1994 in American television
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 1994. Events listed include television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and re-brandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
| List of years in American television: |
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| 1993–94 United States network television schedule |
| 1994–95 United States network television schedule |
| List of American television programs currently in production |
Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 3 | Animaniacs, the popular most watched cartoon in American television has been snapped up for television broadcasting in Ireland on Network 2. |
| January 16 | Standup comedian George Carlin gets his very own TV show on Fox. |
| January 18 | The Peanuts special You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown is broadcast by NBC. It will prove to be the last new Peanuts special broadcast on television for eight years until A Charlie Brown Valentine airs on ABC. It was the last special in creator Charles Schulz's lifetime to air on TV and the gang's first appearance on NBC in over 25 years. |
| January 22 | NBC broadcasts the NHL All-Star Game for the fifth consecutive year. This would also mark the last time that NBC would broadcast a National Hockey League game for 12 years. |
| January 23 | CBS, which had broadcast National Football League games since 1956, broadcasts its final telecast, with the Dallas Cowboys defeating the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, 38–21. CBS had been outbid during December 1993 for rights to the NFC package by the Fox Network. CBS, however, would regain NFL rights (taking over the AFC rights from NBC) in 1998. |
| January 24 | During a segment on NBC's Today, host Bryant Gumbel asks "What is the internet, anyway?" |
| January 30 | NBC airs the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year. It's the first time that a network has aired two straight Super Bowls outright. While CBS did air the first two Super Bowls back to back, the first ever Super Bowl was really a simulcast between CBS and NBC. |
| January 31 | Bill Cosby returned to NBC for a two-hour movie, The Cosby Mysteries, after ending production of The Cosby Show for 21 months. |
| The Fox children's action series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers begins airing in Australia on Seven Network. | |
| February 1 | American pay television channel Encore initiates seven new themed multiplex channels (Westerns, True Stories, Love Stories, WAM!: America's Kidz Network, Action and Mystery), primarily on TCI cable systems, becoming the first premium service to offer themed premium services. Starz, which features more recent movie fare than its parent channel, is also initiated on this date as part of the Encore multiplex and would later become a rival to HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and The Movie Channel. |
| February 19 | During the opening monologue on Saturday Night Live, guest host Martin Lawrence makes sexually explicit jokes about female genitalia and feminine hygiene, which results in NBC banning him from appearing on the network (for the next year) and SNL (for life). In repeats of the episode, the offending section of the monologue is replaced by a title card read by an off-screen player (writer Jim Downey), saying that although SNL is neutral about the issues mentioned by Lawrence, network policy prevents his remarks from being re-broadcast, and that the incident almost cost the entire cast of SNL their jobs. |
| February 23 | CBS's coverage of the short program in women's figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway (fueled by the media frenzy from a scandal in which associates of figure skater Tonya Harding attacked Nancy Kerrigan) immediately becomes one of the highest rated prime time television programs in American history. |
| March 1 | The Pay television content advisory system, which describe the varying degrees of suggestive or explicit content in series and movies being broadcast by pay cable channels, are first implemented by HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The Movie Channel.
A streamlined version of the system—a categorized, ten-point system of content labels and abbreviated codes—was implemented on June 10. |
| March 11 | Viacom assumes control of Paramount Pictures, which includes Paramount Television. Later during the year Paramount/Viacom announces plans to initiate a new over-the-air television network, in conjunction with United Television. The new network, the United Paramount Network (or UPN for short), is initiated during January 1995. |
