Date |
Event
|
January 1
|
The season finale of the original
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series airs in
syndication with "
Shredder & Splintered". The series will return for a second season in fall.
|
Australia Live, a 4-hour TV special about
Australia's Bicentennial, airs on
A&E.
|
NBC
broadcasts the
Rose Bowl Game for the
final time, ending a 37-year partnership.
ABC Sports picked up rights to broadcast the game
the following year.
|
January 3
|
WFYF in
Watertown, New York begins broadcasting, giving the Watertown market its first full-time
ABC affiliate.
|
January 4
|
Nick Jr. begins as a block of
Nickelodeon programming for younger children.
|
Blackout, hosted by
Bob Goen, premieres on
CBS. The game show runs for only thirteen weeks, after which
The $25,000 Pyramid, the show it replaced, returns to the air on April 4 while CBS develops a revival of
Family Feud.
|
January 8
|
The ABC sitcom
I Married Dora had low
ratings and was canceled halfway into its only season. The final episode ended with a scene, known as "breaking the
fourth wall," that ranked number 49 on
TV Land's list of The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments. The cameras pulled back to show the entire stage as the cast and crew waved goodbye and performed
curtain calls.
|
January 16
|
Due to comments he made about breeding practices during slavery leading to blacks becoming superior athletes,
CBS fires
Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, who had been a regular on
NFL Today since
1976.
|
January 22
|
KYMA in
Yuma, Arizona signs-on the air, returning
ABC programming to the Yuma market for the first time since
KECY-TV dropped its affiliation to rejoin
CBS in 1985.
|
January 24
|
The inaugural
Royal Rumble event airs live on the
USA Network. The
main event saw
The Islanders defeat
The Young Stallions in a 2 out of 3 falls match. The
titular match was won by
"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan.
|
January 25
|
During that night's edition of the
CBS Evening News; anchor
Dan Rather enters a nearly 10-minute confrontation with
Vice-President
George H. W. Bush over what Bush knew about the
Iran-Contra scandal.
|
January 29
|
The
Peanuts musical television special
Snoopy! The Musical, based on the
musical comedy of the same name, premiered on
CBS.
|
January 31
|
The
pilot for
The Wonder Years airs following
ABC's coverage of
Super Bowl XXII.
|
February 5
|
Wrestlers
Hulk Hogan and
André the Giant compete on
The Main Event on
NBC, marking the return of
professional wrestling to network prime-time for the first time since 1955.
|
February 6
|
UK animated television series for children
Count Duckula (a spinoff of
Danger Mouse) begins on
Nickelodeon prior to airing in its homeland which will start on September 6 of the same year.
|
The writers of
The Facts of Life create a controversial
storyline in which Natalie (
Mindy Cohn) becomes the first of the girls to lose her
virginity.
Lisa Whelchel (Blair) refused this particular storyline that would have made her character, not Natalie, the first among the four young women in the show to lose her virginity. Having become a
Christian when she was 10, Whelchel refused because of her religious convictions. Whelchel appeared in every episode but asked to be written out of "The First Time".
[1] The episode ran a parental advisory before starting and placed 22nd in the ratings for the week.
[2]
|
February 13
|
ABC broadcasts the Opening Ceremonies for the
Winter Olympic Games from
Calgary. This is ABC's tenth and final Olympic Games that they would broadcast to date.
|
February 21
|
Televangelist
Jimmy Swaggart, involved with a sex scandal, admits to being with prostitutes and temporarily ends his television ministry.
|
February 22
|
The
Nickelodeon game show
Double Dare begins its third season, airing simultaneously on Nickelodeon and
Fox affiliates. Besides the presence of a new network, another big change was the stage left team now wearing blue (the stage left team would continue to wear red) so viewers and crew members could tell the teams apart more easily. Previously, both teams had worn red.
|
February 23
|
Future
Grammy Award-winning
recording artist
Lauryn Hill (
The Fugees frontwoman) makes her television debut on
Showtime at the Apollo as a contestant of
Amateur Night, where the 13-year-old Hill performed "
Who's Lovin' You" by
Motown Records singer
Smokey Robinson, and gets booed by the audience.
