1985 in American television

The year **1985** had some major events. Below is a list of television-related events for that year.

## Events

|Date|Event||
| --- | --- | --- |
|January 1|VH1 begins in the United States.||
|January 4|_Sesame Street_ broadcasts its 2,000th episode.||
|January 7|On ABC's _Good Morning America_, actor Yul Brynner makes a public service announcement to be run after his death. He tells others to not smoke. Brynner was dying from lung cancer at the time||
|January 20|Super Bowl XIX is televised by ABC. This was also the first time that the Super Bowl is broadcast by ABC. It is also the first time that a Super Bowl had closed captioned in real-time. In this game the San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins 38-16||
|February 4|NBC becomes the first television network to use satellite to connect its stations.||
|February 8|CBS airs the last episode of _The Dukes of Hazzard_.||
|March 2|The NBC situation comedy _Gimme a Break!_ broadcasts an episode live.||
|March 18|Capital Cities Communicationssays that it is buying ABC for $3.5 billion. To do this, the company must sell off several of its television and radio stations to follow FCC ownership limits. The deal will be take place on January 3, 1986.||
|March 20|Norman Lear sells Tandem Productions and Embassy Television companies to The Coca-Cola Company for $485 million.||
|March 31|The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) broadcast the first _WrestleMania_. The event is very successful. It had over a million viewers. This was the start of the yearly  _WrestleMania_ events.||
|April 6|The first edition of _World Championship Wrestling_ by Jim Crockett Promotions is broadcast on TBS.||
|April 9|The last episode of _Three's a Crowd_ is broadcast on ABC. This ended John Ritter's run as Jack Tripper which begin with  _Three's Company_ back in 1977.||
|April 29|The two-night version of Ken Follett's _The Key to Rebecca_ is broadcast on WPIX Channel 11 in New York City. It has non-pixelated toplessness from both of its female stars, Season Hubley and Lina Raymond.||
|May 4|News Corporation and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation announces that they will buy Metromedia's television stations and Metromedia Producers Corp. for $3.5 billion. This is the start of the Fox Broadcasting Company, which would first broadcast in October 1986.||
|May 9|Nicholas Colasanto makes his last appearance as Coach Ernie Pantusso on _Cheers_. After his death, Woody Harrelson joins the cast as Woody Boyd beginning in the fourth season.||
|rowspan="2"|May 11|The first episode of _Saturday Night's Main Event_ is broadcast by NBC. This is the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast by network television since the 1950s.|
|Dolph Sweet makes his last appearance as Chief Carl Kanisky on _Gimme a Break!_. His last episode was broadcast three days after his death.|||
|May 12|During halftime of the Boston Celtics–Philadelphia 76ers NBA playoff game, CBS televises the first ever NBA Draft Lottery.||
|May 15|The season finale of _Dynasty_ on ABC sees the wedding party of Amanda Carrington (Catherine Oxenberg) and Prince Michael of Moldavia (Michael Praed) shot by revolutionaries in what is known as the Moldavian Massacre||
|May 17|The season finale of _Dallas_ on CBS finds character Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy) on his deathbed after his  ex-sister-in-law Katherine Wentworth (Morgan Brittany) runs him down with her car.||
|May 25|CBS airs the fourth game of the Major Indoor Soccer League's championship series. This would be the last year the MISL would have games on network television.||
|May 30|The USA Network airs its last National Hockey League  game, Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. NHL was not broadcast on USA again until the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs.||
|June 14|ABC broadcasts its 2,311th and last daytime episode of _Family Feud_ after 9 years.||
|June 24|Kathie Lee Johnson (later Gifford)  joins Regis Philbin on WABC's _The Morning Show_. _The Morning Show_ soon becomes number 1 in the market. It became syndicated on September 5, 1988, when the title is changed to _Live with Regis and Kathie Lee_.||
|July 1|Nick at Nite is launched in the United States.  It was a nighttime program service which mainly broadcast classic television reruns.||
|July 2|The last episode of _The Jeffersons_ airs on CBS.||
|July 13|The Live Aid concerts are broadcast from London and Philadelphia.  In the U.S., the concerts are broadcast by MTV with ABC joining in a 3-hour prime-time period.||
|July 16|NBC's telecast of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game out of the Metrodome in Minnesota is the first program to be broadcast in stereo by a television network.||
|September 2|NBC becomes the first broadcast network in the U.S. to broadcast its prime time programs with stereo sound.||
|September 9|_The Price Is Right_ returns to daily syndication after a five-year break with Tom Kennedy hosting.||
|September 16|After a 22-year hiatus, new episodes of _The Jetsons_ debut. The syndicated revival would run for two seasons.||
|September 22|The first Farm Aid concert is telecast from Champaign, Illinois, in syndication and by TNN.||
|September 28|ABC broadcasts an episode of _The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians_ called "The Fear", in which Batman's origin is shown for the first time outside of the comic books.||
|September 29|Howard Cosell makes his last assignment for ABC Sports. It was a Major League Baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins. Cosell was removed from his announcing duties for that year's World Series because of the controversy caused by his book _I Never Played the Game_.||
|rowspan="2"|October 4|The PBS program _Electric Company_ ended after 8 straight years in reruns.|
|NBC won the rights to broadcast the 1988 Summer Olympics from Seoul, South Korea.|||
|November 8|The final episode of _The Price Is Right_ with Johnny Olson as announcer is broadcast by CBS. Olson had died on October 12;||
|November 9|On NBC, _Saturday Night Live_ begins its 11th season, with Lorne Michaels returning as executive producer and an all-new cast that includes Jon Lovitz and Dennis Miller.||
|November 18|Elmo becomes a new character on PBS's _Sesame Street_. In the same episode, the adult cast meet Aloysius Snuffleupagus for the first time since the character's 1971 introduction.||
|December 3|Courteney Cox uses the word "period" (referring to menstruation) on U.S. television for the first time, in a commercial for Tampax brand tampons.||
|December 12|General Electric says is will buy RCA, owner of NBC for $6.3 billion. The deal would be finalized on June 9, 1986.||

