| Date |
Event |
| January 5 |
Remington Steele is resumed by NBC after a six-month hiatus during which series main actor Pierce Brosnan won the movie role of James Bond, only to lose it when NBC unexpectedly renewed the television series. Remington Steele adopts a TV-movie length format but only runs for a few installments before being canceled permanently. |
| January 22 |
R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a televised press conference. The decision by some companies to broadcast the footage results in a debate concerning journalistic ethics. |
| February 2 |
PBS broadcasts the critically acclaimed series Eyes on the Prize. |
| February 8 |
Amerika, the science-fiction drama miniseries, showing life ten years after the United States is defeated and occupied by the USSR, was broadcast on ABC. |
| March 19 |
Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as the host of The PTL Club after involvement in a sex scandal. |
| March 27 |
The Price Is Right surpasses Concentration as the longest-running daytime game show in history. |
| April 5 |
The Fox TV network makes its prime-time debut, marking the first time since 1955 that there were four U.S. networks with prime-time programming. The network debuted two shows, Married... with Children and The Tracey Ullman Show, which are broadcast three times each during the night so that viewers watching other networks can switch over and sample the shows. |
| April 6 |
During an episode of the ABC late-night news program Nightline devoted to the upcoming 40th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in Major League Baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Al Campanis makes racially insensitive comments when asked about the scarcity of black field or general managers in MLB. Campanis would be fired two days later. |
| April 19 |
Matt Groening's The Simpsons debuts as a series of short animated segments as part of The Tracey Ullman Show. |
| May 6 |
Mr. Belvedere is canceled after three seasons. Criticism caused ABC executives to rethink the decision and resume the series. (Since the fall programming schedules were already set, Mr. Belvedere would not premiere until late October.) |
| May 15 |
Pamela Ewing's car speeds out of control, crashes into a tanker, and explodes on the season finale of Dallas. |
| June 4 |
CBS becomes the last American network to cease a chime intonation at the beginning of telecasts; satellite feeds have made the tones obsolete (their function was to signal to the affiliates to start broadcasting the network feed in synchronization with the others). |
| June 30 |
U.S. daytime television was interrupted for the Iran-Contra hearings. |
| July 15 |
Genie Francis, of General Hospital fame, starts a new soap opera role as Diana Colville for the series Days of Our Lives, which she will play until 1989. |
| July 31 |
Movietime, forerunner to E!, goes on the air. |
| September 5 |
Dick Clark's American Bandstand was broadcast for the 2,751st and last time by ABC, after 30 years on the network. (It continued in syndication for 2 more years.) |
| September 11 |
Dan Rather of the CBS Evening News leaves the newscast when a televised tennis match runs two minutes over. He is missing for six minutes. |
| October 12 |
Valerie Harper files a lawsuit against NBC and Lorimar for breach of contract after being dismissed from her sitcom Valerie. |
| October 15 |
Bob Barker stopped dyeing his hair brown and appears on The Price is Right for the first time with white hair. He is given a minute-long standing ovation by the audience. |
| November 13 |
Sonny & Cher reunite for a performance on the program Late Night with David Letterman. |
| November 22 |
During a showing of the Doctor Who story "Horror of Fang Rock", Chicago PBS station WTTW-TV Channel 11 is interrupted for 88 seconds by a pirate television transmitter overriding the station's transmission signal to broadcast a video of himself in a Max Headroom mask being spanked. |
| Date |
Name |
Notability |
| January 2 |
Lauren Storm |
Actress (Flight 29 Down) |
| Shelley Hennig |
Actress (Days of our Lives, The Secret Circle, Teen Wolf) |
| January 5 |
Kristin Cavallari |
Actress (Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County, The Hills) |
| January 7 |
Lyndsy Fonseca |
Actress (Nikita) |
| February 1 |
Heather Morris |
Actress and singer (Glee) |
| February 5 |
Darren Criss |
Actor and singer (Glee, A Very Potter Musical) |
| February 9 |
Rose Leslie |
Scottish actress (Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey) |
| February 21 |
Ashley Greene |
Actress |
| Ellen Page |
Actress (Pit Pony, hosted Saturday Night Live, 2008) |
| March 9 |
Bow Wow |
Rapper (host of 106 & Park) |
| April 4 |
Sarah Gadon |
Canadian actress (Friends and Heroes) |
| April 9 |
Jesse McCartney |
Actor (Summerland) |
| April 10 |
Shay Mitchell |
Canadian actress (Pretty Little Liars) |
| April 12 |
Brooklyn Decker |
Actress (Friends with Better Lives, Grace and Frankie) and model |
| April 15 |
Samira Wiley |
Actress (Orange is the New Black) |
| April 26 |
Jessica Lee Rose |
Actress (lonelygirl15, Sorority Forever, Hooking Up) |
| May 13 |
Candice Accola |
Actress (The Vampire Diaries) and singer |
| June 3 |
Lalaine |
Actress (Lizzie McGuire) |
| June 12 |
Chris Galya |
Actor (Jessie) |
| June 16 |
Kelly Blatz |
Actor (Aaron Stone) |
| July 7 |
Julianna Guill |
Actress (My Alibi, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce) |
| July 16 |
AnnaLynne McCord |
Actress (American Heiress, 90210) |
| August 18 |
Mika Boorem |
Actress |
| August 25 |
Blake Lively |
Actress (Gossip Girl) |
| August 30 |
Johanna Braddy |
Actress (Greek, Video Game High School, UnREAL, Quantico) |
| September 7 |
Evan Rachel Wood |
Actress (Once and Again) and singer |
| September 11 |
Elizabeth Henstridge |
Actress (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) |
| September 19 |
Danielle Panabaker |
Actress (Shark, The Flash) |
| September 28 |
Hilary Duff |
Actress (Lizzie McGuire) and singer |
| September 29 |
David Del Rio |
Actor (The Troop) |
| October 13 |
Ashley Newbrough |
Actress (Privileged) |
| October 18 |
Zac Efron |
Actor (Summerland) |
| November 5 |
Kevin Jonas |
Actor (Jonas L.A., Married to Jonas) |
| November 28 |
Karen Gillan |
Scottish actress (Doctor Who) |
| December 3 |
Michael Angarano |
American actor |
| December 4 |
Orlando Brown |
Actor (The Proud Family, Fillmore!, That's So Raven) |
| December 12 |
Kate Todd |
Canadian actress (Radio Free Roscoe, My Babysitter's a Vampire) |
| December 16 |
Hallee Hirsh |
Actress (ER, Flight 29 Down) |
| December 27 |
Kristina Horner |
Actress and YouTube personality |
| December 28 |
Thomas Dekker |
Actor (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Secret Circle) |
