NASA launches Pioneer 2, a near-identical twin to the failed lunar probe Pioneer 1 it launched a month earlier. Again, technical errors prevent the probe from entering lunar orbit or, for that matter, even reaching the moon – Pioneer 2 limps into a looping arc, barely a thousand miles from Earth, and returns home to burn up in the atmosphere.
The 127th episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone airs on CBS. James Coburn stars.
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The 68th episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris. Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues) guest stars.
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The 63rd episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek airs on NBC. Kate Woodville and Byron Morrow guest star.
NBC premieres Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, a TV movie anthology of three original Serling stories, each introduced by Serling himself and starring Joan Crawford, Roddy McDowall, Ossie Davis, Richard Kiley and Tom Bosley. A young Steven Spielberg directs one of the three segments, his second professional directorial credit. Night Gallery will become a series on NBC’s schedule in late 1970.
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The eighth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search airs on NBC, starring Doug McClure and Burgess Meredith. Barbara Feldon (Get Smart) guest stars.
Service Electric Cable, the local cable company in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, embarks on an ambitious experiment, launching a movie channel that only a few hundred of their subscribers pay extra to receive. The channel, Home Box Office, is the brainchild of a New York City broadcasting entrepreneur seeking a workaround for the tendency of the city’s own high-rise architecture to block over-the-air signals. Originally code-named the Green Channel (presumably for the cash it is hoped it will rake in), HBO begins life with a mix of movies and live sports events (such as pro hockey) with no commercial interruption. Within a year, HBO will be acquired by Time-Life, expanding to nine hours of programming every day. With HBO having proven that cable subscribers will pay extra for an ad-free movie and sports channel, competing pay cable networks such as Showtime will spring up in the years to come. HBO also pioneers the concept of broadcasting exclusively via satellite, years ahead of the broadcast networks.
The 19th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Meg Foster guest stars in an episode written by D.C. Fontana (Star Trek).
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ABC airs the sixth episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker, based on the 1973 TV movie The Night Stalker and starring Darren McGavin. Madlyn Rhue guest stars.
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The ninth episode of the TV spinoff of Planet Of The Apes premieres on CBS. John Hoyt and Morgan Woodward guest star.
The 412th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Michael Sheard (The Empire Strikes Back) and Gabriel Woolf guest star in an episode regarded by many fans as one of the series’ all-time classics.
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ABC airs the tenth episode of Sid & Marty Krofft’s The Lost Saucer, starring Jim Nabors (The Andy Griffith Show, Gomer Pyle USMC) and Ruth Buzzi (Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In).
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The fifth episode of Wonder Woman airs on ABC, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. John Saxon guest stars, and Debra Winger guest stars as Wonder Girl.
The sixth episode of the science fiction series Man From Atlantis airs on NBC, starring Patrick Duffy and Belinda J. Montgomery. Pernell Roberts (Gunsmoke) guest stars in a western-themed episode.
ITV airs the 14th episode of P.J. Hammond’s science fiction series Sapphire & Steel, starring David McCallum and Joanna Lumley. This episode concludes the first season; due to scheduling conflicts with the series’ two stars, the series will not resume until 1981.
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The 536th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This story introduces Matthew Waterhouse as new companion Adric, and is the first part of a trilogy based on the dimension of E-space.
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The ninth episode of the Hammer Studios-produced horror anthology series Hammer House Of Horror airs on ITV. Anthony Valentine and Suzanne Danielle (Doctor Who, Flash Gordon) guest star; W. Morgan Sheppard and Pierce Brosnan make brief appearances.
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Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on a week-long satellite deployment mission, delivering a Canadian communications satellite and another American SYNCOM defense communications satellite into orbit. Using the MMU jet packs, Discovery’s crew retrieve two satellites placed into the wrong orbits by malfunctioning boosters after a shuttle mission earlier in the year, returning them to the cargo bay for return to Earth. Discovery’s crew consists of Commander Frederick Hauck, Pilot David Walker, and mission specialists Anna Fisher, Dale Gardner, and Joseph Allen.
CBS airs the seventh episode of a revival of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Adrienne Barbeau and Danny Kaye star in an episode comprised of two short stories, including Harlan Ellison’s adaptation of his own short story, Paladin Of The Lost Hour.
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The fifth episode of James D. Parriott’s lighthearted sci-fi series, Misfits Of Science, airs on NBC, starring Dean Paul Martin, Kevin Peter Hall, and Courteney Cox. Rhonda Aldrich (Sequestered, Star Trek: The Next Generation) guest stars.
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The 651st episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Lynda Bellingham, Michael Jayston and Honor Blackman guest star; Bonnie Langford debuts as new TARDIS traveler Melanie.
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UK regional broadcaster TVS airs the ninth episode of Richard Cooper’s alternate-history series Knights Of God, portraying a struggle between oppressive government and rugged resistance fighters in a post-civil-war UK.
NBC airs the 14th episode of Donald Bellisario’s science fiction series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell. Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement) and Chubby Checker guest star.
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The 693rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Dinsdale Landen, Alfred Lynch and game show host Nicholas Parsons (in a rare dramatic role) guest star.
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The sixth episode of the superhero series The Flash, based on the DC Comics character, airs on CBS, starring John Wesley Shipp and Amanda Pays.
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The week-long national syndication window opens for the 27th episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
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The week-long national syndication window opens for the 29th episode of the fantasy series Highlander, starring Adrian Paul (War Of The Worlds), Stan Kirsch, Jim Byrne, and Philip Akin. Elizabeth Gracen guest stars.
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The week-long national syndication window opens for the 159th episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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Milan Records releases David Arnold‘s soundtrack from the movie Stargate.
NBC airs the