| Date |
Event
|
| January 1
|
A complicated, six-station network affiliation swap takes place in two South Florida markets. In Miami, WTVJ moves to NBC from CBS, WCIX (now WFOR-TV) moves to CBS from Fox, and WSVN moves to Fox from NBC. Meanwhile, in West Palm Beach, WPEC switches from ABC to CBS, WTVX leaves CBS to become an independent, and ABC station WPBF signs on this day. The swaps result from NBC's acquisition of WTVJ in 1987, and CBS's acquisition of WCIX in August 1988. The switches in West Palm Beach are accomplished due to WCIX's weak signal in Broward County.[1][2]
|
| NBC's station in Tampa, WXFL reclaims the WFLA-TV call letters.
|
| The Karen Carpenter Story, a made-for-television biographical film about singer Karen Carpenter and the brother-and-sister pop music duo of which she was a part, The Carpenters is broadcast on CBS. The movie was popular in the ratings; it was the highest-rated two-hour TV movie of the year and the third highest rated such program on any network during the 1980s.
|
| January 3
|
The Arsenio Hall Show premieres in first-run syndication. Brooke Shields, Luther Vandross, and Leslie Nielsen appear as guests.
|
| January 7
|
The television version of the 1983 film Scarface premieres on ABC.[3] 32 minutes of violence, profanity and sex were edited out, and much of the dialogue was muted or replaced with less offensive alternatives.[4]
|
| January 8
|
Universal Pictures releases a cut of the 1985 film Brazil for airing on their syndicated film package, the Debut Network. Running 93 minutes (as opposed to the 142 minute-long theatrical cut), it was a heavily modified version that remained true to Universal's then-COO Sid Sheinberg's preferred cut of the film (which modified the dark sci-fi satire into an uplifting romance, complete with a happy ending), and was subsequently given the nickname "The Love Conquers All Cut." How this version managed to get released remains a mystery; director Terry Gilliam said that Universal asked him to make an edited-for-television cut of the film and he refused. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Gilliam sarcastically complimented Sheinberg for "[getting] a chance to break into TV," but was angry that Universal didn't take his name off the TV cut and also criticized advertisements for the Debut Network premiere of Brazil which used the same critical praise that was given to his version.[5] In an interview with Jack Matthews in an updated version of his book The Battle of Brazil, Sheinberg claimed he had no idea how his cut leaked out, and said that he wasn't the one who ordered that cut to be released.
|
| January 9
|
Pat Sajak quits the daytime version of the series Wheel of Fortune for a CBS late night talk show while remaining host of the nighttime version. His daytime hosting role will be assumed by Rolf Benirschke, then by Bob Goen when Wheel switches networks from NBC to CBS that July.
|
| January 15
|
Fox airs an episode of Married... with Children called "Her Cups Runneth Over", which would soon become the main source of Terry Rakolta's moral boycott campaign against the show.
|
| January 21
|
Mike Myers joins the cast of the NBC series Saturday Night Live.
|
| January 22
|
Super Bowl XXII from Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium is broadcast on NBC. This would be the last outdoor Super Bowl to start earlier than 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, as it started just after 5 p.m. The halftime show was titled "Be Bop Bamboozled in 3-D" and featured Elvis Presto, played by then-Solid Gold dancer Alex Cole, and hundreds of South Florida-area dancers and performers.[6] Ironically, not one actual Elvis Presley song was performed.[7] Several scenes included computer generated 3-D images. Prior to the game, Coca-Cola distributed 3-D glasses at retailers for viewers to use. At the onset of the halftime show, primary sponsor Diet Coke aired the first commercial in 3-D. Coca-Cola had originally planned to use the 3-D Diet Coke commercial as part of the Moonlighting season finale, which was also aired in 3-D, but withdrew plans due to the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike.
|
| February 5
|
On the NBC sitcom Day by Day, six cast members from The Brady Bunch (Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick, Christopher Knight, and Mike Lookinland) reunite.
