| 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 right team would continue to wear red) so viewers and crew members could tell the teams apart more easily. Previously, both teams wore 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 NBC. 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.
|
| Nickelodeon debuts the first Kids Choice Awards ceremony.
|
| April 25
|
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 character Huckleberry Hound. This film marks the final time Daws Butler voiced Huck, 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.
|
| September 25
|
George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis participate in the first of the 1988 presidential debates.[9]
|
| 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,[10] 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,[11][12] composed by Kurt Bestor,[13] which would become an all-compassing theme of sorts for ABC Sports during this time period.
|
| October 5
|
Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen participate in the 1988 vice presidential debate with the line "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" becoming popular.[14]
|
| 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 13
|
Bernard Shaw of CNN asks Dukakis during the debate a question about his wife and the death penalty that garners controversy.[15]
|
| 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.[16]
|
| 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.[17]
|
| 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.[18]
|
| 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[19] for exclusive over-the-air television rights for over four years (beginning in 1990). CBS paid about $265 million each year[20] 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.[21] It was one of the largest agreements[22] (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[23] than in the previous television contract with ABC and NBC.[24] 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.[25]
|
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