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1985 in American television

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The year 1985 involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events of that year.

Events

Date		Event
January 1
January 4
January 7
January 20
January 24
February 4
February 8
February 10
February 23
March 3
March 18
March 20
March 22
March 31
April 1
April 3
April 6
April 9
April 11
April 27
April 28
April 29
May 4
May 9
May 11

May 12
May 14
May 15
May 17
May 19
May 25
May 30
June 14
June 24
July 1
July 2
July 4
July 13
July 16
July 22
August 4
August 19
September 2
September 5
September 8
September 9
September 14
September 15
September 16
September 18
September 22
September 23
September 24
September 26
September 27
September 28
September 29
October 4
October 6
October 9
October 20
November 5
November 6
November 8
November 9
November 17
November 18
November 20
November 28
December 3
December 5
December 12
December 30

Programs

Debuting this year

Date	Title	Network
January 4	Street Hawk	ABC
January 5	Berrenger's	NBC
January 7	Time Machine
January 20	MacGruder and Loud	ABC
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
March 15	Mr. Belvedere	ABC
Off the Rack
March 18	Safe at Home	WTBS
March 21	Eye to Eye	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
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	CBS
August 22	Hometown
September 2	Attitudes	Lifetime
Rocky Road	WTBS
September 4	Hell Town	NBC
September 7	The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo	ABC
Star Wars: Droids
Ewoks
Small Wonder	Syndication
What's Happening Now!!
September 14	227	NBC
Adventures of the Gummi Bears
The Golden Girls
It's Punky Brewster
The Berenstain Bears	CBS
Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling
Jim Henson's Little Muppet Monsters
The Wuzzles
The Care Bears	Syndication
September 16	America
Break the Bank
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
September 18	Charlie & Co.	CBS
The Equalizer
George Burns Comedy Week
Stir Crazy
September 20	Spenser: For Hire	ABC
September 21	Hollywood Beat
Lime Street
September 24	Growing Pains
September 25	The Insiders
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	ABC
November 21	Shadow Chasers
December 11	Foley Square	CBS
Mary

Resuming this year

Title		Final aired		Previous network		New title		Returning network		Date of return
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show
The Jetsons
The Twilight Zone
Making a Living
Alfred Hitchcock Presents

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	1984
February 26	Pink Panther and Sons
February 27	E/R
March 19	Alice	1976
March 22	V	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	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)	1984
November 18	Voltron
November 21	He-Man and the Masters of the Universe	1983
November 23	Hollywood Beat	1985
December 7	The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
The Wuzzles
Dungeons & Dragons	1983
December 27	Glitter	1984

Entering syndication

Changing networks

Show	Moved from	Moved to
Diff'rent Strokes	NBC	ABC
The Bugs Bunny Show	CBS
The Jetsons	ABC	Syndication
It's a Living
T.J. Hooker	CBS

Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

Title		Network		Date of airing
Poison Ivy
Space
The Midnight Hour
North and South
Alice in Wonderland

Networks and services

Launches

Network	Type	Launch date
Tele Vida Abundante	Cable television	Unknown
Video Jukebox Network	Cable television	Unknown
VH1	Cable television	January 1
The Nostalgia Channel	Cable television	February 1
The Discovery Channel	Cable television	June 17
CNN International	Cable television	September 1
Prime Ticket	Cable television	October 19
Universal Pictures Debut Network	Cable television	Unknown

Conversions and rebrandings

Old network name	New network name	Type	Conversion Date	Notes	Source
Home Shopping Club	Home Shopping Network	Cable television	July 1

Closures

There are no closures for television channels in this year.

