1980 in American television

Television related events in the USA during 1980

List of years in American television:

* 1977
* 1978
* 1979
* 1980
* 1981
* 1982
* 1983

* * *

1979–80 United States network television schedule
1980–81 United States network television schedule
List of American television programs currently in production

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

## Events

[edit]

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 USA 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 7,316th and 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 4  | On CBS, The Young and the Restless airs its first one-hour long episode.
February 8  | Eric Braeden makes his first appearance as Victor Newman on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless.
February 11  | CBS broadcasts a very special episode of the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati about the real life deadly gate-rushing incident that occurred at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979 prior to a performance by The Who.
February 14  | On CBS, Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News, which takes effect in March 1981.
February 22  | ABC Sports announcer Al Michaels delivers his now immortal line "Do you believe in miracles?! Yes!" in the closing moments of the Winter Olympic medal-round men's ice hockey game between the United States team and the heavily favored Soviet team.
February 24  | Polly Holliday makes her final appearance as Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry on Alice. Holliday would continue playing Flo in the character's own spin-off, which aired on CBS for two seasons.
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] The first broadcast to use it was the 1977 movie Semi-Tough.
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 24  | The late night ABC News program The Iran Crisis–America Held Hostage is officially rechristened as Nightline.
March 24  | WCGV-TV signs on the air as an independent station in Milwaukee. It went on to affiliate first with Fox in 1987, then to UPN in 1995 and finally MyNetworkTV in 2006. It was shut down in 2018.
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 5  | Hawaii Five-O airs its series finale on CBS.
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 9  | The Madison Square Garden Sports Network is officially rechristened as the USA Network.
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 19  | Actor Strother Martin guest hosts an episode of NBC's Saturday Night Live in what turns out to be his final television appearance prior to his death on August 1, 1980.
April 29  | The NFL draft is televised for the first time on ESPN.
May 6  | Ron Howard (Richie Cunningham) and Donny Most (Ralph Malph) 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 (The Fonz) is given top billing in the opening credits.
May 10  | Al Franken delivers his "A Limo for a Lame-O" commentary on Saturday Night Live. During the Weekend Update segment, Franken attacked network president Fred Silverman for NBC's poor showing in the Nielsen ratings during his tenure.
May 11  | The Return of the King, an animated adaptation of the third and final volume of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, airs on ABC after a legal challenge filed by the Tolkien Estate and Fantasy Films was settled.[2]
May 24  | NBC airs The Not Ready For Prime Time Players' final episode on Saturday Night Live, after five seasons.
CBS broadcasts Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals[3] between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New York Islanders.[4][5] The Saturday afternoon game is the first full American network telecast of an NHL game since Game 5 of the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals aired on NBC, and the last NHL game on American network television until NBC televises the 1990 All-Star Game.[6][7]
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.
Vanna White makes her first appearance on a game show via The Price Is Right on CBS, in which she was among the first four contestants.[8][9] She did not make it onstage, but the clip of her running to Contestants' Row was rebroadcast as part of The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary Special in August 1996[10] and also was featured on the special broadcast Game Show Moments Gone Bananas.
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 21  | At 2:00 am EST, the actors unions SAG and AFTRA launch a three-month strike against television and movie studios; they would be joined by musicians' union AFM a few days after. The primary reason was for residuals in new home media outlets, such as videocassettes, and in emerging cable television. The strike is the first time both unions went on strike at the same time, greatly delaying US networks' fall seasons by several weeks.
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.
August 28  | Joan Lunden makes her debut as co-host of ABC's Good Morning America alongside David Hartman. Lunden, who was succeeding Sandy Hill, would remain on the program through 1997.
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.
September 7  | The Primetime Emmy Awards air on NBC. In a show of support for the ongoing strike by SAG, AFTRA, and AFM, 51 of the 52 nominated performers boycotted the event.[11] Powers Boothe was the only nominated actor to attend.
September 15–19  | The five–part historical drama miniseries Shōgun is broadcast on NBC.
September 21  | SAG and AFTRA come to a tentative agreement with studios to end the actors strike. Voting on the agreement within both unions took place throughout the next few weeks, being ratified by October 23.[12]
The first 1980 United States presidential debate was held, including the first (and only until 1992) independent candidate to participate, John B. Anderson.[13]
September 28  | The PBS documentary Cosmos, hosted by legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, premieres. It deals with scientific topics like biology, chemistry, and linguistics, but primarily focuses on astronomy, Sagan's field of study.
October 4  | Bob Costas[14][15] makes his debut calling Major League Baseball games for NBC. It was a backup game (the primary game involved the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos) involving the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers from Yankee Stadium.
October 20  | Piedmont Triad independent station WGNN-TV changes its name to WJTM-TV following its purchase by TVX Broadcast Group, to avoid confusion with WGN-TV.
October 26  | KOKI-TV signs on the air as an independent station in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
October 28  | Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter participate in their sole presidential debate. It was the most watched presidential debate until 2016.
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 Lorne 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.
The start of Season 6 of the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley sees the titular characters relocating from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Burbank, California after losing their brewery jobs.
Suzanne Somers makes her final "full" appearance in an episode of the ABC sitcom Three's Company. Her remaining seven appearances would be cameos in the episode's closing tag in which Chrissy would call from her parents' home in Fresno to speak with Jack or Janet, who would sometimes fill Chrissy in on what happened in the episode.
November 19  | CBS bans a controversial Brooke Shields Calvin Klein Jeans ad because, according to CBS, the commercial was ‘too suggestive.’ The ad featured the 15-year-old Shields saying: ‘You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.’
Nancy McKeon makes her debut as Jo Polniaczek in the Season 2 premiere of the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life on NBC.
November 20  | Donna Mills makes her first appearance as the villainous Abby Cunningham on the CBS prime time soap opera Knots Landing.
November 21  | The mystery of "Who Shot J.R.?" is solved on Dallas; the revelation that Sue Ellen Ewing's sister Kristin Shepard (played by Mary Crosby) was responsible 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.
November 30  | Tanya Roberts joins the cast of ABC's Charlie's Angels (replacing the departed Shelley Hack) for what would be its final season.
December 8  | On ABC, Howard Cosell announces the murder of former Beatle John Lennon in the closing seconds of a Monday Night Football game between the Miami Dolphins and New England Patriots. NBC also reports the murder of Lennon, interrupting The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for a news bulletin.
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 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 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; however, the show will be picked up by CBS.

