1974 in American television
Television related events in the USA during 1974
This is a list of American television-related events in 1974.
Events
Date | Event | Ref. |
---|---|---|
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
- 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
Sign-ons
Network affiliation changes
Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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
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
Debuting this year
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
- 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)
- Mach 5 - 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)
- August 29 - Just for Laughs (1974)
- 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 - The Newlywed Game (1966–74)
- December 28 - Nakia (1974)
Births
Deaths
See also
References
- ^ "New anchor at WNBC-TV." Broadcasting, March 18, 1974. p. 87. Archived issues available via americanradiohistory.com. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "WBTV's Cussed, Discussed News Theme Gets Overhaul". The Charlotte Observer. 1974-08-07.
- ^ Young, Bill. "Monty Python: 1969-2014". Tellyspotting: Your Brit TV Pub. KERA. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ McCall, Douglas (2014). Monty Python: a chronology, 1969-2012 (Second ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 36. ISBN 0-7864-7811X
External links
- List of 1974 American television series at IMDb
This television-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021) |