| March 31 | Madonna appears on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman and makes headlines for going on a profanity-laden tirade—one of the most censored events of American TV talk-show history, swearing 13 times during the interview. Though infamous, it results in some of the highest ratings of Letterman's late-night career. (Robin Williams would later describe the segment as a "battle of wits with an unarmed woman.") |
| April 1 | Nickelodeon celebrates its 15th anniversary. |
| April 3 | After 15 years, Charles Kuralt hosts CBS News Sunday Morning for the final time. He would be succeeded by Charles Osgood. |
| April 10 | Pat Summerall makes his final assignment and on-camera appearance as a broadcaster for CBS Sports, the final round of the Masters. |
| April 14 | Turner Classic Movies channel, an extension of Turner Broadcasting System debuted. |
| April 16 | The pilot episode for All That airs on Nickelodeon. |
| April 17 | ABC/Fox affiliate KARD in Monroe, Louisiana disaffiliates from ABC and moves its secondary affiliation with Fox to primary status, in the first unofficial affiliation swap of the 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment. ABC will not have an affiliate in Monroe until KAQY signs-on in 1998. |
| April 24 | Barney the Dinosaur makes his commercial network television debut on the NBC prime-time special spin-off program Bedtime with Barney: Imagination Island. However, the song "I Love You" wasn't sung in the special due to a lawsuit about the song at the time; this explains why "I Love You" wasn't used in Barney's Favorites Vol. 2, as it uses songs from the spin-off. Surprisingly enough after this special aired, the 1965 film The Sound of Music was also included in the lineup for a Family Friendly Night of the '90s. |
| April 28 | The Simpsons broadcasts its 100th episode on Fox. |
| May 13 | Johnny Carson makes a surprise appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman to deliver Letterman his "Top Ten Lists". This would prove to be Carson's final television appearance. |
| May 23 | Star Trek: The Next Generation concludes its seven-year run with the series finale, All Good Things... The two-hour finale was broadcast at 6 p.m. on most affiliates, rather than as part of the prime time lineup. |
| May 25 | Shannen Doherty makes her final appearance as Brenda Walsh on Beverly Hills, 90210. |
| June 1 | FX begins broadcasting. This was first cable TV network to be owned by Fox. |
| First formal broadcast of Newsworld International and Trio. | |
| June 11 | World Wrestling Federation wrestler Hulk Hogan signs a deal with World Championship Wrestling on a live broadcast of WCW Saturday Night. |
| June 17 | With all major networks providing live coverage, former NFL player O. J. Simpson, suspected in the murder of his former wife and her acquaintance, flees from police with his friend Al Cowlings in his white Ford Bronco; the low-speed chase ends with Simpson's surrender to police at his Brentwood mansion. NBC, who was broadcasting Game 5 of the NBA Finals between New York and Houston in the meantime, periodically covers the chase via a split-screen. |
| DirecTV, a direct broadcast satellite service, begins broadcasting in Jackson, Mississippi. | |
| June 20 | NBC's Today moves into Studio 1A at Rockefeller Center. |
| June 23 | The first ever Nurses Ball event airs on General Hospital. |
| July 4 | America's Talking, a talk and information channel (and forerunner to MSNBC), launched. |
| July 9 | British vintage puppet action series Thunderbirds is introduced to the United States when the series goes to air on Fox Kids on Saturday mornings with brand new music and voices. |
| July 12 | The 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from Pittsburgh is broadcast on NBC (NBC's first Major League Baseball telecast since Game 5 of the 1989 National League Championship Series). The game is the first production of The Baseball Network, a joint venture between MLB, NBC, and ABC. Hampered by its much-criticized regional policy for game broadcasts and a players' strike that cancels the 1994 postseason, the venture will be termed a failure even before it dissolves at the end of the 1995 season. |
| August 12 | The ABC soap opera All My Children broadcasts a memorial episode for original cast member Frances Heflin, who died during June. The memorial is in the form of a funeral service for Heflin's character, Mona Kane Tyler. |
| Fox broadcasts its first National Football League broadcast, a pre-season game in San Francisco between the 49ers and Denver Broncos. | |
