| Date |
Event
|
| January 1
|
After episode 410 of Soul Train was broadcast this day, the series goes on hiatus for Don Cornelius's brain surgery. Original episodes return on April 30 after Cornelius returns from his convalescence.
|
| January 3
|
Plinko is added as a pricing game on the CBS game show The Price Is Right; it will go on to become one of the most popular of the show's games. Also on this date, three new game shows debut on rival NBC: $ale of the Century, Just Men! and Hit Man. The two latter shows will leave the air after 13 weeks, whereas $ale (a revival of the hit NBC game show of the late 1960s-early 1970's) will go on to have a six-year run.
|
| January 8
|
The NFL playoffs begin on CBS and NBC, who televised the NFC and AFC playoff games respectively. Because a players' strike reduced the regular season from 16 to only 9 games, the National Football League created a special 16-team playoff format (dubbed the "Super Bowl Tournament", where division standings were ignored and eight teams from each conference were seeded 1–8 based on their regular season records), just for this year. As a further consequence of the strike, this marked the first (and currently only) time that NFL playoff games were regionally televised across the United States instead of nationwide.
|
| January 10
|
Canada and the United States launch the television series Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock, an educational co-production advocating tolerance.[1]
|
| January 30
|
The first regular episode for The A-Team airs after NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XVII.
|
| February 5
|
The first part of a special two-part episode of Diff'rent Strokes called "The Bicycle Man", in which Arnold and Dudley encounter a pedophile (played by Gordon Jump), is broadcast on NBC. It is notable for starting the trend of very special episodes.
|
| February 6–13
|
ABC broadcasts the epic miniseries The Winds of War, based on the novel by Herman Wouk. It is seen in part or in total by 140 million viewers, making it the most watched miniseries at the time.
|
| February 13
|
Marvin Gaye performs a soulful rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the NBA All-Star Game at The Forum in Los Angeles. VH1 would later use it as the first very first video when they premiered on January 1, 1985. And when CBS broadcast their final NBA telecast at the end of the 1990 NBA Finals, they played Gaye's 1983 rendition of the anthem during the closing credits.
|
| February 20
|
An extended cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture premieres on the ABC.[2] It added roughly 12 minutes to the film. The added footage was largely unfinished, and cobbled together for the network premiere; director Robert Wise hadn't wanted some of the footage to be included in the final cut of the film.[3] This version was released on VHS and LaserDisc by Paramount in 1983.[4][5]
|
| February 21
|
ABC airs a made-for-television biographical film about the life of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, starring Cheryl Ladd. The producers would claim that Princess Grace assisted for several weeks with the films preproduction before her unexpected death in September 1982.[6]
|
| February 23
|
PBS broadcasts The Operation, a live telecast of an actual open-heart surgery.
|
| February 28
|
More than 125 million Americans watch the 251st and final episode of M*A*S*H on CBS, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen". It would be the most viewed TV broadcast in U.S. history until Super Bowl XLIV in February 2010.[7]
|
| March 3
|
WFBC-TV, NBC affiliate in Greenville, changes its call sign to WYFF.
|
| March 6
|
Country Music Television (CMT) begins in the United States.
|
| The first televised USFL football game (Los Angeles Express vs. New Jersey Generals) is broadcast by ABC. The Express would ultimately win the game, 20–15.
|
| March 7
|
The Nashville Network (TNN) (known later as The National Network and Spike TV; now known as Paramount Network) begins broadcasting.
|
| March 10
|
MTV broadcasts the video of Michael Jackson's song "Billie Jean" for the first time. The video is the first by a black artist to gain great airplay on MTV, and is credited with helping the album Thriller, in which the song is included, become the best-selling album of all time.
|
| March 18
|
CBS broadcasts Still the Beaver, a two-hour television movie which reintroduces the adult actors, reprising their child characters, from the original 1957–1963 sitcom Leave It to Beaver. This would be followed by a new TV series which was also called Still the Beaver that would air on The Disney Channel for the 1984–85 season. Beginning in the 1986–87 season, the series, now named The New Leave It to Beaver, would air on WTBS, where it would remain until its conclusion in 1989.
|
| March 19
|
US First Lady Nancy Reagan makes a special appearance on an episode of the NBC comedy Diff'rent Strokes, beginning her Just Say No anti-drug campaign.
|
| March 20
|
NBC broadcasts the TV movie Special Bulletin, a fictional—yet realistic—depiction of a TV network's coverage of a nuclear terrorism threat in Charleston, South Carolina. The movie is an early collaboration between Edward Zwick (who directed) and Marshall Herskovitz (who wrote the teleplay); both men would create and produce thirtysomething later in the 1980s.