## Programs

[edit]

### Debuting this year

[edit]

Date  | Show  | Network

|
|

January 6  | Skag | NBC
January 14  | 3-2-1 Contact | PBS
Chain Reaction | NBC
January 22  | Goodtime Girls | ABC
January 27  | Galactica 1980 | ABC
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 10  | Top Rank Boxing | ESPN
April 11  | Fridays | ABC
May 5  | America's Top 10 | Syndication
June 1  | Moneyline | WTBS/CNN
TBS Evening News
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
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show | CBS
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  | Richie Rich
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

[edit]

Date  | Show  | Debut

|
|

January 3  | Spider-Woman | 1979
January 5  | A New Kind of Family
Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
January 10  | The Rockford Files | 1974
February 1  | Love of Life | 1951
February 29  | Make Me Laugh (returned in 1997)  | 1958
March 26  | The Ultraman | 1979
April 5  | Hawaii Five-O | 1968
April 30  | Hello, Larry | 1979
June 20  | Chain Reaction (returned in 1986)  | 1980
High Rollers (returned in 1987)  | 1974
June 25  | Family | 1976
June 27  | Pyramid (returned in 1981)  | 1973
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

[edit]

Premiere date  | Title  | Network

|
|

April 15-16  | 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)
October 31  | The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

## Networks and services

[edit]

### Launches

[edit]

