# 1988 in American television

The year 1988 in television involved some significant events. This is a list of notable events in the United States.

## Events

| Date | Event |
| January 1 | The season finale of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series airs in syndication with "Shredder & Splintered". The series will return for a second season in fall. |
| January 1 | Australia Live, a 4-hour TV special about Australia's Bicentennial, airs on A&E. |
| January 1 | NBC broadcasts the Rose Bowl Game for the final time, ending a 37-year partnership. ABC Sports picked up rights to broadcast the game the following year. |
| January 3 | WFYF in Watertown, New York begins broadcasting, giving the Watertown market its first full-time ABC affiliate. |
| January 4 | Nick Jr. begins as a block of Nickelodeon programming for younger children. |
| January 4 | Blackout, hosted by Bob Goen, premieres on CBS. The game show runs for only thirteen weeks, after which The $25,000 Pyramid, the show it replaced, returns to the air on April 4 while CBS develops a revival of Family Feud. |
| January 8 | The ABC sitcom I Married Dora had low ratings and was canceled halfway into its only season. The final episode ended with a scene, known as "breaking the fourth wall," that ranked number 49 on TV Land's list of The 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments. The cameras pulled back to show the entire stage as the cast and crew waved goodbye and performed curtain calls. |
| January 16 | Due to comments he made about breeding practices during slavery leading to blacks becoming superior athletes, CBS fires Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder, who had been a regular on NFL Today since 1976. |
| January 22 | KYMA in Yuma, Arizona signs-on the air, returning ABC programming to the Yuma market for the first time since KECY-TV dropped its affiliation to rejoin CBS in 1985. |
| January 24 | The inaugural Royal Rumble event airs live on the USA Network. The main event saw The Islanders defeat The Young Stallions in a 2 out of 3 falls match. The titular match was won by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. |
| January 25 | During that night's edition of the CBS Evening News; anchor Dan Rather enters a nearly 10-minute confrontation with Vice President George H. W. Bush over what Bush knew about the Iran-Contra scandal. |
| January 29 | The Peanuts musical television special Snoopy! The Musical, based on the musical comedy of the same name, premiered on CBS. |
| January 31 | The pilot for The Wonder Years airs following ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII. |
| February 5 | Wrestlers Hulk Hogan and André the Giant compete on The Main Event on NBC, marking the return of professional wrestling to network prime-time for the first time since 1955. |
| February 6 | UK animated television series for children Count Duckula (a spinoff of Danger Mouse) begins on Nickelodeon prior to airing in its homeland which will start on September 6 of the same year. |
| February 6 | The writers of The Facts of Life create a controversial storyline in which Natalie (Mindy Cohn) becomes the first of the girls to lose her virginity. Lisa Whelchel (Blair) refused this particular storyline that would have made her character, not Natalie, the first among the four young women in the show to lose her virginity. Having become a Christian when she was 10, Whelchel refused because of her religious convictions. Whelchel appeared in every episode but asked to be written out of "The First Time". The episode ran a parental advisory before starting and placed 22nd in the ratings for the week. |
| February 13 | ABC broadcasts the Opening Ceremonies for the Winter Olympic Games from Calgary. This is ABC's tenth and final Olympic Games that they would broadcast to date. |
| February 21 | Televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, involved with a sex scandal, admits to being with prostitutes and temporarily ends his television ministry. |
| February 22 | The Nickelodeon game show Double Dare begins its third season, airing simultaneously on Nickelodeon and Fox affiliates. Besides the presence of a new network, another big change was the stage left team now wearing blue (the stage right team would continue to wear red) so viewers and crew members could tell the teams apart more easily. Previously, both teams wore red. |
| February 23 | Future Grammy Award-winning recording artist Lauryn Hill (The Fugees frontwoman) makes her television debut on Showtime at the Apollo as a contestant of Amateur Night, where the 13-year-old Hill performed "Who's Lovin' You" by Motown Records singer Smokey Robinson, and gets booed by the audience. |
| February 25 | Totally Minnie, a 45-minute live-action/animated special, premiers on NBC. This marks the first time Russi Taylor voiced Minnie Mouse. |
| February 26 | Tom Hardy marries Simone Ravelle on the ABC soap opera General Hospital, the first interracial wedding on American daytime television. |
| March 2 | Michael Jackson performs a live, extended version of the song "Man in the Mirror" at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards on CBS, having Siedah Garrett, the Winans, and the Andraé Crouch choir perform with him. |
| March 18 | In what would turn out to be her final television appearance, Gilda Radner guest stars on Showtime's It's Garry Shandling's Show. |
| March 19 | "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" experiences a surge of popularity caused by television commercials featuring claymation raisin figures. The California Raisins' version of the song peaks at No. 84 on the Billboard Hot 100. |
| March 20 | Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, the fifth installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in syndication. |
| March 27 | The first edition of Clash of the Champions airs on TBS opposite WrestleMania IV on pay-per-view. The main event would be Ric Flair and Sting wrestling to a time limit draw. |
