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1978 in American television
Television related events in the USA during 1978 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This is a list of American television-related events in 1978.
Events
More information Date, Event ...
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 15 | Super Bowl XII airs on CBS, the first time the NFL's championship event is played and telecast at night. The Dallas Cowboys defeat the Denver Broncos 27-10. |
| January 23 | Roots One Year Later, a special examining the impact and influence of the miniseries, airs on ABC. |
| January 28 | The Doobie Brothers make a guest appearance on ABC's What's Happening!! |
| February 5 | ABC celebrates its silver anniversary with a retrospective special. |
| February 28 | Robin Williams makes his first appearance as Mork from Ork on an episode of Happy Days on ABC. The episode proved to be such a success, that it would soon give way to a spin-off starring Williams entitled Mork & Mindy. |
| March 7 | Showtime goes nationwide on the air. |
| March 22 | The Beatles spoof The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash airs on NBC. |
| March 26 – April 1 | CBS commemorates its golden anniversary in radio and TV broadcasting with CBS: On the Air, a 9½-hour retrospective special airing over 7 nights. |
| April 16–19 | Holocaust, starring James Woods and Meryl Streep first airs on NBC. |
| April 22 | The Blues Brothers make their first appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live; the duo of Jake & Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) are introduced in a skit by Paul Shaffer (as Don Kirshner) and performs "Hey Bartender". |
| April 26 | Ringo Starr's, Ringo, a musical version of The Prince and the Pauper, airs on NBC, with Starr's fellow former Beatle, George Harrison, providing the narration. |
| May 1 | KDOG-TV, Houston's independent station, changes its call sign to KRIV-TV following its purchase by Metromedia. |
| June 12 | WHNB-TV, NBC affiliate in New Britain/Hartford/New Haven, Connecticut, changes its name to its current WVIT-TV, shortly after Viacom purchased the station. |
| June 26 | WTOP-TV changes its call sign to WDVM-TV. In return the NBC affiliate, WWJ-TV changes its call sign to WDIV-TV. |
| July 1 | In Charlotte, North Carolina, NBC affiliate WSOC-TV leaves the network and joins ABC, citing a stronger affiliation (at the time, NBC is in last place among the three major networks, while ABC is in first place). NBC eventually aligns with Ted Turner-owned independent station WRET-TV (now WCNC-TV), tempted by promises Turner made to NBC to make $2.5 million worth of upgrades, including a stronger transmitter and the launch of a news department; former ABC affiliate WCCB becomes an independent station, and eventually a charter affiliate of Fox in 1986.[1] |
| July 10 | On ABC, the ABC Evening News is revamped to become ABC World News Tonight, employing a unique three-anchor setup (Frank Reynolds serving as lead anchor from Washington, Max Robinson presenting national news from Chicago, and Peter Jennings with international news from London). |
| August 1 | Taking advantage of an oral escape-clause in his contract with ABC, Harry Reasoner returns to CBS, eventually rejoining 60 Minutes, the program he anchored with Mike Wallace from its 1968 premiere until he joined ABC News in 1970. |
| September 17 | The ceremony formalizing the success of the peace talks between Israel's Menachem Begin and Egypt's Anwar Sadat—the Camp David accords—is televised live from the White House East Room. |
| September 19 | The chairs on which Archie and Edith Bunker sat through 8 seasons of the CBS comedy All in the Family are presented to the Smithsonian Institution. |
| September 27 | Replacing Zara Cully and Damon Evans, Jay Hammer joins the cast of the CBS comedy The Jeffersons, for a short period of time. |
| October 7 | On NBC's Saturday Night Live, The Rolling Stones become the first and to date, only band to serve as both hosts and musical guests in the same episode. |
| October 31 | On NBC, Norma Brown wins $28,800 playing the Money Cards on Card Sharks, the first and only time a contestant has won the maximum amount. |
| November 9 | Jack Soo makes his final appearance as Nick Yemana on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller prior to his death from cancer on January 11, 1979. The Season 5 finale of Barney Miller (airing later that May) would subsequently, feature the cast stepping out of character to pay tribute to Soo. |
| November 12 | In Fort Smith, Arkansas, KLMN-TV (now Fox affiliate KFTA-TV) signs-on the air and takes CBS programming from KFPW-TV/KTVP. Both KFPW-TV and KTVP subsequently become full-time ABC affiliates, giving Fort Smith in-market affiliates of all three major networks. |
| November 17 | The Star Wars Holiday Special airs on CBS. The special gives fans their first glimpse of Boba Fett, a character from the upcoming Star Wars sequel. |
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Programs
Debuting this year
More information Date, Show ...