Television stations

Station launches

Date	City of License/Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Notes/Ref.
January 5	Tucson, Arizona	KPOL	40	Independent
January 22	Colorado Springs, Colorado	KXRM	21	Independent
January 28	Twin Falls, Idaho	K27AO	27	ABC (as a KIVI-TV translator)	Now ABC affiliate KSAW-LD, a semi-satellite of KIVI-TV/Nampa, Idaho
January 29	Columbus, Ohio	W62BE	62	Independent
February 12	Boston, Massachusetts	WVJV-TV	27	Independent
March	Quincy, Illinois	WQEC	27	PBS
March 4	Fayetteville/Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina	WFCT	62	Independent	Now Court TV O&O WFPX-TV, licensed to Archer Lodge, North Carolina
March 22	Waco, Texas	KXXV	25	NBC
March 26	Saginaw/Flint, Michigan	WAQP	49	TBN
March 28	Augusta, Georgia	W67BE	67	Independent	Now WAGT-CD channel 26
March 31	Bismarck, North Dakota	KBMY	17	ABC
April 10	Jackson, Tennessee	WJKT	16	Independent
April 11	Shreveport, Louisiana	KMSS-TV	33
April 15	Eugene, Oregon	K25AS	25	Independent
April 28	Riverhead/New York City, New York	WLIG	55	Independent
May 14	Wichita Falls, Texas	KJTL	18	Independent
May 19	Shaker Heights/Cleveland, Ohio	WOIO	19	Independent
June	Minot, North Dakota	KMCY	14	ABC
June 3	Hazleton, Pennsylvania (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)	WWLF-TV	56	Independent
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania	WOLF-TV	38
Tulsa, Oklahoma	KTCT	47	Religious independent
June 25	Seattle, Washington	KTZZ-TV	22	Independent
July 17	Sanger, California
(Fresno/Visalia, California)	KMSG-TV	59	Independent
July 19	Vineyard Haven/Boston, Massachusetts	WCVX	32	Independent
July 23	Grand Rapids, Michigan	W26AD	26	World Harvest Television
July 28	Davenport, Iowa
(Bettendorf, Iowa and Rock Island/Moline, Illinois)	KLJB-TV	18	Independent
August 17	Los Angeles, California	KTIE	63	Independent
August 24	Wichita, Kansas	KSAS-TV	24	Independent
September	Thief River Falls, Minnesota
(Grand Forks, North Dakota)	KBRR	10	Independent	Satellite of KVRR/Fargo, North Dakota
September 5	Murfreesboro, Tennessee	W11BF	11	Independent	Audio-only simulcast of WGNS radio in Murfreesboro
September 7	Charleston, South Carolina	WTAT-TV	23
September 24	Chico/Redding, California	KNVN	24	NBC
October	Harrisonburg, Virginia	W10AZ	10	Religious independent
Washington, D.C.	W10AZ	10
October 7	Salt Lake City, Utah	KOOG-TV	30	Independent
October 14	Cape Coral/Fort Myers, Florida	WFTX-TV	36	Independent
October 27	Caguas, Puerto Rico	WUJA	58	Independent
October 30	Lexington, North Carolina
(Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, NC)	WEJC	20	Religious independent
November	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	W08BY	8	MuchMusic USA
Muskegon/Grand Rapids, Michigan	WTLJ	54	Christian independent
November 2	Altoona, Pennsylvania
(Johnstown/State College, Pennsylvania)	WKBS-TV	47	Cornerstone Television	Satellite of WPCB-TV/Greensburg-Pittsburgh
November 3	Greeneville, Tennessee
Tri-Cities, Tennessee/Virginia)	WEMT	39	Independent
November 6	KRRT	35
November 12	Newark, Arkansas	KLEP	17	Educational independent
November 16	Natchez, Mississippi	WNTZ-TV	33	Independent
December	Mobile, Alabama
(Pensacola, Florida)	WMPV-TV	21	Independent
December 1	Cleveland, Ohio	WBNX-TV	55	Independent
December 15	Kingston, New York/Albany, New York	WTZA	48	Independent	Now WRNN-TV, licensed to New Rochelle, New York
December 23	Phoenix, Arizona	KUTP	45	Independent
December 24	Baltimore, Maryland	WKJL-TV	24	Independent
December 30	Orlando, Florida	WAYK	56
Unknown date	Fajardo/San Juan, Puerto Rico	WMTJ	40	PBS
Huntsville, Alabama	WZDX-TV	54	Independent
Montgomery, Alabama	WMCF-TV	45

Network affiliation changes

Date	City of License/Market	Station	Channel	Old affiliation	New affiliation	Notes/Ref.
August 4	Raleigh-Durham-Fayetteville, North Carolina	WRAL	5	ABC	CBS	ABC acquires Capital Cities Communications, and the purchase was finalized on January 3, 1986, making the station an ABC owned-and-operated station.
WTVD	11	CBS	ABC (O&O)
September 9	Fresno, California	KFSN-TV	30	CBS	ABC (O&O)	KFSN-TV was purchased by Capital Cities Communications, the then-parent of ABC. The purchase was finalized on January 3, 1986, making the station an ABC owned-and-operated station.
KGPE	47	ABC	CBS
Savannah, Georgia	WSAV	3	ABC	NBC	The swap was given, because of WSAV's weak performance of ABC's network programming, especially Thursday nights, which had bogged down its stronger syndicated slate.
WJCL	22	NBC	ABC
December 29	Waco, Texas	KCEN	6	ABC	NBC
KXXV	25	NBC	ABC

Station closures

Date	City of license/Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Sign-on date	Notes
January	Angola, Indiana	WBKZ	63		April 22, 1983

