# 1974 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1974.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| January 31 | CBS broadcasts The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, a multi-Emmy-winning adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’ novel of the same name which follows the 110-year life of a former slave from the American Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement. Cicely Tyson is tapped to play the title role. |
| February 1 | KIVI-TV signs-on the air, giving the Boise market its first full-time ABC affiliate. |
| February 8 | After 20 years and 5,195 episodes, The Secret Storm ends its run on CBS’s daytime schedule. Ten days later, the show is replaced by Tattletales, a Bert Convy-hosted game show that is devoted to celebrity gossip. |
| March 11 | The children's special Free to Be… You and Me, produced by comedic actress Marlo Thomas, airs on ABC. |
| March 13 | The Execution of Private Slovik, a made-for-TV film telling the story of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier to be executed for desertion after the American Civil War, airs on NBC. |
| March 18 | CBS's cancellation of Here's Lucy marks the end of the television reign of Lucille Ball, which lasted 23 consecutive years beginning with the 1951 premiere of I Love Lucy. |
| March | Chuck Scarbarough joins WNBC-TV and revamps its format as NewsCenter 4, signaling the debut of the NewsCenter format. |
| April 5 | The Dean Martin Show ends its run on NBC after 264 hour-long episodes. NBC will continue to air periodic editions of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast over the next 10 years. |
| April 26 | KPVI signs-on the air, giving the Idaho Falls market its first full-time ABC affiliate. |
| July 15 | Christine Chubbuck, a television reporter for WXLT in Sarasota, Florida commits suicide via a gunshot from behind her right ear during a live newscast on Suncoast Digest. |
| August 8 | U.S. President Richard Nixon announces his pending resignation live on television, effective at 12 Noon EDT the next day, at which time Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as President. |
| August 8 | WEVU (now WZVN-TV) signs-on the air, giving the Fort Myers market its first full-time ABC affiliate. |
| August 25 | Al Ham's music theme Part of Your Life made its debut on WBTV-TV in Charlotte. |
| September 10 | Born Innocent, a controversial film starring Linda Blair, airs on NBC. The film, which involved a fourteen-year-old being sent to what the television preview deemed a women's prison (when in reality it was a reform school), drew heavy criticism due to an all-female rape scene, the first ever seen on American television. The scene was deleted in subsequent re-airings after a group of girls assaulted an eight-year-old with a pop bottle, influenced by the scene in the film. |
| October 6 | Monty Python's Flying Circus, the British sketch comedy series that aired its final episode this year, is first shown on American television when PBS member station KERA-TV in Dallas, Texas airs it at 10 p.m. Central Daylight Time. |
| November 28 | For the fourth time this year, ABC aligns with a new station as WOPC-TV in Altoona, Pennsylvania brings full-time ABC service to the Altoona-State College market. WOPC-TV struggles for viewers and goes dark in 1982; ABC would return to Altoona (and channel 23) in 1988 when Fox affiliate WWPC-TV (then a satellite of WWCP-TV in Johnstown) breaks from its simulcast with WWCP-TV. |

### Other notable events

* On the CBS soap opera Love of Life, Meg Dale (Tudi Wiggins) calls her son Ben (Christopher Reeve) a "bastard", marking the first time that a swear word is spoken on American daytime television.

## Television stations
### Sign-ons

| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| February | South Bend/Elkhart, Indiana | WNIT | 34 | PBS | |
| February 1 | Nampa/Boise, Idaho | KITC | 6 | ABC | |
| March 31 | Orlando, Florida | WOFL | 35 | Independent | |
| April 26 | Pocatello, Idaho | KPVI | 6 | ABC | |
| May 5 | Los Angeles, California | KVST-TV | 68 | Non-commercial independent | |
| July 25 | South Bend, Indiana | WMSH-TV | 46 | Independent | |
| August 8 | Naples/Fort Myers, Florida | WEVU | 26 | ABC | |
| August 11 | Booneville, Mississippi | WMAE-TV | 12 | PBS | Part of MSETV |
| September 9 | Grand Forks, North Dakota | KGFE | 2 | PBS | Part of Prairie Public Television |
| September 29 | New York City | WBTB-TV | 68 | Independent | |
| October 5 | Hagerstown, Maryland | WWPB | 31 | PBS | Part of Maryland Public Television |
| October 5 | Sacramento, California | KMUV-TV | 31 | Independent | now a CW owned-and-operated station |
| November 28 | Johnstown, Pennsylvania | WOPC | 38 | ABC | Now WATM-TV on channel 23 |
| December 1 | New Haven, Connecticut | WEDY | 65 | PBS | Part of the Connecticut Public Television network |
| December 15 | Waterloo/Cedar Rapids, Iowa | KRIN | 32 | PBS | Part of Iowa Public Television |

