# 1969 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1969.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| January 4 | The Huntley–Brinkley Report, NBC's nightly newscast, expands to include a weekend edition that would air on Saturdays, with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley alternating weeks anchoring the news solo. Later, mediocre ratings prompt NBC to replace the duo with other newsmen, with the broadcast's Saturday editions renamed the NBC Saturday News. |
| January 13 | Dick York collapses on the set of Bewitched and is rushed to the hospital. He resigns from the show for health reasons. The character Darrin Stephens is played by Dick Sargent from then until the show's 1972 ending. |
| February 5 | ABC runs the one and only airing of the notorious flop Turn-On, which was canceled after only one episode. |
| February 19 | Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. shoots its final scene and completes its run at approximately 4:31 p.m. at the CBS Studio Center. The final scene wrapped up with Jim Nabors saying the line “How interesting - and did she?”. |
| June 3 | The science fiction television series Star Trek airs its final new episode after being canceled by NBC. Its subsequent sale into rerun syndication soon after leads to a rise in popularity that transforms Star Trek into one of the century's most successful entertainment franchises, which would later spawn sequel series for the next few decades. |
| July 20 | All three commercial television networks broadcast a live transmission from the Moon, which was viewed by 720 million people around the world, with the landing of Apollo 11; at 10:56 p.m. EDT Neil Armstrong (followed soon afterwards by Buzz Aldrin) steps onto the surface; viewers see a scan from broadcasts received at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station followed by Parkes Observatory in Australia. |
| September 8 | Starting September 8, all daytime programming on both ABC and CBS is presented in color. |
| September 26 | ABC affiliate WLTV in Bowling Green, Kentucky was knocked off the air due to the sabotaging explosion of their transmitter by a local bootlegger who did not appreciate the television exposure of his bootlegging ring. The station returned to the air with limited power on October 6. It would not return to full power until the station's new transmitter facility was activated in 1971. |
| October 18 | The Jackson 5 make their national television debut on The Hollywood Palace. |
| November 13 | Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a televised speech from Des Moines, Iowa, stirs up a national controversy by attacking the network news commentaries. |
| December 7 | The now-iconic Christmas television special, Frosty the Snowman, premieres on CBS, based on the song of the same name. The special has aired annually on the same network ever since. |

## Television programs
### Debuts

| Date | Debut | Network |
| February 7 | This Is Tom Jones | ABC |
| April 10 | Peanuts | CBS |
| April 27 | The Dudley Do-Right Show | ABC |
| June 7 | The Johnny Cash Show | ABC |
| June 15 | Hee Haw | CBS |
| September 6 | H.R. Pufnstuf | NBC |
| September 8 | Where the Heart Is | CBS |
| September 13 | The Archie Comedy Hour | CBS |
| September 13 | Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines | CBS |
| September 13 | The Perils of Penelope Pitstop | CBS |
| September 13 | Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! | CBS |
| September 17 | The Courtship of Eddie's Father | ABC |
| September 17 | Room 222 | ABC |
| September 23 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | ABC |
| September 24 | Medical Center | CBS |
| September 26 | The Brady Bunch | ABC |
| September 29 | Bright Promise | NBC |
| September 29 | Love, American Style | ABC |
| November 10 | Sesame Street | NET |

### Television films and specials

| First aired | Title | Network |
| February 9 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | CBS |
| April 11 | Fellini, a Director's Notebook | NBC |
| April 13 | Dick Van Dyke and the Other Woman | CBS |
| September 27 | It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown | CBS |
| November 12 | Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert | NBC |
| December 7 | Frosty the Snowman | CBS |
| December 12 | The Archies' Sugar Sugar Jingle Jangle Christmas Show | CBS |

### Changes of network affiliation

| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
| Get Smart | NBC | CBS |
| The Ghost & Mrs. Muir | NBC | ABC |

