1956 in Italian television
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- 26 January-5 February. The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo are the first major sport event covered by the RAI.[1][2][3]
- 10 March - Franca Raimondi wins the 1956 Sanremo festival, hosted by Fausto Tommei, with Aprite le finestre; Tonina Torrielli is runner up with Amami se vuoi. The two female singers, both rookies, are selected to represent Italy at the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest.[4][5]
- 18-19 Aprile: RAI broadcasts live, in Eurovision, the wedding of Rainier III and Grace Kelly.
- 24 May - Italy enters the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time with "Aprite le finestre", performed by Franca Raimondi and "Amami se vuoi", performed by Tonina Torrielli.[6]
- 20 June - Resignation of Filiberto Guala, CEO of RAI since 1954. He was a skilled administrator, but considered controversial for the bigoted decency codes which he imposed on television. He was replaced by Marcello Rodinò.[7] Guala was a fervent Catholic, and would later become a Trappist monk.[8]
- 19 December - Birth of the company Il tempo TV, aiming to create of the first Italian commercial network. Its president is Renato Angiolillo, owner and director of the Roman right-wing newspaper Il Tempo.[9] After a four-years-long legal battle, the project is definitively stopped by a sentence of the Constitutional Court.[10]
- 31 December - The covering of the Italian territory by the TV signal is completed.
Debuts
- L'amico degli animali (The animals' friend), hosted by Angelo Lombardi, educational show about zoology.[11] The Lombardi's phrases "Hello, friends of my friends" and "Andalù, take it away", said to his African helper, become proverbial.
Television shows
Drama
- Il sogno dello zio (Uncle's dream) by Gugliemo Morandi, adapted by Corrado Alvaro from Fyodor Dostoevskij's novella, with Margherita Bagni and Antonio Battistella.
- Charley’s aunt by Brandon Thomas, directed by Claudio Fino, with Ugo Tognazzi and Raffaele Pisu.
- Romance by Edward Sheldon, directed by Daniele D'Anza, with Lea Padovani and Paolo Carlini.
- The Bouligrin, satirical farce about the bourgeois marriage by Georges Courteline, directed by Antonello Falqui, with Bice Valori, Giarico Tedeschi and Alberto Bonucci
- I nostri figli (Our sons) by Ginetta Ortona, directed by Piero Turchetti, with Evi Maltagliati and Ivo Garrani; an happy middlec-class couple must face the unexpected death of the daughter's boyfriend. The play had won a RAI contest for the best TV script.
Miniseries
- L'alfiere (The ensign), by Anton Giulio Majano, from Carlo Alianello, historical novel about the Italian unification, seen on the side of the army of the Two Sicilies; to notice the presence, in small roles, of some future stars, as Domenico Modugno, Monica Vitti and Nino Manfredi.
- Cime tempestose (Wuthering Heights), by Mario Landi, from Emily Brontë, with Massimo Girotti as Heathcliff and Anna Maria Ferrero as Catherine Earnshaw.
- Il marziano Filippo (Filippo the Martian), by Cesare Emilio Gaslini, with Oreste Lionello, science-fiction miniserie for children; the plot is strangely similar to the E. T.’s one.
Variety
- Primo applauso (First applause), talent show, hosted by Enzo Tortora, who begins his long career as TV showman.[12]
- Lui e lei (He and she) and Lui, lei e gli altri (He, she and the others), good-naturedly ironic varieties about the family life by Vito Molinari, with Nino Taranto (sided, respectively, by Delia Scala and Tina De Mola), written by Marcello Marchesi. and Vittorio Metz.
- Rascel la nuit by Romolo Siena, with Renato Rascel.[13]
- La piazzetta (The little square), variety show, hosted by Riccardo Billi and Mario Riva. After three episodes, an exhibition of the dancer Alba Arnova with apparently bare legs (she wore a tight leotard) arouses L'Osservatore romano's protests and the show is deleted.[14]
News and educational
- La strada è di tutti (The road is for everybody) educational show about road safety by Giuliano Tomei.[15]
