From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1978 in American television

none

This is a list of American television-related events in 1978.

Events

Date		Event
January 15
January 23
January 28
February 5
February 28
March 7
March 22
March 26 – April 1
April 16–19
April 17
April 22
April 26
May 7
June 12
June 26
July 1
July 10
August 1
September 17
September 19
September 27
October 7
October 31
November 9
November 12
November 17

Programs

Debuting this year

Date	Show	Network
January 28	Fantasy Island	ABC
January 30	Baby... I'm Back!	CBS
January 31	The Harvey Korman Show	ABC
February 19	Project U.F.O.	NBC
March 7	Having Babies	ABC
March 10	Husbands, Wives & Lovers	CBS
The Incredible Hulk
March 14	Sam
March 16	A.E.S. Hudson Street	ABC
March 17	Richie Brockelman, Private Eye	NBC
April 2	Dallas	CBS
April 3	Pass the Buck
Ever Increasing Faith	Syndication
April 5	The Amazing Spider-Man	CBS
April 8	The Ted Knight Show
Another Day
April 13	The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour	NBC
April 24	Card Sharks
Joe & Valerie
Rollergirls
April 27	The Runaways
June 6	20/20	ABC
June 24	Free Country
July 10	World News Tonight
July 24	America Alive!	NBC
August 28	Flying High	CBS
September 7	Grandpa Goes to Washington	NBC
The Waverly Wonders
September 8	The Eddie Capra Mysteries
September 9	Fabulous Funnies
The New Fantastic Four
Galaxy Goof-Ups
Godzilla
Jana of the Jungle
The Krofft Superstar Hour
Yogi's Space Race
Challenge of the Superfriends	ABC
Fangface
The All New Popeye Hour	CBS
The Paper Chase
Tarzan and the Super 7
September 10	Kids Are People Too	ABC
Kaz	CBS
Sword of Justice	NBC
September 12	Taxi	ABC
Battle of the Planets	Syndication
September 13	W.E.B.	NBC
September 14	Mork & Mindy	ABC
September 16	30 Minutes	CBS
September 17	Battlestar Galactica	ABC
Lifeline	NBC
September 18	WKRP in Cincinnati	CBS
September 20	Dick Clark's Live Wednesday	NBC
In the Beginning	CBS
Vega$	ABC
September 22	Who's Watching the Kids?	NBC
September 23	Apple Pie	ABC
The American Girls	CBS
September 24	Mary
October 1	Centennial	NBC
October 30	A.M. Weather	PBS
November 2	David Cassidy: Man Undercover	NBC
November 3	Diff'rent Strokes
November 27	The White Shadow	CBS

Resuming this year

Show		Last aired		Previous network		Retitled as/Same		Returning
High Rollers
Tic Tac Dough
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Jeopardy!

Ending this year

Date	Show	Debut
January 7	We've Got Each Other	1977
January 9	The Betty White Show
January 10	The Fitzpatricks
January 13	The Better Sex
January 14	Tabitha
January 21	The Skatebirds
January 25	Szysznyk
January 28	Search and Rescue: The Alpha Team
February 6	Logan's Run
March 6	The Six Million Dollar Man	1973
March 18	Kojak
The Robonic Stooges	1977
March 25	The Tony Randall Show	1976
What Really Happened to the Class of '65?	1977
March 29	The Carol Burnett Show	1967
March 30	Police Woman	1974
March 31	Tattletales
April 1	The Bob Newhart Show	1972
April 6	Black Sheep Squadron	1976
April 7	Quark	1977
April 14	Richie Brockelman, Private Eye	1978
April 18	Sam
April 20	A.E.S. Hudson Street
April 21	Knockout	1977
To Say the Least
April 22	Maude	1972
April 24	Baby... I'm Back!	1978
April 28	C.P.O. Sharkey	1976
April 29	Another Day	1978
April 30	On Our Own	1977
May 10	Rollergirls	1978
May 11	The Hanna-Barbera Happy Hour
May 12	The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams	1977
May 13	The Ted Knight Show	1978
The Bionic Woman	1976
Columbo	1971
May 18	Baretta	1975
Fish	1977
May 29	Sugar Time!
June 6	Man from Atlantis
June 29	James at 16
June 30	Husbands, Wives & Lovers	1978
Pass the Buck
July 7	ABC Evening News	1970
July 21	Chico and the Man	1974
The Gong Show	1976
July 22	Free Country	1978
August 3	The Harvey Korman Show
August 27	Switch	1975
September 1	Fred Flintstone and Friends	1977
September 2	The Batman/Tarzan Adventure Hour
The Krofft Supershow	1976
September 29	For Richer, For Poorer	1977
September 30	Apple Pie	1978
October 5	W.E.B.
October 6	The Waverly Wonders
October 8	Mary
October 16	Operation Petticoat	1977
October 18	In the Beginning	1978
October 28	Laff-A-Lympics	1977
November 10	The American Girls	1978
December 1	Fabulous Funnies
December 2	Buford and the Galloping Ghost
Galaxy Goof-Ups
Yogi's Space Race
December 4	Lucan	1977
December 9	Rhoda	1974
December 15	Who's Watching the Kids?	1978
December 16	The New Fantastic Four
December 23	The Scooby-Doo Show	1976
Scooby's All-Stars	1977
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!	1969
December 27	Dick Clark's Live Wednesday	1978

Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

Title	Network	Date of airing
The Dain Curse	CBS	May 22–24
King	NBC	February 12–14
Holocaust	April 16–19
Zuma Beach	September 27
Centennial	October 1–February 4
Donner Pass: The Road to Survival	October 24
The Time Machine	November 5
Someone's Watching Me!	November 29

Networks and services

Launches

Network	Type	Launch date
Home Theater Network	Cable television	September 1
INSP	Cable television	Unknown
WGN-TV	Cable television	November 9
Operation Prime Time	Cable television	Unknown

Network conversions and rebrandings

Network	Type	Conversion date	Source
Hughes Television Network	Paramount Television Service	April
Paramount Television Service	Hughes Television Network	Unknown

Closures

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

Television stations

Station launches

Date	City of License/Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Notes/Ref.
January 3	Rock Hill, South Carolina
(Charlotte, North Carolina)	WNSC-TV	30	PBS	Part of South Carolina ETV
February 9	Martin, South Dakota	KZSD-TV	8	Part of South Dakota Public Broadcasting
March 23	Washington, D.C.	WPXW-TV	66	Religious independent
March 26	Manassas, Virginia/Washington, D.C.	WTKK	66
May 1	Mason City, Iowa	KYIN	24	PBS	Part of Iowa Public Television
August 6	Cheyenne, Oklahoma	KWET	12	Part of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority
August 9	Shreveport, Louisiana	KLTS-TV	24	Part of Louisiana Public Broadcasting
August 18	El Paso, Texas	KCOS	13
August 21	Cookeville, Tennessee	WCTE	22
September 2	Phoenix, Arizona	KTVW	23	Spanish International Network	Now a Univision affiliate
September 9	KNXV-TV	15	Independent
September 26	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	WPTT-TV	22
September 27	Montpelier, Vermont	WNNE	31	NBC	Signed on as a satellite of WPTZ-TV/Plattsburgh, New York
October 1	Juneau, Alaska	KTOO-TV	3	PBS	Satellite of KAKM/Anchorage
October 24	Salt Lake City, Utah	KSTU	20 (now 13)	Independent
November 12	Fort Smith, Arkansas	KLMN-TV	24	CBS
November 27	Rockford, Illinois	WQRF-TV	39	Independent
December 17	Kansas City, Missouri	KYFC	50	Was previously on air as KCIT-TV from 1969 to 1971.

Network affiliation changes

Date	City of license/Market	Station	Channel	Old affiliation	New affiliation
July 1	Charlotte, North Carolina	WCCB	18	ABC	Independent
WRET-TV	36	Independent	NBC
WSOC-TV	9	NBC	ABC

Station closures

Date	City of license/Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Sign-on date
April 9	Greenfield, Massachusetts	WRLP	32	NBC	June 29, 1957
August 15	Warrensburg/Sedalia, Missouri
(Columbia/Jefferson City)	KMOS-TV	6	CBS	July 8, 1954
(as an independent station)	Returned to the air December 22, 1979 as a PBS member station

