1975 in American television
Television related events in the USA during 1975
This is a list of American television-related events in 1975.
Events
Date | Event | Ref. |
---|---|---|
January 3 | A day for NBC game shows that could be described as anything but uneventful. In the morning, Dennis James' version of Name That Tune and the Bob Stewart/Bill Cullen series Winning Streak end their run. In the afternoon, the biggest prize in American daytime television game shows at the time is won on Jackpot, in which two contestants split a cash prize of $38,750. Finally, the original Jeopardy! also ends its run after 2,753 episodes. It would return in nationwide syndication in 1984. | |
January 6 | Another eventful day for NBC's daytime schedule. The morning sees the premiere episode of Wheel of Fortune, with Chuck Woolery as host and Susan Stafford as the assistant, while in the afternoon Blank Check, the Art James/Jack Barry game show debuts. Finally, Another World becomes the first American soap opera to become an hour-long program. | |
January 11 | On CBS's All in the Family, the Bunkers say goodbye to their neighbors as The Jeffersons "move on up" to their own separate sitcom. | |
March 4 | CBS airs the very first annual People's Choice Awards. | |
March 28 | Gunsmoke airs its last televised episode on CBS. Ultimately, the plotline was cut short, so it was ended on a cliffhanger. | |
April 21 | Following on from Another World less than three months ago, NBC's Days of Our Lives begins airing hour-long episodes. | |
April 25 | ABC broadcasts the special program, Alice Cooper: The Nightmare. | |
Independent station WKBF-TV in Cleveland, Ohio merges its operations with rival independent WUAB and ceases operations. | [1] | |
April 28 | NBC's The Tomorrow Show finds Tom Snyder interviewing John Lennon. | |
May 29 | NBC affiliate WHFV in Fredericksburg, Virginia, citing financial troubles, ceases operations. | [2][3] |
June 5 | Fred Silverman becomes the head of ABC Entertainment. Silverman's programming choices will prove fruitful for ABC, resulting in its late-decade ratings dominance (and initiating an era of what was disparagingly called "T&A" or "Jiggle television"). | |
September 8 | The CBS game show The Price is Right is expanded to the length of one hour, with six games and two Showcase Showdowns as a week-long experiment. The format, which marked the debut of "The Big Wheel", is made permanent two months later. | [4][5] |
September 22 | Television comes to Alpena, Michigan when CBS affiliate WBKB-TV signs-on. | |
September 29 | The first television station in the U.S. to be owned and operated by African Americans signs on in Detroit, Michigan as WGPR-TV channel 62, which is present-day CBS O&O WWJ-TV. | |
September 30 | HBO broadcasts the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier title fight from the Philippines. Known as the "Thrilla in Manila", the live feed was sent via satellite to the U.S. | |
October 11 | NBC's Saturday Night (now known as Saturday Night Live) premieres. Comedian George Carlin is the first host. | |
October 21 | NBC broadcasts the now legendary 12-inning long sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, in which the Red Sox tied the series on a Carlton Fisk home run more notable for Fisk's reaction. | [6][7] |
November 11 | On an episode of the ABC sitcom Happy Days, Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams make their first appearances as Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney respectively. This will soon lead to the characters being spun-off into their own series, which will run for eight seasons. | |
November 23 | NBC is forced to join Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in progress at the conclusion of an NFL football game between the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, which ended in overtime. This was done to avoid a repeat of the "Heidi Game" incident of 1968, in which the network interrupted coverage of an AFL game between the Raiders and the New York Jets to show the movie Heidi, a decision that infuriated football fans and haunted network executives. | |
Sneak Previews (under the name Opening Soon at a Theater Near You), the first American film review show, premieres and launches of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They will remain a team, and a staple among film critics, through various programs for the next twenty-four years. | ||
December 1 | CBS makes its first soap opera expansion when the top-rated As The World Turns airs its first hour-long episode. |
Other notable events
- In November, Sony Corporation introduces the Betamax video recorder in the United States, which comes in a teakwood console alongside a 19 inches (480 mm) color television set. It sold for $2,495.
