1996 in American television
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 1996. Events listed include television show debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and rebrandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
| List of years in American television: |
|---|
|
|
| 1995–96 United States network television schedule |
| 1996–97 United States network television schedule |
| List of American television programs currently in production |
Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 1 | Speedvision, a cable channel devoted to motor sports, commences programming. The network would be rechristened Speed Channel in 2002, then Speed in 2005. It would be replaced by Fox Sports 1 in 2013. |
| January 20 | Fox introduces its FoxTrax "glowing puck" during its telecast of the 46th National Hockey League All-Star Game. |
| January 28 | Chris Isaak and Brooke Shields make guest appearances on a post-Super Bowl episode of Friends on NBC. |
| February 1 | Sundance Channel debuts. |
| February 8–9 | Peter Argyropolous and Deborah Cohen won a combined total of $146,529 cash prizes from both episodes (including the $10,000 wedge played with the Double Play token and two Ford Mustangs), making the couple the biggest winner in the history of Wheel of Fortune; They remained as the biggest winners for a team, and they held the record until it was first surpassed by Michelle Lowenstein on October 14, 2008, who won $1,026,080. |
| March 1 | More than 1 billion households worldwide now own television sets. |
| March 4 | DISH Network, a Direct Broadcast Satellite service, begins as a service of EchoStar. |
| April 28 | Dexter's Laboratory premieres on Cartoon Network. |
| April 29 | TV Land, an offshoot of Nickelodeon's late-night block, Nick at Nite, debuts. The channel is devoted to round-the-clock broadcasts of classic television shows. |
| May 14 | Fox airs a television film that serves as the first attempt to revive Doctor Who following its suspension in 1989. It was intended as a backdoor pilot for a new American-produced Doctor Who TV series. It introduced Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor in his only televised appearance as the character until "The Night of the Doctor" in 2013. Although a ratings success in the United Kingdom, the film did not fare well on American television and no series was commissioned. The series was later relaunched on the BBC in 2005. |
| May 16 | More than 12 million Americans watch the final episode of Murder, She Wrote on CBS, "Death By Demographics". Through its 12-year run, the series had become the longest-running American murder mystery drama. |
| June 1 | Major League Baseball broadcasts debut on Fox. |
| June 3 | Zenith introduces the first HDTV-compatible front projection TV in the U.S. |
| June 19 | CBS affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC is awarded the first experimental high-definition television license in the United States. |
| June 23 | At the World Wrestling Federation's pay-per-view event King of the Ring, wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin wins the King of the Ring tournament by defeating Jake Roberts. After the match, Austin makes a certain victory speech in what would famously become as the "Austin 3:16" catchphrase. |
| June 30 | New York PBS member station WNYC-TV shuts off the air. The next day, it is replaced with a commercially operated sports TV station known as WBIS. |
| July 6 | When it becomes evident that Anna Stuart will be next to die in a serial killer storyline on the NBC soap opera Another World, many fans start letter-writing campaigns to save the actress; the NBC studios in New York City also report a great number of switchboard telephone calls regarding Stuart's imminent demise. Executive producer Jill Farren Phelps decides that actress Alice Barrett will be killed off the show instead. |
| New World Communications sells its 2 remaining non-Fox affiliates, KNSD-TV (channel 39) in San Diego, California and WVTM-TV (channel 13) in Birmingham, Alabama, both of whom are affiliated with NBC, to the NBC Television Stations Division. Upon the finalization of the deal on August 14, both stations become NBC owned-and-operated stations (WVTM would eventually be sold to Media General in 2006; Hearst Television would acquire WVTM in 2015). | |
| July 7 | At the WCW produced pay-per-view event Bash at the Beach, Hulk Hogan turns heel and announces the formation of the New World Order. |
| July 15 | Talk-oriented America's Talking ceases broadcasting and is replaced by MSNBC, an all-news joint venture between NBC (AT's owner) and Microsoft. |
| August 2 | MTV's secondary channel, M2 (now known as MTV2), debuts. |
| August 23 | The Price Is Right celebrates its 25th Anniversary Special on CBS. |
| September 7 | Paula Zahn is named an Saturday anchor of CBS Evening News. |
| Fox Kids aired for the final time on St. Louis affiliate KNLC. The following Monday, it moved to KTVI, becoming the only New World affiliated station to carry Fox Kids. | |
| September 8 | The 48th Primetime Emmy Awards are presented on ABC. |
| The 1994–96 United States broadcast TV realignment continues when longtime ABC affiliate WBRC-TV (channel 6) in Birmingham, Alabama finally becomes a Fox owned-and-operated station, a year after Fox had acquired it (and WGHP-TV in High Point, North Carolina) from a trust that had been formed by New World Communications. ABC eventually affiliates with a trimulcast of WBMA-LP/WCFT/WJSU (channels 58, 33 and 40), which is owned by Allbritton Communications (owners of WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., one of ABC's strongest affiliates). Former Fox affiliate WTTO-TV (channel 21) becomes an independent station before affiliating with The WB the next year, while another former Fox affiliate, WNAL in Gadsden, Alabama, aligns with CBS. | |
| Blue's Clues premieres on Nick Jr.. | |
| September 9 | Samurai Pizza Cats premieres on American television for the very first time ever with the series being shown on syndication. |
| September 13 | The Phil Donahue Show ends after twenty-nine years on the air. |
