1981 in American television
The year 1981 in television involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events during 1981.
| List of years in American television: |
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| 1980–81 United States network television schedule |
| 1981–82 United States network television schedule |
| List of American television programs currently in production |
Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 14 | Funky 4 + 1 perform "That's the Joint" on NBC's Saturday Night Live. This makes them the first hip hop act to perform on primetime (late night) television. Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry hosts (and performs on) this episode, shortly after the release of "Rapture", which later hits the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart as the first number-one song to feature rap vocals. |
| February 20 | Comedian Andy Kaufman disrupts sketches and starts a brawl while broadcasting during ABC's sketch series Fridays, an occurrence that was later disclosed to have been entirely staged.[1] |
| February 21 | During an improvised segment at the end of a Saturday Night Live telecast on NBC hosted by Charlene Tilton, Charles Rocket uses the word "fuck". As a result of the ensuing controversy he is fired, along with producer Jean Doumanian and most of his fellow cast members, bringing an early end to a season that had been heavily criticized and sunk in the ratings.[2] |
| March 1 | Miracle on Ice, a hastily made docudrama about the United States men's national ice hockey team's improbable gold medal victory in the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York from the year prior airs on ABC. The film stars Karl Malden as head coach Herb Brooks, Steve Guttenberg as goaltender Jim Craig, and Andrew Stevens as captain Mike Eruzione. This wouldn't be the last time that the event known as the "Miracle on Ice" would be depicted in a film as 23 years later, Disney would release Miracle, which was this time starring Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks. |
| March 6 | After a 19-year run, Walter Cronkite resigns as main anchorman of The CBS Evening News and is succeeded the next Monday by Dan Rather. |
| March 20 | The iconic 1950s sitcom Dennis the Menace begins its first ever transmission in Ireland when the series goes to air on RTÉ Television. |
| March 30 | An assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C., in which the President and several other people were wounded, interrupted programming on the three major networks and CNN at 2:42 PM. Millions of viewers worldwide witnessed footage of the shooting and the chaos that followed. ABC News was flooded with unconfirmed reports, which pestered the chief anchor Frank Reynolds, one of which falsely stated that the President's press secretary James Brady had died in the shooting. This was also reported by CBS News and ABC News. Coverage of the assassination attempt continued for hours on the big three networks, and for two days on CNN. As a result, the Academy Awards were postponed for a day. |
| NBC broadcasts its final NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, having done so since 1969. The tournament would move to CBS the following year. Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire called the game for NBC. | |
| April 1 | Berlinda Tolbert and Michael Jonas Evans made their final appearance as Lionel and Jenny Willis Jefferson on the CBS sitcom The Jeffersons as series regulars. |
| April 11 | Van Halen's lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen marries actress Valerie Bertinelli, who appears on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time. |
| April 12 | The Alpha Repertory Television Service (also known as ARTS) launches right after the Nickelodeon time period. |
| April 21 | "Weird Al" Yankovic makes his first television appearance on NBC's The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. |
| May 1 | The season four finale of Dallas, entitled "Ewing-Gate", airs on CBS. |
| June 2 | On ABC's 20/20, Barbara Walters famously asks Katharine Hepburn “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?” |