| April 3 | In Jacksonville, Florida, NBC affiliate WJKS (now CW affiliate WCWJ) and ABC affiliate WTLV swap affiliations, reversing a swap that took place in 1980. NBC will later dub this swap one of its most successful affiliation switches ever. |
| April 4 | James Brown appears on CNN after allegedly assaulting his wife with a lead pipe and shooting at her car. During the interview with Sonya Friedman, Brown shouted song titles of his own songs instead of answering questions. |
| April 8 | Ana Alicia's character, Melissa Agretti, dies in a house fire on the CBS drama Falcon Crest. |
| April 11 | WYED-TV, an independent station, serving both Goldsboro, Raleigh, Durham and Fayetteville launches. |
| April 11 | Fox affiliate WVAH-TV moves to channel 11, one of the last remaining channel allocations in the U.S., from UHF channel 23. |
| April 13 | Geraldo Rivera's live special Murder: Live from Death Row is broadcast in syndication; a highlight is Rivera's pre-taped interview with Charles Manson. |
| April 18 | The Disney Channel celebrates its fifth anniversary. |
| April 18 | Nickelodeon debuts the first Kids Choice Awards ceremony. |
| April 25 | Lieutenant Tasha Yar is killed off in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation after actress Denise Crosby asked to be released from her contract. |
| May 1 | Magnum, P.I. broadcasts its 2-hour series finale on CBS. |
| May 6 | The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, the sixth installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in syndication as part of the 30th anniversary of the character Huckleberry Hound. This film marks the final time Daws Butler voiced Huck, Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, Snagglepuss, Hokey Wolf, and Peter Potamus, as he died two and a half weeks after its telecast from a heart attack. |
| May 7 | The series finale of The Facts of Life airs on NBC. In the two-part episode, Blair buys Eastland to prevent its closing. Blair finds that the school is in such dire financial straits that she is forced to make the school co-ed. Blair then essentially adopts the Mrs. Garrett role as she presides over the school and is forced to deal with the trouble-making students in a plot line that is highly reminiscent of the season two premiere. The new Eastland students included Seth Green, Mayim Bialik, future Oscar-nominee Juliette Lewis, and Meredith Scott Lynn. |
| May 13 | In the season finale of the CBS drama Dallas, character J.R. Ewing pushes over the railing of his high-rise office building the character Nicholas Pierce, and Sue Ellen is so enraged that she fires three shots at Ewing. |
| May 15 | Beverly Hills Cop makes its broadcast network television debut on ABC. |
| May 18 | The Late Show on Fox hosts a reunion of the entire cast of Gilligan's Island. This would prove to be the last time that all of the regular cast members appeared together as Jim Backus, who was suffering from Parkinson's disease at the time, died the following year. |
| May 18–26 | The Stanley Cup Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins is broadcast on ESPN. This was the final year under ESPN national three-year deal with the National Hockey League. Under the U.S. TV contracts that would take effect beginning next season, SportsChannel America would take over as the NHL's American television partner. ESPN's coverage of the 1988 Cup Finals is blacked out locally in the Boston area due to WSBK and NESN's local rights to Bruins games. |
| May 22 | NBC broadcasts The Incredible Hulk Returns, a continuation of the TV series that aired on CBS from 1978 to 1982. The film also serves as a backdoor pilot for a potential series centering on the Marvel Comics superhero Thor. |
| May 24 | CBS wins the broadcasting rights to the 1992 Winter Olympics after bidding around $243 million. |
| May 28 | The series finale of NBC's St. Elsewhere reveals that the entire series was the product of an autistic boy's imagination. |
| May 30 | After rejecting an offer to join CBS News, Peter Mansbridge replaces Knowlton Nash as anchorman of CBC Television's series The National. |
| June 4 | The Universal Pictures Debut Network broadcasts a special edition of the 1984 film Dune as a two-night event, with additional footage not included in the film's original release. This version totalled at 186 minutes, including a "What happened last night" recap and second credit roll. Director David Lynch disavowed this version and had his name removed from the credits, Alan Smithee being credited instead. |
| June 14 | The CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless tops the daytime ratings (deposing longtime winner General Hospital). |
| June 21 | Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Detroit Pistons airs on CBS. With a 21.2 rating / 37 share, it would prove to be the highest-rated NBA game in the 17 years that CBS broadcast the NBA (1973-1990). It's also the only NBA game that scored more than 20 ratings points for the network. |
| July 4 | Three years after its cancellation by ABC, CBS resurrects Family Feud for its daytime lineup, featuring new host Ray Combs. A syndicated nighttime version would premiere later in the autumn. |
| July 11 | The day before the Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Cincinnati, TBS televised the annual All-Star Gala from the Cincinnati Zoo. Larry King hosted the broadcast with Craig Sager and Pete Van Wieren handling interviews. The broadcast's big draw would've been the Home Run Derby, which TBS intended on taping during the afternoon, and later airing it in prime time during the Gala coverage. The Gala coverage also had some canned features such as highlights from previous All-Star Games, a segment on Cincinnati's baseball history, a video recap of the season's first half and, a slow-motion highlight montage set to "This Is the Time" by Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung. Unfortunately, the derby and a skills competition were canceled due to rain. As a result, TBS scrambled to try to fill nearly an hour of now-open airtime. For example, the Gatlin Brothers, the event's musical guests, who had already played a full concert, were asked to come back out and play some more. |
