| Date |
Event
|
| January 1
|
In Dayton, Ohio, the decade begins with an affiliation swap between NBC affiliate WDTN and ABC affiliate WKEF-TV; the swap is reversed in 2004.
|
| January 15
|
Brandon Tartikoff, who will turn around the fortunes of the third-place NBC television network during the 1980s, becomes chief of programming for the network at the age of 31, when he is named as the new President of NBC Entertainment.<ref>"NBC Names New Programming Chief", Atlanta Constitution, January 16, 1980, p7-B</ref>
|
| January 25
|
Black Entertainment Television launches in the United States as a block of programming on the USA Network; it won't be until 1983 that BET becomes a full-fledged channel.
|
| February 1
|
After 29 years on the air, the soap opera Love of Life airs its 7,316th and last episode on CBS.
|
| February 3
|
Bob Hope's Overseas Christmas Tours, a two-part six-hour retrospective of Bob Hope's more than 30 years of entertaining at military bases and hospitals in the U.S. and abroad, airs on NBC.
|
| February 4
|
On CBS, The Young and the Restless airs its first one-hour long episode.
|
| February 8
|
Eric Braeden makes his first appearance as Victor Newman on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.
|
| February 11
|
CBS broadcasts a very special episode of the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati about the real life deadly gate-rushing incident that occurred at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979 prior to a performance by The Who.
|
| February 14
|
On CBS, Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News, which takes effect in March 1981.
|
| February 22
|
ABC Sports announcer Al Michaels delivers his now immortal line "Do you believe in miracles?! Yes!" in the closing moments of the Winter Olympic medal-round men's ice hockey game between the United States team and the heavily favored Soviet team.
|
| February 24
|
Polly Holliday makes her final appearance as Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry on Alice. Holliday would continue playing Flo in the character's own spin-off, which aired on CBS for two seasons.
|
| March 3
|
The controversial television show That's Incredible!, which showcases people performing dangerous stunts, premieres on the ABC network in the U.S. and begins a five-season run. It is hosted by John Davidson, Fran Tarkenton, and Cathy Lee Crosby. Criticized as a copy of the popular NBC show Real People<ref>"What's 'Incredible' is this: ABC copycats took so long", by Sherry Stern, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), March 3, 1980, p6C</ref> or the 1950s series You Asked for It the series captures its time slot on the first evening. As syndicated critic Peter J. Boyer notes about the stunts, the series opener is "a filmed feature on some guy who works with bees" who "let a bee sting him for the cameras, as everyone on stage gushed 'That's incredible!'". Boyer adds "No one within microphone range offered 'That's Stupid!'"<ref>"That's not incredible, that's stupid", The Home News (New Brunswick, NJ), March 10, 1980, p12</ref>
|
| March 5
|
Beyond Westworld premieres on CBS but runs for only three episodes before being canceled.<ref>"Series bites dust in three weeks", Akron (O.) Beacon Journal, March 30, 1980, p27</ref> In its final showing on March 19, it finishes 69th out of 69 shows in the Nielsen ratings.<ref>"CBS gaining ground on ABC in ratings", Austin (TX) American-Statesman, March 30, 1980, p29</ref> It was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, for art direction and for makeup.<ref>"'Lou Grant', 'MASH', Emmy Nominees", August 8, 1980, pVI-16</ref>
|
| March 16
|
The first regularly scheduled use of closed captioning on American network television occurs on ABC, with captions of spoken dialogue added to programming received through a decoding unit attached to a standard TV set.<ref>Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 384–387 (PDF Template:Webarchive)</ref> The first broadcast to use it was the 1977 movie Semi-Tough.
|
| March 21
|
On the season finale of Dallas on CBS, J. R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who shot J.R.?".
|
| March 24
|
The late night ABC News program The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage is officially rechristened as Nightline.
|
| March 24
|
WCGV-TV signs on the air as an independent station in Milwaukee. It went on to affiliate first with Fox in 1987, then to UPN in 1995 and finally MyNetworkTV in 2006. It was shut down in 2018.
|
| March 31
|
In Jacksonville, Florida, NBC affiliate WTLV, in search of stronger programming, swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WJKS. The swap will be reversed in 1988.