|
| The first part of the four part Western miniseries Lonesome Dove airs on CBS, drawing a huge viewing audience, earning numerous awards, and reviving both the television Western and the miniseries.
|
| February 9
|
The second edition of the World Wrestling Federation's prime-time series The Main Event airs on NBC. This particular episode is most notable for Randy Savage turning on his tag team partner, Hulk Hogan and thus, setting up their match for Savage's WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania V on April 2. The live broadcast of The Main Event would draw an 11.6 rating and 19.9 million viewers.[8]
|
| February 18
|
The first ever "Wayne's World" sketch featuring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar respectively, appears on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
|
| February 20
|
Jane Wyman, an actress on the CBS drama series Falcon Crest, is rushed to the hospital, after suffering from diabetes and a liver ailment.
|
| Charlie O'Donnell returned to Wheel of Fortune as the announcer, following a nine-year absence.
|
| February 26
|
ABC broadcasts the made-for-television film Get Smart, Again!, which features Don Adams and Barbara Feldon reprising their characters of Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 from the 1965–1970 NBC/CBS sitcom Get Smart. The relative success of the film prompted the development of a short-lived (only seven episodes) 1995 weekly series on Fox, also titled Get Smart, with Adams and Feldon again reprising their characters.
|
| February 27
|
CBS airs a pilot for a proposed series called What's Alan Watching?, starring Corin Nemec as the titular Alan, a 17-year-old couch potato who views life, and his family, as if they were on television. The pilot was produced by Eddie Murphy, who also cameos in it as not only a protester decrying James Brown's incarceration, but Brown himself. While CBS ultimately passes on making it a regular series, What's Alan Watching? did win the Television Critics Association's TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials.
|
| March 2
|
Pepsi's controversial advertisement with Madonna and her song "Like a Prayer" airs during NBC's showing of The Cosby Show. The same ad was run on ITV in the UK, 12 minutes into The Bill.
|
| March 10
|
The series finale of Webster has the eponymous character being transported to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Michael Dorn guest stars as Lt. Worf.
|
| March 13
|
The weekday version of Yo! MTV Raps, hosted by Ed Lover and Doctor Dré debuts.
|
| March 19
|
Return of the Jedi makes its network broadcast television premiere on NBC.
|
| The Motorcraft Quality Parts 500 is broadcast on ABC. The broadcast is notable because Dr. Jerry Punch, who was reporting from the pit stall of Richard Petty when a fire broke out, proceeded to treat on the spot, two injured crew members. Following the incident, in which several items of Punch's clothing were singed or melted, ESPN mandated that its pit reporters wear fire-retardant suits. Other networks have since adopted the practice.[9]
|
| March 24
|
For the first time since 1973, NBC reruns the 1960 telecast of Peter Pan, with Mary Martin in the title role. Earlier that day, two of the network's game shows, Sale of the Century and Super Password, aired their final episodes. The following Monday, NBC will return the noon time slot to its affiliates.
|
| March 25
|
Elvis Costello appears as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. It's the first time that Costello appeared on SNL in 12 years. Costello had been temporarily banned from appearing on SNL in 1977 after he had abruptly switched songs live against the wishes of his record company and SNL. In 1977, he had originally been scheduled to perform his debut single "Less Than Zero", instead of "Radio Radio", which criticized the commercialization of broadcasting.
|
| March 29
|
The 61st Academy Awards ceremony is broadcast on ABC. Despite the best Nielsen ratings in five years, it proved to be a career disaster for producer Allan Carr, culminating in the infamous pairing of Snow White (played by Eileen Bowman) and Rob Lowe singing a parody of "Proud Mary." The telecast also included a production number featuring what was introduced as "The Stars of Tomorrow" doing a number entitled "I Wanna Be An Oscar Winner" with all the participants being actors and actresses ranging from the age group of late teens to mid-20s. Due largely to the show's opening number, and despite the show's stellar Nielsen ratings, the show became a laughing-stock and went down in history as one of the worst moments in awards show and television history. The telecast was also remembered for being the final public appearance of actress and comedian Lucille Ball, where she and co-presenter Bob Hope were given a standing ovation.[10] On April 26, almost a month after the ceremony, she died from a dissecting aortic aneurysm at age 77.[11]
|
| April 1
|
Nickelodeon celebrates its 10th anniversary with the debut of its new Sunday morning variety show Total Panic.
