2004 in American television
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
The following is a list of events affecting American television during 2004. Events listed include television series debuts, finales, cancellations, and new channel initiations.
Contents
Events
February
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy occurs. As a result, the Federal Communications Commission strengthened its rules concerning certain types of indecency. |
| 9 | Jetix was introduced on Toon Disney and ABC Family, making it the first trade-name to be introduced as an anime-based block. |
| 22 | Sex and the City broadcasts its final episode, "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux." |
March
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Price Is Right broadcasts its 6,000th episode. |
| 15 | Game Show Network began fraying out the rebranding known as GSN. |
April
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 16 | Rich Fields becomes the third permanent announcer on The Price Is Right. |
| Cartoon Network's Toonami ends its weekday run after 8 years. By the following day, it was then transferred from 5 pm Weekdays to 7 pm (prime time) Saturdays, and extended by four hours (from two to six). |
May
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 6 | Friends ends its run of 10 years, broadcasting the final episode, The Last One. A spinoff, Joey, debuts the following season. |
| 11 | NBC Universal is founded by General Electric and Vivendi Universal. |
| 13 | Frasier broadcasts its final episode, "Goodnight Seattle". |
| 15 | Jimmy Fallon makes his last appearance as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, for its season finale. |
| 26 | Fantasia Barrino wins the third season of American Idol. Also, this was the first time when the series became a #1 hit in the television ratings of this season. |
| 28 | TechTV merges with G4 to form G4techTV, one of the most controversial mergers of television history as less than a year later, the merged network becomes G4 once again. |
June
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah, begins a long run as Jeopardy! champion. |
| 10 | TBS reintroduces its Very Funny campaign, which it continues to use to this day. |
| 14 | Cartoon Network reveals its new logo. |
August
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 28 | PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch ended. |
| Programming block SNICK discontinued on Nickelodeon. |
September
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 19 | The 56th Primetime Emmy Awards are given. |
| 21 | Drew Daniel is the winner of the American version of Big Brother 5. Runner-Up Michael "Cowboy" Ellis wins $50,000. |
| 28 | Longtime veteran Marcy Walker makes her final appearance for the series All My Children after two decades of being affiliated with the program. |
October
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | Amy Poehler succeeds Jimmy Fallon as Tina Fey's co-anchor of NBC's Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update skit, making the first Weekend Update female duos. |
| Nickelodeon and its affiliated channels begin debuting special educational programming, Worldwide Day of Play, after the Let's Just Play campaign. | |
| 11 | PBS Kids debuts a pre-teen programming block entitled, PBS Kids Go!. With new shows Maya & Miguel and a Arthur spinoff, Postcards from Buster debuts on this day with Cyberchase. |
November
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Young and the Restless broadcasts its 8,000th episode. |
| 7 | Dallas airs a third TV movie, Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork. |
| 23 | Longtime CBS News anchor and manager editor Dan Rather announces he will step down in March. |
| 30 | After seventy-four consecutive wins, Ken Jennings finally loses on Jeopardy!, to competitor Nancy Zerg. Jennings' final cash winnings total is $2,522,700 making him the richest winner of American television history. |
December
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 | Tom Brokaw resigns as anchorman of NBC Nightly News and is replaced by Brian Williams. |
| 15 | CNN's financial news channel, CNNfn, is ended. |
| 16 | All My Children broadcasts its 9,000th episode. |
| 29 | Rogers Media buys remaining 20% ownership of Rogers Sportsnet from Fox. |
| General Electric, owner of NBC, purchases Universal Studios from Vivendi, leaving all six U.S. broadcast networks part of a company which also owns a movie studio. | |
| For the first time in its history, Nielsen Media Research, the official American television ratings service, began counting original shows on pay Television premium channels in its prime-time ratings.[1] At the time, most of these were broadcast by competitors HBO and Showtime, but Starz has since begun producing original shows. |
Programs
Debuts
The following is a list of shows that premiered in 2004.