### Network affiliation changes

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| August 5 | Bakersfield, California | KJTV | 17 | ABC | CBS | |
| October 6 | Monroe, Louisiana | KNOE-TV | 8 | CBS (primary) NBC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |
| October 6 | West Monroe/Monroe, Louisiana | KLAA | 14 | Independent | NBC | Was temporarily off the air from 1971 to 1974 |
| Unknown date | Augusta, Georgia | WJBF-TV | 6 | ABC (primary) NBC (secondary) | ABC (exclusive) | |
| Unknown date | Augusta, Georgia | WRDW-TV | 12 | CBS (primary) NBC (secondary) | CBS (exclusive) | |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes |
| March 28 | Lebanon, New Hampshire | WRLH | 31 | NBC | September 10, 1966; had been silent from 1968 to August 3, 1971 |
| April 30 | Roanoke, Virginia | WRFT-TV | 27 | ABC | March 4, 1966 | Returned to air September 7, 1974 – February 11, 1975, as WRLU |
| Unknown date | Chicago, Illinois | WXXW | 20 | PBS | September 20, 1965 | Would return to the air in February 1983 as WYCC |

## Television shows
### Debuting this year

| Premier | Title | Network |
| January 7 | How to Survive a Marriage | NBC |
| January 7 | Jackpot! | NBC |
| January 15 | Happy Days | ABC |
| February 1 | Good Times | CBS |
| February 10 | Apple's Way | CBS |
| February 18 | Tattletales | CBS |
| March 3 | Nova | PBS |
| March 13 | The Letter People | PBS |
| May 6 | The $10,000 Pyramid | ABC |
| July 1 | High Rollers | NBC |
| July 1 | Winning Streak | NBC |
| July 4 | Bicentennial Minute | CBS |
| July 29 | Name That Tune | NBC |
| August 8 | Just for Laughs | ABC |
| September 4 | That's My Mama | CBS |
| September 7 | Run, Joe, Run | NBC |
| September 7 | Land of the Lost | NBC |
| September 7 | Valley of the Dinosaurs | CBS |
| September 7 | Shazam! | CBS |
| September 7 | Hong Kong Phooey | ABC |
| September 9 | Rhoda | CBS |
| September 9 | Dinah! | Syndication |
| September 9 | The $25,000 Pyramid | Syndication |
| September 11 | Little House on the Prairie | NBC |
| September 12 | Harry O | ABC |
| September 12 | Paper Moon | ABC |
| September 13 | Chico and the Man | NBC |
| September 13 | The Rockford Files | NBC |
| September 13 | Police Woman | NBC |
| September 13 | The Texas Wheelers | ABC |
| September 13 | Kolchak: The Night Stalker | ABC |
| September 13 | Planet of the Apes | CBS |
| September 14 | The New Land | ABC |
| September 14 | Paul Sand in Friends and Lovers | CBS |
| September 21 | Nakia | ABC |
| December 23 | The Big Showdown | ABC |
| December 23 | Money Maze | ABC |

### Ending this year

* January 11
** Love, American Style (1969–74)
** Room 222 (1969-1974)
* February 8 - The Secret Storm (1954–74)
* March 8 -- The Brady Bunch (1969–74)
* March 11 - The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971–74)
* March 15 - Lotsa Luck (1973–74)
* March 18 - Here's Lucy (1968–74)
* March 23 - The Partridge Family (1970–74)
* March 24 - The Dean Martin Show (1965–74)
* May 29 - The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1971–74)
* June 27 - The Flip Wilson Show (1970–74)
* June 28 - The Wizard of Odds (1973–74)
* August 29
** Just for Laughs (1974)
** Temperatures Rising (1972–74)
* August 31 - Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970–74)
* September 8 - The F.B.I. (1965–74)
* October 4 - The Texas Wheelers (1974)
* October 12 - Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74)
* October 19 - The New Land (1974)
* December 19 - Paper Moon (1974)
* December 20
** Planet of the Apes (1974)
** The Newlywed Game (1966–74)
* December 21
** Hong Kong Phooey (1974)
** Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974)
* December 28 - Nakia (1974)