Births

Date		Name		Notability
January 3
Nicole Beharie
Leah Gibson
January 7
January 10
January 11
January 12
January 13
January 16
January 18
January 25
Michael Trevino
January 26
January 29
January 31
February 4
February 6
February 7
Tina Majorino
February 9
David Gallagher
February 14
Victoria Cartagena
February 15
February 18
Jessica Grace Smith
February 19
Haylie Duff
February 22
February 27
March 2
March 4
Whitney Port
March 7
March 10
March 13
March 15
James Maclurcan
Kellan Lutz
March 18
March 21
March 22
Lizzie Brocheré
March 23
March 24
Jeremy James Kissner
March 25
March 26
Keira Knightley
Francesca Marie Smith
March 27
March 28
March 31
April 16
April 17
Luke Mitchell
April 18
Jessica Lu
April 19
April 21
April 22
April 24
April 26
Falk Hentschel
April 28
April 29
May 2
May 3
May 5
May 6
May 9
Audrina Patridge
May 10
May 11
May 13
May 14
May 16
May 17
Derek Hough
May 24
May 25
Roman Reigns
May 27
May 28
Emily Wilson
May 29
June 6
June 8
June 10
Celina Jade
June 12
June 17
June 18
Sorel Carradine
June 20
June 21
Michelle Wolf
June 22
June 24
June 25
June 26
Colt Knost
June 30
July 1
July 2
Nelson Franklin
Dave McCary
July 5
July 7
July 11
July 16
July 17
July 18
James Norton
Hopsin
July 20
July 21
July 25
James Lafferty
July 27
Lou Taylor Pucci
July 28
August 2
August 3
Max Landis
August 4
August 5
Zach Appelman
August 7
August 9
August 10
August 13
August 15
August 16
Arden Cho
Cristin Milioti
August 20
August 21
August 27
August 29
August 30
September 1
September 2
September 3
September 6
September 7
September 8
Mina Kimes
September 10
Monica Lopera
September 13
September 14
September 16
September 17
September 19
September 22
September 24
September 26
September 27
September 30
Ben Lewis
October 1
October 5
October 8
October 10
October 11
October 14
Robert Costa
October 15
October 20
October 22
October 23
Masiela Lusha
October 25
Christopher Sean
October 28
Jack Donnelly
October 29
Gio Benitez
October 31
Kether Donohue
November 2
November 3
November 4
November 5
Annet Mahendru
November 7
November 12
November 13
November 15
November 18
November 20
November 21
November 23
November 26
November 27
November 30
Gia Crovatin
December 1
Evan Susser
December 3
December 5
December 7
December 10
December 11
Samantha Ponder
December 16
December 25
Smith Cho
December 26
December 27
December 28
Dan Amboyer
December 30
December 31

Deaths

Date	Name	Age	Notability
February 12	Nicholas Colasanto	61	Actor (Coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers)
February 28	Charita Bauer	62	Soap opera actress (Bert Bauer on Guiding Light)
May 8	Dolph Sweet	64	Actor (Chief Carl Kanisky on Gimme a Break!)
May 13	Selma Diamond	64	Actress (Selma Hacker on Night Court)
August 2	Bob Holt	56	Voice actor (Dr. Seuss television special)
August 25	Samantha Smith	13	Activist, actress (Lime Street)
October 2	Rock Hudson	59	Actor (Commissioner Stuart McMillan on McMillan & Wife)
October 15	Ted Steele	68	Host (The Ted Steele Show)
October 12	Johnny Olson	75	Game show announcer (The Price Is Right)
November 1	Phil Silvers	74	Actor, comedian (Sgt. Bilko on You'll Never Get Rich)
November 29	Bill Scott	65	Voice actor (Bullwinkle J. Moose)
December 31	Ricky Nelson	45	Actor (The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet), musician

