1980 in American television

For the American TV schedule, see: 1980-81 American network television schedule.

The year 1980 involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in the United States.

Events

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 25 Black Entertainment Television launches in the United States as a block of programming on the Nickelodeon TV 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 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 14 Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News, which takes effect in March 1981.
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.[1]
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 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 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 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 29 The NFL Draft is televised for the first time on ESPN.
May 6 Ron Howard and Donny Most 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 is given top billing in the opening credits.
May 24 NBC airs The Not Ready For Prime Time Players' final episode on Saturday Night Live, after five seasons.
June 1 The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
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.
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 4 The Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA launch a three-month strike against television and movie studios. The strike greatly delays US networks' fall seasons (some shows don't see their fall debuts until late October or November, if not much later), and prompts a union boycott of the 1980 Emmy Awards in September. The unions would ratify a new deal on October 25 to officially end the strike.
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.
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.
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 15 Saturday Night Live premiers its sixth season on NBC with a new cast and new writers under the reins of 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.
November 21 The mystery of "Who Shot J.R.?" is solved on Dallas; the revelation that Sue Ellen's sister Kristin (played by Mary Crosby) did the deed) 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.
December 8 On ABC, Howard Cosell announces the murder of former Beatle John Lennon in the closing seconds of a Monday Night Football game. NBC also reports the murder of Lennon, interrupting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for a news bulletin.
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 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 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; the show will, however, be picked up by CBS.

Programs

Debuts

Date Show Network
January 6 Skag NBC
January 14 3-2-1 Contact PBS
January 22 Goodtime Girls ABC
January 27 Galactica 1980
February 5 Mystery! PBS
March 1 Pink Lady NBC
March 3 That's Incredible! ABC
March 4 The Big Show NBC
March 5 Beyond Westworld CBS
March 11 United States NBC
March 15 Sanford
March 22 Me and Maxx
The Tim Conway Show CBS
March 24 Flo
The Stockard Channing Show
April 11 Fridays ABC
May 5 America's Top 10 Syndication
June 1 Moneyline CNN
June 26 Nobody's Perfect ABC
August 4 Texas NBC
August 9 That's My Line CBS
August 21 Games People Play NBC
September 6 Livewire Nickelodeon
September 13 The Lone Ranger ABC
Solid Gold Syndication
September 28 Cosmos PBS
October 4 Heathcliff ABC
Thundarr the Barbarian
October 27 Blockbusters NBC
Gambit
Ladies' Man CBS
October 30 It's a Living ABC
October 31 I'm a Big Girl Now
November 8 Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
November 11 Too Close for Comfort
November 12 Enos CBS
November 18 Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters NBC
November 27 Bosom Buddies ABC
November 29 Breaking Away
December 6 Freebie and the Bean CBS
Secrets of Midland Heights
December 10 Number 96
December 11 Magnum, P.I.

Ending this year

Date Show Debut
January 3 Spider-Woman 1979
January 5 A New Kind of Family
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
February 1 Love of Life 1951
March 26 The Ultraman 1979
April 26 Hawaii Five-O 1968
April 30 Hello, Larry 1979
June 20 Chain Reaction 1980
High Rollers 1974
Hollywood Squares 1966
June 27 The $20,000 Pyramid 1973
July 25 The Rockford Files 1974
August 28 Nobody's Perfect 1980
September 4 Barnaby Jones 1973
October 23 Angie 1979
Armchair Thriller 1978
Dinah! 1974
Magpie 1968

Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

Premiere date Title Network
April 15 Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones CBS
May 11 The Return of the King ABC
May 19 The Scarlett O'Hara War NBC
September 15 Shogun (miniseries) NBC

