NBC airs the 24th and final episode of the Marvel animated series Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, starring the voices of Dan Gilvezan, Kathy Garver, and Frank Welker.
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The fifth episode of Glen A. Larson’s superhero series Manimal airs on NBC, starring Simon MacCorkindale, Melody Anderson, and Michael D. Roberts. Tracy Scoggins (Lois & Clark, Babylon 5) guest stars.
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The first video game company to produce only software without a hardware platform of its own, Activision is heavily dependent on the Atari 2600 – and Atari’s falling fortunes bring Activision down with it. After third quarter losses of $4,000,000, a quarter of Activision’s workforce is laid off; Activision CEO Jim Levy cautiously predicts better results in 1984.
Atari’s arcade game Pole Position II, originated by Japanese manufacturer Namco, is released in the United States. A sequel to the hit racing game Pole Position, this game adds new tracks and improved graphics.
The eighth album from Split Enz, Conflicting Emotions, is released. Despite the catchy single “Strait Old Line”, the album doesn’t sell as well is the group’s previous three albums (perhaps a side-effect of lower exposure due to the previous album’s lead single being artificially strangled by radio programmers). This is the last album to feature founding member Tim Finn; his younger brother Neil elects to keep the band together to continue recording.
Activision releases the Space Shuttle cartridge for the Atari 2600 home video game system, an attempt to do a realistic flight simulator on limited hardware. Many of the console’s option switches – normally used to toggle difficulty levels, color or black & white graphics, and so on – are used for in-game functions instead.
The 602nd episode of Doctor Who airs on PBS television stations across America – the first Doctor Who story ever to premiere outside the UK – with British fans having to wait two days later to see it on BBC1. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee reprise their roles as the second and third Doctors, with Richard Hurndall stepping into the role of the first Doctor. (Never-before-seen footage from the abandoned 1979 story Shada constitutes Tom Baker’s appearance as the fourth Doctor.) Numerous former companions of the various Doctors put in guest appearances as well, alongside Anthony Ainley as the Master. The special 90-minute story celebrates 20 years of Doctor Who.
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Returning to space after nearly a year of refits, Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off on the long-delayed first manned mission of the Spacelab laboratory module, which is installed in the cargo bay. (The nearly month-long delay was the result of a solid rocket booster issue that led to the first-ever return of the shuttle from the launch pad to the Vehicle Assembly Building.) The ten-day mission also boasts the first six-person shuttle crew, featuring the first Spacelab scientists from the European Space Agency, who have been training for this mission since the 1970s. Columbia’s crew includes Commander John Young, Pilot Brewster Shaw, mission specialists Owen Garriott and Robert Parker, and ESA payload specialists Byron Lichtenberg and Ulf Merbold.
