1966 in American television

This is a list of American television-related events in 1966.

Events

Date	Event	Ref.
January 11	Dorothy Malone resumes the role of Constance Carson in the ABC primetime soap opera Peyton Place. She was temporarily replaced by Lola Albright in the interim.
January 13	Tabitha Stephens is born on the ABC sitcom Bewitched, in the episode titled, "And Then There Were Three."
February 15	Fred Friendly resigns from CBS News due to circumstances beyond his control.
February 27	The only Perry Mason episode ever broadcast in color, titled, "The Case of the Twice-Told Twist", airs on CBS.
April 18	ABC's annual broadcast of the Academy Awards airs in color for the first time ever.
July 16	The Miss Universe pageant is broadcast in color for the first time ever.
September 10	The annual Miss America Pageant is broadcast on NBC for the first time ever. This broadcast is also the first Miss America pageant to be telecast in color.
September 19	With the premiere episode of That Girl through ABC, KENI-TV becomes the first television station in Alaska to broadcast any program in color.
October 6	A prime-time edition of The Dating Game is launched on ABC following the cancellation of The Tammy Grimes Show.
October 17	All programming from NBC's news division begins airing in color.
November 7	The NBC game show Concentration becomes the last program on the network to go full color, thus making NBC the first full-color television network.
November 19	ABC affiliate KHVH-TV (now KITV) in Honolulu, Hawaii conducts the first-ever live 2-way satellite telecasts between Hawaii and the mainland, through the facilities of the Lani Bird satellite.

Other events in 1966

The early 1950s CBS sitcom Amos 'n' Andy is pulled from off-network syndication in response to complaints from civil rights organizations, including the NAACP.

Television programs

Debuts

Date	Debut	Network
January 3	Eye Guess	NBC
January 8	Court Martial	ABC
January 11	Daktari	CBS
January 12	Batman	ABC
January 12^[1]^[2]	Blue Light	ABC
April 1	The 700 Club	CBN First-run syndication
April 4	Firing Line	First-run syndication
April 21	Batfink	KTLA
June 27	Dark Shadows	ABC
July 4	Chain Letter	NBC
July 4	Showdown	NBC
July 11	The Newlywed Game	ABC
July 18	The 700 Club	Syndication
July 22	Summer Fun	ABC
August 14	Preview Tonight	ABC
September 4^[3]	The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon	WNEW-TV
September 5	The Marvel Super Heroes	First-run syndication
September 6	Love on a Rooftop	ABC
September 6	The Pruitts of Southampton	ABC
September 7	The Monroes	ABC
September 8	Hawk	ABC
September 8^[4]	Star Trek: The Original Series	NBC
September 8	Tarzan	NBC
September 8	That Girl	ABC
September 9^[5]	The Green Hornet	ABC
September 10	The Adventures of Superboy	CBS
September 10	Cool McCool	NBC
September 10^[6]	Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles	CBS
September 10^[7]	The King Kong Show	ABC
September 10^[8]	Laurel and Hardy	NBC
September 10^[9]	The Lone Ranger	CBS
September 10^[10]	The New Adventures of Superman	CBS
September 10	Shane	ABC
September 10^[11]	Space Ghost	CBS
September 10	The Space Kidettes	NBC
September 10	The Super 6	NBC
September 11	It's About Time	CBS
September 12	Family Affair	CBS
September 12	The Felony Squad	ABC
September 12	Iron Horse	NBC
September 12	The Monkees	NBC
September 12	The Rat Patrol	ABC
September 12	Run, Buddy, Run	CBS
September 13	Occasional Wife	NBC
September 14^[12]	ABC Stage 67	ABC
September 16	T.H.E. Cat	NBC
September 16	The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.	NBC
September 17	Mission: Impossible	CBS
September 17	Pistols 'n' Petticoats	CBS
October 17	The Hollywood Squares	NBC
October 29^[13]	The Mighty Heroes	CBS
December 23	Hoolihan & Big Chuck	WJW-TV