| July 12 | The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is broadcast on ABC. This would be the last time that ABC would televise the Midsummer's Classic until the 1995 game from Arlington, Texas. |
| July 14 | The first ever edition of "Shark Week" airs on Discovery Channel. |
| August 1 | The word "Family" is incorporated into the CBN Cable Network's name to better reflect its programming format, rebranding as The CBN Family Channel; shortly after the new name was adopted, however, references to CBN within its name began to be excised in on-air continuity announcements and print promotions for its programs (with the exception of the initialized reference to its parent ministry featured within its logo), referring to it as simply "The Family Channel". |
| August 9 | As a special prime time edition of the Game of the Week, NBC broadcasts the first official night game at Chicago's Wrigley Field between the Cubs and New York Mets. |
| August 27 | Fox affiliate WWPC-TV in Altoona, Pennsylvania (a satellite of WWCP-TV in Johnstown) breaks from its simulcast with WWCP-TV to become an ABC affiliate, returning ABC to Altoona/State College (and giving Johnstown its first full-time ABC affiliate) after Altoona/State College's previous ABC affiliate WOPC-TV went dark in 1982. |
| August 29 | Some of the stations in markets WAXA in Greenville, South Carolina, WTOG in Tampa Bay, Florida, KMSP in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and KPTV in Portland, Oregon left Fox due to disappointments with the weak network's offerings. The replacement affiliates were WHNS in Greenville, South Carolina, WFTS in Tampa Bay, Florida, WFTC in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and KPDX in Portland, Oregon. |
| August 29 | The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) telecasts the inaugural SummerSlam event on pay-per-view. |
| September 2 | Dick Clark hosts his final episode of the game show Pyramid, ending his 15-year run as host of the program. Clark would make guest appearances on both the 1991 revival hosted by John Davidson and the 2002 revival hosted by Donny Osmond. |
| September 5 | WABC's The Morning Show makes its national syndication debut under its new title Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. |
| September 10 | In Knoxville, Tennessee, CBS affiliate WBIR-TV swaps affiliations with NBC affiliate WTVK in time for NBC Sports' coverage of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. Shortly after the switch, WTVK moves to channel 8, one of the last remaining VHF channel allocations in the U.S., and becomes WKXT-TV (now WVLT-TV). |
| September 18 | Rockin' with Judy Jetson, the seventh installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series, is broadcast in syndication. This film marks the final time Daws Butler voiced Elroy Jetson, as it was telecast posthumously. |
| September 25 | George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis participate in the first of the 1988 presidential debates. |
| October 3 | TNT, the fourth cable network owned by Turner Broadcasting, commences programming with a broadcast of the movie Gone with the Wind. |
| October 3 | The Bonus Round in Wheel of Fortune now adopts a Three-and-a-vowel format, which was used till this day, with letters "R", "S", "T", "L", "N" and "E" provided immediately, and the time limit was reduced from 15 seconds to 10. |
| October 4 | As did Cher, actress Shirley MacLaine calls David Letterman an "asshole" during a taping of the NBC talk show Late Night. |
| October 4 | As part of a television special hosted by Patrick Stewart, called The Star Trek Saga: From One Generation to the Next, the first pilot episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, called "The Cage" is broadcast in its entirety for the first time. In some markets, the airing of this special was delayed until October 15, 1988. Prior to this, footage of "The Cage" was incorporated into the Season 1 two-parter episode "The Menagerie". |
| October 4 | ABC under the guidance of new executive producer Geoffrey Mason, debuts fatter and wider graphics that gave off a cleaner, sharper look complete with a black border for their Major League Baseball coverage. ABC also debuts a new energetic, symphonic-pop styled musical theme, composed by Kurt Bestor, which would become an all-compassing theme of sorts for ABC Sports during this time period. |
| October 5 | Senators Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen participate in the 1988 vice presidential debate with the line "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" becoming popular. |
| October 5 | Game 2 of the National League Championship Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets is broadcast on ABC. The scheduled start time is approximately 10 p.m. Eastern Time. This is due to ABC's prior commitment to broadcasting the vice presidential debate between Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen. This is the latest ever scheduled start for a League Championship Series baseball game. |
| October 8 | A young Countess Vaughn (winner of Star Search) joins the cast of the NBC comedy 227 as Alexandria DeWitt, a young 11-year-old talented college student, whom the Jenkins' have as a houseguest for a year. |
| October 11 | Turner Broadcasting purchases Jim Crockett Promotions and subsequently rebrands it as World Championship Wrestling. The sale would be completed on November 2, 1988. Three days later, on NWA World Championship Wrestling, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair cut a promo and pointed out a large group of Turner executives in the crowd. This was a subtle nod to Ted Turner purchasing Jim Crockett Promotions. |