Network  | Type  | Launch date  | Notes  | Source

|
|
|
|

CNN | Cable television  | June 1  |  |
Cinemax | Cable television  | August 1  |  |
ACSN - The Learning Channel | Cable television  | October  |  |
Bravo | Cable and satellite  | December 8  |  |
Kraft Golden Showcase Network  | Cable and satellite  | Unknown  |  |

### Conversions and rebrandings

[edit]

Old network  | New network  | Type  | Conversion date  | Notes  | Source

|
|
|
|
|

Madison Square Garden Sports Network | USA Network  | Cable television  | April 9  |  |

### Closures

[edit]

There are no closures for Cable and satellite television channels in this year.

## Television stations

[edit]

### Station launches

[edit]

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

|
|
|
|
|

January 25  | Minot, North Dakota | KSRE | 6  | PBS | Part of Prairie Public Television
January 27  | Rochester, New York | WUHF | 31  | Independent
January 28  | Cincinnati, Ohio | WBTI-TV | 64  | Independent  |
February 22  | Denver, Colorado | KBDI-TV | 12  | PBS
February 29 | Lafayette, Louisiana | KADN | 15  | Independent (primary)
CBS (secondary, per program)
March 20  | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WCGV-TV | 24  | Independent
April 11  | Salisbury, Maryland | WMDT | 47  | ABC (primary)
NBC (secondary)
May 4  | Willow Grove/Reading, Pennsylvania | WTVE | 51  | Independent
June 1  | Bemidji, Minnesota | KAWE | 9  | PBS  | Part of Lakeland Public Television
July 28  | Dickinson, North Dakota | KQCD-TV | 7  | NBC (primary)
ABC (secondary)  | Semi-satellite of KFYR-TV/Bismarck
August 1  | Jacksonville, Florida | WXAO-TV | 47  | Independent  |
August 12  | Casper, Wyoming | KCWY-TV | 14  | CBS |
August 23  | Flint, Michigan | WFUM | 28  | PBS  |
September 8  | Spartanburg, South Carolina
(Florence/Greenville, South Carolina) | WRET-TV | 49  | PBS  | Part of South Carolina ETV
September 22  | Eau Claire/La Crosse, Wisconsin | WXOW | 19  | ABC |
September 29  | Washington, D.C. | WHUT | 32  | PBS  |
October 6  | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas | KTXA-TV | 21  | Independent  |
October 15  | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | KAUT-TV | 43  | Independent  |
October 26  | Tulsa, Oklahoma | KOKI-TV | 23  | Independent  |
November 7  | Greenville/Greenwood, Mississippi | WXVT | 15  | CBS |
November 16  | Mountain View, Arkansas | KEMV | 6  | PBS | Part of the Arkansas Educational Television Network
November 22  | Florence, South Carolina | WPDE-TV | 15  | ABC  |
November 26  | Hardin/Billings, Montana | KOUS-TV | 4  | NBC |
December 24  | Valdosta/Albany, Georgia | WVGA | 44  | ABC  |
December 30  | Green Bay, Wisconsin | WGBA-TV | 26  | Independent  |

### Network affiliation changes

[edit]

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

|
|
|
|
|
|

January 1  | Dayton, Ohio | WDTN | 2  | NBC  | ABC  |
WKEF | 22  | ABC  | NBC  |
March 31  | Jacksonville, Florida | WJKS | 17  | ABC  | NBC  |
WTLV | 12  | NBC  | ABC  |
September 1  | Atlanta, Georgia | WSB-TV | 2  | NBC  | ABC  |
WXIA-TV | 11  | ABC  | NBC  |

## Births

[edit]