|
| April 8
|
After a ten-month hiatus,[12] American Bandstand reemerges on the USA Network. David Hirsch took over hosting duties from Dick Clark (who remained on as executive producer) and Bandstand moved outdoors to Universal Studios Hollywood. After 26 weeks on USA, Bandstand signed off for good on October 7, 1989, with The Cover Girls as the final musical guests.
|
| April 30
|
Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, the second made-for-television reunion film that featured Lee Majors as Steve Austin and Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers is broadcast on NBC. It is also notably the first television appearance of actress Sandra Bullock and the first film which strongly featured her.
|
| May 7
|
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, the second film to be based on the 1978–1982 television series, airs on NBC. As was the case with The Incredible Hulk Returns and Thor, this television movie also acted as a backdoor television pilot for a series, in this case, for Daredevil (which was also not produced).[13][14]
|
| May 8
|
Top Gun makes its broadcast network television debut on NBC.
|
| May 11
|
In the series finale of the ABC drama Dynasty, Blake Carrington, Alexis Colby, Dex Dexter, and Fallon Carrington Colby are stuck in mortal peril.
|
| NBC airs a pilot for a proposed spin-off of 227 centered on Jackée Harry's character Sandra Clark. The pilot however, was not picked up for a series and Jackée subsequently left 227. She would however, later guest star in seven of the final season's episodes.
|
| May 14
|
NBC broadcasts the series finale of Family Ties followed by the network television premiere of Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
|
| May 14–25
|
SportsChannel America airs the first of four consecutive Stanley Cup Finals.
|
| May 18
|
Donna Mills makes her final regular appearance as villainess Abby Cunningham on the CBS drama Knots Landing.
|
| May 20
|
Original Saturday Night Live cast member, Gilda Radner succumbs to ovarian cancer at the age of 42. News of Radner's death broke as Steve Martin was rehearsing to act as the guest host for that night's season finale of SNL. Martin's planned opening monologue was scrapped; in its place a visibly upset Martin introduced a video clip of a 1978 sketch in which he and Radner had parodied Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in a well-known dance routine from The Band Wagon (1953).[15] After the clip, Martin said it reminded him of "how great she was and of how young I looked. Gilda, we miss you."
|
| May 21
|
The two-hour long series finale of Miami Vice airs on NBC. There would however be three "lost episodes" that would be broadcast on NBC over the course of June 1989. A fourth and final "lost episode" entitled "Too Much, Too Late" was instead first broadcast on the USA Network in January 1990, due to its graphic content and a plot vividly involving child molestation.
|
| June 3
|
Vin Scully does the play-by-play for the NBC Game of the Week in St. Louis, where the Cardinals beat the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers are playing a series in Houston, where Scully flies to be on hand to call the Sunday game of the series. However, the Saturday night game between the teams is going into extra innings when Scully arrives in town, so he goes to the Astrodome instead of his hotel. He picks up the play-by-play, helping to relieve the other Dodger announcers, who are doing both television and radio, and broadcasts the final 13 innings (after already calling 10 innings in St. Louis), as the game went 22 innings. He broadcast 23 innings in one day in two different cities.
|
| June 5
|
For the start of 1989 NBA Finals,[16] CBS completely revamps their opening montage for their NBA broadcasts. The computer-generated imagery (once again set in and around a virtual arena) was made to look more realistic (live-action footage was incorporated in the backdrops). Also, the familiar theme music (an uptempo series of four notes and three bars composed by Allyson Bellink since the 1983 NBA Finals) each was rearranged[17] to sound more intricate and to have a more emotional impact, along the lines of the network's later World Series coverage. Between the 1989 NBA Finals and the 1990 NBA Finals' intros, the theme music was slightly revised; the 1989 Finals intro incorporated more of a guitar riff, while the 1990 Finals intro featured a little more usage of trumpets.