| October 13 | Bernard Shaw of CNN asks Michael Dukakis during the second presidential debate a question about his wife and the death penalty that garners controversy. |
| October 15 | Kirk Gibson hits his now iconic walk-off home run off of Dennis Eckersley in Game 1 of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Oakland Athletics. Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola are in the broadcast booth for NBC Sports. During the same game at the second inning, NBC affiliate WMGT-TV in Macon, Georgia is hijacked for 10 seconds replacing parts of the second inning with an adult movie. The technician was later fired, and Production Manager L. A. Sturdivant reported to The Atlanta Constitution at the incident was an accident. |
| October 15 | CBS airs a highly anticipated college football game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Miami Hurricanes, colloquially known as "Catholics vs. Convicts". |
| October 16 | Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, the eighth installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in syndication. It is also part of the Scooby-Doo animated film series. |
| October 18 | The pilot episode for Roseanne is broadcast on ABC. |
| October 21 | Lori Loughlin makes her first appearance as Rebecca Donaldson on ABC's Full House. |
| October 27 | The last of Harding Lemay's "comeback" episodes are broadcast on the NBC soap opera Another World. In the final minutes of the episode, Australian actress Carmen Duncan assumed the role of the legendary bitch Iris Cory Wheeler, after the role had been vacated for many years by Beverlee McKinsey. |
| November 3 | Talk show host Geraldo Rivera's nose is broken during a taping of his show when a fight begins on the set between guests. The theme of the episode was "Young Hate Mongers," and the fight originated between white supremacist Tom Metzger and liberal activist Roy Innis. |
| November 3 | Australian-made 1986 cartoon television movie of King Solomon's Mines by Warwick Gilbert debuts on American television after multiple weeks of promotion and is one of the most-watched children's television shows of the year. |
| November 10 | Milwaukee television station WDJT-TV goes on the air. |
| November 12 | Australian-made 1986 cartoon television movie of King Solomon's Mines by Warwick Gilbert airs for a second time and is the most watched program for children for the second Saturday in a row. |
| November 13 | Mickey's 60th Birthday, which as the title suggests, was a television special produced for the 60th anniversary of the Mickey Mouse character, airs on NBC. |
| November 13 | Back to the Future makes its broadcast network television premiere on NBC. |
| November 13 | Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, the ninth installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 telefilm series, is broadcast in syndication. It is also part of the Scooby-Doo animated film series. This is also the last Scooby-Doo production to feature Scrappy-Doo (who debuted as a character in 1979's Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo) as a main protagonist. |
| November 20 | Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears, the tenth and final installment of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series, is broadcast in syndication. This film marks the final time Daws Butler voiced Yogi Bear, as it was telecast posthumously. |
| November 21 | CBS broadcasts Inside the Sexes, a documentary produced by The Body Human's Alfred R. Kelman that features explicit content about human sexuality (including detailed visuals inside human reproductive organs), which prompts several CBS affiliates to broadcast the program with a parental warning at the beginning of the program, at a later time of the day. Some affiliates canceled their broadcast of the program. |
| November 24 | Mystery Science Theater 3000 airs for the first time on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. |
| December 2 | NBC wins the rights to broadcast the 1992 Summer Olympics from Barcelona, Spain, bidding over $401 million. |
| December 8 | Tichina Arnold (later of Martin and Everybody Hates Chris fame) joins the cast of the ABC soap opera Ryan's Hope for what will prove to be its final season. |
| December 11 | Roots: The Gift, the third installment of the Roots series is broadcast on ABC. |
| December 13 | The American Wrestling Association airs its first and only pay-per-view card, SuperClash III. |
| December 14 | CBS pays Major League Baseball approximately US$1.8 billion for exclusive over-the-air television rights for over four years (beginning in 1990). CBS paid about $265 million each year for the World Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the Saturday Game of the Week. CBS replaces ABC (which had broadcast Monday and later Thursday night baseball games from 1976 to 1989) and NBC (which had broadcast Major League Baseball in some shape or form since 1947 and the Game of the Week exclusively since 1966) as the national broadcast network television home of Major League Baseball. It was one of the largest agreements (to date) between the sport of baseball and the business of broadcasting. The cost of the deal between CBS and Major League Baseball was about 25% more than in the previous television contract with ABC and NBC. The deal with CBS was also intended to pay each team (26 in 1990 and then, 28 by 1993) $10 million a year. |
| December 18 | A Very Brady Christmas airs on CBS and with a 25.1 rating and a 39 share, becomes the second highest rated television film of the year. Its success would soon lead to the creation of a new Brady Bunch series called The Bradys, which only lasts for six episodes. |
| December 26 | CBS' The Young and the Restless becomes the number 1 daytime drama on television, where it remains to this very day. |