Date | Name | Notability

|
|

January 4  | Greg Cipes | Voice actor (Codename: Kids Next Door, Teen Titans, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Ben 10, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Fish Hooks, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teen Titans Go!)
June Diane Raphael | Actress (Burning Love, NTSF:SD:SUV, Grace and Frankie)
Erin Cahill | Actress
D'Arcy Carden | Actress
January 7  | Brandi Hitt | Former reporter and anchor for ABC 7 in Los Angeles
January 10  | Sarah Shahi | Actress (The L Word, Fairly Legal, Person of Interest)
January 16  | Lin-Manuel Miranda | Actor
January 17  | Zooey Deschanel | Actress (New Girl) and singer
Maksim Chmerkovskiy | Choreographer
January 18  | Jason Segel | Actor (Freaks and Geeks, How I Met Your Mother)
Estelle | British singer and voice actress (Steven Universe, Steven Universe Future)
January 19  | Luke Macfarlane | Canadian actor (Brothers & Sisters)
January 20  | Philippe Cousteau Jr. | American oceanographer
January 22  | Christopher Masterson | Actor (Malcolm in the Middle)
January 28  | Nick Carter | Actor (House of Carters) and singer (Backstreet Boys)
January 30  | Wilmer Valderrama | Actor (That '70s Show, Handy Manny)
January 31  | James Adomian | Actor (The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Mad TV, WordGirl, Conan, Future-Worm!)
April Lee Hernández | American television actress
Clarissa Ward | British-American television journalist and correspondent
February 8  | William Jackson Harper | Actor
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) and son of John Ritter
February 21  | Justin Roiland | Voice actor (Fish Hooks, Adventure Time, Rick and Morty)
February 25  | Chris Knowings | Actor (Taina)
Christy Knowings | Actress (All That)
February 27  | Brandon Beemer | Actor (Days of Our Lives)
February 29  | Peter Scanavino | Actor (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
Taylor Twellman | Television commentator
Patrick Côté | Boxer
March 2  | Rebel Wilson | Actress
March 3  | Katherine Waterston | English actress (Boardwalk Empire)
March 7  | Laura Prepon | Actress (That '70s Show, Orange is the New Black)
March 9  | Matthew Gray Gubler | Actor (Criminal Minds)
March 12  | John-Paul Lavoisier  | Actor (One Life to Live)
March 17  | Reed Timmer | Storm chaser
March 20  | Mikey Day | Actor and comedian (Kath and Kim, The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live)
March 21  | Guru Singh | Actor
March 22  | Melissa Paull  | Actress (Mad TV)
Joshua Johnson | American journalist
March 25  | Tinsel Korey | Actress
March 26  | Margaret Brennan | Journalist
March 29  | Chris D'Elia | Actor
March 31  | Kate Micucci | Actress (The Big Bang Theory, Raising Hope, Steven Universe, Scooby-Doo, Milo Murphy's Law, DuckTales)
Ari Melber | TV host
April 1  | Bijou Phillips | Actress (Raising Hope) and singer
Randy Orton | WWE wrestler
April 2  | Bobby Bones | American radio and television personality
April 4  | Michael Bellisario | Actor
April 7  | Melanie Merkosky | Actress
April 8  | Katee Sackhoff | Actress (Battlestar Galactica, Longmire)
Bill English | Actor
April 9  | Rachel Specter | Actress
April 10  | Jasika Nicole | Actress
Kasey Kahne | Race car driver
April 13  | Kelli Giddish | Actress
April 14  | Claire Coffee | Actress (General Hospital, Franklin & Bash, Grimm, Chelsey and Kelsey)
April 15  | Arian Moayed | Actor
April 17  | Nicholas D'Agosto | Actor (Masters of Sex, Gotham)
Alaina Huffman | Canadian actress (Smallville, Stargate Universe, Supernatural)
April 21  | Griffin House | Musician
Tony Romo | Color commentator (NFL on CBS)
April 23  | David Larsen | Actor
April 24  | Austin Nichols | Actor (One Tree Hill)
Reagan Gomez-Preston | Actress (The Parent 'Hood, Love, Inc, The Cleveland Show, Steven Universe)
April 25  | Geoff Bennett | Journalist (PBS NewsHour)