Births

Date Name Notability
January 4 June Diane Raphael Actress (Burning Love, NTSF:SD:SUV, Grace and Frankie)
January 8 Rachel Nichols Actress (The Inside, Alias, Criminal Minds, Continuum)
January 10 Sarah Shahi Actress (The L Word, Fairly Legal, Person of Interest)
January 17 Zooey Deschanel Actress (New Girl) and singer
January 18 Estelle Voice actress (Steven Universe)
January 22 Christopher Masterson Actor (Malcolm in the Middle)
January 28 Nick Carter Actor (House of Carters)
January 30 Wilmer Valderrama Actor (That '70s Show, Handy Manny)
February 9 Margarita Levieva Russian-born actress (Vanished, Revenge, Allegiance)
February 11 Matthew Lawrence Actor (Drexell's Class, Brotherly Love, Boy Meets World)
February 12 Sarah Lancaster Actress (Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Chuck)
Christina Ricci Actress (Pan Am)
February 17 Jason Ritter Actor (Joan of Arcadia, The Class, Parenthood, Gravity Falls)
March 3 Katherine Waterston English actress
March 7 Laura Prepon Actress (That '70s Show)
March 12 John-Paul Lavoisier Actor (One Life to Live)
March 30 Andy Hurley Musician (Fall Out Boy)
April 1 Bijou Phillips Actress (Raising Hope) and singer
Randy Orton WWE wrestler
April 8 Katee Sackhoff Actress (Battlestar Galactica, Longmire)
April 14 Claire Coffee Actress (General Hospital, Grimm, Chelsey and Kelsey)
April 26 Jordana Brewster Actress (As the World Turns, Dallas)
Channing Tatum Actor
Darris Love Actor (The Secret World of Alex Mack)
May 2 Ellie Kemper Actress (The Office, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and singer
June 20 Tika Sumpter Singer and actress
June 23 Melissa Rauch Actress (The Big Bang Theory)
June 24 Minka Kelly Actress (Friday Night Lights, Charlie's Angels, Almost Human)
June 25 Shannon Lucio Actress (The O.C., Prison Break)
July 3 Olivia Munn TV host and actress (Attack of the Show!)
July 4 Carrie Keagan TV host and actress
July 10 Jessica Simpson Singer and actress
July 12 Kristen Connolly Actress (House of Cards, The Whispers, Zoo)
July 18 Kristen Bell Actress (Veronica Mars, Gossip Girl, House of Lies)
July 29 Rachel Miner Actress (Guiding Light, Californication)
July 30 April Bowlby Actress (Two and a Half Men, Drop Dead Diva)
August 6 Monique Ganderton Canadian actress
August 8 Michael Urie Actor (Ugly Betty)
August 12 Maggie Lawson Actress (It's All Relative, Crumbs, Psych, Back in the Game)
Dominique Swain Actress
August 26 Macaulay Culkin Actor
August 28 Carly Pope Canadian actress (Popular)
September 9 Michelle Williams Actress (Dawson's Creek) and singer
September 13 Ben Savage Actor (Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World)
September 21 Autumn Reeser Actress (The O.C., Valentine, No Ordinary Family)
October 1 Sarah Drew Actress (Daria, Everwood, Grey's Anatomy) and singer
October 13 Ashanti Singer and actress
October 17 Angel Parker Actress (Lab Rats)
Justin Shenkarow Voice actor (Hey Arnold!)
October 21 Kim Kardashian Actress (Keeping Up with the Kardashians)
October 29 Michele Boyd Actress (The Guild, Team Unicorn)
October 30 Sarah Carter Actress (Shark, Falling Skies)
October 31 Samaire Armstrong Actress (The O.C., Resurrection)
November 5 Luke Hemsworth Australian actor (Neighbours)
November 12 Ryan Gosling Actor (Breaker High, Young Hercules)
November 13 Monique Coleman Actress (High School Musical)
November 25 Valerie Azlynn Actress (Sullivan & Son)
December 3 Anna Chlumsky Actress (Veep)
Jenna Dewan Tatum Dancer and actress (American Horror Story)
December 5 Tamara Feldman Actress (Gossip Girl)
December 18 Christina Aguilera Singer and child actress (Mickey Mouse Club)
December 19 Marla Sokoloff Actress (The Practice, Big Day The Fosters)
December 30 Eliza Dushku Actress (Tru Calling, Dollhouse, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.)

Deaths

Date Name Age Notability
January 29 Jimmy Durante 86 Actor (The Jimmy Durante Show)
February 13 David Janssen 48 Actor (The Fugitive, Harry O, O'Hara, U.S. Treasury)
February 27 George Tobias 78 Actor (Abner Kravitz on Bewitched)
March 5 Jay Silverheels 67 Actor (Tonto on The Lone Ranger)
April 29 Alfred Hitchcock 80 Film director, host of (Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
August 14 Dorothy Stratten 20 Actress, (Playboy) model
September 12 Lillian Randolph 81 Actress (Amos 'n' Andy)
November 7 Steve McQueen 50 Actor (Josh Randall on Wanted: Dead or Alive)
December 8 John Lennon 40 Musician (The Beatles), co-hosted (The Mike Douglas Show) for a week

References

  1. Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 384–387 (PDF)
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