## Programs
### Debuting this year

The following is a list of shows that premiered in 1988.
| Date | Title | Network |
| January 2 | High Mountain Rangers | CBS |
| January 4 | Blackout | CBS |
| January 4 | The World of David the Gnome | Nick Jr. |
| January 11 | T. and T. | Syndication |
| January 15 | The Thorns | ABC |
| January 17 | The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | The Disney Channel and ABC |
| January 18 | Home | ABC |
| January 19 | 48 Hours | CBS |
| January 31 | The Wonder Years | ABC |
| February 6 | Count Duckula | Nickelodeon |
| February 7 | America's Most Wanted | Fox |
| February 29 | Day by Day | NBC |
| March 6 | In the Heat of the Night | NBC |
| March 6 | Supercarrier | ABC |
| March 7 | Probe | ABC |
| March 9 | Aaron's Way | NBC |
| March 14 | Eisenhower and Lutz | CBS |
| March 15 | Coming of Age | CBS |
| March 15 | Trial and Error | CBS |
| March 23 | HeartBeat | ABC |
| April 1 | Denver, the Last Dinosaur | Syndication |
| April 6 | Just in Time | ABC |
| April 26 | China Beach | ABC |
| April 26 | Just the Ten of Us | ABC |
| May 8 | Something Is Out There | NBC |
| June 13 | Blue Skies | CBS |
| July 1 | Don't Just Sit There | Nickelodeon |
| August 6 | Yo! MTV Raps | MTV |
| August 22 | Later with Bob Costas | NBC |
| August 27 | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | Disney Channel |
| September 3 | Kids' Court | Nickelodeon |
| September 5 | Fun House | Syndication |
| September 5 | Relatively Speaking | Syndication |
| September 10 | A Pup Named Scooby-Doo | ABC |
| September 10 | The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil | ABC |
| September 10 | ALF Tales | NBC |
| September 10 | Baby Boom | NBC |
| September 10 | The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley | NBC |
| September 10 | Beyond Tomorrow | Fox |
| September 10 | Police Academy | Syndication |
| September 12 | Sweethearts | Syndication |
| September 12 | USA Today: The Television Series | Syndication |
| September 12 | Wipeout | Syndication |
| September 17 | Rin Tin Tin: K-9 Cop | CBN Family Channel |
| September 17 | Garfield and Friends | CBS |
| September 17 | Hey Vern, It's Ernest! | CBS |
| September 17 | Superman | CBS |
| September 17 | Fantastic Max | Syndication |
| September 19 | C.O.P.S. | Syndication |
| October 1 | Monsters | Syndication |
| October 2 | Marvel Action Universe | Syndication |
| October 4 | The American Experience | PBS |
| October 4 | High Risk | CBS |
| October 6 | Dear John | NBC |
| October 8 | Empty Nest | NBC |
| October 8 | Freddy's Nightmares | Syndication |
| October 8 | The Munsters Today | Syndication |
| October 8 | Superboy | Syndication |
| October 10 | War of the Worlds | Syndication |
| October 15 | Capital Gang | CNN |
| October 18 | Roseanne | ABC |
| October 23 | Mission: Impossible | ABC |
| October 25 | Midnight Caller | NBC |
| October 26 | Tattingers | NBC |
| October 26 | Annie McGuire | CBS |
| October 26 | The Van Dyke Show | CBS |
| October 27 | Paradise | CBS |
| October 29 | Dirty Dancing | CBS |
| November 2 | Murphy's Law | ABC |
| November 5 | Raising Miranda | CBS |
| November 11 | Knightwatch | ABC |
| November 14 | Murphy Brown | CBS |
| November 24 | Mystery Science Theater 3000 | KTMA-TV |
| November 27 | Almost Grown | CBS |
| November 29 | TV 101 | CBS |
| November 30 | Good Morning, Miss Bliss | Disney Channel |