| September 14 | The dubbed version of the Japanese series Dragon Ball Z premieres in syndication. |
| September 15 | USA Cartoon Express airs for the last time on USA Network. |
| September 16 | Wheel of Fortune introduced a gameplay round called Jackpot which contestants can win an accumulated pot based on the value spun throughout the round. The round would remain intact until 2013. |
| September 17 | The O. J. Simpson civil trial begins. |
| October 1 | Animal Planet and Discovery Civilization launched. |
| October 2 | Seven newscasters were dismissed by WCBS-TV (channel 2) in New York. |
| October 4 | Discovery Science debuts. |
| October 7 | News Corporation gets into the cable news fray with the debut of the Fox News Channel. |
| October 10 | Turner Broadcasting System merged into Time Warner. |
| October 20–26 | Fox broadcasts its first ever World Series. The New York Yankees won their 23rd title (and first since 1978) against the Atlanta Braves in only six games. |
| October 30 | WBKP in Calumet, Michigan signs on the air, giving the Upper Peninsula both its first full-time ABC affiliate (WLUC-TV had dropped its primary ABC affiliation the previous year in favor of its secondary NBC affiliation) and full-time affiliates of the "Big Three" networks. |
| November 1 | ESPNNEWS, a sports news channel from ESPN, debuts. |
| Seven regional sports networks operated by Prime Network relaunched as Fox Sports Net | |
| November 2 | The original cartoon series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles broadcasts its final episode, "Divide and Conquer", on CBS. |
| November 4 | In tribute to the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series, an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine features Captain Benjamin Sisko and the crew travel back in time to prevent the assassination of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise by a Klingon using a booby-trapped tribble. Its sister series Voyager produced a similar episode, "Flashback". |
| November 11 | Discovery Kids debuts. |
| November 23 | Bob Hope's final television special, Bob Hope... Laughing with the Presidents, airs on NBC. |
| December 1 | The 25 Days of Christmas special begins on The Family Channel, starting one of the longest-running Christmas specials. |
| December 12 | Sports Illustrated and CNN debut CNN/SI, a 24-hour sporting news channel. |
| December 15 | Five years after its series finale, a movie version of Dallas, entitled Dallas: J.R. Returns, is broadcast by CBS. |
| December 17 | 6 years after dropping the title, TBS resumes using the term Superstation. |
| December 31 | WAKR-TV in Akron, Ohio disaffiliates from ABC and becomes an infomercial-based station before becoming a charter O&O of station owner Paxson Communications' new Pax TV network in 1998. |
Television programs
Debuts
Returning this year
| Show | Last Aired | Previous Network | New title | New Network | Returned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doug | 1994 | Nickelodeon | Disney's Doug | ABC | September 7 |
| Gargoyles | 1995 | The Disney Channel | Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles | ||
| The Dating Game | 1989 | Syndication | Same | Same | September 9 |
| The Newlywed Game | |||||
| Shop 'til You Drop | 1994 | Lifetime | The New Shop 'til You Drop | The Family Channel | September 30 |
Ending this year
Made for TV movies and miniseries
| Premiere Date | Title | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| February 4 | Gulliver's Travels (miniseries) | NBC |
| February 11 | Night of the Twisters | The Family Channel |
| February 24 | The Late Shift (miniseries) | HBO |
| April 9 | Face of Evil | CBS |
| April 28 | The Beast | NBC |
| May 14 | Doctor Who | Fox |
| September 24 | After Jimmy | CBS |
| November 15 | Dallas: J.R. Returns | |
| November 17 | Titanic | |
| December 15 | The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue | The Family Channel |
Entering syndication this year
| Show | Seasons | In Production | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman | 4 | Yes | [1] |
| Hangin' with Mr. Cooper | 4 | Yes | [2] |
| Mad About You | 4 | Yes | [3] |
| Martin | 4 | Yes | [4] |
Changes of network affiliation
Television stations
Station launches
Stations changing network affiliation
Station closures
| Date | Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5 | Bluefield, West Virginia | WVGV-TV | 59 | The WB |
Births
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 3 | Audrey Meadows | 73 | Actress (Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners) |
| February 13 | Martin Balsam | 76 | Actor (Murray on Archie Bunker's Place) |
| February 15 | McLean Stevenson | 68 | Actor (Lt. Col. Henry Blake on M*A*S*H) |
| Tommy Rettig | 54 | Child actor (Jeff on Lassie) | |
| March 4 | Minnie Pearl | 83 | Comedian |
| March 5 | Whit Bissell | 86 | Character actor |
| March 9 | George Burns | 100 | Comedian (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show) |
| March 11 | Vince Edwards | 67 | Actor (Ben Casey) |
| April 21 | Jimmy Snyder | 77 | Sports commentator (The NFL Today) |
| May 20 | Jon Pertwee | 76 | Actor (Third Doctor on Doctor Who) |
| June 2 | Ray Combs | 40 | Host of Family Feud |
| June 5 | Vito Scotti | 78 | Character actor, Gilligan's Island |
| June 16 | Mel Allen | 83 | Sports commentator |
| July 21 | Herb Edelman | 62 | Actor (Stanley Zbornak on The Golden Girls) |
| August 27 | Greg Morris | 62 | Actor (Mission: Impossible) |
| September 13 | Tupac Shakur | 25 | Actor and songwriter |
| October 6 | Ted Bessell | 61 | Actor and director (Donald on That Girl) |
| October 28 | Morey Amsterdam | 87 | Actor and comedian (Buddy on The Dick Van Dyke Show) |
| October 31 | Arthur Peterson Jr. | 83 | Actor (Soap) |
| November 13 | Alma Kitchell | 103 | Hostess (In the Kelvinator Kitchen) |
| December 8 | Howard Rollins | 46 | Actor (Tibbs on In the Heat of the Night) |
| December 12 | Larry Gates | 81 | Soap opera actor (Guiding Light) |
| December 14 | Edward K. Milkis | 65 | Producer |
References
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.