April 26  | Jordana Brewster | Actress (As the World Turns, Dallas)
Channing Tatum | Actor
Darris Love | Actor (The Secret World of Alex Mack)
April 29  | Damien Dante Wayans | Actor
April 30  | Sam Heughan | Actor
May 2  | Ellie Kemper | Actress (The Office, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt) and comedian
May 3  | Mozhan Marnò | Actress
May 17  | Daniel Moncada | Actor
May 19  | Drew Fuller | Actor (Charmed, Army Wives)
May 23  | Chris Gethard | Actor
May 27  | Ben Feldman | Actor (Superstore)
May 30  | Remy Ma | Rapper
Jenna Lee | American journalist
May 31  | Andy Hurley | American musician (Fall Out Boy)
June 1  | Arthur Gourounlian | Dancer
June 6  | Pete Hegseth | Host
June 10  | Jessica DiCicco | Voice actress (The Buzz on Maggie, Loonatics Unleashed, The Emperor's New School, The Mighty B!, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, The Loud House, Future-Worm!, It's Pony)
June 15  | Christopher Castile | Actor (Step by Step, Hey Arnold!)
Cara Zavaleta | Model
June 18  | David Giuntoli | Actor (Grimm, A Million Little Things)
Lindsay Shookus | Producer
Kevin Bishop | Actor
June 19  | Lauren Lee Smith | Canadian actress (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Mutant X)
Teddy Dunn | Actor
Neil Brown Jr. | Actor
June 20  | Tika Sumpter | Singer and actress
June 23  | Melissa Rauch | Actress (The Big Bang Theory)
Heath Freeman | Actor (died 2021)
Matias Varela | Actor
Blair Herter | TV personality
June 24  | Minka Kelly | Actress (Friday Night Lights, Charlie's Angels, Almost Human)
June 25  | Shannon Lucio | Actress (The O.C., Prison Break)
June 26  | Casey DeSantis | Journalist and TV show host
June 27  | Ben Bocquelet | Writer
July 1  | Fortune Feimster | Actress
Alex Blagg | Writer
July 3  | Olivia Munn | TV host and actress (Attack of the Show!, The Daily Show, The Newsroom)
July 4  | Carrie Keagan | TV host and actress
July 5  | Pauly D | American television personality
July 10  | Nick Schifrin | Journalist (PBS NewsHour)
Jessica Simpson | Singer and actress (Fashion Star)
Jeremy Ray Valdez | Actor (Drake & Josh)
July 12  | Kristen Connolly | Actress (House of Cards, The Whispers, Zoo)
July 18  | Kristen Bell | Actress (Veronica Mars, The Good Place, Gossip Girl, House of Lies)
July 19  | Chris Sullivan | Actor (This Is Us)
Josh Fadem | Actor
Mark Webber | Actor
July 20  | Gisele Bündchen | Brazilian model
July 21  | Sprague Grayden | Actress
July 27  | Jessi Combs | Television personality (died 2019)
Dolph Ziggler | WWE wrestler
July 29  | Rachel Miner | Actress (Guiding Light, Californication)
July 30  | April Bowlby | Actress (Two and a Half Men, Drop Dead Diva, Doom Patrol)
August 3  | Hannah Simone | British-born Canadian actress (New Girl)
August 6  | Monique Ganderton | Canadian actress
August 8  | Michael Urie | Actor (Ugly Betty)
August 9  | Texas Battle | Actor (The Bold and the Beautiful)
Stephen Schneider | Actor
August 10  | Aaron Staton | Actor
August 11  | Merritt Wever | Actress
August 12  | Maggie Lawson | Actress (It's All Relative, Crumbs, Psych, Back in the Game)
Dominique Swain | Actress (Lolita, Totally Awesome)
August 13  | Veronica de la Cruz | Anchor
August 18  | Sarah Spain | American sports reporter
August 19  | Aaron Horvath | Director
Adam Campbell | Actor
August 21  | Jon Lajoie | Actor
John Brotherton | Actor
August 24  | Rachael Carpani | Australian actress (McLeod's Daughters, Against the Wall)
August 26  | Macaulay Culkin | Actor (Robot Chicken)
Jim Beanz | Actor
August 28  | Carly Pope | Canadian actress (Popular)
September 8  | Eric Hutchinson | Singer
September 6  | Daniel Wohl | Composer
Tehmina Sunny | Actress
September 7  | J. D. Pardo | Actor
September 9  | Michelle Williams | Actress (Dawson's Creek)
September 13  | Ben Savage | Actor (Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World)
September 17  | Jill Latiano | Actress
