1974 in American television

Television related events in the USA during 1974

List of years in American television:

* 1971
* 1972
* 1973
* 1974
* 1975
* 1976
* 1977

* * *

1973–74 United States network television schedule
1974–75 United States network television schedule
List of American television programs currently in production

This is a list of American television-related events in 1974.

## Events

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Date  | Event  | Ref.

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January 31  | CBS broadcasts The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a multi-Emmy-winning adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’ novel of the same name which follows the 110-year life of a former slave from the American Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement. Cicely Tyson is tapped to play the title role.
February 1  | KIVI-TV signs-on the air, giving the Boise market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
February 8  | After 20 years and 5,195 episodes, The Secret Storm ends its run on CBS’s daytime schedule. Ten days later, the show is replaced by Tattletales, a Bert Convy-hosted game show that is devoted to celebrity gossip.
March 11  | The children's special Free to Be... You and Me, produced by comedic actress Marlo Thomas, airs on ABC.
March 13  | The Execution of Private Slovik, a made-for-TV film telling the story of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion after the American Civil War, airs on NBC.
March 18  | CBS's cancellation of Here's Lucy marks the end of the television reign of Lucille Ball, which lasted 23 consecutive years beginning with the 1951 premiere of I Love Lucy.
March  | Chuck Scarbarough joins WNBC-TV and revamps its format as NewsCenter 4, signaling the debut of the NewsCenter format.  | [1]
April 5  | The Dean Martin Show ends its run on NBC after 264 hour-long episodes. NBC will continue to air periodic editions of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast over the next 10 years.
April 26  | KPVI signs-on the air, giving the Idaho Falls market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
July 15  | Christine Chubbuck, a television reporter for WXLT in Sarasota, Florida commits suicide via a gunshot from behind her right ear during a live newscast on Suncoast Digest.  | [2][3][4]
August 8  | U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his pending resignation live on television, effective at 12 Noon EDT the next day, at which time Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President.
WEVU (now WZVN-TV) signs-on the air, giving the Fort Myers market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
August 25  | Al Ham's music theme Part of Your Life made its debut on WBTV-TV in Charlotte.  | [5]
September 10  | Born Innocent, a controversial film starring Linda Blair, airs on NBC. The film, which involved a fourteen-year-old being sent to what the television preview deemed a women's prison (when in reality it was a reform school), drew heavy criticism due to an all-female rape scene, the first ever seen on American television. The scene was deleted in subsequent re-airings after a group of girls assaulted an eight-year-old with a pop bottle, influenced by the scene in the film.
October 6  | Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British sketch comedy series that aired its final episode this year, is first shown on American television when PBS member station KERA-TV in Dallas, Texas airs it at 10 p.m. Central Daylight Time.[6][7]
November 28  | For the fourth time this year, ABC aligns with a new station as WOPC-TV in Altoona, Pennsylvania brings full-time ABC service to the Altoona-State College market. WOPC-TV struggles for viewers and goes dark in 1982; ABC would return to Altoona (and channel 23) in 1988 when Fox affiliate WWPC-TV (then a satellite of WWCP-TV in Johnstown) breaks from its simulcast with WWCP-TV.

### Other notable events

[edit]

* On the CBS soap opera Love of Life, Meg Dale (Tudi Wiggins) calls her son Ben (Christopher Reeve) a "bastard", marking the first time that a swear word is spoken on American daytime television.

## Television stations

[edit]

### Sign-ons

[edit]

Date  | City of License/Market | Station | Channel  | Affiliation  | Notes/Ref.

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|
|
|
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February  | South Bend/Elkhart, Indiana | WNIT | 34  | PBS  |
February 1  | Nampa/Boise, Idaho | KITC | 6  | ABC  |
March 31  | Orlando, Florida | WOFL | 35  | Independent |
April 26  | Pocatello, Idaho | KPVI | 6  | ABC  |
May 5  | Los Angeles, California | KVST-TV | 68  | Non-commercial independent  |
July 25  | South Bend, Indiana | WMSH-TV | 46  | Independent  |
August 8  | Naples/Fort Myers, Florida | WEVU | 26  | ABC  |
August 11  | Booneville, Mississippi | WMAE-TV | 12  | PBS | Part of MSETV
September 9  | Grand Forks, North Dakota | KGFE | 2  | PBS  | Part of Prairie Public Television
September 29  | New York City | WBTB-TV | 68  | Independent |
October 5  | Hagerstown, Maryland | WWPB | 31  | PBS  | Part of Maryland Public Television
Sacramento, California | KMUV-TV | 31  | Independent  | now a CW owned-and-operated station
November 28  | Johnstown, Pennsylvania | WOPC | 38  | ABC | Now WATM-TV on channel 23
December 1  | New Haven, Connecticut | WEDY | 65  | PBS  | Part of the Connecticut Public Television network
December 15  | Waterloo/Cedar Rapids, Iowa | KRIN | 32  | PBS  | Part of Iowa Public Television

### Network affiliation changes

[edit]

Date  | City of license/Market  | Station  | Channel  | Old affiliation  | New affiliation  | Notes/Ref.