Ending this year

Date	Show	Network	Debut
January 4	Rawhide	CBS	January 9, 1959
January 8	Shindig!	ABC	September 16, 1964
February 6	Mister Ed	CBS	January 5, 1961
March 19	The Donna Reed Show	ABC	September 24, 1958
March 21	Ben Casey		1961
April 1	The Flintstones		September 30, 1960
April 8	The Addams Family		September 18, 1964
April 11	Hullabaloo	NBC	January 12, 1965
April 12	McHale's Navy	ABC	October 11, 1962
April 17	The Wackiest Ship in the Army	NBC	September 19, 1965
April 23	The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet	ABC	October 3, 1952
April 27	The Patty Duke Show	ABC	September 18, 1963
May 1	My Favorite Martian	CBS	September 29, 1963
May 12	The Munsters		September 24, 1964
May 22	Perry Mason		September 21, 1957
June 1	The Dick Van Dyke Show		October 3, 1961
September 2	Summer Fun	ABC	July 22, 1966
September 11	Preview Tonight	ABC	August 14, 1966
October 14	Chain Letter	NBC	July 4, 1966
October 14	Showdown	NBC	July 4, 1966
October 24	Peter Potamus	Syndication	September 16, 1964
December 16	Shock Theater	WJW-TV	January 13, 1963

Television movies, specials and miniseries

Title	Network	Date(s) of airing	Notes/Ref,
An Evening with Carol Channing	CBS	February 18
Color Me Barbra	CBS	March 30	Starred Barbra Streisand.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas!	CBS	December 18	Annual reruns of this holiday special became an annual tradition.
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown	CBS	October 27	Annual reruns of this holiday special became an annual tradition on broadcast television until 2021.
Yule Log	WPIX-TV	December 24	Annual reruns of this holiday special became an annual tradition.

Networks and services

Network launches

Network	Type	Launch date	Source
Arkansas Educational Television Network	Regional over-the-air public broadcast	December 4

Television stations

Sign-ons

Date	City of License/Market	Station	Channel	Affiliation	Notes/Ref.
January 4	Chicago, Illinois	WFLD	32	Independent	now a Fox O&O station
January 21	Appleton, Minnesota	KWCM	9	NET
January 24	Duluth, Minnesota	WDIO-TV	10	ABC
January 25	Atlantic City, New Jersey	WCMC-TV	40	NBC
February 19	Jacksonville, Florida	WJKS-TV	17	ABC
February 23	Roswell, New Mexico	KBIM-TV	10	CBS	Satellite of KGGM (now KRQE) in Albuquerque
March 4	Roanoke, Virginia	WRFT-TV	27	ABC
April 2	Erie, Pennsylvania	WJET-TV	24	ABC
April 5	Fort Pierce/West Palm Beach, Florida	WTVX	34	Independent
April 15	Honolulu, Hawaii	KHET	11	NET
April 20	Washington, D.C.	WDCA	20	Independent
May 3	Toledo, Ohio	WNWO-TV	24	Independent
May 14	Portsmouth, Ohio	WRLO	30
May 17	Sayre, Oklahoma	KVIJ-TV	8	ABC	Satellite of KVII-TV/Oklahoma City
May 29	San Juan, Puerto Rico	WITA-TV	31	Religious independent
May 31	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	KLPR-TV	14	Independent
June 29	Corona/Los Angeles, California	KMTW-TV	52	Independent
July 29	Lebanon, New Hampshire	WRLH	31	NBC
August 15	Modesto/Sacramento, California	KLOC-TV	19	Independent
September 6	Columbia, South Carolina	WRLK-TV	35	NET	Flagship of the South Carolina ETV network
September 6	Rochester, New York	WXXI	21	NET
September 7	Alliance, Nebraska	KTNE-TV	13	NET	Part of Nebraska ETV
September 12	North Platte, Nebraska	KPNE-TV	6	NET	Part of Nebraska ETV
September 12	Wrens/Augusta, Georgia	WCES-TV	20	NET	Part of the Georgia Public Broadcasting television network
September 22	Scranton, Pennsylvania	WVIA-TV	44	NET
September 22	Wailuku, Hawaii	KMEB	10	NET
October 18	Sitka/Juneau, Alaska	KIFW-TV	13	CBS
October 20	Wausau, Wisconsin	WAEO-TV	12	NBC
November 2	Lead, South Dakota	KHSD-TV	5	CBS	Satellite of KOTA-TV (now KHME) in Rapid City
December 4	Little Rock, Arkansas	KETS	2	NET	Flagship of the Arkansas Educational Television Network
Unknown date	Jamestown/Buffalo, New York	WNYP-TV	26	CTV	Only major television station in the U.S. to ever be affiliated with a Canadian television network on a primary basis

