| Date |
Event
|
| January 1
|
Cable News Network (CNN) initiates an associated channel, dubbed CNN2, that features a round-the-clock "news wheel" format. The channel would be renamed CNN Headline News a year later and is now known as HLN.
|
| The National Association of Broadcasters ends its long-standing Television Code in response to a Washington, D.C. circuit court ruling which declared parts of it unconstitutional.
|
| January 2
|
American Playhouse on PBS member station WNET/Newark, New Jersey presents John Cheever's teleplay The Shady Hill Kidnapping, featuring George Grizzard, Polly Holliday, Judith Ivey, E. Katherine Kerr and Celeste Holm as The Celebrity.
|
| January 4
|
Bryant Gumbel begins his 15-year stint as co-anchor of NBC's Today Show.
|
| ABC broadcasts a TV adaptation of The Elephant Man, with Philip Anglim and Kevin Conway reprising the roles they originated for the Broadway version of the story.
|
| In Panama City, Florida, NBC affiliate WMBB swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WJHG-TV.
|
| January 10
|
CBS televises the NFC Championship Game between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys. In what would become one of the most iconic images in NFL history, San Francisco tight end Dwight Clark makes "The Catch" to enable the 49ers to defeat the Cowboys, 28–27, and go to their first ever Super Bowl. Vin Scully called the game alongside Hank Stram on television while Pat Summerall (who would do the play-by-play for Super Bowl XVI with John Madden two weeks later) called the game with Jack Buck for CBS Radio.
|
| January 23
|
CBS Reports broadcasts The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, a documentary alleging a manipulation of intelligence estimates before the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. Retired Gen. William Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. military operations at the time of the alleged estimates, would file a libel suit against CBS believing the report described him unfairly.
|
| January 30
|
The Golden Globe Awards air for the second consecutive year on CBS. The ceremony would soon become embroiled into controversy when actress Pia Zadora won that year's Golden Globe Award as Best New Star of the Year amid charges that her husband Meshulam Riklis had purchased the award with a promotional campaign that included Zadora's image presented prominently on Sunset Boulevard billboards,[1] an appearance in Playboy magazine, and entertaining Golden Globe voters.[2][3] After CBS decided to negate their broadcasting contract in light of the controversy, the Golden Globes wouldn't be seen on broadcast network television again until 1996, when NBC picked them up.
|
| February 1
|
Late Night with David Letterman debuts on NBC; Letterman's first guests are Bill Murray (who dances around to the song "Physical") and "Mr. Wizard" Don Herbert.
|
| Two months after new owners Pacific Media Corporation changed its call letters from KECC-TV, CBS affiliate KECY-TV in Yuma, Arizona leaves the network to join ABC. This will leave Yuma without a CBS affiliate for 3 years, until KECY-TV rejoins the network in 1985 (it is now a Fox affiliate).[4][5][6]
|
| February 3
|
Singer Jermaine Jackson guest-features, as Tootie (Kim Fields) gets to meet the person she admires on a very special episode of the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life.
|
| February 7
|
As part of a two-night event, ABC airs the network television broadcast premiere of Superman: The Movie.
|
| March 4
|
The crime drama spoof Police Squad! premieres on ABC; though it only lasts 6 episodes (the last being broadcast July 8); the comedy would serve as the origin of the Frank Drebin character and the inspiration for the Naked Gun movie series.
|
| March 8
|
Night of 100 Stars, a benefit for the Actors' Fund taped at Radio City Music Hall, is broadcast by ABC.
|
| March 26
|
The soap opera series Search for Tomorrow is broadcast for the final time by CBS. NBC immediately purchases it and begins broadcasting it the following Monday.
|
| April 2
|
John Chancellor anchors the NBC Nightly News for the final time, replaced on April 5 by the team of Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw, a partnership that lasts 17 months.
|
| April 21
|
Norman Lear purchases Avco Embassy Pictures and rechristens his TAT Communications Company as Embassy Television.
|
| WGXA in Macon, Georgia signs-on the air, giving the Macon market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| WTTO in Birmingham, Alabama signs-on the air, giving the Birmingham market its first independent station.
|
| May 2
|
The Weather Channel is begun in the U.S.[7]
|
| May 15
|
Danny DeVito hosts an episode of Saturday Night Live soon after Taxi is canceled after its fourth season. During the opening monologue, DeVito reads a letter supposedly from his mother asking God to forgive ABC for cancelling the show, adding that "but I'll understand if you don't." A filmed bit has him driving around New York looking morose until inspiration strikes, and he blows up the ABC building. In addition, the Taxi cast members are given an opportunity for closure, which up to that point had been denied for them due to the abrupt cancellation. The actors took their "final" bows during DeVito's opening monologue, only to have NBC (which aired SNL) pick up the show.