| August 21 | HBO broadcasts a concert appearance by Barbra Streisand, the entertainer's first public concert in 27 years. |
| August 29 | Highlights from the NWA World Title Tournament from two days prior air on ECW Hardcore TV. It was at that particular event that the tournament winner, Shane Douglas threw down the NWA World Heavyweight Championship belt and proclaimed the ECW Heavyweight Championship to be a world championship. Douglas' speech presaged the emergence of ECW - renamed from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling shortly after the event - as a nationally recognized promotion and the continued decline in the power and profile of the NWA.[1] |
| September 1 | The Independent Film Channel debuted. |
| September 2 | Both Cops and Love Connection aired for the final time in The 7:00-8:00 p.m. hour on WNBC. After that, Cops moves to WNYW, and Love Connection moves to reruns on WPIX. Extra and the return of Inside Edition replaced it. Inside Edition being on WNBC lasted until 1996, while Extra remained there for 25 years until 2019. |
| The Fox O&Os aired A Current Affair for the final time at 7:30 p.m. After that, it moved to different slots and different stations until 1996. | |
| September 4 | Fox covers regular season National Football League games for the very first time with the launch of their pre-game program, Fox NFL Sunday. |
| September 11 | The 46th Primetime Emmy Awards were presented on ABC. |
| September 12 | The first television stations involved in the 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment, as part of a larger affiliation deal between Fox and New World Communications, change their network affiliation. WDAF-TV in Kansas City ends its 45-year affiliation with NBC and WJW-TV in Cleveland ends its longtime affiliation with CBS, in both cases to become Fox affiliates. WDAF and WJW also trade their former affiliations with Fox affiliates KSHB-TV (becoming an NBC affiliate) and WOIO (becoming a CBS affiliate). Meanwhile, in Phoenix, KSAZ-TV (channel 10) ends its 40-year affiliation with CBS, and temporarily becomes an independent station, 3 months before becoming a Fox affiliate. CBS then signs an affiliation deal with former independent station KPHO-TV (channel 5), reuniting CBS with its original Phoenix affiliate, and ABC signs with former Fox outlet, KNXV-TV (channel 15) through an affiliation deal between ABC and The E.W. Scripps Company, owners of KNXV. This leaves the former ABC affiliate, KTVK (channel 3), to become an independent station (briefly becoming a WB affiliate in January 1995 until KASW (channel 61) signs on a year later and assumes the WB affiliation from KTVK, who enters into a LMA with the station). |
| Original Family Feud host Richard Dawson returns to the series after nine years, replacing his successor, Ray Combs; the show also expands from half-hour to full-hour episodes. | |
| September 21 | The sitcom Daddy's Girls debuts on CBS. Although it is abandoned after three episodes, it is notable as the first series in which a gay principal character is played by an openly gay actor, Harvey Fierstein.[2] |
| September 22 | The pilot episode for Friends airs on NBC. |
| September 23 | UWF Blackjack Brawl airs live on SportsChannel America. |
| September 24 | The Marvel Action Hour, featuring animated adaptations of Iron Man and the Fantastic Four, debuts in syndication. |
| October 19 | The series finale of Dinosaurs is broadcast on ABC, depicting the irresponsible actions of the dinosaurs toward their environment, and the ensuing Ice Age which leads to their demise. |
| October 31 | fxM: Movies from Fox debuts as a spinoff of FX, broadcasting movies from the Fox library on a round-the-clock basis. |
| November 3 | Various NBC comedies appeared involving blackout events, appeared on Mad About You, Friends and Madman of the People. |
| November 10 | Sesame Street celebrates its 25th anniversary. |
| November 28 | Wheel of Fortune introduced the $10,000 wedge (represented with a one-peg $10,000 gold-colored space sandwiched between two Bankrupts) in one of the rounds, and it remained available until Season 26, in which a similar wedge variant, dubbed Million Dollar Wedge (in which a contestant enable to win the $1,000,000 grand prize if held), was replaced, and still used till this day. |
| December 1 | The Game Show Network, a network devoted to broadcasting classic game shows 24 hours a day, debuts. |
| Home & Garden Television debuted. | |
| December 3 | Roughly a month and a half after making his final World Wrestling Federation television appearance, Randy Savage makes his World Championship Wrestling TV debut on a live edition of WCW Saturday Night. |