### Resuming this year

| Title | Final aired | Previous network | Returning network | Date of return |
| Family Feud | 1985 | ABC | CBS | July 4 |
| The Gong Show | 1980 | Syndication | Same | September 12 |
| Gumby | 1968 | NBC | Syndication | Fall 1988 |

### Changing networks

| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
| Family Feud | ABC | CBS |
| The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Disney Channel | ABC |
| Double Dare | Nickelodeon | Fox/Syndication |
| Finders Keepers | Nickelodeon | First-run syndication |
| Snorks | NBC | USA Network / First-run syndication |
| Heathcliff | Syndication | Nickelodeon |

### Entering syndication

A list of programs (current or canceled) that have accumulated enough episodes (between 65 and 100) or seasons (3 or more) to be eligible for off-network syndication and/or basic cable runs.
| Show | Seasons |
| The Cosby Show | 4 |
| Kate & Allie | 4 |
| Night Court | 4 |

### Ending this year

| Date | Title | Debut |
| January 2 | Sable | 1987 |
| January 8 | I Married Dora | 1987 |
| January 15 | Rags to Riches | 1987 |
| February 10 | The Law & Harry McGraw | 1987 |
| February 11 | The Charmings | 1987 |
| February 12 | Sledge Hammer! | 1986 |
| February 13 | Mr. President | 1987 |
| February 20 | Women in Prison | 1987 |
| March 8 | I'm Telling! | 1987 |
| March 22 | Frank's Place | 1987 |
| March 25 | Lingo (returned in 2002) | 1987 |
| March 26 | 9 to 5 | 1982 |
| March 26 | Dennis the Menace | 1986 |
| March 26 | What's Happening Now!! | 1985 |
| March 28 | Yogi's Treasure Hunt | 1985 |
| March 29 | Trial and Error | 1988 |
| March 30 | We Got It Made | 1983 |
| April 1 | Blackout | 1988 |
| April 9 | High Mountain Rangers | 1988 |
| April 12 | My Sister Sam | 1986 |
| April 14 | Probe | 1988 |
| April 22 | Beverly Hills Buntz | 1987 |
| May 1 | Magnum, P.I. (original series) (Rebooted in 2018) | 1980 |
| May 1 | Truth or Consequences | 1950 |
| May 2 | Jem | 1985 |
| May 3 | Hotel | 1983 |
| May 7 | The Facts of Life | 1979 |
| May 7 | Spenser: For Hire | 1985 |
| May 7 | Ohara | 1987 |
| May 6 | The Highwayman | 1987 |
| May 8 | Our House | 1986 |
| May 10 | Crime Story | 1986 |
| May 10 | Dolly | 1987 |
| May 12 | Max Headroom | 1987 |
| May 14 | Second Chance (aka Boys Will Be Boys) | 1987 |
| May 16 | Cagney and Lacey | 1982 |
| May 25 | St. Elsewhere | 1982 |
| May 25 | Aaron's Way | 1988 |
| May 27 | Punky Brewster (returned in 2021) | 1984 |
| May 28 | Marblehead Manor | 1987 |
| June 8 | The Slap Maxwell Story | 1987 |
| June 10 | Houston Knights | 1987 |
| June 20 | Eisenhower and Lutz | 1988 |
| June 28 | J.J. Starbuck | 1987 |
| June 29 | The Bronx Zoo | 1987 |
| July 16 | Little Clowns of Happytown | 1987 |
| July 23 | Solid Gold | 1980 |
| July 24 | Tales from the Darkside | 1984 |
| August 21 | Werewolf | 1987 |
| September 2 | Pyramid (returned in 1991) | 1973 |
| September 3 | Dennis the Menace | 1986 |
| September 3 | The Flintstone Kids | 1986 |
| September 9 | High Rollers | 1974 |
| October 22 | Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures | 1987 |
| October 28 | The Late Show | 1986 |
| November 18 | 3-2-1 Contact | 1980 |
| November 22 | Denver, the Last Dinosaur | 1988 |
| December 3 | The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley | 1988 |
| December 7 | The Van Dyke Show | 1988 |
| December 9 | Something Is Out There | 1988 |
| December 17 | Superman | 1988 |
| December 24 | Hey Vern, It's Ernest! | 1988 |
| December 25 | The Care Bears | 1985 |
| December 28 | Annie McGuire | 1988 |
| December 31 | Raising Miranda | 1988 |

### Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

| Title | Network | Premiere date | Notes |
| The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank | CBS | April 17 | |
| Case Closed | CBS | April 9 | |
| David | ABC | October 28 | |
| Goddess of Love | NBC | November 20 | |
| Inherit the Wind | NBC | March 20 | Emmy Award winner |
| Internal Affairs | CBS | November 6 | |
| Jack the Ripper | CBS | October 21 | |
| Lincoln | NBC | March 27 | Miniseries, based on Gore Vidal's novel |
| The Murder of Mary Phagan | NBC | January 24 | Emmy Award winner |
| The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story | NBC | May 2 | |
| War and Remembrance | ABC | November 13 | Miniseries; sequel to The Winds of War |

## Networks and services
### Launches

| Network | Type | Launch date |
| Channel America | Cable and satellite | Unknown |
| The Prayer Channel | Cable television | Unknown |
| Vision Interfaith Satellite Network | Cable television | July 1 |
| Turner Network Television | Cable television | October 3 |

### Conversions and rebrandings

| Old network name | New network name | Type | Conversion Date | Notes | Source |
| CBN Cable Network | CBN Family Channel | Cable television | August 1 | | |

### Closures

| Network | Type | Closure date | Notes | Source |
| Festival | Cable television | December 31 | | |
| Harmony Premiere Network | Cable television | Unknown | | |

## Television stations
### Station launches

| Date | Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
| January | Owensboro, Kentucky | WROZ-TV | 61 | Independent |
| January 1 | Murray/Paducah, Kentucky | W46BE | 46 | Independent |
| January 1 | Tequesta/West Palm Beach, Florida | WPBF | 25 | ABC |
| January 1 | Utica, New York | W11BS | 11 | Independent |
| January 4 | New York City | W57BC | 57 | Independent | LPTV translator of WLIG |
| January 6 | Burlington, Iowa (Quad Cities, Illinois-Iowa) | KJMH | 26 | Fox |
| January 11 | Lebanon/Nashville, Tennessee | WJFB | 66 | Independent |
| January 15 | Fort Smith, Arkansas | K46BZ | 46 | Fox |
| January 22 | Yuma, Arizona (El Centro, California) | KYMA-DT | 11 | ABC |
| January 27 | Tuscaloosa/Birmingham, Alabama | W52AI | 52 | TBN |
| January 29 | Indianapolis, Indiana | W11BV | 11 | Independent |
| February 1 | Cedar Rapids, Iowa | KOCR-TV | 28 | Fox Broadcasting Company |
| February 8 | Honolulu, Hawaii | KFVE | 9 | Independent |
| February 8 | Jamestown/Valley City, North Dakota | KJRR | 7 | Fox |
| February 8 | Orlando, Florida | WCEU | 15 | PBS |
| February 13 | Kansas City, Missouri | KMCI-TV | 38 | HSN |
| February 22 | Kingman, Arizona | KMOH-TV | 6 | Independent |
| March | Heiskell/Knoxville, Tennessee | W12BU | 12 | Independent | |
| March 1 | Brainerd, Minnesota | KAWB | 22 | PBS |
| March 7 | Greensboro, North Carolina | W14AU | 14 | Independent |
| March 11 | Charlotte, North Carolina | W53AO | 53 | Independent |
| March 13 | Waco, Texas | KXXV | 25 | NBC |
| March 28 | Indianapolis, Indiana | W27AR | 27 | Independent |
| April 3 | Wichita, Kansas | KAAS-TV | 17 | Fox |
| April 11 | Raleigh, North Carolina | WYED | 17 | Independent |
| April 29 | Arecibo, Puerto Rico | WATX-TV | 54 | Religious ind. |
| May | Steamboat Springs, Colorado | KSBS-TV | 10 | Telemundo |
| May 18 | Houston, Texas | KUYA | 22 | TBN |
| May 20 | Panama City, Florida | WPGX | 28 | Fox |
| May 25 | Washington, D.C. | W14AA | 14 | Univision |
| June 1 | Kenosha/Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WHKE | | Religious ind. |
| June 8 | Indianapolis, Indiana | WBUU | 69 | Educational ind. |
| July 22 | Panama City, Florida | WFSG-TV | 56 | PBS |
| July 22 | South Bend, Indiana | W12BK | 12 | Independent | LPTV translator of WCIU-TV |
| August 19 | Phoenix, Arizona | K69HJ | 69 | Independent |
| August 20 | Denver, Colorado | KWBI-TV | 41 | Religious ind. | |
| August 29 | Amarillo, Texas | KACV-TV | 2 | PBS | |
| September 1 | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas | KFWD | 52 | Telemundo |
| September 1 | Denton, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas) | KDTN | 2 | PBS |
| September 24 | Buffalo, New York | WTJA-TV | 26 | Independent |
| October 3 | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | KSBI | 52 | Independent |
| October 15 | Lexington, Kentucky | WLKT-TV | 62 | Independent |
| October 18 | Odessa/Midland, Texas | KMLM-TV | 42 | Gods Learning Channel |
| November 1 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | WDJT-TV | | Independent |
| November 28 | Rapid City, South Dakota | K15AC | 15 | CBS |
| December | Orlando, Florida | WKCF | 18 | Independent |
| December | Washington, D.C. | W42AJ | 43 | Telemundo |
| December 1 | Denver, Colorado | KTVD | 20 | Independent |
| December 1 | Pine Bluff/Little Rock, Arkansas | KVTN-TV | 25 | Religious ind. |
| December 9 | Brooklyn/New York City, New York | W54AY | 54 | unknown | |
| December 17 | Riverside, California (Los Angeles) | KSLD | 62 | Asian independent |
| December 23 | Cheyenne, Wyoming | KLWY | 27 | Fox |
| December 27 | Bloomington, Indiana | WIIB | 63 | HSN |
| December 30 | Williamsport, Pennsylvania (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) | WDZA | 53 | Fox |
| December 31 | Lebanon, Kentucky | K06AY | 6 | Independent | |
| Unknown date | Buffalo, New York | W58AV | 58 | Channel America | |
| Unknown date | Key West, Florida | WETV | 13 | Educational independent | |
| Unknown date | Kona, Hawaii | KSHQ | 6 | Independent |
| Unknown date | Manchester, New Hampshire | W13BG | 13 | FamilyNet | |
| Unknown date | Morehead City, North Carolina | WFXI | 8 | Fox |
| Unknown date | Springfield, Massachusetts | W42AU | 42 | TBN |
| Unknown date | Tampa, Florida | WBHS | 62 | Home Shopping Network |
| Unknown date | West Palm Beach, Florida | W19AQ | 19 | Independent |
| Unknown date | Wichita Falls, Texas | K35BO | 35 | Independent |

