1992 in American television
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
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Contents
Events
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| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 6 | The weekly overnight news program World News Now debuts on ABC. |
| January 10 | The Days of Our Lives nighttime special One Stormy Night is broadcast by NBC. |
| April 6 | Barney & Friends debuts on PBS. |
| April 30 | The Cosby Show series finale was televised by NBC. |
| The Nickelodeon time capsule is buried at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida. | |
| May 22 | After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for the last time. |
| May 25 | Jay Leno debuted as host of The Tonight Show. |
| May 30 | The final Hee Haw airs in syndication. |
| June 1 | WNBC New York dropped the "-TV" suffix from its call letters (following the sale in 1988 of its sister radio station WNBC-AM by NBC's then-parent company General Electric) in favor of the new branding slogan "4 New York". The accompanying station image campaign was titled We're 4 New York and featured a musical theme composed by Edd Kalehoff. The campaign is revived two times, one is during the 2002 Winter Olympics and the recent one in 2007. |
| June 3 | Presidential candidate Bill Clinton appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show. Clinton even played the saxophone with the band. |
| June 23 | Another World broadcasts its first and only primetime episode, named Summer Desire, right before the Daytime Emmy Awards. |
| June 29 | Family Feud on CBS with Ray Combs becomes the hour-long Family Feud Challenge. |
| August 7 | After Growing Pains actress Tracey Gold loses a massive amount of weight due to anorexia nervosa, she was placed in hospital care (as a result, she is written out of most of the final episodes). |
| August 15 | Nickelodeon began a Saturday night programming block called SNICK. |
| September 4 | Scared Silent: Ending and Exposing Child Abuse, a one-hour live special, was hosted by Oprah Winfrey. |
| September 8 | NY1, a 24-hour news channel dedicated to New York City, launches. |
| September 12 | NBC is the first network to cancel all their Saturday morning cartoons in favor of four shows, Saved By The Bell, California Dreams, NBA Inside Stuff, and Name Your Adventure under the TNBC banner. A weekend version of Today is also added. Animated programming would return to NBC in 2006. |
| September 21 | Square One TV is resumed for its fifth and final season. |
| September 24 | The Sci-Fi Channel launches with a broadcast of Star Wars. |
| September 27 | Marlon Wayans and Alexandra Wentworth joined the cast of In Living Color. Wayans only joins the cast for 13 episodes. Wentworth joins the cast full-time this season, and the 1993–94 season (the fifth and final season). |
| October 1 | The Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network goes on the air. |
| October 3 | Sinéad O'Connor caused controversy when she rips up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live. |
| October 17 | Kristy McNichol's last episode of Empty Nest, entitled The Boomerang Affair, was broadcast. (McNichol would return for the series finale in 1995.) |
| November 1 | Texas billionaire Ross Perot bought blocks of TV time for his presidential campaign. |
| November 18 | The Seinfeld episode "The Contest" was broadcast. (It was somewhat controversial, but would later win an Emmy Award, as well as be named the number one episode of all time by TV Guide.) |
| November 27 | The TV movie Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style was broadcast by NBC. |
| December 1 | The Young and the Restless broadcast its 5,000th episode. In celebration of this promotion, The Price is Right featured a Y&R-themed Showcase. |
Programs
Debuting this year
Ending this year
| Date | Show | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| January 11 | Super Mario World | 1991 |
| March 2 | James Bond Jr. | |
| March 5 | Drexell's Class | |
| March 13 | Candid Camera | |
| Scorch | 1992 | |
| March 19 | Danger Mouse | 1981 |
| April 25 | Growing Pains | 1985 |
| Who's The Boss? | 1984 | |
| April 30 | The Cosby Show | |
| May 6 | Jake and the Fatman | 1987 |
| May 9 | The Golden Girls | 1985 |
| May 13 | The Royal Family | 1991 |
| May 17 | Superboy | 1988 |
| May 21 | MacGyver | 1985 |
| May 22 | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson | 1962 |
| May 31 | Night Court | 1984 |
| June 11 | McGee and Me! | 1989 |
| June 29 | Salute Your Shorts | 1991 |
| July 4 | Julie | 1992 |
| November 5 | WWE Saturday Night's Main Event | 1985 |
| November 6 | Square One TV | 1987 |
| November 28 | Good Morning, Mickey! | 1983 |
| The Amazing Live Sea Monkeys | 1992 | |
| December 5 | Raw Toonage | |
| December 12 | The Plucky Duck Show | |
| Darkwing Duck | 1991 | |
| December 26 | Widget the World Watcher | 1990 |
Changing networks
The following shows aired new episodes on a different network than previous first-run episodes:
| Show | Moved From | Moved To |
|---|---|---|
| Hi Honey, I'm Home! | ABC | Nick at Nite |
| Davis Rules | CBS | |
| In the Heat of the Night | NBC | |
| Matlock | ABC | |
| Muppet Babies | CBS | Nick Jr. |
| Tiny Toon Adventures | Fox Kids |
Births
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 7 | Richard Hunt | 40 | Puppeteer (The Muppet Show) |
| January 26 | José Ferrer | 80 | Actor (Newhart recurring role) |
| February 2 | Bert Parks | 77 | Longtime host of the Miss America beauty pageant |
| February 20 | Dick York | 63 | Actor (the 1st Darren Stephens on Bewitched) |
| March 25 | Nancy Walker | 69 | Actress (Ida on Rhoda, Rosie the Bounty lady) |
| May 12 | Robert Reed | 59 | Actor (Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch) |
| May 17 | Lawrence Welk | 89 | Accordionist and bandleader (The Lawrence Welk Show) |
| June 6 | Larry Riley | 38 | Actor (Knots Landing) |
| June 15 | Chuck Menville | 52 | Animator and writer (The Smurfs) |
| June 22 | Chuck Mitchell | 64 | Actor (General Hospital) |
| July 9 | Eric Sevareid | 79 | News commentator |
| October 16 | Shirley Booth | 94 | Actress (Hazel) |
| October 22 | Cleavon Little | 53 | Actor (Temperatures Rising) |
| November 7 | Jack Kelly | 65 | Actor (Bart Maverick on Maverick) |
| November 10 | Chuck Connors | 71 | Actor (Lucas McCain on The Rifleman) |
| November 22 | Sterling Holloway | 87 | Actor (voice of Winnie-the-Pooh) |
| December 18 | Mark Goodson | 77 | Producer of game shows (Match Game, Blockbusters, The Price Is Right) |
| December 24 | Peyo | 64 | Also known as "Peyo"; Belgian creator of The Smurfs |