- NBC retires the Laramie Peacock logo, which was used at the start of every color program on the network. The network later retires the NBC snake logo, used for promos and network identifications, in December.
Programs
^[e] signifies that this show has a related event in the Events section above.
Debuting this year
Date | Show | Network |
---|---|---|
January 6 | Blank Check | NBC |
Wheel of Fortune | ||
January 17 | Baretta | ABC |
January 18 | The Jeffersons | CBS |
January 23 | Barney Miller | ABC |
April 21 | Blankety Blanks | |
June 16 | Spin-Off | CBS |
Musical Chairs | ||
June 30 | Showoffs | ABC |
July 7 | The Magnificent Marble Machine | NBC |
Rhyme and Reason | ABC | |
Ryan's Hope | ||
September 4 | Space: 1999 | Syndication |
September 6 | The Great Grape Ape Show | ABC |
The New Tom and Jerry Show | ||
September 8 | Give-n-Take | CBS |
Match Game PM | Syndication | |
Phyllis | CBS | |
September 9 | Welcome Back, Kotter | ABC |
September 14 | Three for the Road | CBS |
September 29 | Three for the Money | NBC |
October 11 | NBC's Saturday Night | NBC |
November 3 | Good Morning America | ABC |
November 7 | Wonder Woman [a] | NBC |
November 30 | McCoy | NBC |
December 16 | One Day at a Time | CBS |
Ending this year
Date | Show | Debut date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
January 3 | Jeopardy! (returned in 1984) | 1964 | [b] |
January 16 | Ironside | 1967 | |
March 7 | The Odd Couple | 1970 | |
March 31 | Gunsmoke | 1955 | |
April 13 | Mannix | 1967 | |
April 18 | How to Survive a Marriage | 1974 | |
April 26 | Kung Fu | 1972 | |
May 20 | Adam-12 | 1968 | |
June 13 | The Joker's Wild | 1972 | [c] |
Now You See It | 1974 | [d] | |
June 27 | Password | 1961 | [e] |
Split Second | 1972 | [f] | |
August 1 | Death Valley Days | 1952 | |
September 5 | What's My Line? | 1950 | |
September 26 | Jackpot | 1974 | [g] |
Notes
Changing networks
Show | Moved from | Moved to |
---|---|---|
The Edge of Night | CBS | ABC |
The Bugs Bunny Show | ABC | CBS |
Television specials
- January 28 – Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (CBS)
- April 25 – Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (ABC)
- October 28 – You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown (CBS)
Networks and services
Network launches
Network | Type | Launch date | Notes | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
Louisiana Public Broadcasting | Over-the-air state network | September 6 | The Louisiana Educational Television Authority, established in 1971, approved the proposal to build and sign on the stations that would make up the network, starting with Baton Rouge-based WLPB-TV, the network's flagship. |
Television stations
Sign-ons
Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
January 4 | Sioux City, Iowa | KSIN-TV | 27 | PBS/IPTV | |
January 20 | Springfield, Missouri | KOZK | 21 | PBS | |
February | South Bend, Indiana | WNIT | 34 | PBS | |
March 15 | Biddeford/Portland, Maine | WMEG-TV | 26 | PBS via Maine Public Broadcasting Net. | |
May 7 | Anchorage, Alaska | KAKM | 7 | PBS | |
June 10 | Menomonie, Wisconsin | WHWC-TV | 27 | PBS via WPT | |
August 13 | San Francisco, California | KDTV | 14 | Spanish Int'l Network | |
September 6 | Baton Rouge, Louisiana | WLPB-TV | 27 | PBS/LPB | |
September 7 | Council Bluffs, Iowa | KBIN-TV | 32 | PBS/IPTV | |
Red Oak, Iowa | KHIN | 36 | PBS/IPTV | ||
Sumter, South Carolina | WRJA-TV | 27 | PBS/SCETV | Satellite of WRLK-TV/Columbia, SC | |
