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 |
|---|---|
| January 20 | Former actor and governor Ronald Reagan has his inauguration. It is the most watched presidential inauguration in American history.[1][2] |
| February 6 | The cast of The Brady Bunch reunited for the TV movie The Brady Girls Get Married. Although scheduled to be shown in its original full-length movie format, NBC at the last minute divided it into half-hour segments. NBC showed one part per week for three weeks, and the fourth week debuted a spin-off sitcom titled The Brady Brides. This proved to be the only time the entire cast worked together on a single project following the cancellation of the original series. |
| February 14 | Funky 4 + 1 performed "That's the Joint" on NBC's Saturday Night Live. This made them the first hip hop act to perform on primetime (late night) television. Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry hosted (and performed on) this episode, shortly after the release of "Rapture", which later hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart as the first number-one song to feature rap vocals. |
| February 20 | Comedian Andy Kaufman disrupted sketches and started a brawl while broadcasting during ABC's sketch series Fridays, an occurrence that was later disclosed to have been entirely staged.[3] |
| February 21 | During an improvised segment at the end of a Saturday Night Live telecast on NBC hosted by Charlene Tilton, Charles Rocket used the word "fuck". As a result of the ensuing controversy, he was 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.[4] |
| February 27 | The made-for-television film The Munsters' Revenge was broadcast on NBC. Based on 1964–1966 sitcom The Munsters, the film reunited original cast members Fred Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, and Al Lewis. This was the last production to be made with most of the original actors from the 1960s TV series. |
| 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 aired on ABC. The film starred Karl Malden as head coach Herb Brooks, Steve Guttenberg as goaltender Jim Craig, and Andrew Stevens as captain Mike Eruzione. This was not the last time that the event known as the "Miracle on Ice" would be depicted in a film, as 23 years later, Disney released Miracle, which was this time starring Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks. |
| March 6 | After a 19-year run, Walter Cronkite resigned as main anchorman of The CBS Evening News and was succeeded the next Monday by Dan Rather. |
| March 17 | Norman Fell and Audra Lindley made their final appearances as Stanley and Helen Roper on Three's Company. |
| March 18 | Independent television station KGCT-TV signed on the air in Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
| March 20 | The iconic 1950s sitcom Dennis the Menace began its first transmission in Ireland when the series went on the air on RTÉ Television. |
| March 30 | An assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan in Washington, DC, 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 broadcast its final NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, having done so since 1969. The tournament moved 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 appearances 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 married actress Valerie Bertinelli, who appeared on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time. |
| April 12 | The Alpha Repertory Television Service (also known as ARTS) launched right after the Nickelodeon time period. |
| April 21 | "Weird Al" Yankovic made his first television appearance on NBC's The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. |
| May 1 | The season-four finale of Dallas, entitled "Ewing-Gate", aired on CBS. |
| May 5–14 | The NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets was broadcast on CBS. This was the last NBA Finals to be broadcast on tape-delay, with weeknight games airing after the late local news in most cities. Games 3 and 4 were played back-to-back on Saturday and Sunday, May 9 and 10, to give CBS two live Finals games. Game 3 was the last Finals contest played on a Saturday until Game 5 in 2021. Game 4 tipped off at noon Central (1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific) for CBS to telecast golf following the game. Had Game 7 been played, it would have tipped off at 1 pm Eastern. All in all, the Finals drew a 6.7 rating, according to Nielsen Media Research. Consequently, this was the lowest-rated NBA Finals in history prior to 2003. |
| May 15 | The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island, the third and final made-for-television film that reunited the cast of the 1964–1967 sitcom Gilligan's Island, aired on NBC. |
| June 2 | On ABC's 20/20, Barbara Walters famously asked Katharine Hepburn, "If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" |
| June 24 | The series finale of Charlie's Angels aired on ABC. |
| June 30 | Fred Silverman was dismissed as president of NBC after failing to improve that network's third-place rating, and was replaced by Grant Tinker. |
| July 4 | Showtime ended its part-time status and inaugurated a 24/7 schedule. |
| July 10 | The final episode of Sanford was broadcast on NBC. A sequel to the original 1972–1977 sitcom Sanford and Son, this officially marked the end of Redd Foxx's run as Fred G. Sanford. |
| August 1 | The MTV network debuted 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 resumed with the All-Star Game from Cleveland on NBC. During the strike (which began on June 12 and lasted through July 31),[5] 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)[6] called NBC Sports: The Summer Season.[7][8] |
