1999 in American television
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 1999. Events listed include television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and channel initiations, closures and re-brandings, as well as information about controversies and disputes.
Events
January
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Biography, a spinoff of A&E Network, is launched. |
| DIY Network, a spinoff of Home and Garden Television, is launched. | |
| 4 | Ed, Edd n Eddy premieres on Cartoon Network. |
| 6 | Bob Newhart receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. |
| 11 | Jon Stewart debuts as host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, replacing Craig Kilborn, who moves to CBS to succeed Tom Snyder as host of The Late Late Show. |
| 23 | Gene Siskel hosts his final episode of Siskel & Ebert with Roger Ebert. On February 3, 1999, Siskel announced that he would take a leave of absence for the rest of the season but promised to be back the next fall. On February 20, 1999, Siskel died suddenly from complications from a second brain surgery. On that final episode, Siskel and Ebert reviewed At First Sight, Another Day in Paradise, The Hi-Lo Country, Playing by Heart, and The Theory of Flight |
| Paula Zahn leaves CBS News after 10 years. | |
| 31 | The Denver Broncos win their second consecutive Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons with a score of 34–19. |
| Family Guy premieres on Fox immediately following the Super Bowl. | |
February
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Prevue Channel re-brands as The TV Guide Channel, an EPG-branded version of TV Guide magazine. |
| HBO Family, HBO's fourth multiplex channel, is re-launched and premieres four new shows; A Little Curious, George and Martha, Anthony Ant and Crashbox. | |
| Disney Channel Preschool Block rebranded as Playhouse Disney. | |
| 2 | Noggin is launched. |
March
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids debuts. |
| 8 | Station Zero premieres on MTV. |
| 13 | A special live edition of All That airs on Nickelodeon. |
| 15 | After three years of not being picked up by domestic distribution in the US, action series L.A. Heat finally airs on US television with the series airing on TNT. |
| 26 | Tom Snyder's last show on CBS's The Late Late Show. The following Monday, Craig Kilborn, late of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, takes his place as the show's host. |
| 28 | Futurama premieres on Fox. |
April
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 18 | Hockey great Wayne Gretzky plays his final game (a 2-1 overtime loss between his New York Rangers against the Pittsburgh Penguins), which is broadcast in the United States by Fox. Mike Emrick and John Davidson were on the call with Sam Rosen conducting interviews. |
| 26 | NBC's The Tonight Show is broadcast in high-definition for the first time, making it the first late-night program to be broadcast in this format. Host Jay Leno's guests are: Salma Hayek, David Arquette, and Jewel. |
| 29 | The pilot episode of WWF SmackDown! is broadcast on UPN as a single television special. (The show would officially premiere again on the network with a new stage on August 26.) The main event saw Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock team up to defeat the Corporate Ministry |
May
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nickelodeon airs a preview of the Nickelodeon series Spongebob Squarepants, which would go on to debut 2 months later. |
| Starz launches two multiplex channels; Starz Cinema and Starz Family. | |
| 6 | HBO launches two multiplex channels; HBO Zone and HBO Comedy. |
| 21 | Susan Lucci receives a Daytime Emmy Award for her role as Erica Kane on the ABC soap opera All My Children, after eighteen failed nominations during previous years. The ceremony is telecast live on CBS. |
| 23 | World Wrestling Federation wrestler Owen Hart is killed after falling 70 ft (21 m) from the rafters at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, during a live pay-per-view broadcast of Over The Edge. |
| 24 | During an in-ring promo on WCW Monday Nitro, WCW wrestler Bret Hart pays tribute to his brother Owen, who was killed in an in-ring accident the night before at Over the Edge. |
June
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 11 | Cartoon Cartoon Fridays premieres on Cartoon Network. |
| 17 | The NHL on Fox airs for the final time. |
July
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 17 | The Nickelodeon series, Spongebob Squarepants officially debuts. |
| 18 | The Simpsons actor Hank Azaria marries actress Helen Hunt. The couple would file for divorce over a year later. |
| 31 | CBS This Morning co-anchor Russ Mitchell as an Saturday anchor of CBS Evening News along with Thalia Assuras as an alternate Saturday anchor starting in November. |
August
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 26 | WWF SmackDown! airs its first episode, live from the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, on UPN. The main event saw Triple H defeating The Rock to retain the WWF Title thanks to interference from Shawn Michaels, who was the special guest referee |
