| Date |
Event
|
| January 1
|
VH1 begins in the United States.
|
| January 20
|
For the first time ever, the Super Bowl is televised by ABC, who join the annual broadcast rotation of the game with CBS and NBC. This also marked the first time that a Super Bowl had closed captioning provided in real time.
|
| February 1
|
WJCK in Watertown, New York begins broadcasting, giving the Watertown market its first full-time ABC affiliate.
|
| February 4
|
NBC becomes the first commercial television network to use satellite interconnection for its stations; as a result, it is the first network to discontinue use of chime intonations at the beginning of each telecast, to signal to its affiliates to start broadcasting the network feed.
|
| March 2
|
The NBC situation comedy Gimme a Break! broadcasts an episode live.
|
| March 18
|
Capital Cities Communications, a station owner group based in Albany, New York, stuns the broadcast industry by announcing that it is acquiring ABC for $3.5 billion. The move will prompt the company to sell off several of its television and radio stations to satisfy FCC ownership limits. The deal will be finalized on January 3, 1986.[1][2]
|
| March 20
|
Norman Lear sells Tandem Productions and Embassy Television companies to The Coca-Cola Company, which also owns Columbia Pictures company, for $485 million.
|
| March 31
|
The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) telecasts WrestleMania to select pay-per-view areas (and to a greater extent, closed-circuit locations across the country). The event is wildly successful (drawing over a million viewers on closed-circuit) and marks the beginning of the annual series of WrestleMania events which continue to air on pay-per-view to this day. There is, however, a near-riot in Pittsburgh when a technical glitch prematurely ends the feed at the Civic Arena, prompting the WWF to appease angry fans by showing the event in its entirely on ABC affiliate WTAE-TV two weeks later.[3][4][5]
|
| April 11
|
KMSS commences broadcasting in Shreveport, Louisiana, making it the first station in the market to sign on the air since KTBS signed on in 1955 and the first independent station in the market. It would later become one of the few charter affiliates of Fox in Louisiana.
|
| April 28
|
WLIG commences broadcasting. (The call letters would change to WLNY-TV on September 1, 1996).
|
| May 11
|
The first episode of Saturday Night's Main Event is broadcast by NBC, the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast by network television since the 1950s.
|
| May 15
|
The season finale of Dynasty on ABC sees the entire wedding party of Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) and Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed) shot by revolutionaries in what is known as the Moldavian Massacre
|
| May 17
|
The season finale of Dallas on CBS finds character Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) on his deathbed after his crazed ex-sister-in-law Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany) runs him down with her car.
|
| May 19
|
WOIO-TV commences broadcasting in Cleveland. Initially an independent station, it will become a charter affiliate of Fox in 1986 and switch to CBS in 1994 as a result of the 1994 United States broadcast TV realignment.
|
| June 14
|
ABC broadcasts its 2,311th and last daytime episode of Family Feud after 9 years. Richard Dawson gives an emotional speech at the end of the broadcast. Dawson would return to the series during 1994 for one more season. Meanwhile, on CBS, Press Your Luck broadcasts the episode in which all three contestants would be invited back after a mistake on a question about the cartoon character Sylvester was corrected by Mel Blanc telephoning Peter Tomarken at the end of the show.
|
| July 1
|
Nick at Nite, a nighttime program service with an emphasis on classic television reruns, is launched in the United States, being broadcast on the same channel as Nickelodeon. At the same time, A&E, which previously shared Nickelodeon's channel, begins broadcasting as its own 24-hour cable channel in January of that year on a separate satellite transponder.
|
| July 13
|
The Live Aid concerts are broadcast from London and Philadelphia. In the U.S., the concerts are broadcast by MTV and over-the-air syndication, with ABC joining in a 3-hour prime-time period.
|
| July 16
|
NBC's telecast of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game out of the Metrodome in Minnesota is the first program to be broadcast in stereo[6] by a television network.
|
| July 22
|
Douglas Marland starts his critically acclaimed eight-year run writing for the CBS soap opera As the World Turns.
|
| August 4
|
Capital Cities Communications continues its acquisition of ABC when its CBS affiliate in Durham, North Carolina, WTVD, swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh.[7]
|
| August 19
|
A taping of an outdoor interview for NBC's Today is interrupted by David Letterman, who, while taping his own Late Night, leans out of an office window and announces, "My name is Larry Grossman (then-president of NBC News) and I'm not wearing any pants!"
|
| September 2
|
NBC becomes the first broadcast network in the U.S. to broadcast its prime time programs with stereo sound.
|
| September 8
|
Capital Cities Communications continues its acquisition of ABC when KFSN-TV, its CBS affiliate in Fresno, California, swaps affiliations with the market's existing ABC affiliate, KJEO.
|
| September 14
|
In part one of a three-part season premiere of The Facts of Life on NBC, Edna's Edibles, which had been the main locale of the long-running series since 1983, is burned to the ground. Edna Garrett and the girls would rebuild and replace it with an ice cream and gift shop named Over Our Heads.
|
| September 18
|
"Top Ten Things That Almost Rhyme With Peas" is the subject of the first "Top 10 List" on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman.
|
| September 22
|
The first Farm Aid concert is telecast from Champaign, Illinois, in syndication and by TNN.
|
| September 23
|
Jackie Gleason and Art Carney reunite in the CBS movie Izzy and Moe.
|
| September 28
|
On an episode of The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians called "The Fear", Batman's origin is depicted for the first time in media outside of the comic books.
|
| September 29
|
Howard Cosell makes what turns out to be his final assignment for ABC Sports, a Major League Baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins from the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Cosell is later removed from his scheduled announcing duties for that year's World Series due to the controversy surrounding his book I Never Played the Game. Cosell is replaced on the ABC broadcasts by Tim McCarver, who would work the 1985 World Series alongside Al Michaels and Jim Palmer.
|
| November 8
|
The final episode of The Price is Right with Johnny Olson as announcer is broadcast by CBS. Olson had died on October 12; the show was broadcast as an "in memoriam" tribute to him on October 29.
|
| November 9
|
On NBC, Saturday Night Live begins its 11th season, with Lorne Michaels returning as executive producer and an all-new cast that includes Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller.
|
| November 17
|
Kane & Abel, a miniseries based on the bestselling Jeffrey Archer novel, debuts on CBS.
|
| November 18
|
Elmo, a new character for Sesame Street, is introduced on PBS. In the same episode, the adult cast of Sesame Street come face-to-face with Aloysius Snuffleupagus for the first time since the character's 1971 introduction.
|
| December 3
|
Copacabana, an original musical featuring Barry Manilow (based on his 1978 song of the same name), Annette O'Toole, and Estelle Getty, is broadcast by CBS.
|
| Courteney Cox uses the word "period" (referring to menstruation) on U.S. television for the first time, in a commercial for Tampax brand tampons.
|