The year 1983 in television involved some significant events.
Cagney & Lacey is an American police procedural drama television series that aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982, to May 16, 1988. The show is about two New York City police detectives who lead very different lives: Christine Cagney is a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey is a married working mother. The series is set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct. The pilot movie had Loretta Swit in the role of Cagney, while the first six episodes had Meg Foster in the role. When the show was revived for a full-season run, Gless portrayed the role for six consecutive years. Each year during that time, one of the two lead actresses won the Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama, a winning streak matched only once since in any major category by a show.
Dorothy Catherine Fontana was an American television script writer and story editor, best known for her work on the original Star Trek series and several Western television series.
Rob Stanton Bowman is an American film director and producer. He grew up around film and television production, and developed an interest in the field because of the work of his father, director Chuck Bowman. Bowman is a prolific director for television, and has contributed to series such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, and The X-Files, for which he received four consecutive Emmy nominations as a producer. He was an executive producer and director for the comedy drama Castle.
Daniel Shor is an American actor, director, writer, and acting teacher with a career spanning over 40 years. His most recognized roles include Enoch Emery in John Huston's Wise Blood (1979), Ram in Tron (1982), and Billy the Kid in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).
Claudia Lonow is an American actress, comedian, television writer and producer. She is best known for her portrayal of Diana Fairgate on Knots Landing.
Gregory Joseph Sierra was an American actor known for his roles as Detective Sergeant Chano Amengual on Barney Miller, Julio Fuentes, the Puerto Rican neighbor of Fred G. Sanford on Sanford and Son, and as Marruja in The Castaway Cowboy (1974).
Leo Rossi is an American actor, writer and producer. A character actor with over 100 credits to his name, he is known for his role as foul-mouthed EMT Vincent "Budd" Scarlotti in the 1981 horror film Halloween II, as the serial killer Turkell from the 1990 horror sequel Maniac Cop 2, and as Detective Sam Dietz in the Relentless franchise. His other films include Heart Like a Wheel (1983), River's Edge (1986), The Accused (1988), Analyze This (1999), One Night at McCool's (2001), and 10th & Wolf (2006).
David Ackroyd is an American actor, who first came to prominence in soap operas such as The Secret Storm and Another World.
Reza Sayed Badiyi was an Iranian-born American film and television director. His credits also include developing the opening montages for Mission: Impossible, Hawaii Five-O, Get Smart, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Lisa Seidman is an American television writer who has primarily written for soap operas. She is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College. Seidman has written episodes for several prime time television drama series, which include CBS-TV's Dallas, for which she wrote thirteen episodes, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing, for which she wrote 7 each, Murder, She Wrote, Cagney & Lacey, and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Richard Romanus is an American actor. Among other roles, he has appeared in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and provided voices for Ralph Bakshi's animated films Wizards and Hey Good Lookin'. He played Richard La Penna, Jennifer Melfi's ex-husband, later husband again, in four episodes of The Sopranos from 1999 to 2002. In 1999, he co-wrote the Christmas film If You Believe along with his wife Anthea Sylbert, which was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay award by the Writers Guild of America.
Barbara Corday is an American television executive, writer and producer known for co-creating the television series Cagney & Lacey.
Lawrence Konner is an American screenwriter, producer and film director. Konner has written over twenty-five feature films, including Mona Lisa Smile, Planet of the Apes, The Legend of Billie Jean, The Jewel of the Nile, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Konner’s writing for television spans over forty-five years. His works include the HBO series The Sopranos, for which Konner earned an Emmy nomination in 2001, and Boardwalk Empire, for which he received the WGA Award for Best New Series in 2010. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as writer and executive producer on the 2016 miniseries Roots. Other television credits include Family and Little House on the Prairie.
Terry Louise Fisher is an American former TV screenwriter and producer. During her career, she won three Primetime Emmy Awards from seven nominations.
MacGruber was a recurring sketch on the NBC television series Saturday Night Live, first appearing on the show in January 2007. The sketch is a parody of the 1985–1992 adventure series MacGyver. The sketch stars Will Forte as special operations agent MacGruber, who is tasked in each episode with deactivating a ticking bomb but becomes distracted by personal issues, resulting in the bomb's detonation and (presumably) the deaths of his companions and himself.
Fox Retro was an Italian television channel owned by Fox International Channels Italy. It feature older American television series from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It was available with a Sky Italia subscription. It was shut down on 31 December 2014.
Martin Joseph "Marty" Pasko was a Canadian comic book writer and television screenwriter.
Robin Jill Bernheim is an American television producer and writer, as well as a story editor and creative consultant.
Irma May Kalish was an American television producer and screenwriter who held a pioneering role as a woman in the TV industry. Kalish produced and wrote for television programs, including Too Close for Comfort, All in the Family, The Facts of Life, Good Times, The Hogan Family, Maude, I Dream of Jeannie, F Troop and Family Affair. She is known for writing the episode of Maude where Maude gets an abortion.