September 21  | Autumn Reeser | Actress (The O.C., Valentine, No Ordinary Family)
Aleksa Palladino | Actress
Brianna Keilar | CNN reporter
September 23  | Aubrey Dollar | Actress
September 25  | Jeremiah Bitsui | Actor
T.I. | Actor
September 28  | Patti Murin | Actress
September 29  | Zachary Levi | Actor (Chuck, Heroes Reborn, Tangled: The Series, Alias Grace)
Chrissy Metz | Actress (This Is Us)
Darragh Ennis | Quizzer
Nick Viall | Actor
September 30  | Toni Trucks | Actress
October 1  | Sarah Drew | Actress (Daria, Everwood, Grey's Anatomy) and singer
October 4  | Morgan Spector | Actor
October 6  | Jenny Wade | Actress
Andrew Keoghan | Musician
October 8  | Nick Cannon | Actor (All That, The Nick Cannon Show, America's Got Talent)
The Miz | Actor
October 13  | Ashanti | Singer and actress
October 15  | Brandon Jay McLaren | Canadian actor (Power Rangers S.P.D.)
October 16  | Jeremy Jackson | Actor and singer (Baywatch)
October 17  | Angel Parker | Actress (Lab Rats, Runaways)
Nicholas Britell | Composer
Justin Shenkarow | Actor (Eerie, Indiana, Picket Fences, Life with Louie, Hey Arnold!, Recess, Lloyd in Space)
October 18  | Erin Dean | Actress (The Journey of Allen Strange)
Natasha Rothwell | Actress
October 19  | Katja Herbers | Actress
October 20  | Niall Matter | Actor
October 21  | Kim Kardashian | Actress (Keeping Up with the Kardashians)
October 23  | Robert Belushi | Actor
October 24  | Casey Wilson | Actress (Happy Endings, The Hotwives, Marry Me)
October 29  | Michele Boyd | Actress (The Guild, Team Unicorn)
Ben Foster | Actor
October 30  | Sarah Carter | Actress (Shark, Falling Skies)
October 31  | Samaire Armstrong | Actress (The O.C., Resurrection)
Eddie Kaye Thomas | Actor (Brutally Normal, American Dad!, Scorpion)
November 2  | Brittany Ishibashi | Actress
November 4  | Emme Rylan | Actress (Guiding Light, General Hospital, The Young and the Restless)
November 5  | Luke Hemsworth | Australian actor (Neighbours, Westworld)
November 9  | Vanessa Lachey | Actress
November 12  | Ryan Gosling | Actor (Breaker High, Young Hercules)
Gustaf Skarsgård | Actor
Christopher Cantwell | Filmmaker
November 13  | Monique Coleman | Actress (High School Musical)
November 17  | Isaac Hanson | Singer (Hanson)
November 18  | Mathew Baynton | Actor
November 20  | Tony Laubach | Storm chaser
November 25  | Valerie Azlynn | Actress (Sullivan & Son)
November 26  | Jessica Bowman | Actress (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman)
November 29  | Jason Griffith | Voice actor (Sonic X)
Janina Gavankar | Actress
December 1  | Angelique Bates | Actress (All That)
December 3  | Anna Chlumsky | Actress (Veep)
Jenna Dewan Tatum | Dancer and actress (American Horror Story)
December 4  | James Francis Ginty | Actor
December 5  | Tamara Feldman | Actress (Gossip Girl)
Jessica Paré | Actress
December 8  | Shakina Nayfack | Actress
December 9  | Simon Helberg | Actor (The Big Bang Theory, Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil)
December 10  | Kate Reinders | Actress (Work It, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series)
Alberto Zeni | Actor
December 18  | Christina Aguilera | Singer and child actress (Mickey Mouse Club, The Voice)
December 19  | Marla Sokoloff | Actress (The Practice, Big Day The Fosters)
Jake Gyllenhaal | Actor
December 22  | Chris Carmack | Actor (The O.C., Nashville)
December 23  | Rory O'Malley | Actor
December 24  | Tony Dokoupil | American broadcast journalist
December 27  | Elizabeth Rodriguez | Actress (New York Undercover, All My Children Orange Is the New Black, Power, Grimm, Fear the Walking Dead)
December 28  | Vanessa Ferlito | Actress (Graceland)
December 30  | Eliza Dushku | Actress (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Tru Calling, Dollhouse, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.)
Jazmyn Simon | Actress