| 30 | Countess Vaughn leaves the cast of Moesha to star in her own television spin-off The Parkers with Mo'Nique, making her the first female African-American comedian to receive a spin-off. |
September
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 6 | On PBS, PTV is re-branded as PBS Kids with new IDs, bumpers, and promos, whilst on UPN, a new weekday & Sunday block called Disney's One Too debuts, a spinoff of ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning. |
| Dragon Tales premieres on PBS Kids. | |
| In Schenectady, New York, PBS member station WMHQ is relaunched as WEWB-TV, a commercial broadcast station affiliated with The WB Television Network (the Capital District's first affiliate of that network). | |
| 12 | The 51st Primetime Emmy Awards presentation aired on Fox. |
| 20 | After a four-year hiatus, Family Feud resumes with a new host, Louie Anderson. |
| After four years, WGN's superstation feed drops programming from The WB and Kids' WB at the request of the network. The network's programs are replaced by movie, sports from Chicago's sporting teams and other broadcasts. | |
| 24 | The WB begins airing programming on Friday nights. |
| 27 | The Rock garners the highest cable rating in WWF history with Mankind in a segment entitled "This is your life" on Raw Is War, which draws a record 8.4 rating.[1][2][3] |
October
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | The infamous "YOU FOOL!" episode of Hollywood Squares airs in syndication. |
| 4 | ABC affiliate WPTY, and sister station WLMT, both in the Memphis area, begin allowing The WB programming, most notably on WPTY for late nights, and some kids shows, like Pokemon, airing on WLMT.[4][5] |
| 10 | The professional wrestling pay-per-view event, Heroes of Wrestling is broadcast from the Casino Magic hotel and casino in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Although the event was heavily promoted, it was only purchased by 29,000 households. Additionally, the event itself was generally regarded to be of poor quality: Wrestling Observer rated it the worst major wrestling event of 1999,[6] with its editor Dave Meltzer giving a rating of "absolute zero" to a tag team match featuring Luke Williams and Butch Miller facing Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik. Meltzer's colleague, Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Weekly, has repeatedly referred to this match as the worst he has ever seen and rated it "minus more stars than there are in the universe"[7] |
| 27 | The fourth and deciding game of the World Series airs on NBC. This is to date, NBC's 39th and final World Series. The New York Yankees defeat once again the Atlanta Braves, winning their second title in a row and 25th in franchise history. |
November
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 | Mike, Lu & Og and Courage the Cowardly Dog premiere on Cartoon Network as part of the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays programming block. |
| 19 | John Carpenter becomes the first player on ABC's game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to win $1,000,000. Carpenter is also the first known contestant in the history of American game show to win $1,000,000. |
December
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Pryor appears in the cold open of the ABC sitcom Norm in what would prove to be his final television appearance. He would die in 2005, 6 years later. |
| 15 | NASCAR strikes a deal with Fox Sports, FX, NBC, and TBS (later moved to TNT) worth $2.4 billion for a new six-year package,[8] covering the Winston Cup (now NASCAR Cup) Series and Busch (now Xfinity) Series schedules. NASCAR wanted to capitalize on its increased popularity even more, so the organization decided that future deals would be centralized; that is, the networks would negotiate directly with NASCAR for a regular schedule of telecasts. The old deal arrangement saw each track negotiate with the networks to broadcast their races. As a result, NASCAR had races on CBS, TNN, ESPN, ABC, NBC, and TBS. However, NBC, which had just entered the sport, showed only one race in 2000. NASCAR wanted to increase the number of races by each partner, and have as many races on broadcast networks as possible, to prevent fans from missing races. |
| 31 | ABC participates in the global broadcast 2000 Today with ABC 2000 Today. Peter Jennings anchors ABC's broadcast of the special from New York City, joined later by Dick Clark who hosts the countdown in Times Square. |
Programs
Debuts
Ending this year
Entering syndication this year
| Show | Seasons | In Production | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd Rock from the Sun | 4 | Yes | [9] |
| Caroline in the City | 4 | Yes | [10] |
| Clueless | 3 | No | [11] |
| The Drew Carey Show | 4 | Yes | [12] |
| In the House | 5 | No | [13] |
| The Parent 'Hood | 5 | No | [14] |
| Star Trek: Voyager | 5 | Yes | [15] |
| Unhappily Ever After | 5 | No | |
| The Wayans Bros. | 5 | No | [16] |
Resuming this year
| Title | Last aired | Previous network | New title | New network | Date of return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timon and Pumbaa | 1996 | Syndication and CBS | Same | Toon Disney | January 1 |
| Zoom | 1978 | PBS | PTV | January 4 | |
