Mary Kay and Johnny

Mary Kay and Johnny was probably the first situation comedy broadcast on television. It debuted on the Dumont network in the USA on Tuesday, November 18, 1947. The fifteen minute long weekly sitcom starred Johnny Stearns and Mary Kay Stearns, actors who were married in real life. The Stearns also created and wrote all the scripts for the show. The program was broadcast live; most of the action took place on a set representing the New York City apartment of the title characters, a young married couple.

After a year on Dumont the show moved to CBS for half a year (much of the time being broadcast every week night), and then ran for one more year each Saturday night on NBC, which broadcast the final episode on March 11, 1950.