### Stations changing network affiliation

| Market | Date | Station | Channel | Prior affiliation | New affiliation |
| Columbia, South Carolina | June 11 | WACH | 57 | Independent | Fox |
| Concord, New Hampshire | February 1 | WNHT | 21 | Independent | CBS |
| Davenport, Iowa | January 6 | KLJB-TV | 18 | Fox | Independent |
| Erie, Pennsylvania | May 23 | WETG | 66 | Independent | Fox |
| Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (Anderson, South Carolina) | August 29 | WHNS | 21 | Independent | Fox |
| Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina (Anderson, South Carolina) | August 29 | WAXA | 40 | Fox | Independent |
| Jacksonville, Florida | April 3 | WTLV | 12 | ABC | NBC |
| Jacksonville, Florida | April 3 | WJKS-TV | 17 | NBC | ABC |
| Johnstown/Altoona, Pennsylvania | August 27 | WATM-TV | 23 | Fox | ABC |
| Omaha, Nebraska | August 28 | KPTM | 42 | Independent | Fox |
| Knoxville, Tennessee | September 10 | WBIR-TV | 10 | CBS | NBC |
| Knoxville, Tennessee | September 10 | WTVK | 26 | NBC | CBS |
| Laredo, Texas | October 31 | KLDO-TV | 27 | ABC | Univision |
| Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota | August 29 | KMSP-TV | 9 | Fox | Independent |
| Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota | August 29 | KITN-TV | 29 | Independent | Fox |
| Portland, Oregon (Vancouver, Washington) | August 29 | KPTV | 12 | Fox | Independent |
| Portland, Oregon (Vancouver, Washington) | August 29 | KPDX | 49 | Independent | Fox |
| Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida | August 29 | WFTS-TV | 28 | Independent | Fox |
| Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida | August 29 | WTOG | 44 | Fox | Independent |

### Station closures

| Date | City of license/Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation | Sign-on date | Notes |
| April 8 | Natchez, Mississippi | WNTZ-TV | 33 | Independent | November 16, 1985 | Would return to the air in 1991 as a Fox affiliate |
| May 31 | Hot Springs, Arkansas | KRZB-TV | 26 | Independent | February 7, 1986 | |