References

Lohmann, Bill. (February 12, 1985). "Wayne Williams views film of Atlanta child murders". UPI.
Kelley, Bill. (February 10, 1985). "ATLANTA MURDERS; MINISERIES CREATES A STORM OF PROTEST". Sun Sentinel.
Schmidt, William E.. (February 1, 1985). "TV MOVIE ON ATLANTA CHILD KILLINGS STIRS DEBATE AND CASTS DOUBT ON GUILT". The New York Times.
(August 19, 2019). "Atlanta child murders: A chronology of the missing and murdered cases". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
(February 13, 1985). "THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS CONTROVERSY #541777".
Harris, Art. (February 10, 1985). "Reliving the Murders in Atlanta". The Washington Post.
Levine, Bob. (March 11, 1985). "Atlanta's long nightmare". Maclean's.
Kleinfield, N.R. [https://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/19/business/abc-is-being-sold-for-3.5-billion-1st-network-sale.html "ABC is being sold for $3.5 billion; 1st network sale."] ''The New York Times'', March 19, 1985.
[http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-IDX/85-OCR/BC-1985-03-25-Page-0031.pdf "Capcities + ABC."]{{dead link. (June 2017). (June 2017)
(March 28, 1985). "That soap got into my eyes". [[Waco Tribune-Herald]].
(December 13, 1985). "KCEN, KXXV plan to switch network programming Dec. 30". Waco Tribune-Herald.
Gregory Belanger. (1985-03-30). "Wrestling and rock on a roll in N.O. -03.30.85 - The Times-Picayune - A-19".
Powel, John. "WrestleMania: The Dynasty Begins". [[Canoe.ca]].
''The Valley Independent''. Monday, April 1, 1985. This mishap is mistakenly attributed to WrestleMania 2 in the "True Story of WrestleMania" DVD and Blu-ray release.
(April 28, 1985). "New TV Station Goes On Air Today". [[The New York Times]].
(April 29, 1985). "New L.I. channel stresses family fare". [[New York Daily News.
(December 2, 1996). "WLNY Adds Sports to Lineup". [[Newsday]].
(May 20, 1985). "Channel 19 on the air". [[The Plain Dealer]].
(June 7, 1986). "Channel 19's manager backs takeover". The Plain Dealer.
(July 8, 1994). "CBS plans to join Channel 19 by Aug. 29". The Plain Dealer.
(July 11, 1994). "TV shakeout no simple swap". The Plain Dealer.
(July 21, 1994). "WOIO will jump into local news scene". The Plain Dealer.
(August 20, 1994). "WOIO fires 8 at TV-43 in takeover". The Plain Dealer.
(September 2, 1994). "Touch that dial! TV turnabout begins tomorrow on Channels 8, 19, 43". The Plain Dealer.
(September 2, 1994). "Channel 55 to air Fox children's shows". The Plain Dealer.
Atkin, Ross. (April 12, 1985). "Indoor soccer quite up-to-date in Kansas City, home of Comets". The Christian Science Monitor.
(May 25, 1985). "Weekend TV Highlights". UPI.
Sarni, Jim. (May 25, 1985). "BLAST FOR SOCCER FANS: CBS AIRS MISL GAME". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
(April 28, 2010). "Sewanee's Kyle Rote, Jr. Elected to National Soccer Hall of Fame".
"LIVE with Kelly and Michael".
(9 January 2016). "The Jeffersons and Happy Days and Valerie Bertinelli Bio". [[Biography (TV series).
"Isabel Sanford interview".
(May 13, 1985). "WUSA — it's Channel 11 by another name". [[Minnesota Star Tribune.
(June 6, 1986). "WUSA, Ch. 11, will switch to KARE June 11". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
(June 12, 1986). "It's storytime: Golden Valley and TV bears". Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
Christian Romo. (May 29, 2014). "The Top 5 Broadcasting Tech Milestones During Vin Scully's Career".
(July 15, 1985). "In brief".
(1985-03-04). "In Brief". [[Broadcasting & Cable.
(September 11, 1985). "'Monday Football' with Joe Namath off to super start". [[Akron Beacon Journal.
(September 11, 1985). "Channel 8 takes WJW call letters". The Plain Dealer.
(September 14, 1985). "What's in a name? Ask WJKW, er, WJW, er, Channel 8". Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
(November 18, 1985). "ABC leads sweeps with strong showing in seventh week". Broadcasting.
(November 7, 1985). "KRRT-TV goes on the air". [[San Antonio Express-News.
"Wheel of Fortune: Oh the Agony...".
(July 27, 1982). "KCBJ-TV will become local NBC affiliate". [[Columbia Daily Tribune]].
(December 4, 1985). "KOMU and KCBJ prepare for network switch". [[Columbia Daily Tribune]].
(December 30, 1985). "TV networks' switch has explosive start". Columbia Daily Tribune.
Thomas, Kevin. (February 10, 1985). "Movies of the Week". [[Los Angeles Times]].
"Today's Television". Democrat and Chronicle.
”In Brief”. [[Broadcasting & Cable. Broadcasting]]. August 19, 1985, pg. 96.
(2024-07-09). "Nate Diaz".
(2024-04-03). "WWE Profile - Roman Reigns".
"Kris Allen News".
"Kris Allen – The Vogue".
"Crystal Bowersox Rotten Tomatoes".
Mink, Casey. (2015-05-05). "Nick Fradiani".
"Nick Fradiani Rotten Tomatoes".
(2023-11-29). "AEW Profile - Jon Moxley".
(2009-11-13). "Samantha Smith Dies in Plane Crash".

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