Marilyn's film career took off at the same time as telvision was beginning to make inroads into the primacy of the movies. By the early sixties, movie audiences had decreased by half on what they had been when Marilyn was first signed by a Hollywood studio.
Marilyn only appeared on televsion a few times in her life. She felt that she was too nervous to risk putting across a poor image on live television and live or studio shows were the only ones to which she was invited. Her first ever television appearance, however, was in a TV commercial for Royal Triton Oil.

Marilyn's television debut was on the Jack Benny Show, broadcast on September 13, 1953, in which she joined the host for a sketch.
On April 8, 1955, Marilyn officially raised her head over the parapet after walking out on Hollywood with a live interview on Edward R. Murrow's 'Person to Person' show. This was her last ever live appearance, despite lucrative offers. It is said that in 1957 a television network offered Marilyn $2 million to star in her own television series.
Marilyn's antipathy towards television was partly personal. She was not at all happy to find out that new husband Joe DiMaggio preferred to spend days on end watching the tube rather than talking to her. It was reported that DiMaggio checked in advance to make sure that the motel room where they they spent their wedding night had a television.

In the year before she died, Marilyn was in negotiations to headline a television version of Rain, by Somerset Maugham. Negotiations broke down when NBC refused to entrust Lee Strasberg with directing and Marilyn would not accept any alternative.

Overview TV appearances
Royal Triton Oil Company (1950) (Download the commercial here)
The Jack Benny Show (1953) (Download the show here)
Person to Person (1955) (Watch the show here on YouTube.com)