### Debuting this year

|Date|Title|Network|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|January 4|_Street Hawk_|ABC|||
|January 5|_Berrenger's_|rowspan="2"|NBC||
|January 7|_Time Machine_||||
|January 20|_MacGruder and Loud_|ABC|||
|rowspan="2"|January 23|_Sara_|NBC||
|_ThunderCats_|Syndication||||
|January 26|_Otherworld_|CBS|||
|January 27|_Code Name: Foxfire_|NBC|||
|March 1|_Michael Nesmith in Television Parts_|NBC|||
|March 3|_Moonlighting_|ABC|||
|March 4|_Robotech_|Syndication|||
|rowspan="2"|March 15|_Mr. Belvedere_|rowspan="2"|ABC|
|_Off the Rack_|||||
|March 18|_Safe at Home_|WTBS|||
|rowspan="2"|March 21|_Eye to Eye_|rowspan="2"|ABC|
|_Wildside_|||||
|March 24|_Half Nelson_|NBC|||
|March 30|_CBS Storybreak_|CBS|||
|April 5|_Me and Mom_|ABC|||
|April 7|_National Geographic Explorer_|Nickelodeon|||
|April 9|_Hail to the Chief_|ABC|||
|April 10|_Double Dare_|CBS|||
|April 15|_Lady Blue_|ABC|||
|April 19|_The Best Times_|NBC|||
|May 6|_Dumbo's Circus_|The Disney Channel|||
|May 11|_Saturday Night's Main Event_|NBC|||
|rowspan="2"|June 3|_Larry King Live_|CNN||
|_Turkey Television_|Nickelodeon||||
|June 30|_Code of Vengeance_|NBC|||
|July 4|_The Raccoons_|The Disney Channel|||
|July 14|_Stingray_|NBC|||
|August 13|_West 57th_|rowspan="2"|CBS||
|August 22|_Hometown_||||
|rowspan="2"|September 2|_Attitudes_|Lifetime||
|_Rocky Road_|WTBS||||
|September 4|_Hell Town_|NBC|||
|rowspan="5"|September 7|_The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo_|rowspan="3"|ABC|
|_Star Wars: Droids_|||||
|_Ewoks_|||||
|_Small Wonder_|rowspan="2"|Syndication|||
|_What's Happening Now!!_|||||
|rowspan="9"|September 14|_227_|rowspan="4"|NBC|
|_Adventures of the Gummi Bears_|||||
|_The Golden Girls_|||||
|_It's Punky Brewster_|||||
|_The Berenstain Bears_|rowspan="4"|CBS|||
|_Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling_|||||
|_Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters_|||||
|_The Wuzzles_|||||
|_The Care Bears_|rowspan="5"|Syndication|||
|rowspan="4"|September 16|_America_|||
|_Break the Bank_|||||
|_G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero_|||||
|_Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors_|||||
|rowspan="4"|September 18|_Charlie & Co._|rowspan="4"|CBS|
|_The Equalizer_|||||
|_George Burns Comedy Week_|||||
|_Stir Crazy_|||||
|September 20|_Spenser: For Hire_|rowspan="6"|ABC||
|rowspan="2"|September 21|_Hollywood Beat_|||
|_Lime Street_|||||
|September 24|_Growing Pains_||||
|September 25|_The Insiders_||||
|rowspan="2"|September 29|_MacGyver_|||
|_Amazing Stories_|NBC||||
|September 30|_M.A.S.K._|Syndication|||
|October 4|_Misfits of Science_|NBC|||
|October 6|_Jem_|Syndication|||
|October 20|_Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes_|MTV|||
|November 20|_The Colbys_|rowspan="2"|ABC||
|November 21|_Shadow Chasers_||||
|rowspan="2"|December 11|_Foley Square_|rowspan="2"|CBS|
|_Mary_|||||