|
| April 1
|
Boston television station WNAC-TV airs a fake news bulletin at the end of the 6 o'clock news which reports that Great Blue Hill in Milton, Massachusetts, had become an erupting volcano, and presents a report "complete with film of flowing lava, burning houses and edited remarks from President Jimmy Carter and Governor Edward J. King".<ref>"'Yuk-Yuk News' (on Ch.7, folks) no joke in Milton"], Boston Globe, April 2, 1980, p1</ref> Though intended as an April Fool's Day joke, the fake news bulletin on Channel 7 is believed by many of the residents of Milton, and the city's police department receives more than 100 calls from panicked viewers. The executive producer of the 6 o'clock news, Homer Cilley, is fired by the WNAC station for "his failure to exercise good news judgment" and for violating Federal Communications Commission rules about showing stock footage without identifying it as such.<ref>"Fired for April Fooling", AP report in Appleton (WI) Post-Crescent, April 3, 1980, p1</ref>
|
| April 5
|
Hawaii Five-O airs its series finale on CBS.
|
| April 7
|
The Oldest Living Graduate, a live drama on NBC, is broadcast; the first such program on the network since 1962. The production is aired from Southern Methodist University and stars Henry Fonda, George Grizzard, and Cloris Leachman.
|
| April 9
|
The Madison Square Garden Sports Network is officially rechristened as the USA Network.
|
| April 11
|
WMDT in Salisbury, Maryland signs on, giving the Delmarva Peninsula market its first full-time ABC affiliate. It also takes WBOC-TV's secondary NBC affiliation, leaving WBOC-TV as a full-time CBS affiliate.
|
| April 19
|
Actor Strother Martin guest hosts an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live in what turns out to be his final television appearance prior to his death on August 1, 1980.
|
| April 20
|
An alert television viewer in Ojai, California, watching golf's MONY Tournament of Champions on TV, calls the Professional Golfers Association after seeing that golfer Tom Watson had broken one of the rules of the sport by giving advice to another player, Lee Trevino.<ref>"Watson Gives Advice, Then Takes Penalty— He Is Assessed Two Strokes but Wins Anyway", Los Angeles Times, April 21, 1980, III-1</ref> Despite being penalized with the addition of strokes to his score, Watson win the 72-hole tournament and its prize of $54,000. Afterward, Watson, who co-authored the United States Golf Association rules manual, jokes later, "I hope that man in Ojai got his information from my book."
|
| April 25
|
Aspiring writer and cartoonist Matt Groening is published for the first time when his comic strip Life in Hell is printed in an alternative weekly newspaper, the Los Angeles Reader.<ref>"Bart Simpson's Real Father: Recalling the Fear and Absurdity of Childhood, Matt Groening Has Created a Cartoon Sitcom More Human Than Most Live-Action Shows", by Joe Morgenstern, Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1980</ref> Groening's strip attracts the attention of TV producer James L. Brooks, who asks Groening to adapt his comic strip characters to animation for segments of Brooks's production of The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987. Rather than surrendering ownership of his comic strip, Groening sketches out a different set of characters who would be featured, starting in 1990, on a fully-animated comedy, The Simpsons.
|
| April 29
|
The NFL draft is televised for the first time on ESPN.
|
| May 1
|
Henry Levin, dies of a heart attack while directing the NBC television film, Scout's Honor.
|
| May 6
|
Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) and Donny Most (Ralph Malph) leave the cast of ABC's Happy Days as regulars, following the episode "Ralph's Family Problem". When Happy Days returns in the fall, Henry Winkler (The Fonz) is given top billing in the opening credits.
|
| The NBC television network announces that it will not telecast the 1980 Summer Olympics from Moscow.<ref>"NBC won't televise Olympics", Tucson (AZ) Citizen, May 6, 1980, p1</ref> Edgar H. Griffiths, Chairman of NBC's parent company, RCA says at a meeting of RCA stockholders, "NBC will not be televising the Olympics because the U.S. team will not be participating, because this is not in accord with the policy of the president of the United States." NBC had spent US$70,000,000 for rights to and preparation for the broadcast. Even after insurance pays for most of the loss, the company still loses $22,000,000.
|
| May 10
|
Al Franken delivers his "A Limo for a Lame-O" commentary on Saturday Night Live. During the Weekend Update segment, Franken attacked network president Fred Silverman for NBC's poor showing in the Nielsen ratings during his tenure.