Births

Date		Name		Notability
January 2
January 3
January 5
January 7
January 8
January 9
January 10
January 14
January 15
Eddie Cahill
January 24
January 26
February 2
February 3
Eliza Schneider
February 6
February 7
February 14
Danai Gurira
February 16
February 20
Chelsea Peretti
Jay Hernandez
February 21
February 24
February 28
March 1
Jensen Ackles
March 5
March 8
March 11
March 14
March 16
Brooke Burns
March 17
March 19
March 23
David Tom
Nicholle Tom
Perez Hilton
March 24
March 25
April 1
April 2
Deon Richmond
April 3
April 6
Tim Hasselbeck
April 7
Jimmy Akingbola
April 12
April 13
April 15
April 17
Adam Jamal Craig
April 19
Sheinelle Jones
April 20
Matt Austin
Matthew Wilkas
April 22
April 23
April 26
Pablo Schreiber
Stephen Williams
April 28
Robert Oliveri
April 29
May 1
May 2
May 4
May 5
May 8
May 9
May 10
Kenan Thompson
May 12
Malin Akerman
May 13
May 15
Caroline Dhavernas
May 16
May 17
Carlos Peña
May 22
May 24
May 26
Adam Robitel
May 27
May 28
June 1
June 2
Nikki Cox
June 4
June 5
Rob Nelson
June 6
June 7
June 8
June 9
Brian Patrick Wade
June 10
DJ Qualls
June 11
June 12
Timothy Simons
Jeremy Rowley
June 13
June 15
June 18
June 19
Zoe Saldaña
Mía Maestro
June 20
Quinton Jackson
June 21
June 24
June 26
June 27
June 29
Luke Kirby
Nicole Scherzinger
July 1
July 2
July 4
Andrea Gabriel
July 6
Tamera Mowry
Tia Mowry
July 8
July 9
Sundance Head
Kyle Davis
July 11
July 12
Topher Grace
July 13
July 15
July 18
July 19
Mark Proksch
Marcela Valladolid
July 21
Justin Bartha
July 22
July 24
August 2
August 3
August 6
August 8
August 15
August 18
August 20
August 22
August 23
August 24
August 25
August 26
August 28
Rachel Kimsey
August 29
September 4
September 6
September 7
September 12
Ruben Studdard
September 13
September 16
Matthew Rogers
September 17
September 18
September 20
September 22
September 23
Josh Miller
Anthony Mackie
September 25
September 28
Nikki McKibbin
October 1
Nicole Atkins
October 3
Jake Shears
Christian Coulson
October 4
Phillip Glasser
Mark Day
October 5
Morgan Webb
Jesse Palmer
October 7
October 10
October 14
October 15
October 16
Novie Edwards
October 17
October 18
Jake Farrow
October 20
David Caspe
October 21
Michael McMillian
October 22
October 25
October 26
October 27
October 28
Justin Guarini
October 30
October 31
November 1
November 2
November 6
Taryn Manning
Erik Cole
November 9
November 10
Diplo
David Paetkau
November 12
November 15
November 17
Tom Ellis
Rachel McAdams
November 18
November 19
Chad Doreck
November 20
November 24
November 28
November 29
November 30
December 1
December 2
December 7
December 8
December 9
December 10
December 11
December 12
December 13
December 18
Ravi Patel
Katie Holmes
December 19
December 20
December 22
Anthony Jeselnik
December 23
December 28
December 30
Tyrese Gibson

Deaths

Date		Name		Age		class="unsortable"	Notability
January 13
February 28
March 18
April 22
May 21
June 29
July 3
September 7

References

(April 14, 1978). "Metromedia out to teach KDOG new tricks". [[Houston Chronicle]].
"The Stars Salute Israel at 30 (1978)". Barbra Archives.
(March 15, 1978). "WTVI way short of goal". [[The Charlotte News]].
(April 29, 1978). "WRET-TV joining with NBC". The Charlotte News.
(April 25, 1978). "WRET Goes All Out To Woo NBC". [[The Charlotte Observer]].
(April 29, 1978). "WRET-TV Will Tune In To NBC Network". The Charlotte Observer.
"Kimberley Locke".
Willis, Dorothy. "The New Improved Version of BJ Penn, UFC MMA Warrior".
(1978-01-14). "HUBERT H. HUMPHREY IS DEAD AT 66 AFTER 32 YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1978-in-american-television

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1978 in American television — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report