| December 10 | The 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment continues as WITI in Milwaukee ends its CBS affiliation after 37 years to become a Fox affiliate. After failing to procure affiliations with Milwaukee's other major stations, CBS eventually aligns with former independent station WDJT (channel 58). Former Fox affiliate WCGV-TV (channel 24), who had turned down CBS, briefly becomes an independent station again before affiliating with UPN a month later. |
| December 11 | The 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment continues as WJBK in Detroit and WAGA-TV in Atlanta end their longtime affiliations with CBS and switch their affiliations to Fox. As in Milwaukee, CBS struggles to find replacement stations in both areas, and eventually align with former independent stations WGPR (which CBS also acquires and renames WWJ-TV) and WGCL (then WGNX). Former Fox affiliates WKBD in Detroit and WATL in Atlanta both become independents briefly before respectively joining UPN and The WB one month later. |
| December 12 | The 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment continues as WTVT (channel 13) in St. Petersburg, Florida ends its longtime CBS affiliation to become a Fox affiliate. Through an affiliation deal between CBS and Citicasters, the network joins the former ABC affiliate, WTSP-TV (channel 10) while ABC aligns with former Fox affiliate WFTS-TV (channel 28) through an affiliation deal between ABC and The E.W. Scripps Company, owners of WFTS-TV. |
Programs
Debuts
Ending this year
| Date | Show | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| January 2 | Doug (returned in 1996) | 1991 |
| January 9 | Cadillacs and Dinosaurs | 1993 |
| January 14 | The Les Brown Show | |
| January 19 | George | |
| January 23 | The NFL on CBS (returned in 1998) | 1956 |
| January 30 | CityKids | 1993 |
| February 8 | Saved by the Bell: The College Years | |
| February 18 | Thea | |
| February 23 | Bonkers | |
| April 21 | Herman's Head | 1991 |
| The Sinbad Show | 1993 | |
| May 10 | Roc | 1991 |
| May 19 | In Living Color | 1990 |
| L.A. Law | 1986 | |
| May 22 | The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. | 1993 |
| May 23 | Star Trek: The Next Generation | 1987 |
| Evening Shade | 1990 | |
| May 27 | The Arsenio Hall Show | 1989 |
| May 28 | Café Americain | 1993 |
| June 10 | Shuffle | 1994 |
| June 18 | Getting By | 1993 |
| Harts of the West | ||
| July 1 | Love Connection (returned in 1998) | 1983 |
| July 10 | I Witness Video | 1992 |
| July 20 | Dinosaurs | 1991 |
| July 23 | Trashed | 1994 |
| August 8 | Droopy, Master Detective | 1993 |
| August 14 | Bakersfield P.D. | |
| August 27 | Baby Races | |
| August 28 | America's Funniest People | 1990 |
| September 7 | Dead at 21 | 1994 |
| September 8 | Hotel Malibu | |
| September 25 | Wild Oats | |
| September 30 | Shop 'til You Drop (returned in 1996) | 1991 |
| October 1 | Clarissa Explains It All | |
| October 2 | Fortune Hunter | 1994 |
| October 12 | Daddy's Girls | |
| October 22 | Cro | 1993 |
| November 4 | Free 4 All | 1994 |
| November 18 | Boggle | 1994 |
| November 26 | Dog City | 1992 |
| The Little Mermaid | ||
| December 3 | Beethoven | 1994 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | 1993 | |
| December 10 | Tales from the Cryptkeeper (returned in 1999) | |
| Garfield and Friends | 1988 | |
| December 20 | Romper Room | 1953 |
| December 30 | Jumble | 1994 |
Entering syndication this year
| Show | Seasons | In Production | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beverly Hills, 90210 | 4 | Yes | [3] |
| Doogie Howser, M.D. | 4 | No | [3] |
| Evening Shade | 4 | No | [3] |
| The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air | 4 | Yes | [3] |
| Northern Exposure | 5 | Yes | [3] |
| The Simpsons | 5 | Yes | [3] |
Resuming this year
| Title | Final aired | Previous network | New title | Returning network | Date of return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| America Tonight | 1991 | CBS | Same | Same | June 1 |
| The Kidsongs TV Show | 1988 | Syndication | Syndicated through PBS affiliates | April 4 |
Changing networks
| Show | Moved from | Moved to |
|---|---|---|
| Aladdin | Disney Channel | Disney Channel/CBS |
| Sirens | ABC | Syndication |
| Kidsongs | Syndication | Syndication/PBS Kids |
Made-for-TV movies and miniseries
| Air date | Title | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| January 24 | Pointman | PTEN |
| February 13 | Knight Rider 2010 | Action Pack |
| February 27 | Heaven & Hell: North & South, Book III | ABC |
| May 8–12 | The Stand | |