|
| June 8
|
After broadcasting Major League Baseball games on Monday nights since 1976, ABC launches eight weeks worth of games on Thursday nights, beginning with coverage of the New York Mets against the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres against the Houston Astros.
|
| July 1
|
In Rochester, New York, NBC affiliate WROC-TV and CBS affiliate WHEC-TV swap affiliations. NBC cites WROC-TV's struggling news ratings as the reason for the switch.[18]
|
| July 4
|
CBS airs the pilot for a proposed adaptation of the 1988 film Coming to America as an installment for the Summer Showcase anthology series.
|
| July 5
|
The pilot episode of Seinfeld airs on NBC.
|
| July 7
|
CBS airs an unsold pilot for a proposed sitcom based on the 1987 film Adventures in Babysitting.
|
| July 11
|
Former President of the United States Ronald Reagan joins NBC's Vin Scully on commentary for the 1st inning of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
|
| July 17
|
"Shades of Gray", which is the second season finale for Star Trek: The Next Generation, is broadcast in syndication. The episode is notable for being the only time that the series produced what constituted a clip show. This was done as a means of meeting a budget shortfall at season's end due to prior episodes that had cost overruns. The episode also marked the final appearance of the character Dr. Katherine Pulaski (portrayed by Diana Muldaur) and the original Type A TNG Starfleet uniforms, which were introduced in Season 1.
|
| July 18
|
My Sister Sam star Rebecca Schaeffer is shot and killed by Robert John Bardo, an obsessed fan who had been stalking her.
|
| August 14
|
Cliff and Nina Warner marry one another for the fourth (and seemingly final) time on the ABC soap opera All My Children, a record that has not been matched for soap operas.
|
| August 23
|
One year after acquiring the rights to broadcast the 1992 Winter Olympics from Albertville, France, CBS also wins the rights to broadcast the 1994 Winter Olympics from Lillehammer, Norway after bidding $300 million.
|
| August 24
|
In a press conference that is carried live on CNN and ESPN, Major League Baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti states that to preserve the integrity of the game of baseball, Pete Rose is banned from the game for life for gambling on baseball. One week after the announcement, Giamatti would die of a massive heart attack at the age of 51.
|
| August 27
|
The television film L.A. Takedown airs on NBC. Originally filmed as an unsuccessful pilot for a television series, producer and screenwriter Michael Mann would later use L.A. Takedown as the basis for the 1995 film Heat.
|
| September 1
|
WUTV in Buffalo officially dropped its Fox affiliation, and moved its Fox affiliation over to WNYB-TV. This was because it was disappointed with the network's weak prime time programming offerings.[19]
|
| September 4
|
The Family Channel debuts its children programming block Fun Town.
|
| September 16
|
A pilot for a proposed X-Men animated series is first broadcast in syndication. It would take another three years before an X-Men series would be fully realized.
|
| September 22
|
ABC debuts TGIF from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., a new programming block for Friday nights with four shows (Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and Just the Ten of Us), it also includes interstitial hosts. This block would become a ratings hit throughout the 1990s, lasting until 2000.
|
| September 24
|
NBC broadcasts Saturday Night Live's 15th anniversary special.
|
| September 30
|
NBC broadcasts its final Major League Baseball Game of the Week (before the program is transferred to CBS). NBC had broadcast the Game of the Week since 1957 and exclusively since 1966. Bob Costas and Tony Kubek called the action from Toronto's SkyDome, as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Baltimore Orioles to clinch the American League East Division title.