| August 30 | In Baltimore, Maryland, CBS affiliate WMAR-TV swapped affiliations with NBC affiliate WBAL-TV, marking the first affiliation switch in that city. CBS cited weak ratings for WMAR-TV's newscasts and heavy pre-emptions of network programming for programs of local interest as the reason they chose to switch affiliations. (However, the NBC affiliation would return to WBAL-TV on January 2, 1995, with WMAR-TV switching to ABC, and WJZ-TV, which had been the city's only ABC affiliate at this point, switching to CBS.) |
| September 7 | During the course of the year, all soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble changed title sequences and theme songs. On this day, new title sequences debuted for Another World on NBC, Guiding Light and Search for Tomorrow, both on CBS, and The Edge of Night on ABC. |
| September 26 | Elvira's Movie Macabre, hosted by Cassandra Peterson, aired for the first time on KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. |
| September 28 | WRGB in Schenectady, New York, NBC's first television affiliate, ended its 42-year relationship with the network (dating back to its days as experimental station W2XB) and swapped affiliations with CBS affiliate WAST, which changed its call letters to the current WNYT to mark the new affiliation. |
| October 6 | Priscilla Barnes made her first appearance as Terri Alden on Three's Company. Alden was brought in as the full-time replacement for Chrissy Snow following the abrupt and controversial departure of Suzanne Somers. Barnes stayed on Three's Company through the end of its run in 1984. |
| CBS broadcast Return of the Beverly Hillbillies, which reunited most of the surviving cast members of the 1962–1971 sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies. | |
| October 12 | CBS Cable was initiated. |
| October 19 | WPBT's news program Nightly Business Report became nationwide, launching on over 125 public television stations.[9] |
| October 30 | John Carpenter's 1978 horror film Halloween made 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 12 minutes of additional material during the production of Halloween II. The newly filmed scenes[10] 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 featured 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 result was the shortening of Fear's appearance on TV. Fear played "I Don't Care About You", "Beef Bologna", and "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 broadcast its 5,000th episode. |
| November 2 | The CBS soap opera As the World Turns debuted a new opening sequence and theme song for the first time in its 25-year history. |
| November 8 | ESPN televised its first live flag-to-flag NASCAR race, the Atlanta Journal 500, which was won by Neil Bonnett. |
| November 9 | The cast and crew of The Incredible Hulk were delivered a surprise; despite maintaining good ratings, The Incredible Hulk was cancelled immediately, despite executive producer Kenneth Johnson's attempts to convince CBS to buy six additional episodes to fill season five. |
| November 11 | Joan Collins made her first appearance as Alexis Carrington Colby on Dynasty. |
| November 16–17 | Luke and Laura's wedding on the ABC soap opera General Hospital became one of the most-watched weddings in American television history, second only to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. |
| November 30 | Financial News Network went on the air. |
| December 6 | NBC affiliate KARD in West Monroe, Louisiana, and ABC affiliate KTVE in El Dorado, Arkansas swapped affiliations.[11] |
| December 10 | KJAA in Lubbock, Texas, signed on the air as an independent station. It adopted its current call letters KJTV in 1985 and became a charter Fox affiliate the next year. |
| December 14 | WFTS-TV in Tampa Bay, Florida, signed on the air as an independent station. It eventually became a Fox station in 1988, and an ABC affiliate via an agreement with Scripps-Howard in 1994. |
| December 18 | KVEO-TV in Brownsville, Texas, signed 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 18 | Raleigh's first independent station WLFL-TV went on the air. It became a Fox affiliate in 1986, moving to The WB in 1998, and finally with The CW in 2006. |
| December 24 | HBO began broadcasting 24 hours a day. |
| December 25 | Chuck Woolery hosted 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 began 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 (1948–2014)
- 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 (1971–2006)
- 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 (1980–1987)
- 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 10 | Sanford | 1980 |
| 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 | |
| September 11 | Peanuts (cancellation not announced by CBS until July 12 1983; returned in 2023) | 1969 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Night of the Scarecrow | CBS | October 24 |
| Fallen Angel | February 24 | |
| Miracle on Ice | ABC | March 1 |
| Masada | April 5–8 | |
| The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island | NBC | May 5 |
| The Five of Me | CBS | May 12 |
| Return of the Beverly Hillbillies | CBS | October 6 |
| Family Reunion | NBC | October 11 & 12 |
| Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy | ABC | October 14 |
| 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 |
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
- "Biden oath second only to Reagan and Obama with TV viewers". AP NEWS. 2021-04-20. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- Gordon, Brian. "Fact check: Joe Biden's inauguration didn't have the lowest-ever TV ratings". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- 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!.
- "Going national" (PDF). Broadcasting Magazine. 1981-10-19. p. 64. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
- NBC Commercials/Extra Scenes - Halloween (Oct. 30, 1981) on YouTube
- Network Switch Effective, Monroe News-Star-World, December 6, 1981
External links
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