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August 5  | Bakersfield, California | KJTV | 17  | ABC  | CBS  |
October 6  | Monroe, Louisiana | KNOE-TV | 8  | CBS (primary)
NBC (secondary)  | CBS (exclusive)  |
West Monroe/Monroe, Louisiana | KLAA | 14  | Independent | NBC | Was temporarily off the air from 1971 to 1974
Unknown date  | Augusta, Georgia | WJBF-TV | 6  | ABC (primary)
NBC (secondary)  | ABC (exclusive)  |
WRDW-TV | 12  | CBS (primary)
NBC (secondary)  | CBS (exclusive)  |

### Station closures

[edit]

Date  | City of license/Market  | Station  | Channel  | Affiliation  | Sign-on date  | Notes

|
|
|
|
|
|

March 28  | Lebanon, New Hampshire | WRLH | 31  | NBC  | September 10, 1966; had been silent from 1968 to August 3, 1971
April 30  | Roanoke, Virginia | WRFT-TV | 27  | ABC  | March 4, 1966  | Returned to air September 7, 1974 – February 11, 1975, as WRLU
Unknown date  | Chicago, Illinois | WXXW | 20  | PBS | September 20, 1965  | Would return to the air in February 1983 as WYCC

## Television shows

[edit]

### Debuting this year

[edit]

Premier  | Title  | Network

|
|

January 7  | How to Survive a Marriage | NBC
Jackpot! | NBC
January 15  | Happy Days | ABC
February 1  | Good Times | CBS
February 10  | Apple's Way | CBS
February 18  | Tattletales | CBS
March 3  | Nova | PBS
March 13  | The Letter People | PBS
May 6  | The $10,000 Pyramid | ABC
July 1  | High Rollers | NBC
Winning Streak | NBC
July 4  | Bicentennial Minute | CBS
July 29  | Name That Tune | NBC
August 8  | Just for Laughs | ABC
September 4  | That's My Mama | CBS
September 7  | Run, Joe, Run | NBC
Land of the Lost | NBC
Valley of the Dinosaurs | CBS
Shazam! | CBS
Hong Kong Phooey | ABC
September 9  | Rhoda | CBS
Dinah! | Syndication
The $25,000 Pyramid | Syndication
September 11  | Little House on the Prairie | NBC
September 12  | Harry O | ABC
Paper Moon | ABC
September 13  | Chico and the Man | NBC
The Rockford Files | NBC
Police Woman | NBC
The Texas Wheelers | ABC
Kolchak: The Night Stalker | ABC
Planet of the Apes | CBS
September 14  | The New Land | ABC
Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers | CBS
September 21  | Nakia | ABC
December 23  | The Big Showdown | ABC
Money Maze | ABC

### Ending this year

[edit]

* January 11
* Love, American Style (1969–74)
* Room 222 (1969-1974)
* February 8 - The Secret Storm (1954–74)
* March 8 -- The Brady Bunch (1969–74)
* March 11 - The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971–74)
* March 15 - Lotsa Luck (1973–74)
* March 18 - Here's Lucy (1968–74)
* March 23 - The Partridge Family (1970–74)
* March 24 - The Dean Martin Show (1965–74)
* May 29 - The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971–74)
* June 27 - The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74)
* June 28 - The Wizard of Odds (1973–74)
* August 29
* Just for Laughs (1974)
* Temperatures Rising (1972–74)
* August 31 - Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970–74)
* September 8 - The F.B.I. (1965–74)
* October 4 - The Texas Wheelers (1974)
* October 12 - Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74)
* October 19 - The New Land (1974)
* December 19 - Paper Moon (1974)
* December 20
* Planet of the Apes (1974)
* The Newlywed Game (1966–74)
* December 21
* Hong Kong Phooey (1974)
* Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974)
* December 28 - Nakia (1974)

## Births

[edit]

Main article: 1974 in television § Births

## Deaths

[edit]

Main article: 1974 in television § Deaths

## See also

[edit]

* 1974 in television
* 1974 in film
* 1974 in the United States
* List of American films of 1974

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "New anchor at WNBC-TV." Broadcasting, March 18, 1974. p. 87. Archived issues available via americanradiohistory.com. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
2. ^ Pelisek, Christine (February 10, 2016). "Journalist Christine Chubbuck Threw Herself a Going Away Party Before Killing Herself on Live TV, Colleague Says". People. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
3. ^ Pelisek, Christine (February 10, 2016). "Colleagues Recall Shock and Horror After Journalist Committed Suicide on Live TV: 'I Didn't See the Gun'". People. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
4. ^ Pelisek, Christine (February 11, 2016). "Brother of TV Journalist Christine Chubbuck Who Shot Herself on Air: 'She Never Felt Like She Was Good Enough'". People. Retrieved November 17, 2018.
5. ^ "WBTV's Cussed, Discussed News Theme Gets Overhaul". The Charlotte Observer. 1974-08-07.
6. ^ Young, Bill. "Monty Python: 1969-2014". Tellyspotting: Your Brit TV Pub. KERA. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
7. ^ McCall, Douglas (2014). Monty Python: a chronology, 1969-2012 (Second ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 36. ISBN 0-7864-7811X

## External links

[edit]

* List of 1974 American television series at IMDb

This television-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021)

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