|
| October 1
|
NBC affiliate KPOM-TV (now KFTA-TV) in Fort Smith, Arkansas signs-on full-time satellite KFAA-TV (now KNWA-TV) in Rogers to solve transmission problems resulting from its status as an UHF station in a mountainous area. (KFTA-TV will disaffiliate from NBC and join Fox in 2006.)
|
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom makes its network broadcast television debut on ABC.
|
| October 6
|
Jane Wyman's medical leave due to her diabetes and liver ailment is written into Falcon Crest, when her character, Angela Channing, is put in a coma.
|
| October 9
|
The San Francisco Giants defeat the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series to go to the World Series for the first time since 1962. This was also NBC's final Major League Baseball telecast (with Vin Scully and Tom Seaver on the call), having broadcast the sport in some shape or form since 1947. As previously mentioned, the primary network TV package was moving to CBS beginning in 1990. NBC wouldn't broadcast baseball again until the 1994 All-Star Game.
|
| October 17
|
Four minutes into ABC's broadcast of Game 3 of the World Series, the Lome Prieta earthquake occurred, forcing a ten-day delay of the series. As a consequence of the Loma Prieta earthquake, ABC aired repeat episodes of Roseanne and The Wonder Years amid the initial uncertainty as to whether Game 3 would take place as scheduled; an extended ABC News Special Report – anchored by Ted Koppel from the news division's Washington, D.C. bureau, with Al Michaels (who served as the play-by-play commentator for ABC's World Series coverage that year alongside Jim Palmer and Tim McCarver) acting as a de facto reporter – on the earthquake's immediate aftermath followed those two programs.
|
| October 19–23
|
Contestant Diane Landry won an accumulated $129,370 cash & prizes over three episodes of air in Wheel of Fortune, which at the time set an all-time winnings record for the show. At the time, the backdrop chyron displays in only five digits due to a game show winnings cap, and host Pat Sajak taped a "$1" cardboard next to the display to accommodate the new total. This scene has been featured in various clip shows videos.
|
| October 26
|
WSNR-TV, an independent station launches on the air in Syracuse, New York.
|
| October 27
|
Jane Pauley announces that she will be stepping down as co-anchor of NBC's Today (after 13 years on the air) at the end of the year (with Pauley's last day being on December 29). Today's news reader Deborah Norville is immediately announced as Pauley's successor.
|
| October 28
|
The World Series finally concludes with the Oakland Athletics sweeping the San Francisco Giants in four games. This would be ABC's final baseball telecast, having covered the sport consecutively since 1976. Like NBC, ABC would lose their baseball package completely to CBS beginning in 1990. ABC would next broadcast Major League Baseball in 1994, when they formed a joint-venture with Major League Baseball and NBC called The Baseball Network.
|
| November 4
|
The NBA on TNT debuts.
|
| November 7
|
An episode of the ABC drama Thirtysomething generates a great deal of controversy because it depicts two men in bed together after having had sex. Even though the actors were forbidden to touch each other while in bed together, the controversy proves too much for a number of advertisers, who pull their commercials from the episode. ABC ultimately withdraws the episode from rotation for rebroadcast.
|
| November 9
|
The National Basketball Association[20][21] and NBC[22] reaches an agreement on a four-year, US$600 million contract[23] (beginning in the 1990–1991 season), ending CBS' tenure with the NBA after 17 years.
|
| November 16
|
Michael Jackson makes a surprise appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show during Hall's interview with Eddie Murphy.
|
| December 2
|
Disney purchases Los Angeles independent station KHJ-TV from RKO General, and renames it to KCAL-TV.
|
| December 15
|
Steve Urkel makes his first appearance on Family Matters.
|
| December 17
|
Fox broadcasts the series premiere of The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which also acts as a Christmas special. The new series is a spin-off of a series of animated sketches that had previously aired on The Tracey Ullman Show. The series proves to be an early hit for Fox, scoring the network's first Nielsen top 30 entry.[24]
|
| December 18
|
A seldom-seen 1956 Christmas special episode of I Love Lucy is re-broadcast by CBS.
|
