May 13: On the nightly news, the Minister of the InteriorPaolo Emilio Taviani announces the results of the referendum and the victory of the NO (the pro-divorce).[1] During the referendum campaign, RAI maintained an attitude of exasperated prudence, going so far as to censor a scene from David Copperfield in which a character offers the divorce to his wife.[2]
June 7: on the 1974 FIFA World Cup's eve, the Minister of Communication Giuseppe Togni orders the dismantling of the implants broadcasting the signals of RSI and TV-Koper (which unlike RAI, broadcast the matches in color). In the same year, the Minister often takes similar sanctions against the Italian private channels, on cable or on air.[3]
July 7: the Constitutional Court authorizes the broadcast on Italy of the foreign channels and the private cable channels. The RAI monopoly over broadcasting on air is confirmed.[3]
August 7: in Monaco, Telemontecarlo begins broadcasting. Initially aimed to the Italian-speaking people in the principality, soon it is also broadcast in Italy. It becomes a new competitor for the RAI monopoly.[3]
August 10: first broadcasting by air of an Italian private channel; in Florence, Firenze libera airs a documentary about the 30th anniversary of the city's liberation. Firenze libera is immediately sanctioned by the Minister Togni. Within the same year, other pirate television channels follows Firenze libera's example. They include Telesuperba in Genoa (the first in color) and TV QUI in Modena (again active by now).[4]
September 18: Ettore Bernabei resigns as RAI general director, and is replaced by Michele Principe. Bernabei was in charge since 1961 and he was considered the enlightened despot of the estate.[3]
September 22: The first profanities in Italian TV. In Sorrento, the free diver Enzo Maiorca fails a record on live TV, because of a collision with a misguided photographer.[5] He then resurfaces swearing; his expletives are broadcast by the RAI cameras, before the sound is interrupted.[6]
September 24: in Milan, Telemilanocavo, a cable TV for the Milano Due residents, begins broadcasting; in the future, it will be the core of the Silvio Berlusconi's media empire.[3]
Stregone di città (City sorcerer) – by Gianfranco Bettetini, wirh Giulio Brogi, Rada Rassimov and Lucilla Morlacchi; the life of Giuseppe Parisi (a really existed Milanese priest healer) told by two women he cured.
Un certo Marconi – biopic by Sandro Bolchi, realized for the centenary of the great inventor's birth, with the famous voice actor Gualtiero De Angelis (debuting as protagonist) in the title role.[12]
Bronte: cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno raccontato (Chronicle of a slaughter never told by the schoolbooks) by Florestano Vancini, with Ivo Garrani and Mariano Rigillio; the story of a bllody peasant revolt in Sicilia, at the time of the Expedition of the Thousand, repressed with the same harshness by Nino Bixio's Garibaldins. The movie was very controversial for is negative vision of Risorgimento and was broadcast by RAI just four years after its production.
Anna Karenina – by Sandro Bolchi, with Lea Massari in the title role and Sergio Fantoni as Konstantin Levin, from the Lev Tolstoy's novel (published just a century before), in eight episodes. Last of the great RAI “dramatized novels”; it gets a huge public success, in spite of its theatrical and outdated style, thanks moreover to the Massari's interpretation.[16]
L’olandese scomparso (The Dutchman disappeared) – by Alberto Negrin, with Giuseppe Pambieri; in Venice, the disappearances of a man (an ecologist oceanographer) and of a painting (Giorgione's The Tempest) turn out to be linked.[20]
Humor
Sì, vendetta... (Yes, vengeance) – by Mario Ferrero, script and interpreted by Franca Valeri, in four episodes. Through the history of an upper class widow and of her hippy daughter, the author-actress makes irony about the changes in progress of the Italian society.[21]
Serials
Nucleo centrale investigativo (Central investigative unit) – by Vittorio Armentano, with Roberto Herlitzka; procedural about Guardia di Finanza.
Milleluci (A thousand lights) – by Antonello Falqui, with Mina and Raffaella Carrà. It's a review of the various form of entertainment, from the radio to the musical comedy, and is remembered as the only show where the two greatest female stars of Italian TV had worked together.[22] The show is the most seen TV program of the year, with 23.600.000 viewers.[23]
Tante scuse (Many apologies) – by Romolo Siena, with Raimondo Vianello and Sandra Mondaini, and Ricchi e Poveri as constant guests; the show parodies the traditional RAI variety, pretending to display its own backstage, marked by continuous troubles and quarrels. The formula will be repeated in many other spectacles of the couple.[25]
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