|
| May 22
|
In Boston, Massachusetts, CBS affiliate WNAC-TV ceases operations due to improprieties by its parent company RKO General, having lost the license (as well as those of KHJ-TV and WOR-TV, both of which RKO temporarily retain on appeal) after General Tire admitted to a litany of corporate misconduct (including, among other things, committing financial fraud over illegal political contributions and bribes) as part of a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and RKO General withheld evidence from the FCC of General Tire's misconduct, and also failed to disclose evidence of accounting errors on its own part. Several hours later, New England Television begins operations of WNEV-TV (now independent station WHDH) on channel 7, retaining WNAC-TV's former CBS affiliation.[8][9]
|
| May 24
|
The Peanuts special A Charlie Brown Celebration premiered on CBS. Which it includes several stories with one or two-word titles, was later adapted for the Saturday morning series, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, which premiered in 1983.
|
| May 27
|
The series finale of Mork & Mindy entitled "The Mork Report" is broadcast on ABC. While it actually, wasn't the final episode to be filmed, ABC none the less aired it last in hopes of giving the canceled series some proper closure.
|
| May 28
|
At about 5:00 p.m., Joseph Billie Gwin, wanting to "prevent World War III", forces his way into the studios of Phoenix CBS affiliate KOOL-TV, fires a gunshot, takes 4 people hostage (holding one of them, cameraman Louis Villa, at close gunpoint), and demands national broadcasting time. Three hours later, Gwin releases 2 hostages, Jack Webb and Bob Cimino. At 9:30 p.m., with Gwin sitting next to him with a gun, KOOL anchor Bill Close reads a 20-minute statement; when finished, Close takes Gwin's gun and sets it on the table.[10][11][12]
|
| American film critic Leonard Maltin makes his first appearance on the television news magazine Entertainment Tonight.[13][14]
|
| June 6
|
The CBS affiliate in Orlando, WDBO-TV, changes its name to WCPX-TV.
|
| July 11
|
ABC broadcasts the FIFA World Cup Final between Italy and West Germany from Madrid. It's the first time that the World Cup's final match is aired live on American television.
|
| July 13
|
ABC broadcasts the Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It's the first time that the Mid-Summer's Classic is played outside of the United States.
|
| July 21
|
The only episode of the sitcom Cass Malloy airs on CBS. Although not picked up as a regular series, it serves as the pilot for the 1987–1989 syndicated sitcom She's the Sheriff.
|
| July 29
|
Professional wrestler Jerry Lawler slaps actor Andy Kaufman in the face on the NBC program Late Night with David Letterman; Kaufman responds by throwing coffee and shouting profanities at Lawler. The incident was later revealed to have been staged.
|
| August 8
|
In Columbia, Missouri, NBC affiliate and University of Missouri-owned KOMU-TV swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate KCBJ-TV. The swap would eventually be reversed in 1986.[15]
|
| August 30
|
Field Communications begins its liquidation by selling off WFLD to Metromedia.
|
| September 6
|
After Tom Wopat and John Schneider quit the CBS action series The Dukes of Hazzard as a result of a contract dispute, their characters, Bo and Luke Duke, are written out of the series as joining a NASCAR team and are replaced by cousins Coy and Vance (played respectively by Byron Cherry and Christopher Mayer). Bo and Luke—and Wopat and Schneider—would return to the series by season's end.
|
| September 11
|
NBC resurrects Texaco Star Theater as a one-time special; however, instead of inviting Milton Berle, the man who hosted the original series during the 1950s, the special presents a salute to musicals.
|
| In Savannah, Georgia, NBC affiliate WSAV-TV swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WJCL, citing ABC's stronger ratings. The swap would eventually be reversed in 1986.[16]
|
| September 12
|
KNLC, a religious independent station in St. Louis goes on the air.
|
| September 13
|
Mary Hart joins Entertainment Tonight as reporter and later co-host; she would fill the latter role until 2011.
|
| September 20
|
USA Network begins 24-hour operations, featuring the debut of the USA Cartoon Express, cable television's first structured animation block.
|
| September 25
|
Saturday Night Live begins its 8th season on NBC, with host Chevy Chase and musical guest Queen. Among the new additions for this season include future Seinfeld actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who will stay for 3 years (1982–1985) as a featured player/regular cast member.