### Ending this year

| Date | Show | Network | Debut | Status | Notes |
| January 4 | Fantastic Voyage | ABC | September 14, 1968 | Ended |
| January 4 | The Adventures of Gulliver | ABC | September 14, 1968 | Ended |
| January 4 | The Archie Show | ABC | September 14, 1968 | Ended |
| January 4 | Wacky Races (returned in 2017) | CBS | September 14, 1968 | Canceled | Returned in 2017 on Boomerang’s video-on-demand service |
| January 9 | Blondie | CBS | September 26, 1968 | Ended |
| January 11 | Danger Island | NBC | September 7, 1968 | Ended |
| January 15 | Daktari | CBS | January 11, 1966 | Ended |
| January 30 | Journey to the Unknown | ABC | September 26, 1968 | Ended |
| January 30 | The Ugliest Girl in Town | ABC | September 26, 1968 | Ended |
| January 31 | The Felony Squad | ABC | September 12, 1966 | Ended |
| February 23 | The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | ABC | September 15, 1968 | Ended |
| March 25 | N.Y.P.D | ABC | 1967 | Ended |
| April 1 | That's Life | ABC | September 24, 1968 | Ended |
| April 13 | The Mothers-in-Law | NBC | September 10, 1967 | Ended |
| April 16 | The Outsider | ABC | September 18, 1968 | Ended |
| May 2 | Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. | CBS | September 25, 1964 | Ended |
| May 5 | The Outcasts | ABC | September 23, 1968 | Ended |
| May 19 | The Big Valley | ABC | September 15, 1965 | Ended |
| May 27 | The Jerry Lewis Show | NBC | September 12, 1967 | Ended |
| June 2 | Peyton Place | ABC | September 15, 1964 | Ended |
| June 3 | Star Trek: The Original Series | NBC | September 8, 1966 | Ended |
| June 8 | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour | CBS | February 5, 1967 | Canceled |
| June 8 | Peanuts | CBS | 1969 | Canceled | Returned in 1973 |
| August 31 | The King Kong Show | ABC | September 10, 1966 | Ended | |
| September 6 | The Lone Ranger | CBS | September 10, 1966 | Ended | |
| September 6 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | ABC | September 9, 1967 | Ended | |
| September 16 | The Guns of Will Sonnett | ABC | September 8, 1967 | |
| September 26 | Eye Guess | NBC | January 3, 1966 | Ended | |
| September 26 | Match Game | NBC | December 31, 1962 | Ended | Returned in 1973 on CBS |
| December 26 | The Joey Bishop Show | ABC | April 17, 1967 | Ended | |
| December 27 | H.R. Pufnstuf | NBC | January 6, 1968 | Ended | |

## Networks and services
### Network launches

| Network | Type | Launch date | Notes |
| West Virginia Public Broadcasting | Regional over-the-air state network | July 14 | |
| Faith Broadcasting Network | Religious television network | October 1 | Operated on a limited number of station in California |
| Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting | Regional over-the-air state network | October 5 | |
| UA-Columbia MSG | Cable | October 15 | New York City-area-based cable channel. |
| Catholic Faith Network | Regional religious cable television network | Unknown date | Possibly the earliest-known religious-formatted cable channel |

## Television stations
### Sign-ons

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| January 13 | Pikeville, Kentucky | WKPI-TV | 22 | NET | Part of the Kentucky Educational Television network as a satellite of WKLE/Lexington, Kentucky. |
| January 14 | Garden City, New York (New York City) | WLIW | 21 | NET | |
| January 25 | Monterey, California | KMST | 46 | CBS | |
| February 8 | Fayetteville, Arkansas | KGTO-TV | 36 | NBC | |
| February 23 | Morgantown, West Virginia | WNPB | 24 | NET | Later became part of the West Virginia Public Broadcasting television network |
| March 3 | Bloomington, Indiana | WTIU | 30 | NET | |
| April 14 | Eureka, California | KEET | 13 | NET | |
| June 8 | St. Louis, Missouri | KDNL-TV | 30 | Independent | now an ABC affiliate |
| July 14 | Huntington, West Virginia | WVPB-TV | 33 | NET | Part of the West Virginia Public Broadcasting television network |
| July 30 | Nacogdoches, Texas | KAEC-TV | 19 | CBS | |
| August 18 | Jacksonville, Illinois (Quincy, Illinois/Hannibal, Missouri) | WJJY-TV | 14 | ABC | |
| August 20 | Kingsport, Tennessee (Johnson City/Bristol, TN-VA) | WKPT-TV | 19 | ABC | |
| August 29 | Miles City/Billings, Montana | KYUS-TV | 3 | Independent | |
| September 8 | Covington, Kentucky (Cincinnati, Ohio) | WCVN-TV | 52 | NET | Part of Kentucky Educational Television (KET) as a satellite of WKLE/Lexington |
| October | Manchester, New Hampshire | WXPO-TV | 50 | Independent | |
| October 1 | Victoria, Texas | KXIX | 19 | ABC | Signed on as a satellite of KIII/Corpus Christi |
| October 5 | Baltimore, Maryland | WMPB | 67 | NET | Flagship of Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting |
| October 7 | Marquette, Michigan | WJMN-TV | 3 | NBC | |
| October 16 | San Bernardino/Los Angeles, California | KHOF-TV | 30 | Independent | Originally licensed in Glendale, California |
| October 20 | Hazard, Kentucky | WKYH-TV | 57 | Independent | |
| October 25 | Williston, North Dakota | KXMD-TV | 11 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| October 26 | Anniston, Alabama | WHMA-TV | 40 | CBS (primary) NBC (secondary) | |
| October 29 | Kansas City, Missouri | KCIT-TV | 50 | Independent | |
| November 19 | Elmira, New York | WENY-TV | 36 | ABC | |