| May 24 | Seasons of the Heart | NBC |
| September 12 | Danielle Steel's A Perfect Stranger | |
| October 30 | Without Warning | CBS |
| November 13 | Scarlett | |
| November 19 | How the West Was Fun | ABC |
| November 20 | Million Dollar Babies | CBS |
| November 28 | Following Her Heart | NBC |
Television stations
Station launches
Stations changing network affiliation
| City of license/Market | Date | Station | Channel | Prior affiliation | New affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, Georgia | December 11 | WAGA-TV | 5 | CBS | Fox |
| WATL | 36 | Fox | Independent | ||
| WGNX | 46 | Independent | CBS | ||
| Cleveland, Ohio | September 3 | WJW-TV | 8 | CBS | Fox |
| Detroit, Michigan | December 11 | WJBK | 2 | CBS | Fox |
| WKBD-TV | 50 | Fox | Independent | ||
| WGPR | 62 | Independent | CBS | ||
| Kansas City, Missouri | September 12 | WDAF-TV | 4 | NBC | Fox |
| KSHB-TV | 41 | Fox | NBC | ||
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin | December 11 | WITI | 6 | CBS | Fox |
| WCGV-TV | 24 | Fox | Independent | ||
| WDJT-TV | 58 | Independent | CBS | ||
| Shaker Heights, Ohio (Cleveland, Ohio) | September 3 | WOIO | 19 | Fox | CBS |
| Phoenix, Arizona | September 12 | KPHO | 5 | Independent | CBS |
| KSAZ-TV | 10 | CBS | Independent | ||
| December 15 | Independent | Fox | |||
| Tampa–St. Petersburg, Florida | December 12 | WTSP | 10 | ABC | CBS |
| WTVT | 13 | CBS | Fox | ||
| WFTS-TV | 28 | Fox | ABC | ||
| West Monroe, Louisiana (El Dorado, Arkansas–Monroe, Louisiana) | April 17 | KARD | 14 | ABC | Fox |
Births
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Cesar Romero | 86 | Actor (The Joker on Batman) |
| January 8 | Pat Buttram | 78 | Actor (Mr. Haney on Green Acres) |
| January 22 | Telly Savalas | 72 | Actor (Theo Kojak on Kojak) |
| January 28 | Hal Smith | 77 | Actor (Otis on The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Seuss special) |
| February 11 | Sorrell Booke | 64 | Actor (Boss Hogg on The Dukes of Hazzard) |
| William Conrad | 73 | Actor (Cannon, Jake and the Fatman, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show) | |
| February 24 | Dinah Shore | 77 | Singer and talk show hostess (Dinah!) |
| March 4 | John Candy | 43 | Comedian and actor (SCTV) |
| March 21 | Dack Rambo | 52 | Actor (Jack Ewing on Dallas) |
| Macdonald Carey | 81 | Actor (Tom Horton in Days of Our Lives) | |
| March 22 | Walter Lantz | 94 | Cartoonist, creator of Woody Woodpecker |
| April 2 | Betty Furness | 78 | Consumer advocate and spokesperson (The Today Show) |
| April 5 | Kurt Cobain | 27 | Singer, songwriter, musician (Nirvana, Saturday Night Live [1992/93]) |
| April 22 | Richard Nixon | 81 | 37th President of the United States |
| May 8 | George Peppard | 65 | Actor (Banacek, Hannibal on The A-Team) |
| May 19 | Jacqueline Kennedy | 64 | First Lady of the United States and spouse of President John F. Kennedy |
| June 1 | Frances Heflin | 73 | Soap opera actress (All My Children) |
| June 11 | Herbert Anderson | 77 | Actor (Henry Mitchell on Dennis the Menace) |
| June 14 | Henry Mancini | 70 | Composer ("Peter Gunn Theme") |
| July 7 | Cameron Mitchell | 75 | Actor (Uncle Buck on The High Chaparral) |
| July 8 | Dick Sargent | 64 | Actor (Darrin Stephens #2 on Bewitched) |
| August 21 | Danitra Vance | 40 | Comedian (the first African-American woman regular on Saturday Night Live) |
| September 3 | James T. Aubrey | 75 | Head of programming at CBS (1963–64) |
| September 16 | Jack Dodson | 63 | Actor (Howard Sprague on The Andy Griffith Show) |
| October 2 | Harriet Nelson | 85 | Singer and actress (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) |
| October 19 | Martha Raye | 78 | Comic actress and singer (The Martha Raye Show) |
| October 25 | Mildred Natwick | 89 | Actress (The Snoop Sisters) |
| November 8 | Michael O'Donoghue | 54 | Comedy writer (Saturday Night Live) |
| November 9 | Priscilla Morrill | 67 | Character actress (Mrs. Vanderkellen on Newhart) |
| November 11 | Pedro Zamora | 22 | HIV-positive participant of (The Real World) |
| November 18 | Cab Calloway | 86 | American jazz singer |
| November 30 | Lionel Stander | 86 | Actor (Max on Hart to Hart) |
| December 18 | Don Fedderson | 81 | Producer (My Three Sons) |
References
- James Dixon; Arnold Furious; Lee Maughan (2015). The Complete WWE Guide Volume Six. Lulu.com. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-326-50746-6.
- Jincha, Tom (1994-09-21). "Dudley Do Wrong: 'Daddy's Girls' A Sitcom Dud". Sun-Sentinel.
- "New(est) For NATPE In A Nutshell" from Broadcasting & Cable
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