| Are You Afraid of the Dark? | 1996 | Nickelodeon | Same | February 6 | |
| ReBoot | Syndication and ABC | Toonami | March 15 | ||
| Johnny Bravo | 1997 | Cartoon Network | Same | July 2 | |
| Divorce Court | 1992 | Syndication | September 7 | ||
| Tales from the Cryptkeeper | 1994 | ABC | The New Tales from the Cryptkeeper | CBS | September 11 |
| Family Feud | 1995 | Syndication | Same | Same | September 20 |
| Ace Ventura: Pet Detective | 1997 | CBS | Nickelodeon | October 29 |
Changes of network affiliation
Made-for-TV movies and miniseries
| Title | Channel | Date of airing |
|---|---|---|
| Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century | Disney Channel | January 23 |
| Alice in Wonderland | NBC | February 28 |
| Great Expectations | PBS | May 9 |
| Joan of Arc | CBS | May 15 |
| Atomic Train | NBC | May 16 |
| A Lesson Before Dying | HBO | May 22 |
| Pirates of Silicon Valley | TNT | June 20 |
| Vendetta | HBO | July 3 |
| Johnny Tsunami | Disney Channel | July 24 |
| First Daughter | TBS | August 15 |
| Don't Look Under the Bed | Disney Channel | October 9 |
| RKO 281 | HBO | November 20 |
| Horse Sense | Disney Channel | |
| Runaway Reptar | Nickelodeon | November 27 |
| Cinderelmo | FOX | December 6 |
| A Berry Bear Christmas | Playhouse Disney | December 7 |
| Ego Trip | Cartoon Network | December 10 |
| The Lady in Question | A&E | December 12 |
Television stations
Station launches
Network affiliation changes
| Date | City of License/Market | Station | Channel | Old affiliation | New affiliation | Notes/Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 12 | Lima, Ohio | WLQP-LP | 18 | Fox (as W18BP) | UPN | |
Station closures
| Date | Market | Station | Channel | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 31 | Buffalo, New York | WFHW-LP | 58 | Independent |
Births
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Notability |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 4 | Iron Eyes Cody | 94 | Actor (well known for an anti-littering campaign ad of the 1970s) |
| January 25 | Herman Wedemeyer | 74 | Actor (Duke Lukela on Hawaii Five-O) |
| February 20 | Gene Siskel | 53 | Film critic (co-host of Siskel & Ebert) |
| March 22 | David Strickland | 29 | Actor (Todd Stities on Suddenly Susan) |
| March 28 | Freaky Tah | 27 | American rapper |
| March 30 | Gary Morton | 74 | Producer, second husband of Lucille Ball |
| April 10 | Jean Vander Pyl | 79 | Voice actress (Wilma Flintstone on The Flintstones and Rosie the Robot Maid on The Jetsons) |
| April 14 | Ellen Corby | 87 | Actress (Grandma Esther Walton on The Waltons) |
| May 8 | Dana Plato | 34 | Actress (Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes) |
| May 21 | Sachiko Hirasawa | 25 | Japanese R&B Singer of the Sister duo Double |
| May 23 | Owen Hart | 34 | Wrestler (Superstar on WWF RAW is WAR) |
| June 11 | DeForest Kelley | 79 | Actor (Bones McCoy on Star Trek) |
| July 16 | John F. Kennedy Jr. | 38 | American lawyer and son of President John F. Kennedy |
| July 20 | Sandra Gould | 82 | Actress (Gladys Kravitz #2 on Bewitched) |
| August 23 | Martha Rountree | 87 | Broadcast journalist (Meet the Press) |
| August 24 | Mary Jane Croft | 83 | Actress (I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy) |
| September 5 | Allen Funt | 84 | Creator and host of Candid Camera |
| November 9 | Mabel King | 66 | Actress (Mabel Thomas on What's Happening!!) |
| November 11 | Mary Kay Bergman | 38 | Voice actress (South Park) |
| November 18 | Beatrice Colen | 51 | Actress (Happy Days, Wonder Woman) |
| November 29 | Gene Rayburn | 81 | Host of (Match Game) |
| December 3 | Madeline Kahn | 57 | Actress (Oh Madeline) |
| December 10 | Shirley Hemphill | 52 | Comedian and actress (What's Happening!!) |
| December 28 | Clayton Moore | 85 | Actor (The Lone Ranger) |
References
- "The Rock: This is Your Life!".
- "Bill Banks Talks About the Highest Rated Wrestling Segment". Bleacher Report.
- "CRZ.net [slash] Wrestling [slash] RAW [slash] 27 September 1999".
- "WPTY shuffles, moves the WB network to "free" TV late nights". The Commercial Appeal. 1999-09-23.
- "WB". The Commercial Appeal. 1999-09-23.
- "Heroes PPV a disappointment". Retrieved 2007-05-13.
- Heroes of Wrestling: Sucked Long Before Jake Used a Snake as a Penis
- "2001 TV Deal". Archived from the original on September 18, 2000. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Quote: While many fans were upset that ESPN and CBS lost the rights, insiders say that their bids were close to $100 million annually under the winning bids from Fox and NBC. - http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-06-23.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1998/BC-1998-05-11.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1998/BC-1998-12-14.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-06-30.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-08-25.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-03-17.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
- Star Trek: Voyager Syndication Promo - "Are You a Voyager?" - YouTube from YouTube
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1997/BC-1997-10-06.pdf from Broadcasting & Cable
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