The 68th episode of the syndicated science fiction Science Fiction Theatre airs on stations across the U.S. Hosted by Truman Bradley, the episode stars Peter Hansen and Whit Bissell.
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ABC airs the 34th episode of the supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. Joe Mantell and Arthur Shields guest star.
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British broadcaster ABC airs the 37th episode of Sydney Newman’s spy series The Avengers, starring Patrick Macnee and Honor Blackman.
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Halfway through filming on the Star Trek pilot episode, The Cage, the attention of the show’s producers turns to the music for the pilot, and possible composers. Among the composers approached but unable to commit to Star Trek are Jerry Goldsmith (later to score 1979‘s Star Trek: The Motion Picture), John Williams (later of Star Wars and Lost In Space fame), Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible), Elmer Bernstein, and Dominic Frontiere (The Outer Limits); a young composer named Alexander Courage, whose schedule is open, is considered especially promising.
The 13th episode of Irwin Allen’s science fiction series Lost In Space premieres on CBS, starring Guy Williams, June Lockhart, and Jonathan Harris.
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The 13th episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek airs on NBC. Arnold Moss and Barbara Anderson guest star.
BBC2 airs the 21st episode of science fiction anthology series Out Of The Unknown. Adapted by Hugh Whitmore from a story by Larry Eisenberg, the story stars Ed Begley. This episode no longer exists in the BBC’s archives.
The 41st episode of Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction series Star Trek premieres on NBC. The crew of the Enterprise contracts a disease that ages them rapidly toward death.
ABC airs the tenth episode of Irwin Allen’s sci-fi series Land Of The Giants, starring Gary Conway, Don Matheson, Deanna Lund, and Don Marshall. Lane Bradford guest stars.
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NBC airs the 18th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Serling himself. Ross Martin, Rene Auberjonois, and Mel Blanc guest star in an episode that includes an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “Cool Air”.
NBC airs the 12th episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Geraldine Page and Rip Torn guest star. (This series will be retitled Circle Of Fear in 1973.)
The 12th episode of the short-lived Canadian-made science fiction series The Starlost, The Implant People, premieres. Donnelly Rhodes guest stars.
NBC airs the tenth episode of The Invisible Man, starring David McCallum (The Man From UNCLE, Colditz), Melinda Fee, and Craig Stevens. Nancy Kovack and Peter Donat (Time Trax) guest star.
The 520th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. David Daker and Peter Craze guest star in a strangely-timed (just before Christmas?) anti-drug story.
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Elektra Records releases an album of rock group Queen‘s soundtrack from the cult science fiction classic Flash Gordon. The album, which omits Howard Blake’s orchestral score and leads off with the single “Flash’s Theme”, is a European chart-topper (and gets a surprising amount of airplay elsewhere for a mostly-instrumental soundtrack album).
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After a mad last-minute rush to prepare it for display at the 1980 Amusement Machine Operators of America (AMOA) trade show, Williams Electronics debuts what will become its most successful arcade game, Defender. With a more complex control panel than nearly any video game since Computer Space, Defender is ignored at AMOA, only to become a top earner in arcades (and a source of bragging rights for those who master the control scheme).
Warner Communications, the parent company of video game manufacturer Atari, issues an earnings statement in which it anticipates losing money in the fourth quarter of 1982. The losses are attributed to product returns and other shortfalls experienced by Atari, despite the acquisition of licenses for home video games based on Pac-Man and E.T. The reaction on Wall Street is immediate, and a massive sell-off of video game related stock leaves the entire industry reeling within a week. The industry is seeing the first hint of the bust that will end the boom years.
With sales of the Atari 5200 console already seriously impacted by the rival Colecovision video game system, and perhaps hoping to distract from a potentially alarming earnings statement issued the same day, Atari files suit against Coleco over the first add-on produced for Colecovision: Expansion Module #1, which allows Colecovision owners to play Atari 2600 games (and entices 2600 owners to trade up to Colecovision, since their existing game libraries won’t automatically become useless). Atari sues for patent infringement, while Coleco immediately countersues, claiming that Atari is violating antitrust and monopoly laws.
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The tenth episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC. Ed McMahon, Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team), Barbara Billingsley (Leave It To Beaver), Gary Coleman (Diff’rent Strokes), Richard Simmons, and Clara Peller guest star.
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The 35th episode of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories airs on NBC.
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NASA/JPL’s Galileo space probe reaches the second destination on the lengthy “VEEGA” (Venus/Earth/Earth Gravity Assist) flight path that will eventually take it to Jupiter. This leg of Galileo’s journey brings it back to its home planet, Earth, where crystal-clear images of the planet are obtained from the perspective of a passing spacecraft. Galileo will loop past Earth once more at a later date en route to Jupiter.
The 11th episode of Dracula: The Series airs in syndication, starring Bernard Behrens, Geordie Johnson, and Mia Kirshner.
The 62nd episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs.
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The ninth episode of the science fiction crime drama Super Force is broadcast in syndication in North America, starring Ken Olandt, Larry B. Scott, and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers).
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Launched in 1989 via Space Shuttle, the unmanned Galileo probe reveals a significant technical problem during its first flyby of Earth: the umbrella-like high-gain antenna, allowing it to send its observations of Jupiter and its moons back to Earth at high speed, is stuck in a partly-open, partly-closed configuration that prevents its use. Ground engineers at JPL have to devise data compression schemes, and a tight record/playback schedule, that will allow Galileo to take all of its planned observations and send them back to Earth at a lower bit rate than planned. It is theorized that the long delays in Galileo’s launch – the probe was ready for launch in 1982 but had to wait through delays in the early shuttle program and was then kept in storage in the aftermath of the Challenger disaster – allowed the antenna’s lubricant to dry up. Galileo won’t reach its target planet, Jupiter, until 1995.
The 88th episode of the syndicated series Superboy, starring Gerard Christopher and Stacy Haiduk, airs.
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The 33rd episode of the science fiction crime drama Super Force is broadcast in syndication in North America, starring Ken Olandt, Larry B. Scott, and Patrick Macnee (The Avengers).
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Catching the last gravity assist on its four-year “VEEGA” tour of the inner solar system, NASA/JPL’s Galileo spacecraft swings past Earth one last time, conducting further tests of its imaging system and other instruments by examining Earth and its moon. Galileo now sets its sights on the outer solar system, where it will take up an orbit around giant planet Jupiter in 1995, studing the planet and its atmosphere, its moons, and its unfriendly-to-spacecraft radiation environment. Efforts to release the vehicle’s stuck high-gain antenna continue, though NASA admits that, within a few months, they will have to begin planning for a mission that can only make use of the low-bit-rate medium-gain antenna.
The 75th episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman airs on ABC, starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher.
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The 23rd episode of Joss Whedon’s trend-setting supernatural series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, airs on the WB network. Anthony Stewart Head, David Boreanaz, and Alyson Hannigan also star. John Ritter (Three’s Company) guest stars.
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