### Resuming this year

|Title|Final aired|Previous network|New title|Returning network|Date of return||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_The Jetsons_|1963|ABC|rowspan="2"|Same|WTBS|September 16|
|_The Twilight Zone_|1964|CBS|Same|September 27|||
|_Making a Living_|1982|ABC|_It's a Living_|Syndication|September 28||
|_Alfred Hitchcock Presents_|1965|NBC|Same|Same|September 29||

### Ending this year

|Date|Title|Debut||
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|January 21|_Insight_|1960||
|February 1|_Call to Glory_|1984||
|February 8|_The Dukes of Hazzard_|1979||
|February 23|_It's Your Move_|rowspan="3"|1984|
|February 26|_Pink Panther and Sons_|||
|February 27|_E/R_|||
|March 19|_Alice_|1976||
|March 22|_V_|rowspan="4"|1984|
|April 3|_Charles in Charge_ (returned in 1987)|||
|April 9|_Three's a Crowd_|||
|April 13|_Finder of Lost Loves_|||
|April 19|_Off the Rack_|1985||
|May 1|_Out of Control_|1984||
|May 8|_Sara_|rowspan="3"|1985|
|May 16|_Street Hawk_|||
|May 22|_Double Dare_|||
|June 14|_Family Feud_ (returned in 1988)|1976||
|June 25|_The Jeffersons_|1975||
|June 28|_Robotech_|1985||
|July 6|_Cover Up_|1984||
|July 19|_Matt Houston_|1982||
|July 20|_Hail to the Chief_|1985||
|August 1|_Battle of the Planets_|1978||
|August 10|_Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids_|1972||
|September 28|_Little Muppet Monsters_|1985||
|October 12|_The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show_|1983||
|October 26|_Lime Street_|1985||
|November 2|_The Littles_|1983||
|November 9|_Super Friends_|1973||
|November 16|_Snorks_ (returned in 1987)|rowspan="2"|1984|
|November 18|_Voltron_|||
|November 21|_He-Man and the Masters of the Universe_|1983||
|November 23|_Hollywood Beat_|rowspan="3"|1985|
|rowspan="3"|December 7|_The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo_||
|_The Wuzzles_||||
|_Dungeons & Dragons_|1983|||
|December 27|_Glitter_|1984||

### Changing networks

|Show|Moved from|Moved to|||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|_Diff'rent Strokes_|NBC|rowspan="2"|ABC||
|_The Bugs Bunny Show_|CBS||||
|_The Jetsons_|rowspan="3"|ABC|rowspan="2"|Syndication|
|_It's a Living_|||||
|_T.J. Hooker_|CBS||||

### Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

|Title|Network|Date of airing|
| --- | --- | --- |
|_Poison Ivy_|NBC|February 10|
|_Space_|CBS|April 14–18|
|_North and South_|ABC|November 3–10|
|_Alice in Wonderland_|CBS|December 9–10|

## Other websites

- List of 1985 American television series at IMDb