## Deaths

[edit]

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)
June 12  | Milburn Stone | 75  | Actor ("Doc" on Gunsmoke)
June 23  | Babette Henry | 65  | Television director (Buck Rogers, That Wonderful Guy)[16][17]
July 31  | Bobby Van | 51  | Game show host and panelist (Match Game, Tattletales, Showoffs, Make Me Laugh)
August 14  | Dorothy Stratten | 20  | Actress, Playboy model
September 3  | Duncan Renaldo | 76  | Romanian-born actor (The Cisco Kid)
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

## See also

[edit]

* 1980 in the United States
* List of American films of 1980

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 384–387 (PDF Archived 2012-04-24 at the Wayback Machine)
2. ^ Solomon, Charles (May 10, 1980). "Lawsuit Threatened Showing of 'Return of the King'". Part II. Los Angeles Times. pp. 5, 10. Retrieved June 16, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
3. ^ Paul D. Staudohar (1989). The Sports Industry and Collective Bargaining. ILR Press. p. 140\. ISBN 9780875461519.
4. ^ Francis Rosa (May 18, 1980). "Goring Finds His Paradise". Boston Globe. p. 1.
5. ^ Jerry Kirshenbaum (June 16, 1980). "Scorecard". Sports Illustrated. Time Inc.
6. ^ "Around the NHL". The Washington Post. March 29, 1989.
7. ^ Rachel Shuster (March 29, 1989). "'American Sportsman' makes strong comeback". USA Today. Gannett Company. p. 3C.
8. ^ The Price Is Right (American game show). Season 8. Episode 186. June 20, 1980. CBS.
9. ^ Vanna White on The Price Is Right (1980) on YouTube
10. ^ The Price Is Right's 25th Anniversary Special (08/23/1996) on YouTube
11. ^ Gold, Matea; Maria Elena Fernandez and Richard Verrier (2007-12-18). "Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien to return to the air Jan. 2". Los Angeles Times.
12. ^ "Striking musicians picketed seven major studios again Wednesday as..." United Press International. October 8, 1980. Archived from the original on September 8, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2025.
13. ^ "CPD: September 21, 1980 Debate Transcript". www.debates.org. Retrieved 2025-07-20.
14. ^ Bodig, Chris (July 27, 2018). "HALL OF FAMER BOB COSTAS' GREATEST GAME CALLS". Cooperstown Cred.
15. ^ "SEARCHABLE NETWORK TV BROADCASTS". sabrmedia.org. Archived from the original on 2019-04-18.
16. ^ "Passings". The Los Angeles Times. June 30, 1980. p. 18.
17. ^ "Obituaries: Babette Kiebert". Monrovia News-Post. June 26, 1980. p. 22.

## External links

[edit]

* List of 1980 American television series at IMDb

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