|
| September 30
|
The pilot episode for Cheers airs on NBC.
|
| October 1
|
Independent station KDOC-TV commences broadcasting in Los Angeles.
|
| October 2
|
Mary Jo Catlett replaces Nedra Volz on the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, as the new housekeeper, Mrs. Pearl Gallagher. She will stay with the series until its conclusion in 1986.
|
| October 3
|
During the National Football League players strike (on what would have been Week 5 of the season), CBS broadcasts four Division III football games using their regular NFL broadcast crews.
|
| October 4
|
KMTR signs-on in Eugene, Oregon as an NBC affiliate. Due to NBC's persistent low ratings, the network's former affiliate KVAL-TV had been preempting NBC programming (with increasing regularity) in favor of programs from CBS (shared with ABC affiliate KEZI), forcing a frustrated NBC to seek a new station. With the move, KVAL-TV becomes a full-time CBS affiliate.
|
| October 4
|
The CBS affiliate in Phoenix, KOOL-TV, changes its name to KTSP-TV.
|
| October 11
|
WFBT, a religious television station in Minneapolis/St. Paul goes on the air.
|
| October 12
|
Cindy Williams makes her final appearance as Shirley Finney on Laverne & Shirley.
|
| October 22
|
Susan Stafford departs as co-host of the NBC game show Wheel of Fortune to do humanitarian work. Auditions occur for her replacement, with Vanna White formally replacing Stafford on December 13. As of 2022, White remains the co-host of Wheel.
|
| October 25
|
The second season of Cagney & Lacey premieres on CBS with Sharon Gless now assuming the role of Det. Christine Cagney. Meg Foster portrayed Cagney in the first season. Foster was dismissed after the first six episodes because CBS deemed her too aggressive and too likely to be perceived as a lesbian by the viewers.[17]
|
| November 13
|
CBS broadcasts a world championship boxing match between Ray Mancini and Kim Duk-koo that results in Kim's death five days after the bout.
|
| November 20
|
At the age of 7, Drew Barrymore becomes the youngest person to ever guest-host Saturday Night Live on NBC. As fate would have it, she ends up hosting the same episode that saw Andy Kaufman banned from ever performing on the show again.
|
| November 26
|
Howard Cosell denounces professional boxing during the ABC broadcast of a WBC heavyweight championship bout between titleholder Larry Holmes and a clearly outmatched Randall "Tex" Cobb at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Cosell, horrified over the brutality of the one-sided fight, said that if the referee did not stop the fight he would never broadcast a professional fight again.
|
| December 5
|
Southwest Championship Wrestling becomes the first weekly wrestling program on the USA Network, airing Sundays at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. However, because of a particularly bloody match between Tully Blanchard and "Bruiser" Bob Sweetan (which USA refused to air), the inability of the promotion to keep paying USA the $7,000 per week to keep the time slot, and a monetary offer made to the cable channel by WWF owner Vince McMahon to replace Southwest Championship Wrestling with his own programming,[18] USA will end up canceling the program in September (in spite of the high ratings the show was garnering for the network), replacing it with WWF All American Wrestling.
|
| December 11
|
ESPN broadcasts its first live college football game, simulcasting the Independence Bowl match-up between Kansas State University and the University of Wisconsin.
|
| TBS in association with Sports Productions, Inc. broadcasts a heavily anticipated college basketball match-up between the Virginia Cavaliers (led by Ralph Sampson) and Georgetown Hoyas (led by Patrick Ewing). TBS paid approximately US$600,000 for the broadcasting rights to the game that was called by Skip Caray and Abe Lemons.
|
| Eddie Murphy becomes the first and to date, only person to guest-host NBC's Saturday Night Live while still a cast member. Murphy's 48 Hours co-star Nick Nolte was originally supposed to host until he fell ill.
|
| December 27
|
SuperStation WTBS debuts one of the first video game-themed TV series, Starcade.
|
| December 29
|
Nastassja Kinski makes a puzzling appearance on the NBC program Late Night with David Letterman, seeming somewhat oblivious to the jokes and everything else that was going on around her and appearing with an unusual hair style Letterman describes as "looking like there was an owl perched on top of her head." (Letterman's second guest, John Candy, comes out with his own hair moussed up in a pile as a spoof of Kinski's hair.)
|
| Surround Sound is introduced for home use by Dolby.
|
| December 31
|
Texas and The Doctors have their final episodes aired on NBC.
|