| June 24 | The series finale of Charlie's Angels airs on ABC. |
| June 30 | Fred Silverman is dismissed as president of NBC, after failing to improve that network's third-place rating, and is replaced by Grant Tinker. |
| July 4 | Showtime ends its part-time status and inaugurates a 24/7 schedule. |
| August 1 | The MTV network debuts on cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day. "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles was the first video broadcast on the network. |
| August 9 | Following a two-month long players strike, Major League Baseball resumes with the All-Star Game from Cleveland on NBC. During the strike (which began on June 12 and lasted through July 31),[3] NBC used its Saturday Game of the Week time-slot to show a 20-minute strike update, followed by a sports anthology series hosted by Caitlyn Jenner (then Bruce)[4] called NBC Sports: The Summer Season.[5][6] |
| August 30 | In Baltimore, Maryland, CBS affiliate WMAR-TV swaps affiliations with NBC affiliate WBAL-TV, marking the first affiliation switch in that city. CBS cites weak ratings for WMAR-TV's newscasts and heavy preemptions of network programming for programs of local interest as the reason they chose to switch affiliations. |
| September 7 | During the course of the year, all soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble change title sequences and theme songs. On this day, new title sequences debut for Another World on NBC, Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow, both on CBS, and The Edge of Night on ABC. |
| September 28 | WRGB in Schenectady, New York, NBC's first television affiliate, ends its 42-year relationship with the network (dating back to its days as experimental station W2XB) and swaps affiliations with CBS affiliate WAST, who changes its call letters to the current WNYT to mark the new affiliation. |
| October 12 | CBS Cable is initiated. |
| October 30 | John Carpenter's 1978 horror film Halloween makes its broadcast network television premiere on NBC (the same day that its first sequel was released in theaters and the day before star Donald Pleasence guest hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live). To fill the two-hour time slot, Carpenter filmed twelve minutes of additional material during the production of Halloween II. The newly filmed scenes[7] include Dr. Loomis at a hospital board review of Michael Myers and Dr. Loomis talking to a then-6-year-old Michael at Smith's Grove, telling him, "You've fooled them, haven't you, Michael? But not me." Another extra scene features Dr. Loomis at Smith's Grove examining Michael's abandoned cell after his escape and seeing the word "Sister" scratched into the door. Finally, a scene was added in which Lynda comes over to Laurie's house to borrow a silk blouse before Laurie leaves to babysit, just as Annie telephones asking to borrow the same blouse. The new scene had Laurie's hair hidden by a towel, since Jamie Lee Curtis was by then wearing a much shorter hairstyle than she had worn in 1978. |
| October 31 | The punk rock band Fear's appearance on Saturday Night Live included a group of slamdancers, among them John Belushi, Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (and later Fugazi), Tesco Vee of the Meatmen, Harley Flanagan and John Joseph of the Cro-Mags, and John Brannon of Negative Approach. The show's director originally wanted to prevent the dancers from participating, so Belushi offered to be in the episode if the dancers were allowed to stay. The end result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. Fear played "I Don't Care About You", "Beef Bologna", "New York's Alright If You Like Saxophones", and started to play "Let's Have a War" when the telecast faded into commercial. The slamdancers left ripe pumpkin remains on the set. Cameras, a piano and other property were damaged. |
| November 1 | The NBC soap opera The Doctors broadcasts its 5,000th episode. |
| November 2 | The CBS soap opera As the World Turns debuts a new opening sequence and theme song for the first time in its 25-year history. |