|
| May 11
|
The Return of the King, an animated adaptation of the third and final volume of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, airs on ABC after a legal challenge filed by the Tolkien Estate and Fantasy Films was settled.<ref name="Solomon">Template:Cite news</ref>
|
| May 16
|
In Game 6 of the 1980 NBA World Championship Series, Los Angeles Lakers rookie Magic Johnson scores 42 points and pulls down 15 rebounds to lead his team to a 123-107 victory over the host Philadelphia 76ers to clinch the franchise's first championship in eight years. CBS gives affiliates the option of televising the game live at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific or showing it on tape-delay after the late local news at 11:35 p.m. Eastern and Pacific/10:35 p.m. Central and Mountain. No affiliates in the Eastern and Central time zones outside of Philadelphia air the game live (an independent station in Atlanta shows it live); many in the Pacific time zone outside Los Angeles do, including Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle.
|
| May 22
|
Popular talk show host Phil Donahue and television actress Marlo Thomas marry.<ref>"Phil Donahue and 'that girl' tie the knot", Oregon Statesman (Salem OR), May 23, 1980, p88</ref>
|
| May 24
|
NBC airs The Not Ready For Prime Time Players' final episode on Saturday Night Live, after five seasons.
|
| CBS broadcasts Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Saturday afternoon game is the first full American network telecast of an NHL game since Game 5 of the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals aired on NBC, and the last NHL game on American network television until NBC televises the 1990 All-Star Game.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
|
| June 1
|
The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
|
| June 9
|
Independent Network News, an expansion of New York City's WPIX primetime newscast, premieres as a syndicated television evening news program for U.S. television stations that aren't affiliated with ABC, CBS or NBC.<ref>"Independent TV stations to get national newscast", Shreveport (LA) Times, June 8, 1990, p17-G</ref> On January 12, 1987, it will re-brand itself as USA Tonight <ref>"INN to feature a new approach", Chicago Tribune, January 9, 1987, p5-5</ref> that will run for ten years until June 8, 1990.
|
| June 20
|
Hollywood Squares presents its 3,536th and final network telecast on NBC, ending a 14-year daytime run; it remains the second-longest-running daytime game show in the network's history, behind the original 1958–73 run of Concentration. Two other NBC game shows, High Rollers and Chain Reaction, end their runs on this date as well.
|
| Vanna White makes her first appearance on a game show via The Price Is Right on CBS, in which she was among the first four contestants.<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref><ref>Template:YouTube</ref> She did not make it onstage, but the clip of her running to Contestants' Row was rebroadcast as part of The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special in August 1996<ref>Template:YouTube</ref> and also was featured on the special broadcast Game Show Moments Gone Bananas.
|
| June 23
|
The David Letterman Show debuts on NBC. Letterman's humor does not go over well with a morning audience, and the show is canceled in October. Letterman would stay at NBC and go on to host a late night show on the network two years later.
|
| June 30
|
The ABC game show Family Feud moves from airing at 11:30 am ET to 12:00 noon. It is one of the few network daytime shows to survive at noon, a time slot where many stations preempt network fare for local news broadcasts.
|
| July 12
|
QUBE, a cable-television system in Columbus, Ohio with an interactive media channel that allows viewer participation, sponsors a football game where the viewers are given the opportunity to decide the plays. In the game, a semi-pro football exhibition between the visiting Racine Gladiators of Wisconsin and the Columbus Metros, viewers are offered five choices for offensive plays (rush up the middle, rush to one side, and short, medium and long passes) and three defensive plays (straight defense, blitz or team choice). Metros coach Hal Dyer is required to follow whichever option receive the highest tabulated number of viewer responses <ref>"Name the Play: TV Makes Arm-Chair Quarterbacks Into Coaches", Miami Herald, July 11, 1980, pF-1</ref> Roughly 5,000 of QUBE's 30,000 subscribers participated, and although the Metros took a 7 to 0 lead before the game was interrupted by a thunderstorm, they lost to the Gladiators, 10 to 7.<ref>"5,000 coaches— Armchair quarterbacks call 'em through computer in Columbus", by Sheldon Oeker, Akron (O.) Beacon Journal, July 14, 1980, pA-1</ref>
|
| July 21
|
At 2:00 am EST, the actors unions SAG and AFTRA launch a three-month strike against television and movie studios; they would be joined by musicians' union AFM a few days after. The primary reason was for residuals in new home media outlets, such as videocassettes, and in emerging cable television. The strike is the first time both unions went on strike at the same time, greatly delaying US networks' fall seasons by several weeks.
