed.

While World War II news coverage was highly controlled by the US government to help keep morale high, the spread of television and TV news meant the Vietnam War was covered very differently. The fight for ratings encouraged news broadcasters to find the most exciting and shocking stories to report, and news from the front lines made for highly rated television. For the first time, Americans at home saw the brutal reality of war and the horrors that American soldiers were both enduring and participating in. This sparked a massive anti-war movement from groups against what they considered an unjust, unnecessary conflict. Ultimately, television coverage of the Vietnam War and resulting protests led to the end of US involvement in the war.

When bitterly feuding superpowers cant physically attack each other without causing an all-out nuclear war, they find other ways to compete. The US and the USSR created the most competitive science fair in the world with the Space Race, as each superpower poured endless funding and manpower into creating achievements in space exploration. The USSR might have beaten the US in sending the first man into space, but the US wanted to take it several steps further by putting a man on the moon. Eight years after this goal was set, they made it happen and televised the whole thing. Television coverage of the moon landing was watched by 20% of the worlds population, becoming a significant cultural landmark for an entire generation.

Which groundbreaking iconic TV moments did we miss? Let us know in the comments!