| November 8 | ESPN televises its first live flag-to-flag NASCAR race, the Atlanta Journal 500. |
| November 9 | The cast and crew of The Incredible Hulk are delivered a surprise: despite maintaining good ratings, The Incredible Hulk is canceled immediately, despite executive producer Kenneth Johnson's attempts to convince CBS to buy six additional episodes to fill season five. |
| November 16–17 | Luke and Laura's wedding on the ABC soap opera General Hospital becomes one of the most watched weddings in American television history, second only to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. |
| December 6 | NBC affiliate KARD in West Monroe, Louisiana and ABC affiliate KTVE in El Dorado, Arkansas swap affiliations.[8] |
| December 10 | KJAA in Lubbock, Texas signs on the air as an independent station. It adopts its current call letters KJTV in 1985 and becomes a charter Fox affiliate the next year. |
| December 18 | KVEO-TV in Brownsville, Texas signs on the air, returning primary NBC service to the Rio Grande Valley market for the first time since KRGV-TV in Weslaco left the network in 1976 to become a full-time ABC affiliate. |
| December 24 | HBO begins broadcasting 24 hours a day full-time. |
| December 25 | Chuck Woolery hosts his last episode of the NBC game show Wheel of Fortune, quitting after a salary dispute with series producer and creator Merv Griffin. The next Monday, December 28, Pat Sajak begins hosting. |
Programs
- 20/20 (1978–present)
- 60 Minutes (1968–present)
- Alice (1976–1985)
- All My Children (1970–2011)
- American Bandstand (1952–1989)
- Another World (1964–1999)
- Archie Bunker's Place (1979–1983)
- As the World Turns (1956–2010)
- Barney Miller (1975–1982)
- Battle of the Planets (1978–1985)
- Benson (1979–1986)
- Candid Camera (1948–present)
- Captain Kangaroo (1955–1984)
- Charlie's Angels (1976–1981)
- CHiPs (1977–1983)
- Dallas (1978–1991)
- Days of Our Lives (1965–present)
- Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986)
- Disney's Wonderful World (1979–1981)
- Face the Nation (1954–present)
- Family Feud (1976–1985, 1988–1995, 1999–present)
- Fantasy Island (1977–1984)
- Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972–1984)
- General Hospital (1963–present)
- Good Morning America (1975–present)
- Guiding Light (1952–2009)
- Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951–present)
- Happy Days (1974–1984)
- Hart to Hart (1979–1984)
- Hee Haw (1969–1992)
- In Search of... (1977–1982)
- It's a Living (1980–1982, 1985–1989)
- Knots Landing (1979–1993)
- Laverne & Shirley (1976–1983)
- Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983)
- Lou Grant (1977–1982)
- Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988)
- M*A*S*H (1972–1983)
- Masterpiece Theatre (1971–present)
- Match Game (1962–1969, 1973–1984, 1990–1991, 1998–1999)
- Meet the Press (1947–present)
- Monday Night Football (1970–present)
- Mork & Mindy (1978–1982)
- Nightline (1979–present)
- One Day at a Time (1975–1984)
- One Life to Live (1968–2012)
- Quincy, M.E. (1976–1983)
- Real People (1979–1984)
- Ryan's Hope (1975–1989)
- Saturday Night Live (1975–present)
- Schoolhouse Rock! (1973–1986)
- Search for Tomorrow (1951–1986)
- Sesame Street (1969–present)
- Soap (1977–1981)
- Solid Gold (1980–1988)
- Soul Train (1971–present)
- SportsCenter (1979–present)
- Taxi (1978–1983)
- Texas (1980–1982)
- That's Incredible! (1980–1984)
- The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (1974–1984)
- The Doctors (1963–1982)
- The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985)
- The Edge of Night (1956–1984)
- The Facts of Life (1979–1988)
- The Jeffersons (1975–1985)
- The Lawrence Welk Show (1955–1982)
- The Love Boat (1977–1986)
- The Mike Douglas Show (1961–1981)
- The Muppet Show (1976-1981)
- The P.T.L. Club (1976–1987)
- The Price Is Right (1972–present)
- The Today Show (1952–present)
- The Tomorrow Show (1973–1982)
- The Tonight Show (1954–present; full title has generally included the host's name)
- The Waltons (1972–1981)
- The Young and the Restless (1973–present)
- This Old House (1979–present)
- This Week in Baseball (1977–1998, 2000–present)
- Three's Company (1977–1984)