|
February 25
|
Totally Minnie, a 45-minute live-action/animated special, premiers on
ABC. This marks the first time
Russi Taylor voiced
Minnie Mouse.
|
February 26
|
Tom Hardy marries
Simone Ravelle on the
ABC soap opera
General Hospital, the first interracial wedding on American daytime television.
|
March 2
|
Michael Jackson performs a live, extended version of the song "
Man in the Mirror" a
30th Annual Grammy Awards, having
Siedah Garrett,
the Winans, and the
Andraé Crouch choir perform with him.
|
March 18
|
In what would turn out to be her final television appearance,
Gilda Radner
guest stars on
It's Garry Shandling's Show.
|
March 19
|
"
I Heard It Through the Grapevine" experiences a surge of popularity caused by television commercials featuring
claymation raisin figures.
The California Raisins' version of the song peaks at No. 84 on the
Billboard Hot 100.
|
March 20
|
Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, the fifth installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in
syndication.
|
March 27
|
The first edition of
Clash of the Champions airs on
TBS opposite
WrestleMania IV on
pay-per-view. The
main event would be
Ric Flair and
Sting wrestling to a time limit draw.
|
April 3
|
In
Jacksonville, Florida,
NBC affiliate
WJKS (now
CW affiliate
WCWJ) and
ABC affiliate
WTLV swap affiliations, reversing a swap that took place in 1980. NBC will later dub this swap one of its most successful affiliation switches ever.
|
April 4
|
James Brown appears on
CNN after allegedly assaulting his wife with a lead pipe and shooting at her car. During the interview with Sonya Friedman, Brown shouted song titles of his own songs instead of answering questions.
|
April 8
|
Ana Alicia's character, Melissa Agretti, dies in a house fire on the
CBS drama
Falcon Crest.
|
April 11
|
WYED-TV, an
independent station, serving both
Goldsboro,
Raleigh,
Durham and
Fayetteville launches.
|
Fox affiliate
WVAH-TV moves to channel 11, one of the last remaining channel allocations in the U.S., from UHF channel 23.
[3]
|
April 13
|
Geraldo Rivera's live special Murder: Live from Death Row is broadcast in syndication; a highlight is Rivera's pre-taped interview with
Charles Manson.
|
April 18
|
The Disney Channel celebrates its fifth anniversary.
|
April 25
|
Nickelodeon debuts the
first
Kids Choice Awards ceremony.
|
Lieutenant
Tasha Yar is killed off in
an episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation after actress
Denise Crosby asked to be released from her contract.
|
May 1
|
Magnum, P.I. broadcasts its 2-hour series finale on
CBS.
|
May 6
|
The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, the sixth installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in
syndication as part of the 30th anniversary of
The Huckleberry Hound Show. This film marks the final time
Daws Butler voiced
Huckleberry Hound,
Quick Draw McGraw and
Baba Looey,
Snagglepuss,
Hokey Wolf, and
Peter Potamus, as he died two and a half weeks after its telecast from a heart attack.
|
May 7
|
The
series finale of
The Facts of Life airs on
NBC. In the two-part episode, Blair buys Eastland to prevent its closing. Blair finds that the school is in such dire financial straits that she is forced to make the school co-ed. Blair then essentially adopts the Mrs. Garrett role as she presides over the school and is forced to deal with the trouble-making students in a plot line that is highly reminiscent of the season two premiere. The new Eastland students included
Seth Green,
Mayim Bialik, future
Oscar-nominee
Juliette Lewis, and
Meredith Scott Lynn.
|
May 13
|
In the season finale of the
CBS drama
Dallas, character J.R. Ewing pushes over the railing of his high-rise office building the character Nicholas Pierce, and Sue Ellen is so enraged that she fires three shots at Ewing.
|
May 15
|
Beverly Hills Cop makes its broadcast network television debut on
ABC.