Network affiliation changes

Date	City of license/Market	Station	Channel	Old affiliation	New affiliation	Notes/Ref.
January 24	Duluth, Minnesota	KDAL-TV	3	CBS (primary) ABC (secondary)	CBS (exclusive)	KDAL and WDSM dropped ABC programming upon the sign-on of WDIO-TV.
January 24	Superior, Wisconsin (Duluth, Minnesota)	WDSM-TV	6	NBC (primary) ABC (secondary)	NBC (exclusive)
February 1	Great Falls, Montana	KFBB-TV	5	CBS (primary) ABC (secondary)	ABC (primary) CBS (secondary)	KFBB becomes the first primary ABC affiliate in Montana.
February 19	Jacksonville, Florida	WMBR-TV	4	CBS (primary) ABC (secondary)	CBS (exclusive)
February 19	Jacksonville, Florida	WFGA-TV	NBC (primary) ABC (secondary)	NBC (exclusive)
May 1	Fort Pierce/West Palm Beach, Florida	WTVX	34	Independent	CBS
October 20	Wausau, Wisconsin	WSAW-TV	7	CBS (primary) NBC (secondary)	CBS (exclusive)
Unknown date	Austin, Texas	KTBC	7	CBS (primary) ABC and NBC (secondary)	CBS (primary) ABC (secondary)
Unknown date	Austin, Texas	KHFI-TV	36	Independent	NBC

Births

Deaths

References

^ McNeil, Alex, Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 104.
^ Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present, Sixth Edition, New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, ISBN 0-345-39736-3, p. 116.
^ "MDA's 'Love Network' has a rich, vital history," from Quest, 7/1/2005
^ "Star Trek (a titles & telecast dates guide)". epguides.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2010.
^ Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2003). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (8th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 486–487.
^ Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 110–112. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
^ Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia (2nd expanded ed.). Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press. p. 313340. ISBN 1-84576-500-1.
^ "A Laurel and Hardy Cartoon". TV.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
^ McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present (4 ed.). Penguin Books. p. 489. ISBN 978-0-14-024916-3.
^ Bruce Scivally (2008). Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway. McFarland & Co. pp. 72, 136, 138. ISBN 978-0-7864-3166-3.
^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 767–770. ISBN 978-1476665993.
^ Terrace, Vincent (2009). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2007 (Volume 1 A-E). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3305-6.
^ The Mighty Heroes at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 23, 2016.

External links

List of 1966 American television series at IMDb

[mcneil-1] McNeil, Alex, Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present, New York: Penguin Books, 1996, p. 104.

[Brooks_and_Marsh-2] Brooks, Tim, and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present, Sixth Edition, New York: Ballantine Books, 1995, ISBN 0-345-39736-3, p. 116.

[LoveNetworkHistory-3] "MDA's 'Love Network' has a rich, vital history," from Quest, 7/1/2005

[4] "Star Trek (a titles & telecast dates guide)". epguides.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2010. Retrieved April 4, 2010.

[brooks-5] Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle (2003). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (8th ed.). New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 486–487.

[Woolery-6] Woolery, George W. (1983). Children's Television: The First Thirty-Five Years, 1946-1981. Scarecrow Press. pp. 110–112. ISBN 0-8108-1557-5. Retrieved 14 March 2020.

[7] Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2006). The Anime Encyclopedia (2nd expanded ed.). Berkeley, California: Stone Bridge Press. p. 313340. ISBN 1-84576-500-1.

[TV.com-8] "A Laurel and Hardy Cartoon". TV.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 16, 2019.

[9] McNeil, Alex (1996). Total Television: The Comprehensive Guide to Programming From 1948 to the Present (4 ed.). Penguin Books. p. 489. ISBN 978-0-14-024916-3.

[tvr-10] Bruce Scivally (2008). Superman on Film, Television, Radio and Broadway. McFarland & Co. pp. 72, 136, 138. ISBN 978-0-7864-3166-3.

[11] Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 767–770. ISBN 978-1476665993.

[Terrace2009-12] Terrace, Vincent (2009). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2007 (Volume 1 A-E). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3305-6.

[toonopedia-13] The Mighty Heroes at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on February 23, 2016.

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