|
| July 22
|
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission votes, 4 to 3, to eliminate rules that has limited the number of cable television channels that a local cable provider can provide its customers. The FCC also revokes its rules of syndication exclusivity which prohibits a cable provider from showing a syndicated program if a local TV station is carrying the same program.<ref>"Decision by FCC Could Increase Cable TV Shows", Los Angeles Times, July 23, 1980, p1</ref>
|
| August 1
|
Ending a failed experiment, the NBC soap opera Another World airs its last regularly scheduled ninety-minute episode. The show returns to sixty minutes on August 4, allowing room for a spin-off, Texas, based around Beverlee Mckinsey's Another World character, Iris Cory Carrington.
|
| The 24/7 cable movie network Cinemax launches.
|
| August 28
|
Joan Lunden makes her debut as co-host of ABC's Good Morning America alongside David Hartman. Lunden, who was succeeding Sandy Hill, would remain on the program through 1997.
|
| September 1
|
In Atlanta, Georgia, long-time NBC affiliate WSB-TV swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WXIA-TV, citing a stronger affiliation (at the time, NBC is in last place among the three major networks). Over the summer, in preparation for the switch, both stations had conducted an experiment unusual for a market Atlanta's size: WXIA-TV aired NBC's daytime programs in the morning and ABC's afternoon programs, and vice versa for WSB-TV.
|
| September 7
|
The Primetime Emmy Awards air on NBC. In a show of support for the ongoing strike by SAG, AFTRA, and AFM, 51 of the 52 nominated performers boycotted the event.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Powers Boothe was the only nominated actor to attend.
|
| September 15–19
|
The five–part historical drama miniseries Shōgun is broadcast on NBC.
|
| September 20
|
Ken Osmond a Los Angeles Police Department motorcycle officer and former child television actor who portrayed Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver, survives being struck by five bullets while in a foot chase after a suspected car thief. Osmond is protected from four of the bullets by his bullet-resistant vest, with the fifth bullet ricocheting off his belt buckle.<ref>"Ex-TV Actor Saved By Bulletproof Vest", The New York Times, September 20, 1980, p. 45</ref>
|
| September 21
|
SAG and AFTRA come to a tentative agreement with studios to end the actors strike. Voting on the agreement within both unions took place throughout the next few weeks, being ratified by October 23.<ref name=":8">Template:Cite web</ref>
|
| The first 1980 United States presidential debate was held, including the first (and only until 1992) independent candidate to participate, John B. Anderson.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
|
| September 25
|
A settlement is reached in the 67-day long strike by U.S. film and television actors, allowing production to begin again on TV shows.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
|
| September 28
|
The PBS documentary Cosmos, hosted by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, premieres. It deals with scientific topics like biology, chemistry, and linguistics, but primarily focuses on astronomy, Sagan's field of study.
|
| October 4
|
Bob Costas<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> makes his debut calling Major League Baseball games for NBC. It was a backup game (the primary game involved the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos) involving the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers from Yankee Stadium.
|
| October 20
|
Piedmont Triad independent station WGNN-TV changes its name to WJTM-TV following its purchase by TVX Broadcast Group, to avoid confusion with WGN-TV.
|
| October 26
|
KOKI-TV signs on the air as an independent station in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
|
| October 28
|
Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter participate in their sole presidential debate. It was the most watched presidential debate until 2016.
|
| November 2
|
The CBS comedy Archie Bunker's Place begins its season with the episode "Archie Alone", in which Archie Bunker grieves over the death of wife Edith (prompted by Jean Stapleton's departure from the series). Carroll O'Connor's performance in this episode earns him a Peabody Award.
|
| November 11
|
Comedian Ted Knight, known previously as part of the supporting cast The Mary Tyler Moore Show, becomes the star of his own situation comedy with the premiere of Too Close for Comfort on ABC. After three seasons on ABC, the show has three more seasons as a syndicated TV series until Knight's death from cancer in 1986.