|
May 18
|
The Late Show on
Fox hosts a reunion of the entire cast of
Gilligan's Island. This would prove to be the last time that all of the regular cast members appeared together as
Jim Backus, who was suffering from
Parkinson's disease at the time, died the following year.
|
May 22
|
NBC broadcasts
The Incredible Hulk Returns, a continuation of the
TV series that aired on
CBS from 1978 to 1982.
|
May 24
|
CBS wins the broadcasting rights to the
1992 Winter Olympics after bidding around $243 million.
|
May 28
|
The
series finale of
St. Elsewhere reveals that the entire series was the product of an
autistic boy's imagination.
|
May 30
|
After rejecting an offer to join
CBS News,
Peter Mansbridge replaces
Knowlton Nash as anchorman of
CBC Television's series
The National.
|
June 4
|
The
Universal Pictures Debut Network broadcasts a special edition of the 1984 film
Dune
[4] as a two-night event, with additional footage not included in the film's original release.
[5] This version totalled at 186 minutes, including a "What happened last night" recap and second credit roll. Director
David Lynch disavowed this version and had his name removed from the credits,
Alan Smithee being credited instead.
|
June 14
|
The
CBS soap opera
The Young and the Restless tops the daytime ratings (deposing longtime winner
General Hospital).
[6]
|
June 21
|
Game 7 of the
NBA Finals between the
Los Angeles Lakers and the
Detroit Pistons airs on
CBS. With a 21.2
rating / 37 share, it would prove to be the
highest-rated NBA game in the 17 years that CBS
broadcast the NBA (1973-1990). It's also the only NBA game that scored more than 20 ratings points for the network.
|
July 4
|
Three years after its cancellation by
ABC,
CBS resurrects
Family Feud for its daytime lineup, featuring new host
Ray Combs. A syndicated nighttime version would premiere later in the autumn.
|
July 11
|
The day before the
Major League Baseball All-Star Game from
Cincinnati,
TBS televised the annual All-Star Gala
[7] from the
Cincinnati Zoo.
Larry King hosted the broadcast with
Craig Sager and
Pete Van Wieren handling interviews. The broadcast's big draw would've been the
Home Run Derby, which TBS intended on taping during the afternoon, and later airing it in
prime time during the Gala coverage. The Gala coverage also had some canned features such as highlights from previous All-Star Games, a segment on
Cincinnati's baseball history, a video recap of the
season's first half and, a slow-motion highlight montage set to "This Is the Time" by
Styx frontman
Dennis DeYoung. Unfortunately, the derby and a skills competition were canceled due to rain. As a result, TBS scrambled to try to fill nearly an hour of now-open airtime. For example, the
Gatlin Brothers, the event's musical guests, who had already played a full concert, were asked to come back out and play some more.
|
July 14
|
The first ever edition of "
Shark Week" airs on
Discovery Channel.
|
August 1
|
The word "Family" is incorporated into the
CBN Cable Network's name to better reflect its programming format,
rebranding as The CBN Family Channel; shortly after the new name was adopted, however, references to CBN within its name began to be excised in on-air
continuity announcements and print promotions for its programs (with the exception of the initialized reference to its parent ministry featured within its logo), referring to it as simply "The Family Channel".
|
August 9
|
As a special
prime time edition of the
Game of the Week,
NBC broadcasts the first official
night game at
Chicago's
Wrigley Field between the
Cubs and
New York Mets.
|
August 27
|
Fox affiliate
WWPC-TV in
Altoona, Pennsylvania (a satellite of
WWCP-TV in
Johnstown) breaks from its simulcast with WWCP-TV to become an
ABC affiliate, returning ABC to Altoona/
State College (and giving Johnstown its first full-time ABC affiliate) after Altoona/State College's previous ABC affiliate WOPC-TV went dark in 1982.
|
August 29
|
Some of the stations in markets
WAXA in
Greenville, South Carolina,
WTOG in
Tampa Bay, Florida,
KMSP in
Minneapolis/
St. Paul, and
KPTV in
Portland, Oregon
left
Fox due to disappointments with the weak network's offerings. The replacement affiliates were
WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina,
WFTS in Tampa Bay, Florida,
WFTC in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and
KPDX in Portland, Oregon.
