Mushroom Records releases the third Split Enz album, Dizrythmia, the first of the group’s recorded output to feature frontman Tim Finn’s younger brother Neil as the new guitarist. This is also the first album to feature new recruits Nigel Griggs on bass and drummer Mal Green, both of whom will remain through the band at the peak of its success in the early 1980s.
The 454th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Rutans, shapeshifting mortal enemies of the Sontarans, appear for the first and only time in the original series. Doctor Who’s 15th season on the air begins with this episode.
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The unmanned robotic Voyager 1 space probe lifts off on a voyage to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond, taking advantage of a once-in-175-years alignment of the planets in the outer solar system. Originally designated Mariner 11, one of many planned space probes in the now greatly scaled-back Mariner Jupiter/Saturn ’77 program, Voyager 1 is also the first spacecraft to take a picture of the Earth and its moon from beyond the moon’s orbit, and will become the first human-made object to leave Earth’s solar system.
The first Space Shuttle external tank, given the designation MPTA-ET (main propulsion test article external tank), is completed at NASA’a Michoud assembly plant in New Orleans. Though constructed to flight specifications (as they stand in 1977), MPTA-ET is not intended for orbital flight, but is instead erected on a test firing stand at a NASA facility in Mississippi for tests of the three-engine shuttle propulsion system, tests which do not produce a satisfactory result until July 1980. Its job completed, MPTA-ET is later put on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The 455th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Rutans, shapeshifting mortal enemies of the Sontarans, appear for the first and only time in the original series.
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The 37th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. This is the first episode of season three, and the first episode to air on NBC, which salvaged the series from its cancellation by ABC. This puts Anderson in a position that may be unique in American broadcast history: playing the same character as a series regular on two rival networks simultaneously.
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CBS premieres a new live-action Saturday morning science fiction series, Space Academy, produced by Filmation (previously responsible for the animated Star Trek series). Depicting a crew of teenagers tasked with maintaining the safety of outer space, Space Academy is in the right place at the right time to capitalize on Star Wars mania.
The 80th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Pamela Hensley (Buck Rogers In The 25th Century) guest stars in the fifth season premiere.
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For the second time, the Space Shuttle Enterprise makes a safe landing at Edwards Air Force base after being released from the back of NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at the higher altitude of 26,000 feet over the Mojave Desert. Again testing the shuttle’s glide-only landing method, Enterprise has no engines to keep it aloft and glides to a successful landing.
The superhero TV movie-of-the-week Spider-Man airs on CBS, starring Nicholas Hammond (The Sound Of Music) and David White (Bewitched). Based on the Marvel comic of the same name, Spider-Man tells the origin story of Peter Parker, a young man who gains superpowers after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Heavily promoted at the height of the character’s comics popularity, the movie does well in the ratings, but due to its effects budget, CBS is only willing to approve a short run of hour-long episodes for the following year.
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The 14th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. This episode, guest starring Fritz Weaver, opens the show’s second season, and advances the story into the present day (the late 1970s), eliminating the expenses of props, costumes and cars associated with wartime America.
With a writing staff populated heavily with veterans of the quickly-cancelled The Fantastic Journey, CBS launches Logan’s Run as a television series, with the extended-length pilot episode roaring through the events of the 1976 movie in mere minutes! After only a few episodes, however, CBS schedules the lightweight sci-fi series against Monday Night Football, sealing its doom.
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The second episode of Filmation’s Saturday morning science fiction series Space Academy airs on CBS. The still-cutting-edge Fairchild Video Entertainment System “guest stars” as the Academy’s computer, beating Peepo at Tic-Tac-Toe.
The 456th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Rutans, shapeshifting mortal enemies of the Sontarans, appear for the first and only time in the original series.
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The 38th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Dale Robinette (The Doctors) guest stars.
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Barely two weeks after launch, Voyager 1 captures the first-ever photo of the Earth and its moon in their entirety, from a distance of just over seven million miles. Due to the moon’s relatively low visibility, JPL has to “brighten” the moon so it’s visible in the photo. Voyager 1 soon loses sight of Earth and the moon as it speeds toward Jupiter, a planet it won’t reach until 1979.
There’s still no word on whether or not Voyager 1 found signs of intelligent life on Earth.
The 81st episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Pamela Hensley (Buck Rogers In The 25th Century) guest stars.
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The first episode of Raven premieres on British broadcaster ITV, starring Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia) and Shirley Cheriton (EastEnders). The series is created and written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray (Children Of The Stones).
The first episode of the science fiction series Man From Atlantis airs on NBC, starring Patrick Duffy and Belinda J. Montgomery. Victor Buono (Batman) and Dee Wallace Stone (E.T.) guest star. This is the beginning of Man From Atlantis’ single season as a weekly hour-long TV series, following on from four TV movies that had already aired earlier in 1977.
CBS airs the second episode of the TV adaptation of Logan’s Run. Angela Cartwright guest stars.
The 15th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. Mel Ferrer guest stars.
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Wonder Woman now streaming on Amazon Prime
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For the third time, Space Shuttle Enterprise separates from the back of a Boeing 747 flying at nearly 25,000 feet above the dry lake bed landing strips at Edwards Air Force Base in California. With astronauts Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton aboard, Enterprise safely glides to her third safe landing at Edwards. This is the last of the test landings to leave the aerodynamic tail cone over Enterprise’s “anatomically correct” (but nonfunctional) main engines; the remaining Approach & Landing test flights will test the aerodynamics of an orbiter as it would return from space with those engines exposed.
The third episode of Filmation’s Saturday morning science fiction series Space Academy airs on CBS. Something is causing everyone at Space Academy to vanish, occasionally in mid-sentence.
The 457th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. The Rutans, shapeshifting mortal enemies of the Sontarans, appear for the first and only time in the original series.
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The 39th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. James Olson (The Andromeda Strain) and Melinda Fee (The Invisible Man) guest star.
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NASA’s Viking 2 lander confirms a surprising finding first detected in black-and-white images just days earlier: Mars has naturally occurring frost. Scientists try to determine, from images alone, if the frost forms from condensation due to overnight cold (as on Earth), or through some other atmospheric mechanism. But the finding does confirm enough moisture in the atmosphere to condense on the Martian surface, decades before surface water is confirmed on the red planet.
The 82nd episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run) guest stars.
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ITV airs the second episode of Raven, starring Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia) and Shirley Cheriton (EastEnders).
The Soviet Union launches the redesigned Salyut 6 space station, which will remain in service for five years. With six years of experience in building and operating space stations, Soviet space engineers embark on a rethink of station construction, opting for a more modular approach with Salyut 6: the new station has docking ports fore and aft, with additional station modules and automated resupply vehicles already on the drawing board. The dual docking ports also allow for multiple Soyuz capsules to be berthed at Salyut 6, making larger crews possible.
CBS airs the third episode of the TV adaptation of Logan’s Run. Mary Woronov guest stars.