- Too Close for Comfort (1980–1986)
- Trapper John, M.D. (1979–1986)
- Truth or Consequences (1950–1988)
- Wheel of Fortune (1975–present)
- WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982)
Debuting this year
Ending this year
| Date | Show | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| March 7 | The Tim Conway Show | 1980 |
| April 10 | Hollywood Squares (returned in 1983) | 1966 |
| April 16 | Buck Rogers in the 25th Century | 1979 |
| April 20 | Soap | 1977 |
| May 23 | Eight Is Enough | |
| June 10 | The Muppet Show | 1976 |
| July 21 | Flo | 1980 |
| August 19 | Charlie's Angels | 1976 |
| August 20 | The Waltons | 1972 |
| August 29 | Eight is Enough | 1977 |
| September 1 | CBN Satellite Service | |
| October 23 | Card Sharks (returned in 1986) | 1978 |
| October 24 | Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (returned in 1984) | 1972 |
| October 31 | Super Friends (returned in 1983) | 1973 |
| November 30 | The Mike Douglas Show | 1961 |
| December 5 | Heathcliff | 1980 |
Changing networks
| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
|---|---|---|
| Walt Disney anthology series | NBC | CBS |
| SCTV | Syndication | NBC |
Made-for-TV movies and miniseries
| Title | Network | Date(s) of airing |
|---|---|---|
| Fallen Angel | CBS | February 24 |
| Miracle on Ice | ABC | March 1 |
| Masada | April 5–8 | |
| The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island | NBC | May 5 |
| Return of the Beverly Hillbillies | CBS | October 6 |
| Family Reunion | NBC | October 11 & 12 |
| Skokie | CBS | November 17 |
| Bill | December 22 |
Television stations
Station launches
Network affiliation changes
| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 30 | Baltimore, Maryland | WMAR-TV | 2 | CBS | NBC | |
| WBAL-TV | 11 | NBC | CBS | |||
| September 28 | Albany, New York | WRGB | 6 | NBC | CBS | |
| WNYT | 13 | CBS | NBC | |||
| December 6 | El Dorado, Arkansas (Monroe, Louisiana) |
KTVE | 10 | ABC | NBC | |
| West Monroe/Monroe, Louisiana (El Dorado, Arkansas) |
KLAA | 14 | NBC | ABC | ||
| Unknown date | Cheyenne, Wyoming | KGWN-TV | 5 | ABC | CBS | |
| Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico Brownsville/Harlingen/McAllen, Texas) |
XHRIO-TV | 2 | English independent | Spanish independent | ||
| Scottsbluff, Nebraska | KSTF | 10 | ABC | CBS | ||
Station closures
| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | First air date | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unknown date | Berlin, New Hampshire | WEDB-TV | 40 | PBS | April 30, 1969 | Part of the New Hampshire Public Television network |
| Hanover, New Hampshire | WHED-TV | 15 | PBS | April 11, 1968 | ||
Births
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 25 | Adele Astaire | 84 | Actress |
| April 26 | Jim Davis | 71 | Actor (Jock Ewing on Dallas) |
| June 9 | Allen Ludden | 63 | Game show host (Password) |
| July 3 | Ross Martin | 61 | Polish-born actor (Artemus Gordon on The Wild Wild West) |
| August 1 | Paddy Chayefsky | 58 | Writer (Marty) |
| September 27 | Robert Montgomery | 77 | Actor, host (Robert Montgomery Presents) |
| November 25 | Jack Albertson | 74 | Actor (Chico and the Man) |
| November 29 | Natalie Wood | 43 | Actress (The Pride of the Family, The Public Defender) |
References
- LaBrecque, Jeff (August 5, 2013). "'Fridays': What really happened the night Andy Kaufman melted down on live TV". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
- "How Bad Can It Be? Case File #23: Saturday Night Live's aborted 1980-81 season". A.V. Club. September 5, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2016.
- "BASEBALL STRIKE FORCES TV TO IMPROVISE". The New York Times. June 27, 1981.
- Leibovitz, Annie (June 1, 2015). "Introducing Caitlyn Jenner". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
- "Networks bracing for baseball strike". Gainesville Sun. July 30, 1994.
- Hadley, Mitchell (August 2, 2014). "This week in TV Guide: August 1, 1981". It's About TV!.
- NBC Commercials/Extra Scenes - Halloween (Oct. 30, 1981) on YouTube
- Network Switch Effective, Monroe News-Star-World, December 6, 1981
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