|
August 29
|
The World Wrestling Federation (now
WWE) telecasts the
inaugural
SummerSlam event on
pay-per-view.
|
September 2
|
Dick Clark hosts his final episode of the game show
Pyramid, ending his 15-year run as host of the program. Clark would make guest appearances on both the 1991 revival hosted by
John Davidson and the 2002 revival hosted by
Donny Osmond.
|
September 5
|
WABC's The Morning Show makes its national
syndication debut under its new title
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee.
|
September 10
|
In
Knoxville, Tennessee,
CBS affiliate
WBIR-TV swaps affiliations with
NBC affiliate
WTVK in time for
NBC Sports' coverage of the
1988 Summer Olympic Games. Shortly after the switch, WTVK moves to channel 8, one of the last remaining VHF channel allocations in the U.S., and becomes WKXT-TV (now
WVLT-TV).
[8]
|
September 18
|
Rockin' with Judy Jetson, the seventh installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series, is broadcast in
syndication. This film marks the final time
Daws Butler voiced Elroy Jetson, as it was telecast posthumously.
|
October 3
|
TNT, the fourth cable network owned by
Turner Broadcasting, commences programming with a broadcast of the movie
Gone with the Wind.
|
The Bonus Round in
Wheel of Fortune now adopts a Three-and-a-vowel format, which was used till this day, with letters "R", "S", "T", "L", "N" and "E" provided immediately, and the time limit was reduced from 15 seconds to 10.
|
October 4
|
As did
Cher, actress
Shirley MacLaine calls
David Letterman an "
asshole" during a taping of the
NBC talk show
Late Night.
|
As part of a
television special hosted by
Patrick Stewart, called The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next, the first pilot episode of
Star Trek: The Original Series, called
"The Cage" is broadcast in its entirety for the first time. In some markets, the airing of this special was delayed until October 15, 1988. Prior to this, footage of "The Cage" was incorporated into the
Season 1 two-parter episode
"The Menagerie".
|
ABC under the guidance of new executive producer Geoffrey Mason,
[9] debuts fatter and wider graphics that gave off a cleaner, sharper look complete with a black border for their
Major League Baseball
coverage. ABC also debuts a new energetic,
symphonic-pop styled musical theme,
[10]
[11] composed by
Kurt Bestor,
[12] which would become an all-compassing theme of sorts for
ABC Sports during this time period.
|
October 8
|
A young
Countess Vaughn (winner of
Star Search) joins the cast of the
NBC comedy
227 as Alexandria DeWitt, a young 11-year-old talented
college student, whom the Jenkins' have as a houseguest for a year.
|
October 11
|
Turner Broadcasting purchases
Jim Crockett Promotions and subsequently rebrands it as
World Championship Wrestling. The sale would be completed on November 2, 1988. Three days later, on
NWA World Championship Wrestling,
"Nature Boy" Ric Flair cut a promo and pointed out a large group of Turner executives in the crowd. This was a subtle nod to
Ted Turner purchasing Jim Crockett Promotions.
|
October 15
|
Kirk Gibson hits his now iconic
walk-off home run off of
Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the
World Series between the
Los Angeles Dodgers and
Oakland Athletics.
Vin Scully and
Joe Garagiola are in the broadcast booth for
NBC Sports. During the same game at the second inning, NBC affiliate
WMGT-TV in
Macon, Georgia is hijacked for 10 seconds replacing parts of the second inning with an
adult movie. The technician was later fired, and Production Manager L. A. Sturdivant reported to
The Atlanta Constitution at the incident was an accident.