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Resuming this year
More information Show, Last aired ...
| Show | Last aired | Previous network | Retitled as/Same | Returning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Rollers | 1976 | NBC | Same | April 24 |
| Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! | 1970 | CBS | September 9 | |
| Jeopardy! | 1975 | NBC | The All-New Jeopardy! | October 2 |
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Ending this year
More information Date, Show ...
| Date | Show | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| March 6 | The Six Million Dollar Man | 1973 |
| March 18 | Kojak | 1973 |
| March 29 | The Carol Burnett Show | 1967 |
| March 30 | Police Woman | 1974 |
| March 31 | Tattletales | |
| April 1 | The Bob Newhart Show | 1972 |
| April 7 | Quark | 1977 |
| April 28 | C.P.O. Sharkey | 1976 |
| April 29 | Maude | 1972 |
| Another Day | 1978 | |
| May 13 | The Ted Knight Show | |
| The Bionic Woman | 1976 | |
| Columbo | 1971 | |
| May 18 | Baretta | 1975 |
| July 21 | Chico and the Man | 1974 |
| September 1 | Fred Flintstone and Friends | 1977 |
| October 28 | Laff-A-Lympics | |
| Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics | ||
| November 10 | The American Girls | 1978 |
| December 2 | Yogi's Space Race | |
| December 4 | Lucan | 1977 |
| December 9 | Rhoda | 1974 |
| December 16 | The New Fantastic Four | 1978 |
| December 23 | The Scooby-Doo Show | 1976 |
| Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! | 1969 |
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Made-for-TV movies and miniseries
More information Title, Network ...
| Title | Network | Date of airing |
|---|---|---|
| The Dain Curse | CBS | May 22–24 |
| King | NBC | February 12–14 |
| Holocaust | April 16–19 | |
| Zuma Beach | September 27 | |
| Centennial | October 1–February 4 | |
| Donner Pass: The Road to Survival | October 24 | |
| The Time Machine | November 5 | |
| Someone's Watching Me! | November 29 |
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Networks and services
Launches
More information Network, Type ...
| Network | Type | Launch date | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Theater Network | Cable television | September 1 | ||
| INSP | Cable television | Unknown | ||
| WGN-TV | Cable television | November 9 | ||
| Operation Prime Time | Cable television | Unknown |
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Network conversions and rebrandings
More information Network, Type ...
| Network | Type | Conversion date | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hughes Television Network | Paramount Television Service | April | ||
| Paramount Television Service | Hughes Television Network | Unknown |
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Closures
There are no closures for Cable and satellite television channels in this year.
Television stations
Station launches
More information Date, City of License/Market ...
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Network affiliation changes
More information Date, City of license/Market ...
| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 1 | Charlotte, North Carolina | WCCB | 18 | ABC | Independent | |
| WRET-TV | 36 | Independent | NBC | |||
| WSOC-TV | 9 | NBC | ABC |
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Station closures
More information Date, City of license/Market ...
| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 9 | Greenfield, Massachusetts | WRLP | 32 | NBC | June 29, 1957 | |
| August 15 | Warrensburg/Sedalia, Missouri (Columbia/Jefferson City) |
KMOS-TV | 6 | CBS | July 8, 1954 (as an independent station) |
Returned to the air December 22, 1979 as a PBS member station |
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Births
More information Date, Name ...
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Deaths
More information Date, Name ...
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 13 | Hubert Humphrey | 66 | American politician[4] |
| February 28 | Zara Cully | 86 | Actress (Mother Olivia Jefferson on The Jeffersons) |
| March 18 | Peggy Wood | 86 | Actress (One Life to Live) |
| April 22 | Will Geer | 76 | Actor (Grandpa Walton on The Waltons) |
| May 21 | Bruce Geller | 47 | Screenwriter, producer (Mannix) |
| June 29 | Bob Crane | 49 | Actor (Col. Hogan on Hogan's Heroes) |
| July 3 | James Daly | 59 | Actor (Dr. Paul Lochner on Medical Center) |
| September 7 | Keith Moon | 32 | English drummer (The Who) |
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See also
References
External links
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