### Network affiliation changes

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| January | Jamestown-Buffalo, New York | WNYP-TV | 26 | CTV (Canada) | Independent | |
| January 1 | Billings, Montana | KULR-TV | 8 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | ABC (exclusive) | Would re-join NBC in 1987 |
| January 1 | Lubbock, Texas | KCBD | 11 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | NBC (exclusive) | |
| January 1 | Lubbock, Texas | KDUB-TV | 13 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |
| January 1 | Lubbock, Texas | KSEL-TV | 28 | Independent | ABC | |
| May 12 | Sioux Falls, South Dakota | KORN-TV | 46 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | ABC (exclusive) | NBC would return to the station (as KDLT) in 1983 |
| August 18 | Hannibal, Missouri (Quincy, Illinois) | KHQA-TV | 7 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | The secondary ABC affiliation ended with the sign-on of WJJY-TV in nearby Jacksonville, Illinois. |
| August 20 | Bristol, Virginia (Bristol-Kingsport-Johnson City, Tennessee) | WCYB-TV | 5 | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | NBC (exclusive) | The secondary ABC affiliation ended with the sign-on of WKPT-TV/Kingsport. |
| August 20 | Johnson City, Tennessee (Kingsport-Bristol, TN-VA) | WJHL-TV | 11 | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | The secondary ABC affiliation ended with the sign-on of WKPT-TV/Kingsport. |
| October 9 | Marquette, Michigan | WLUC-TV | CBS (primary) ABC and NBC (secondary) | CBS (primary) ABC (secondary) | Secondary NBC affiliation was dropped with the sign-on of WJMN-TV; WLUC would trade network affiliations with WJMN to become an exclusive NBC affiliate in 1992 |
| October 25 | Williston, North Dakota | KUMV-TV | 8 | NBC (primary) ABC and CBS (secondary) | NBC (primary) ABC (secondary) | |
| Unknown date | Great Falls, Montana | KFBB-TV | 5 | ABC (primary) CBS (secondary) | ABC (primary) NBC (secondary) | |
| Unknown date | Great Falls, Montana | KRTV | 3 | NBC | CBS | |
| Unknown date | Lubbock, Texas | KSEL-TV | 28 | Independent | ABC | |
| Unknown date | Santa Barbara, California | KEYT-TV | 3 | ABC (primary) CBS (exclusive) | ABC (exclusive) | Changed occurred on the occasion of the consolidation of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo markets. |
| Unknown date | Santa Maria, California | KCOY-TV | 12 | NBC (primary) CBS (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | Changed occurred on the occasion of the consolidation of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo markets. |
| Unknown date | San Luis Obispo, California | KSBY | 6 | NBC (primary) CBS (secondary) | NBC (exclusive) | Changed occurred on the occasion of the consolidation of the Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo markets. |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes |
| May | Worcester, Massachusetts | WJZB-TV | 14 | Independent (primary) NBC (secondary) | December 4, 1953 (as WWOR-TV) | |
| August 31 | Corpus Christi, Texas | KVDO-TV | 22 | Independent | 1968 | |
| August 31 | Galveston/Houston, Texas | KVVV-TV | 16 | Independent | February 1968 | |
| September 13 | Ventura/Los Angeles, California | KKOG-TV | 16 | Independent | December 14, 1968 | |
| Unknown date | Jamestown-Buffalo, New York | WNYP-TV | 26 | Independent | 1966 | Returned to the air in 1988 as WTJA |
| Unknown date | Marion, Indiana | WTAF-TV | 31 | Independent | November 3, 1962 |