Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 3 | The USA Network was founded. |
| January 9 | The Music for UNICEF Concert is performed in New York City. The televised special airs the following night on NBC in the United States. |
| February 11 | In the US, 43 million viewers watch Elvis, a made for TV movie starring Kurt Russell as Elvis Presley, on ABC. |
| March 6 | Another World becomes the first (and, to date, the only) soap opera to air regularly scheduled ninety-minute telecasts. The time extension coincides with the death of long-running character John Randolph (played by Michael M. Ryan) in a house fire. The show goes back to 60-minute episodes in August 1980. |
| Villain Roger Thorpe (played by Michael Zaslow) rapes his wife Holly (Maureen Garrett) on Guiding Light, the first time spousal rape was shown on U.S. television. | |
| March 19 | C-SPAN, an American television channel focusing on government and public affairs, is launched. |
| April 1 | Nickelodeon, an American cable channel focusing on children's programming, is launched. |
| April 22 | Friendly Fire, a TV movie starring Carol Burnett as a mother who wants to know how her son died in Vietnam, airs on ABC. |
| April 23 | The Price is Right on CBS moves to 11:00 A.M. EST and remains in that slot to this day. |
| August 27 | WTCG was renamed into WTBS in Atlanta. |
| September 7 | ESPN begins broadcasting sports 24/7 and was the first cable TV channel to be launched as a 24-hour channel. |
| September 19 | On the two-hour TV-movie season premiere event on Eight is Enough, both David and Susan Bradford married their respective loves in a double ceremony. The premiere grabbed a 40 share across the two hours. |
| November 4 | Jaws was broadcast on television for the first time on ABC. |
| December 1 | The Movie Channel, an American premium cable channel, begins broadcasting movies 24/7. |
| General Hospital tops the yearly daytime television ratings for the first time. |
Read more about this topic: 1979 In American Television
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“By many a legendary tale of violence and wrong, as well as by events which have passed before their eyes, these people have been taught to look upon white men with abhorrence.... I can sympathize with the spirit which prompts the Typee warrior to guard all the passes to his valley with the point of his levelled spear, and, standing upon the beach, with his back turned upon his green home, to hold at bay the intruding European.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)