| Date | Event | Ref. |
|---|
| January 3 | A day for NBC game shows that could be described as anything but uneventful. In the morning, Dennis James' version of Name That Tune and the Bob Stewart/Bill Cullen series Winning Streak end their run. In the afternoon, the biggest prize in American daytime television game shows at the time is won on Jackpot , in which two contestants split a cash prize of $38,750. Finally, the original Jeopardy! also ends its run after 2,753 episodes. It would return in nationwide syndication in 1984. | |
| January 6 | Another eventful day for NBC's daytime schedule. The morning sees the premiere episode of Wheel of Fortune , with Chuck Woolery as host and Susan Stafford as the assistant, while in the afternoon Blank Check , the Art James/Jack Barry game show debuts. Finally, Another World becomes the first American soap opera to become an hour-long program. | |
| January 11 | On CBS's All in the Family , the Bunkers say goodbye to their neighbors as The Jeffersons "move on up" to their own separate sitcom. | |
| March 4 | CBS airs the very first annual People's Choice Awards . | |
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| March 18 | McLean Stevenson makes his final appearance as Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake on CBS' M*A*S*H . The episode ends with revelation that Blake after being honorably discharged, is reported killed by enemy fire. | |
| March 28 | Gunsmoke airs its last televised episode on CBS. Ultimately, the plotline was cut short, so it was ended on a cliffhanger. | |
| April 21 | Following on from Another World less than three months ago, NBC's Days of Our Lives begins airing hour-long episodes. | |
| April 25 | ABC broadcasts the special program, Alice Cooper: The Nightmare . | |
| Independent station WKBF-TV in Cleveland, Ohio merges its operations with rival independent WUAB and ceases operations. | [1] |
| April 28 | NBC's The Tomorrow Show finds Tom Snyder interviewing John Lennon. | |
| May 29 | NBC affiliate WHFV in Fredericksburg, Virginia, citing financial troubles, ceases operations. | [2] [3] |
| June 5 | Fred Silverman becomes the head of ABC Entertainment. Silverman's programming choices will prove fruitful for ABC, resulting in its late-decade ratings dominance (and initiating an era of what was disparagingly called "T&A" or "Jiggle television"). | |
| September 8 | The CBS game show The Price is Right is expanded to the length of one hour, with six games and two Showcase Showdowns as a week-long experiment. The format, which marked the debut of "The Big Wheel", is made permanent two months later. | [4] [5] |
| September 22 | Television comes to Alpena, Michigan when CBS affiliate WBKB-TV signs-on. | |
| September 29 | The first television station in the U.S. to be owned and operated by African Americans signs on in Detroit, Michigan as WGPR-TV channel 62, which is present-day CBS O&O WWJ-TV. | |
| September 30 | HBO broadcasts the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier title fight from the Philippines. Known as the "Thrilla in Manila", the live feed was sent via satellite to the U.S. | |
| October 11 | NBC's Saturday Night (now known as Saturday Night Live ) premieres. Comedian George Carlin is the first host. |
| October 21 | NBC broadcasts the now legendary 12-inning long sixth game of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds, in which the Red Sox tied the series on a Carlton Fisk home run more notable for Fisk's reaction. | [6] [7] |
| November 11 | On an episode of the ABC sitcom Happy Days , Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams make their first appearances as Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney respectively. This will soon lead to the characters being spun-off into their own series, which will run for eight seasons. |
| November 23 | NBC is forced to join Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in progress at the conclusion of an NFL football game between the Washington Redskins and the Oakland Raiders, which ended in overtime. This was done to avoid a repeat of the "Heidi Game" incident of 1968, in which the network interrupted coverage of an AFL game between the Raiders and the New York Jets to show the movie Heidi , a decision that infuriated football fans and haunted network executives. | |
| Sneak Previews (under the name Opening Soon at a Theater Near You ), the first American film review show, premieres and launches the careers of critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. They will remain a team, and a staple among film critics, through various programs for the next twenty-four years. | |
| December 1 | CBS makes its first soap opera expansion when the top-rated As The World Turns airs its first hour-long episode. | |
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