Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| February 20 | Comedian Andy Kaufman ruins sketches and starts a brawl live on the air during ABC's Fridays. |
| March 6 | After a 19-year run, Walter Cronkite resigns as head anchor of The CBS Evening News and is succeeded the following Monday by Dan Rather. |
| April 1 | Berlinda Tolbert and Michael Jonas Evans makes their final appearance as Lionel and Jenny Willis Jefferson in the seventh (1980–1981) year, of The Jeffersons, also departing with Tolbert and Evans, Paul Benedict makes his final appearance as the British neighbor of George and Louise, Harry Bentley, Benedict returns to the series in 1983. |
| April 11 | Van Halen's lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen marries One Day at a Time actress Valerie Bertinelli. |
| April 12 | The Alpha Repertory Television Service (also known as ARTS) is launched right after the Nickelodeon block time shared. |
| May 1 | The third season finale of Dallas ends up on a swimming pool while her woman was found dead. |
| June 30 | Fred Silverman is fired as president of NBC, after failing to improve that network's third-place standing, and is replaced by Grant Tinker. |
| July 4 | Showtime ends its part-time status and inaugurates a 24/7 schedule. |
| August 1 | The MTV network debuts on cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day. |
| September | During the course of the year, all soap operas produced by Procter & Gamble change title sequences and theme songs. Another World, Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, and The Edge of Night all have new title sequences. |
| September 21-25 | Fourth September week when soap opera supercouple Victor and Nikki Newman first meet each other on The Young and the Restless. |
| November | The Doctors airs its milestone 5000th episode. |
| November 2 | American soap opera As the World Turns debuts a new opening sequence and theme song for the first time in its 25-year history. |
| November 8 | ESPN televises its first live flag-to-flag NASCAR race, the Atlanta Journal 500. |
| November 9 | The cast and crew had begun work on episodes for The Incredible Hulk's fifth season on CBS when the network's head of programming, Harvey Shepherd, delivered a surprise blow: despite maintaining solid ratings, The Incredible Hulk was to be canceled immediately. Author Frank Garcia, while interviewing Johnson, learned that CBS executive Harvey Shepherd disliked The Incredible Hulk and felt that there "wasn't a full season left in it", thus putting an end to David Banner's struggles. Producer Kenneth Johnson tried to convince Sheppard to buy six additional episodes so that CBS could have a half-season of new episodes but he declined. The series was canceled so suddenly that Johnson never had a chance to film an INCREDIBLE HULK series finale which would feature David on trial for the murder of Elaina Marks. Several scripts including "David Banner, RIP", and "Killer On Board" never went before the cameras to become small-screen Hulk adventures. The notice came so quickly and so suddenly that Johnston and Corea were unable to film a proposed two hour finale in which David was brought to trial for the murder of Elaina Marks. Production officially halted in the summer of 1981. |
| November 16-17 | Luke and Laura's wedding on General Hospital becomes one of the most watched weddings in American television history, second only to the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. |
| December 24 | HBO began airing it's 24-hour programming. |
| December 25 | Chuck Woolery hosts his last episode of Wheel of Fortune after a salary dispute with show producer and creator Merv Griffin. Pat Sajak takes over as host the next Monday, the 28th. He hosts the daytime Wheel till 1989.; Sajak hosts the nighttime Wheel to this day. |
Read more about this topic: 1981 In American Television
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“The return of the asymmetrical Saturday was one of those small events that were interior, local, almost civic and which, in tranquil lives and closed societies, create a sort of national bond and become the favorite theme of conversation, of jokes and of stories exaggerated with pleasure: it would have been a ready- made seed for a legendary cycle, had any of us leanings toward the epic.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Turn where we may, within, around, the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve!”
—Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)
“The system was breaking down. The one who had wandered alone past so many happenings and events began to feel, backing up along the primal vein that led to his center, the beginning of hiccup that would, if left to gather, explode the center to the extremities of life, the suburbs through which one makes one’s way to where the country is.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)