Television has never been the home for Elvis Presley. Indeed in the 1950s the budding communications and entertainment medium was in its "golden age" and Elvis made some memorable appearances early on in his career- most notably his debut performance on the Dorsey Brothers' Saturday night music variety series Stage Show January 28 1956 where he rocked the country for the first time singing "Heartbreak Hotel." When the song became a hit, Presley was booked for six consecutive nights on the show, quickly outshining the show's two hosts (themselves top drawer names of the 1940s big band era).

In fact, if not for one of the biggest goofs in television history, Presley would have made his debut on the popular Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts in early 1955, but the Memphis trucker was given the thumbs down during the initial audition! Around the same time, the singer would show up twice on NBC-TV's Buick-Berle Show starring "Mr. Television" himself, Milton Berle.

On June 30 1956, Elvis would appear on the second episode of The Steve Allen Show. Of course no historical guide to Presley's televised gyrations would be complete without mentioning his so-called "waist up" performances on The Ed Sullivan Show, the perennial Sunday night showcase that made stars, during the fall of 1956. Sullivan, not sure what to make of the singer and the new rock 'n roll craze, stepped aside for that evening leaving the introductions to guest host Charles Laughton. Sullivan there or not, those appearances solidified Presley's role as an emerging pop culture icon. Elvis even found time to schmooze with "Rat Pack" stars Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop on Sinatra's one-off variety special The Frank Sinatra Timex Show on May 12 1960.

But as exciting as those one-time guest shots were, viewers would never gather around the tube one night a week to watch The Elvis Presley Show or The Adventures of Elvis. That would never happen. With the advent of the 1960s, Presley would end the first phase of his career (the Sun Records/rockabilly/rock 'n roll years) when he would be drafted into the U.S. Army. Once his stint with Uncle Sam concluded, Presley would find his way not to the small screen that initially made him a household name (and subsequently help sell millions more of his already radioplay saturated records) but to Hollywood where he would appear in a string of mostly forgettable films. Not that it mattered. His name guaranteed a packed parking lot at the local drive-in theater.

Although Elvis would never have a weekly series, that didn't stop his name or music from being featured or dramas presented that were loosely-based on or thinly-disguised biographies of his life. One such program was The Singing Idol, a January 1957 presentation of The Kraft Television Theatre that starred popular singer Tommy Sands in the "Elvis" role. The episode even spawned a million-seller hit record "Teenage Crush." In 1965 the producers of ABC-TV's Shindig, unable to secure "The King" himself, devoted a May episode to Presley and his music, honoring his first ten years in the limelight.

It would not be until February 6 1990 that a regularly scheduled Elvis TV series would hit the air. But this series, the well-done but virtually ignored ABC-TV series appropriately titled Elvis would star actor Michael St. Gerard as the young singer with most of the singing chores aptly handled by Ronnie McDowall. The series dramatized Presley's early years in Memphis; hanging out with "Scotty" and "Bill," his closest pals and fellow musicians; and landing his first break with Sam Phillips' Sun Records where Elvis recorded an acetate of "My Happiness" for his mother.

Arguably Presley's best television outing (and Elvis scholars will debate this for years to come) was his first special sponsored by The Singer Sewing Machine Company originally titled Singer Presents Elvis (but better known as the 68 Comeback Special) aired over NBC television on December 3 1968. The special featuring a laid back Presley decked in black leather performing his many hits backed by a stellar band of musicians (many who had played with Presley since the fifties) in a theater-in-the-round setting dispelled any rumors that "The King" no longer reigned.

Today, 46 years after he first appeared on national television and 25 years after his sudden death in 1977, the charisma of Elvis Presley lives on in archival television footage, theatrical films, and of course the hundreds of gold and platinum records he recorded for RCA. Remembering "The King."

- Steve Jajkowski, The Museum of Broadcast Communications