[13]
|
CBS airs a highly anticipated
college football game between the
Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the
Miami Hurricanes, colloquially known as "Catholics vs. Convicts".
|
October 16
|
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, the eighth installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in
syndication. It is also part of the
Scooby-Doo animated film series.
|
October 18
|
The
pilot episode for
Roseanne is broadcast on
ABC.
|
October 21
|
Lori Loughlin makes her
first appearance as
Rebecca Donaldson on
Full House.
|
October 27
|
The last of
Harding Lemay's "comeback" episodes are broadcast on the
NBC soap opera
Another World. In the final minutes of the episode, Australian actress
Carmen Duncan assumed the role of the legendary
bitch Iris Cory Wheeler, after the role had been vacated for many years by
Beverlee McKinsey.
|
November 3
|
Talk show host
Geraldo Rivera's nose is broken during a taping of
his show when a fight begins on the set between guests. The theme of the episode was "Young Hate Mongers," and the fight originated between
white supremacist
Tom Metzger and liberal activist
Roy Innis.
|
Australian-made 1986 cartoon television movie of King Solomon's Mines by Warwick Gilbert debuts on American television after multiple weeks of promotion and is one of the most-watched children's television shows of the year.
[14]
|
November 10
|
Milwaukee
television station
WDJT-TV goes on the air.
|
November 12
|
Australian-made 1986 cartoon television movie of King Solomon's Mines by Warwick Gilbert airs for a second time and is the most watched program for children for the second Saturday in a row.
[15]
|
November 13
|
Mickey's 60th Birthday, which as the title suggests, was a
television special produced for the 60th anniversary of the
Mickey Mouse character, airs on
NBC.
|
Back to the Future makes its broadcast network television premiere on
NBC.
|
Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, the ninth installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in
syndication. It is also part of the
Scooby-Doo animated film series.
|
November 20
|
Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears, the tenth and final installment of the
Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series, is broadcast in
syndication. This film marks the final time
Daws Butler voiced
Yogi Bear, as it was telecast posthumously.
|
November 21
|
CBS broadcasts Inside the Sexes, a documentary produced by The Body Human's
Alfred R. Kelman that features explicit content about human sexuality (including detailed visuals inside human reproductive organs), which prompts several CBS affiliates to broadcast the program with a parental warning at the beginning of the program, at a later time of the day. Some affiliates canceled their broadcast of the program.
|
November 24
|
Mystery Science Theater 3000 airs for the
first time on
KTMA-TV in
Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
|
December 2
|
NBC wins the rights to
broadcast the
1992 Summer Olympics from
Barcelona,
Spain, bidding over $401 million.
|
December 8
|
Tichina Arnold (later of
Martin and
Everybody Hates Chris fame) joins the cast of the
ABC soap opera
Ryan's Hope for what will prove to be its final season.
|
December 11
|
Roots: The Gift, the third installment of the
Roots series is broadcast on
ABC.
|
December 13
|
The
American Wrestling Association airs its first and only
pay-per-view card,
SuperClash III.
|
December 14
|
CBS pays
Major League Baseball approximately US$1.8 billion
[16] for exclusive over-the-air television rights for over four years (beginning in
1990). CBS paid about $265 million each year
[17] for the
World Series,
League Championship Series,
All-Star Game, and the Saturday
Game of the Week. CBS replaces
ABC (which had broadcast
Monday and later
Thursday night baseball games from
1976 to
1989) and NBC (which had broadcast Major League Baseball in some shape or form since 1947 and the Game of the Week exclusively since
1966) as the national broadcast network television home of Major League Baseball.
[18] It was one of the largest agreements
[19] (to date) between the sport of baseball and the business of
broadcasting. The cost of the deal between CBS and Major League Baseball was about 25% more
[20] than in the previous television contract with ABC and NBC.
[21] The deal with CBS was also intended to pay each team (26 in
1990 and then, 28 by
1993) $10 million a year.
|
December 18
|
A Very Brady Christmas airs on
CBS and with a 25.1
rating and a 39 share, becomes the second highest rated television film of the year. Its success would soon lead to the creation of a new
Brady Bunch series called
The Bradys, which only lasts for six episodes.
|
December 26
|
The Young and the Restless becomes the number 1 daytime drama on television, where it remains to this very day.
[22]
|