|
| April 4
|
Archie Bunker's Place broadcasts its last original episode as CBS cancels the series after four seasons (and without a proper series finale), ending Carroll O'Connor's run as Archie Bunker, which began during 1971 with All in the Family.
|
| The Morning Show, hosted by Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey, premieres locally on WABC in New York City. The show would eventually make its move to national syndication in 1988 with Philbin and Kathie Lee Gifford as his co-host.
|
| April 7
|
Major League Baseball agrees to terms with ABC and NBC on a six-year television package, worth $1.2 billion. The two networks would continue to alternate coverage of the playoffs (ABC in even-numbered years and NBC in odd-numbered years), World Series (ABC would televise the World Series in odd-numbered years and NBC in even-numbered years) and All-Star Game (ABC would televise the All-Star Game in even-numbered years and NBC in odd-numbered years) through the 1989 season, with each of the 26 clubs receiving $7 million per year in return (even if no fans showed up). This was a substantial increase over the last package, in which each club was being paid $1.9 million per year. ABC contributed $575 million for the rights to televise prime time and Sunday afternoon regular season games and NBC paid $550 million for the rights to broadcast 30 Saturday afternoon games.[8]
|
| April 9
|
Vin Scully makes his debut as NBC's new lead play-by-play announcer for their Major League Baseball telecasts (a role that he would maintain through the 1989 season). Scully's first broadcast for NBC is a game between the Montreal Expos and Los Angeles Dodgers, where the Expos would defeat the Dodgers 7-2.
|
| April 12
|
David Canary makes his first appearance on the ABC soap opera All My Children.
|
| April 18
|
Disney Channel is initiated on American cable TV. The first show televised is Good Morning, Mickey!
|
| April 21
|
WTWC-TV in Tallahassee, Florida signs on, giving the Tallahassee market its first full-time NBC affiliate.
|
| May 1–2
|
V is broadcast by NBC. The first episode is viewed by 40% of TV viewers.[9]
|
| May 6
|
A fire at Southfork threatens the lives of the Ewings on the season finale of the CBS drama series Dallas.
|
| ABC airs the broadcast network television premiere of The Shining.
|
| May 16
|
The concert special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever is broadcast by NBC; Michael Jackson, after a performance with The Jackson Five, provides the centerpiece highlight by performing, to "Billie Jean", his "moonwalk" dance for the first time on television.
|
| May 22
|
CBS introduces a new theme music (composed by Allyson Bellink and mostly consisting of an uptempo series of four notes and three bars each) for their coverage of the NBA. It uses a primitive-computer generated introduction (created by Bill Feigenbaum) of the NBA arenas (similar to the Boston Garden) until the 1989 Playoffs and later revived the second theme beginning in the 1989 Finals.[10]
|
| May 29
|
WVSB-TV in West Point, Mississippi signs on, giving the Tupelo market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| June 7
|
NBC affiliate in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, WCKT-TV changes its call letters to WSVN.
|
| June 16
|
Pope John Paul II arrives in his native Poland, with ABC and NBC broadcasting his arrival live (CBS, hampered by budget reductions of its news division, broadcasts The Price is Right instead).
|
| June 20
|
KLDH (now KTKA-TV) in Topeka, Kansas signs on, giving the Topeka market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| June 23
|
Whitney Houston makes her national television debut when she performs on The Merv Griffin Show.
|
| August 4
|
The cast of NBC's series Search for Tomorrow is forced to do a live show for the first time since the program began using videotape format during 1967 due to the loss of both the regular transmission tape and a backup.[11]
|
| August 10
|
KDVR-TV, Denver's first UHF station goes on the air.
|
| August 12
|
Denver's NBC station KOA-TV changes its name to KCNC-TV.
|
| August 22
|
In Fargo, North Dakota, ABC affiliate KTHI-TV (now KVLY-TV) swaps affiliations with long-time NBC affiliate WDAY-TV and its semi-satellite in Grand Forks, WDAZ-TV.
|
| August 30
|
Though the station is still regarded as profitable, Field Enterprises closes down WKBS-TV/Burlington, New Jersey-Philadelphia after failing to find a buyer.
|
| September 5
|
PBS's series The MacNeil/Lehrer Report becomes The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, the first American network news program to expand from a half-hour to one hour in length.
|
| Tom Brokaw becomes the sole main anchor of the NBC Nightly News, ending a 17-month stint co-anchoring the broadcast with Roger Mudd.
|
| Peter Jennings becomes sole anchorman of ABC's newscast World News Tonight, after the death of Frank Reynolds two months earlier.
|
| Pam Long becomes co-main writer of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light.