Ending this year
| Date | Show | Debut |
|---|---|---|
| January 25 | 10-8: Officers on Duty | 2003 |
| January 28 | Becker | 1998 |
| January 29 | Threat Matrix | 2003 |
| January 30 | Boston Public | 2000 |
| Fillmore! | 2002 | |
| The Handler | 2003 | |
| February 3 | Sabrina's Secret Life | |
| February 6 | Ed | 2000 |
| February 7 | Scout's Safari | 2002 |
| February 12 | All About the Andersons | 2003 |
| February 14 | Lizzie McGuire | 2001 |
| February 16 | Little Bill | 1999 |
| February 22 | Sex and the City | 1998 |
| February 24 | Rolie Polie Olie | |
| February 27 | Lloyd in Space | 2001 |
| February 29 | The Weekenders | 2000 |
| March 7 | Teamo Supremo | 2002 |
| March 13 | Hack | |
| March 23 | The Jersey | 1999 |
| March 25 | The Chris Isaak Show | 2001 |
| April 2 | Game Over | 2004 |
| April 4 | Home Movies | 1999 |
| April 6 | It's All Relative | 2003 |
| April 9 | Life with Bonnie | 2002 |
| April 12 | Space Ghost Coast to Coast | 1994 |
| April 14 | Karen Sisco | 2003 |
| April 16 | The Help | 2004 |
| April 20 | Happy Family | 2003 |
| Whoopi | ||
| April 22 | Like Family | |
| April 23 | Married to the Kellys | |
| April 27 | I'm with Her | |
| April 29 | The Jamie Kennedy Experiment | 2002 |
| April 30 | Living It Up! With Ali & Jack | 2003 |
| May 1 | The District | 2000 |
| May 4 | The Guardian | 2001 |
| May 6 | Friends | 1994 |
| May 7 | Run of the House | 2003 |
| May 10 | The Parkers | 1999 |
| May 13 | Frasier | 1993 |
| May 16 | The Practice | 1997 |
| May 17 | Mutant X | 2001 |
| May 19 | Angel | 1999 |
| May 21 | Ricki Lake | 1993 |
| The Wayne Brady Show | 2001 | |
| May 22 | Static Shock | 2000 |
| May 25 | Rock Me Baby | 2003 |
| May 26 | Soul Food | 2000 |
| May 28 | The Sharon Osbourne Show | 2003 |
| May 29 | Justice League | 2001 |
| June 4 | Hollywood Squares | 1966 |
| June 8 | Rugrats | 1991 |
| Hey Arnold! | 1996 | |
| June 11 | The Wild Thornberrys | 1998 |
| June 19 | The Man Show | 1999 |
| July 5 | Ozzy & Drix | 2002 |
| July 30 | Rocket Power | 1999 |
| August 23 | The Brothers Garcia | 2000 |
| August 27 | Johnny Bravo | 1997 |
| September 8 | The Drew Carey Show | 1995 |
| September 12 | Oliver Beene | 2003 |
| September 25 | Samurai Jack | 2001 |
| September 27 | Out of the Box | 1998 |
| September 28 | The Berenstain Bears | 2003 |
| October 1 | Da Boom Crew | 2004 |
| October 6 | Hawaii | |
| October 11 | SpongeBob SquarePants (returned in 2005) | 1999 |
| October 13 | Clifford's Puppy Days | 2003 |
| October 22 | Evil Con Carne | |
| October 25 | The Benefactor | 2004 |
| October 29 | All About Me | 2002 |
| Dr. Vegas | 2004 | |
| October 31 | Dead Like Me | 2003 |
| November 11 | Unscrewed with Martin Sargent | |
| November 14 | He's a Lady | 2004 |
| November 20 | Power Rangers Dino Thunder | |
| November 22 | The Crocodile Hunter | 1997 |
| November 26 | Stanley | 2001 |
| December 15 | Wonderfalls | 2004 |
| December 28 | Father of the Pride |
Changes of network affiliation
| Show | Transferred from | Transferred to |
|---|---|---|
| As Told by Ginger | Nickelodeon | Nicktoons |
| Fillmore! | ABC | Toon Disney |
| The Surreal Life | The WB | VH1 |
| Thomas and Friends | CITV | PBS Kids |
Births
| Date | Name | Notability |
|---|---|---|
| June 8 | Francesca Capaldi | Actress (Dog with a Blog) |
Deaths
| Date | Name | Age | Credibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 17 | Noble Willingham | 72 | Actor (C.D. Parker on Walker, Texas Ranger) |
| January 19 | Jerry Nachman | 57 | MSNBC editor-in-chief |
| January 23 | Bob Keeshan | 76 | Children's show host (Captain Kangaroo) |
| January 27 | Jack Paar | 85 | Host of The Tonight Show |
| January 29 | Mary-Ellis Bunim | 57 | Producer and co-creator of (The Real World) |
| February 15 | Jan Miner | 86 | Actress ("Madge the Manicurist") |
| February 23 | Carl Anderson | 58 | Actor (Another World) |
| February 24 | John Randolph | 88 | Actor (Grand) |
| March 7 | Paul Winfield | 64 | Actor (King, 227) |
| March 8 | Robert Pastorelli | 49 | Actor (Murphy Brown) |
| March 17 | J.J. Jackson | 62 | MTV VJ |
| March 26 | Jan Sterling | 82 | Actress |
| March 27 | Art James | 74 | Game show host and announcer |
| April 1 | Carrie Snodgress | 58 | Actress |
| May 9 | Alan King | 76 | Comedian and actor |
| May 17 | Tony Randall | 84 | Actor (Felix on The Odd Couple) |
| May 21 | Gene Wood | 78 | Announcer of Family Feud and other game shows |
| May 22 | Richard Biggs | 44 | Actor |
| June 5 | Ronald Reagan | 93 | Actor and U.S. president; host of General Electric Theater and Death Valley Days |
| July 9 | Isabel Sanford | 86 | Actress (Louise "Weezie" Mills Jefferson on The Jeffersons) |
| July 28 | Eugene Roche | 75 | Actor (Soap, Webster, more) |
| August 13 | Julia Child | 91 | Host of The French Chef on PBS |
| October 10 | Christopher Reeve | 52 | Actor |
| November 7 | Howard Keel | 85 | Actor, singer (Clayton Farlow on Dallas) |
| December 28 | Jerry Orbach | 69 | Actor (Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order) |
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