September 21 | Akron/Canton, Ohio | WEAO | 45 | PBS | Satellite of WNEO of Youngstown, Ohio |
September 22 | Alpena, Michigan | WBKB-TV | 11 | CBS | |
September 29 | Detroit, Michigan | WGPR-TV | 62 | Independent | First television station in the U.S. to be owned and operated by African Americans. |
November 21 | Alpena, Michigan | WCML-TV | 6 | PBS | Satellite of WCMU-TV/Mt. Pleasant, Michigan |
Unknown | Albuquerque, New Mexico | KMXN-TV | 23 | SIN | |
Miami, Florida | WFCB-TV | 45 | Independent |
Network affiliation changes
Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unknown | Harrisonburg, Virginia | WHSV-TV | 3 | ABC (primary) NBC (secondary) | ABC (exclusive) |
Station closures
Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | First air date | Notes/Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
February 11 | Roanoke, Virginia | WRLU | 27 | ABC | September 7, 1974 | Had been on air March 1966–April 1974 as WRFT-TV |
April 25 | Cleveland, Ohio | WKBF-TV | 61 | Independent | January 19, 1968 | Station's operations were folded into WUAB/Lorain, Ohio[8] |
May 29 | Fredericksburg, Virginia | WHFV | 69 | NBC | October 8, 1973 | [9] |
September 1 | Pembina, North Dakota | KCND-TV | 12 | Independent (primary) ABC (secondary) | November 7, 1960 | [10][11][12] |
September 2 | South Bend, Indiana | WMSH-TV | 46 | July 26, 1974 | Returned to air as WHME-TV on September 10, 1977 | ||
December | Elko, Nevada | KEKO | 10 | April 18, 1973 | Satellite of KTVN/Reno | |
December 23 | Los Angeles | KVST-TV | 68 | Non-commercial independent | May 5, 1974 |
Births
Deaths
See also
- 1975 in television
- 1975 in film
- List of American films of 1975
- 1974-75 United States network television schedule
- 1975-76 United States network television schedule
- Family Viewing Hour
References
- ^ The Plain Dealer, "...but employees go out with touch of class", April 20, 1975.
- ^ Moore, Nancy (May 28, 1975). "Troubled WHFV-TV may go off the air". The Free Lance-Star. p. 1.
- ^ Jones, Edward (May 30, 1975). "TV station 'goes dark', future still uncertain". The Free Lance-Star. p. 14.
- ^ Schwartz, David; Ryan, Steve; Wostbrock, Fred (1999). The Encyclopedia of TV Shows (3rd ed.). New York: Facts on File. pp. 178–179. ISBN 0-8160-3846-5.
- ^ The Price Is Right (Anniversary Week). September 12, 1975. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
- ^ Verducci, Tom (October 21, 2015). "Game Changer: How Carlton Fisks' home run altered baseball and TV". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
- ^ MLB's 20 Greatest Games (2012)
- ^ The Plain Dealer, "...but employees go out with touch of class", April 20, 1975.
- ^ Moore, Nancy (May 28, 1975). "Troubled WHFV-TV may go off the air". Fredericksburg, VA: The Free Lance-Star, p. 1.
- ^ Winnipeg Free Press, Aug. 30, 1975, p. 12
- ^ Dulmage, Bill (January 2007). "Television Station History: CKND". Canadian Communications Foundation. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
- ^ Radio-Info: "Retro: Winnipeg • Sunday, August 31, 1975", July 17, 2010. (Source: Winnipeg Free Press (August 30, 1975 Edition))[dead link]. Archived from the original[permanent dead link] October 6, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
External links
- List of 1975 American television series at IMDb
This television-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021) |
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