|
| September 5
|
During the first half of a broadcast of Monday Night Football between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, Howard Cosell refers to Washington wide-receiver Alvin Garrett as a "little monkey". Cosell's remarks immediately ignites a racial controversy and plays a key factor in his departure from the Monday Night Football booth following the 1983 NFL season.
|
| September 8
|
The comedy series We Got it Made debuts, the first new series on NBC's autumn list to premiere—and the start of one of the least successful new autumn show rosters for a network in history, as none of the series would survive a 2nd season (the other series being Manimal, Jennifer Slept Here, Mr. Smith, Bay City Blues, The Yellow Rose, Boone, For Love and Honor and The Rousters).
|
| September 12
|
The animated G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero mini-series based on the toys of the same name debuts in syndication. Another miniseries airs the following year, with an ongoing show premiering in 1985.
|
| September 17
|
The Peanuts gang get their very own Saturday morning cartoon series with The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show on CBS. Earlier that year, said network cancelled their epynous prime time show Peanuts because it had run its course and already outdated. (The prime time series was given a proper finale in 1981.)
|
| Alvin and the Chipmunks premieres on NBC.
|
| Vanessa Williams is crowned Miss America in a nationally televised event on NBC. Williams became the first African American woman to win the title.
|
| September 18
|
The band Kiss officially appears in public without make-up for the first time since its very early days on a appearance on MTV, which coincided with the release of Lick It Up.[12]
|
| September 19
|
The nighttime syndicated edition of the NBC daytime game show Wheel of Fortune premieres. The show is only picked up by 59 markets and is shut out of the top 3 markets. However, by late 1984, the show will overtake Family Feud as the number one show in syndication. Family Feud surpassed Wheel Of Fortune as the most watched show in syndication in June 2015. It has continued to be in the top three shows in syndication through 2024.
|
| Press Your Luck premieres on CBS; the game show would end its run on September 26, 1986.
|
| September 25
|
WPVI newscaster Jim O'Brien is killed in a skydiving accident in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania at age 43.
|
| September 27–29
|
NBC broadcasts Live... and in Person, a live variety special program broadcast during three nights. Sandy Gallin is host, and performers include Neil Diamond, Liberace, Linda Ronstadt, and the cast of A Chorus Line.
|
| October 1
|
Mr. T guest-stars as himself on Diff'rent Strokes.
|
| October 3
|
During a live NBC news update, anchor Jessica Savitch appears incoherent, slurring her speech, deviating from her copy and ad-libbing her report. Savitch, dogged by rumors of drug abuse and instability, still has her contract renewed, but drowns in a car accident three weeks later.[13]
|
| October 6
|
The rock band R.E.M. made its television debut on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman.
|
| October 9
|
Tiger Town, the first ever television film produced for the Disney Channel, premieres.
|
| October 10
|
Adam, a TV-movie about the mysterious disappearance of Adam Walsh, makes its world premiere on NBC. The broadcast ends with a series of missing children's photographs and descriptions, along with a telephone number viewers could call to provide information on their disappearances.
|
| October 30
|
Mackenzie Phillips makes her final appearance as Julie Cooper Horvath on One Day at a Time.
|
| November 20
|
An estimated 100 million people watched the controversial made-for-TV movie The Day After on ABC, depicting the start of a nuclear war.
|
| November 24
|
Sesame Street on PBS dealt with the sensitive issue of death when Big Bird learns the concept as it relates to his late friend, Mr. Hooper (Will Lee, the actor who played Mr. Hooper, died of a heart attack in November 1982).
|
| Jim Crockett Promotions produces the inaugural Starrcade event on closed-circuit television around the Southern United States. Predating the World Wrestling Federation's (later WWE) first WrestleMania event by two years, Starrcade would soon become Jim Crockett Promotions and later World Championship Wrestling's premier, flagship event.
|
| November 29
|
ABC's affiliate in Nashville, WNGE-TV, changes its call sign to WKRN-TV after being sold by General Electric to Knight Ridder.
|
| December 2
|
The epic (nearly 14 minutes) music video for Michael Jackson's "Thriller" is broadcast for the first time. It will become the most often repeated and famous music video of all time and increase Jackson's own popularity and the sales of the record album Thriller.
|
| December 21
|
Gerald Ford, Betty Ford and Henry Kissinger make cameo appearances on ABC's Dynasty.[14]
|
| December 25
|
Several networks simultaneously air the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol; the combined ratings of these broadcasts make the December 25 broadcast(s) of A Christmas Carol the most-watched television event of the year in every single media market in the states of Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Maine, Ohio, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Indiana and Arkansas, as well as several other media markets throughout the United States.[15]
|
