| Date
|
Event
|
|---|
| January 1
|
VH1 begins in the United States.
|
| January 4
|
Sesame Street broadcasts its 2,000th episode.
|
| January 7
|
On ABC's Good Morning America, actor Yul Brynner makes a public service announcement to be run after his death. He tells others to not smoke. Brynner was dying from lung cancer at the time
|
| January 20
|
Super Bowl XIX is televised by ABC. This was also the first time that the Super Bowl is broadcast by ABC. It is also the first time that a Super Bowl had closed captioned in real-time. In this game the San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins 38-16
|
| February 4
|
NBC becomes the first television network to use satellite to connect its stations.
|
| February 8
|
CBS airs the last episode of The Dukes of Hazzard.
|
| March 2
|
The NBC situation comedy Gimme a Break! broadcasts an episode live.
|
| March 18
|
Capital Cities Communicationssays that it is buying ABC for $3.5 billion. To do this, the company must sell off several of its television and radio stations to follow FCC ownership limits. The deal will be take place on January 3, 1986.[1][2] |
| March 20
|
Norman Lear sells Tandem Productions and Embassy Television companies to The Coca-Cola Company for $485 million.
|
| March 31
|
The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) broadcast the first WrestleMania. The event is very successful. It had over a million viewers. This was the start of the yearly WrestleMania events.
|
| April 6
|
The first edition of World Championship Wrestling by Jim Crockett Promotions is broadcast on TBS.
|
| April 9
|
The last episode of Three's a Crowd is broadcast on ABC. This ended John Ritter's run as Jack Tripper which begin with Three's Company back in 1977.
|
| April 29
|
The two-night version of Ken Follett's The Key to Rebecca is broadcast on WPIX Channel 11 in New York City. It has non-pixelated toplessness from both of its female stars, Season Hubley and Lina Raymond.
|
| May 4
|
News Corporation and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation announces that they will buy Metromedia's television stations and Metromedia Producers Corp. for $3.5 billion. This is the start of the Fox Broadcasting Company, which would first broadcast in October 1986.
|
| May 9
|
Nicholas Colasanto makes his last appearance as Coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers. After his death, Woody Harrelson joins the cast as Woody Boyd beginning in the fourth season.
|
| May 11
|
The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event is broadcast by NBC. This is the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast by network television since the 1950s.
|
| Dolph Sweet makes his last appearance as Chief Carl Kanisky on Gimme a Break!. His last episode was broadcast three days after his death.
|
| May 12
|
During halftime of the Boston Celtics–Philadelphia 76ers NBA playoff game, CBS televises the first ever NBA Draft Lottery.
|
| May 15
|
The season finale of Dynasty on ABC sees the wedding party of Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) and Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed) shot by revolutionaries in what is known as the Moldavian Massacre
|
| May 17
|
The season finale of Dallas on CBS finds character Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) on his deathbed after his ex-sister-in-law Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany) runs him down with her car.
|
| May 25
|
CBS[3][4][5] airs the fourth game of the Major Indoor Soccer League's championship series. This would be the last year the MISL would have games on network television.
|
| May 30
|
The USA Network airs its last National Hockey League game, Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. NHL was not broadcast on USA again until the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs.
|
| June 14
|
ABC broadcasts its 2,311th and last daytime episode of Family Feud after 9 years.
|
| June 24
|
Kathie Lee Johnson (later Gifford) joins Regis Philbin on WABC's The Morning Show. The Morning Show soon becomes number 1 in the market.[6] It became syndicated on September 5, 1988, when the title is changed to Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.
|
| July 1
|
Nick at Nite is launched in the United States. It was a nighttime program service which mainly broadcast classic television reruns.
|
| July 2
|
The last episode of The Jeffersons airs on CBS.
|
| July 13
|
The Live Aid concerts are broadcast from London and Philadelphia. In the U.S., the concerts are broadcast by MTV with ABC joining in a 3-hour prime-time period.
|
| July 16
|
NBC's telecast of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game out of the Metrodome in Minnesota is the first program to be broadcast in stereo[7] by a television network.
|
| September 2
|
NBC becomes the first broadcast network in the U.S. to broadcast its prime time programs with stereo sound.
|
| September 9
|
The Price Is Right returns to daily syndication after a five-year break with Tom Kennedy hosting.
|
| September 16
|
After a 22-year hiatus, new episodes of The Jetsons debut. The syndicated revival would run for two seasons.
|
| September 22
|
The first Farm Aid concert is telecast from Champaign, Illinois, in syndication and by TNN.
|
| September 28
|
ABC broadcasts an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians called "The Fear", in which Batman's origin is shown for the first time outside of the comic books.
|
| September 29
|
Howard Cosell makes his last assignment for ABC Sports. It was a Major League Baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins. Cosell was removed from his announcing duties for that year's World Series because of the controversy caused by his book I Never Played the Game.
|
| October 4
|
The PBS program Electric Company ended after 8 straight years in reruns.
|
| NBC won the rights to broadcast the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul, South Korea.
|
| November 8
|
The final episode of The Price Is Right with Johnny Olson as announcer is broadcast by CBS. Olson had died on October 12;
|
| November 9
|
On NBC, Saturday Night Live begins its 11th season, with Lorne Michaels returning as executive producer and an all-new cast that includes Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller.
|
| November 18
|
Elmo becomes a new character on PBS's Sesame Street. In the same episode, the adult cast meet Aloysius Snuffleupagus for the first time since the character's 1971 introduction.
|
| December 3
|
Courteney Cox uses the word "period" (referring to menstruation) on U.S. television for the first time, in a commercial for Tampax brand tampons.
|
| December 12
|
General Electric says is will buy RCA, owner of NBC for $6.3 billion. The deal would be finalized on June 9, 1986.
|