|
| November 15
|
Saturday Night Live premiers its sixth season on NBC with a new cast and new writers under the reins of Lorne Michaels' replacement Jean Doumanian, to widespread negative reviews.
|
| November 18
|
Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters (Barbara, Louise and Irlene Mandrell) makes its debut on NBC, with a special guest appearance by Dolly Parton. The show was the last variety show on network TV with over 40 million viewers.
|
| The start of Season 6 of the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley sees the titular characters relocating from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Burbank, California after losing their brewery jobs.
|
| Suzanne Somers makes her final "full" appearance in an episode of the ABC sitcom Three's Company. Her remaining seven appearances would be cameos in the episode's closing tag in which Chrissy would call from her parents' home in Fresno to speak with Jack or Janet, who would sometimes fill Chrissy in on what happened in the episode.
|
| November 19
|
CBS bans a controversial Brooke Shields Calvin Klein Jeans ad because, according to CBS, the commercial was ‘too suggestive.’ The ad featured the 15-year-old Shields saying: ‘You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.’
|
| Nancy McKeon makes her debut as Jo Polniaczek in the Season 2 premiere of the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life on NBC.
|
| November 20
|
Donna Mills makes her first appearance as the villainous Abby Cunningham on the CBS prime time soap opera Knots Landing.
|
| November 21
|
The mystery of "Who Shot J.R.?" is solved on Dallas; the revelation that Sue Ellen Ewing's sister Kristin Shepard (played by Mary Crosby) was responsible draws a record number of viewers.
|
| November 22
|
Eddie Murphy made his first Saturday Night Live appearance, appearing in a non-speaking role in the sketch "In Search Of The Negro Republican".
|
| WPDE-TV in Florence, South Carolina signs on, giving the Pee Dee market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| November 27
|
The situation comedy Bosom Buddies, the first major role for actors Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari, premieres ABC. The premise of the show, about two single men at an advertising agency "disguising themselves as women in order to live in the one apartment they could afford" in New York City requires Hanks and Scolari to be "in drag" during the sequences when they are at home at an all-female hotel.
|
| November 30
|
Tanya Roberts joins the cast of ABC's Charlie's Angels (replacing the departed Shelley Hack) for what would be its final season.
|
| December 1
|
Bravo, a cable television network acquired in 2001 by NBC, is launched in the United States as a channel "devoted exclusively to the performing arts", starting at 8:00 in the evening with its own news program, Bravo Magazine, followed by a tribute to composer Aaron Copland. Initially, Bravo's programming is available only on Sundays and Mondays, from 8:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.<ref>"ABC joins cable market with new art programs", by Kay Gardella, in Daily News (New York), December 3, 1980, p37</ref><ref>"Cable Industry Plans Performing Arts Show", by Dan Lewis, Albuquerque (NM) Journal, November 28, 1980, pH-22</ref>
|
| December 8
|
On ABC, Howard Cosell announces the murder of former Beatle John Lennon in the closing seconds of a Monday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. NBC also reports the murder of Lennon, interrupting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for a news bulletin.
|
| December 11
|
Tom Selleck's detective TV series Magnum, P.I., set in Hawaii, makes its debut on CBS with a two-hour pilot, to replace the spot vacated by Hawaii Five-O. One critic opines that the series is "a formula cops-and-robbers job that promises little excitement" and adds that "the plodding premiere episode of 'Magnum'... looked like it had lain in the sun too long."<ref>"'Scrooges' At Network Have Yet To Drop Axes On New Fall Shows", by Richard Zoglin, Atlanta Constitution, December 11, 1980, p25-B</ref> Selleck's combination of action and humor carried the show, which ran for eight seasons and 162 episodes.
|
| December 20
|
NBC Sports broadcasts the New York Jets 24–17 season-ending victory over the Miami Dolphins without announcers, the only time that has ever been done with an NFL game.
|
| December 24
|
WVGA in Valdosta, Georgia signs-on the air and targets the neighboring Albany market, giving that market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| December 30
|
After 26 years on the air, 20 of which were on NBC, the network announces that the long-running anthology Disney's Wonderful World will not be on its fall 1981 schedule; however, the show will be picked up by CBS.
|