British glaciologist John H. Mercer publishes a report in Nature postulating that continued growth of fossil fuel use could lead to a runaway carbon dioxide greenhouse effect in Earth’s atmosphere, with the glaciers of western Antarctica particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures of both air and water. The glacial melting, Mercer says, could be rapid and catastrophic, leading to as much as a five-meter rise of global sea levels by 2028, putting “low-lying areas such as much of Florida and the Netherlands” underwater. Though initially treated as a “worst case scenario”, Mercer’s theory will gain traction as global ocean temperatures rise (and as glacial melting picks up speed in Antarctica) in the early 21st century, ultimately becoming the predominant theoretical timeline for sea level rise and gaining an informal name: the “John Mercer effect”.
The 51st episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Jim McMullan (Beyond Westworld) and Frank Aletter (It’s About Time) guest star. This episode’s music marks one of the first uses of an electrical instrument called the Blaster Beam in a film scoring context; that instrument will become much more widely known when it’s used in the soundtracks of such films as Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Black Hole over a year later.
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The 473rd episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
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The 94th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson.
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With an incredibly tight lead time (rights were secured some weeks after Star Wars became a box-office hit), General Mills subsidiary Kenner Toys brings the first Star Wars action figures to market. A dozen characters are sold individually, with a colorful mixture of the film’s heroes (Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Ben Kenobi, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewbacca) and villains (Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Death Squad Commander, Tusken Raider, Jawa). While Kenner brings the figures to market in both the industry-standard 12-inch scale and a smaller, cheaper 3 3/4″ scale, marketing focuses almost entirely on the smaller toys, which then redefine the industry-standard size of boys’ character toys (and make any future vehicles and playsets much more affordable). Ironically, prior to the movie’s release when no one expected Star Wars to take off, 20th Century Fox surrendered all toy and merchandising rights to George Lucas, meaning that the runaway success of the toy range is key to his fortune. 
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The week-long syndication window opens for the fifth episode of The Next Step Beyond, a revival of the 1950s/60s supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. Meredith MacRae (Petticoat Junction) guest stars.
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The 95th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Jared Martin (The Fantastic Journey, War Of The Worlds) guest stars in a special two-hour episode.
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BBC1 premieres the fifth episode of Terry Nation’s science fiction series Blake’s 7. Richard Beale guest stars. (more…)
The second episode of Quark returns Buck Henry’s science fiction spoof to NBC, now re-energized by parodying Star Wars instead of Star Trek. Richard Kelton joins the regular cast as Ficus, and Henry Silva guest stars in the special hour-long episode; the series returns in March, in a half-hour format, after further minor retooling. (more…)
The 28th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. Ed Begley, Jr. guest stars.
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The 474th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Milton Johns and John Arnatt guest star. (more…)
The week-long syndication window opens for the sixth episode of The Next Step Beyond, a revival of the 1950s/60s supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. This is a remake of the One Step Beyond episode Tonight At 12:17.
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The 96th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Bibi Besch (Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, The Day After) guest stars.
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BBC1 premieres the sixth episode of Terry Nation’s science fiction series Blake’s 7. Stephen Grief (Travis) and Jacqueline Pearce (Servalan) make their first appearances as Blake’s arch-enemies in this episode. (more…)
Just before Valentine’s Day, RCA kills its Studio II home video game console, whose blocky black & white graphics and library of “edutainment” cartridges have proven to be no competition for the more game-oriented, full-color consoles from Fairchild and Atari over the previous two Christmas shopping seasons. 120 employees directly involved with developing for or assembling the Studio II and related products are laid off from RCA’s facility in Swannanoa, North Carolina as a result. The company makes no further attempts to break into the video game business.
The 29th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. Joel Fabiani (Department S) guest stars.
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The 52nd episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Helen Hunt (Mad About You, Twister) guest stars.
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The 475th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Milton Johns and John Arnatt guest star.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
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The week-long syndication window opens for the seventh episode of The Next Step Beyond, a revival of the 1950s/60s supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland.
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The 97th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Linda Dano guest stars.
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BBC1 premieres the seventh episode of Terry Nation’s science fiction series Blake’s 7. John Leeson (Doctor Who) and Barry Jackson guest star. (more…)
Programmers Ward Christensen and Randy Suess put their brainchild, the CBBS or Computer Bulletin Board System, online for the first time. Accessible to anyone with a computer modem and a phone line, CBBS allows users to log in one at a time since the system is limited to a single phone line; messages both public and private can be posted. Christensen and Suess become the first SysOps, or System Operators, responsible for both technical maintenance and moderation of the system’s content. Similar bulletin board systems spring up across America and elsewhere (indeed, in the late 1980s, theLogBook itself will be launched as a series of text files on such a BBS).
The 30th episode of Wonder Woman airs on CBS, starring Lynda Carter and Lyle Waggoner. Ross Martin (The Wild Wild West) guest stars.
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The 53rd episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. Frank Converse (Coronet Blue) guest stars.
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The 476th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Milton Johns and John Arnatt guest star.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
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The first episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO premieres on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. William Jordan (Beyond Westworld) and Caskey Swaim star; the series is produced by Jack Webb (Dragnet). Anne Schedeen (ALF) guest stars.
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The week-long syndication window opens for the eighth episode of The Next Step Beyond, a revival of the 1950s/60s supernatural anthology series One Step Beyond, hosted and directed by John Newland. Majel Barrett (Star Trek) guest stars.
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The 98th episode of The Six Million Dollar Man is broadcast on ABC, starring Lee Majors and Richard Anderson. Robert Walker Jr. (Star Trek’s Charlie X) guest stars.
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BBC1 premieres the eighth episode of Terry Nation’s science fiction series Blake’s 7. Patsy Smart guest stars. (more…)
The U.S. Air Force launches NAVSTAR-1, the first of a planned constellation of experimental satellites supporting the Department of Defense’s Global Positioning System project. Envisioned as a network of satellites providing extremely accurate location data for military purposes, the Global Positioning System will later grow to service civilian customers as well. Three other NAVSTAR satellites are launched in 1978 alone, and later satellites in the original NAVSTAR series will be launched betwen 1980 and 1985. Unlike the later, more advanced NAVSTAR II satellites of the 1990s, data from the original NAVSTAR constellation is restricted to the American military.
NASA’s Voyager 1 space probe, en route to its first destination, develops a potentially mission-jeopardizing problem: the scan platform, which contains and aims many of Voyager’s scientific instruments, jams and becomes stuck in place. As Voyager 1 has yet to even reach Jupiter, this threatens to make it an expensive failure. Transmitting commands from Earth to give the scan platform a gentle three-axis workout, engineers at NASA manage to free the stuck instruments, salvaging Voyager 1’s mission to the outer planets and their moons. (A similar fault develops in Voyager 2 during its 1981 encounter with Saturn.)
Science fiction writer Leigh Brackett, who is battling cancer, turns in her first and only draft of a screenplay simply titled “Star Wars Sequel” (later to be known as The Empire Strikes Back); this early draft includes the notation “Episode II”. Brackett, a golden-age SF writer hired by Lucas to help him generate ideas for the second film, loses her battle with cancer soon afterward, and the screenplay is revamped significantly before shooting, though the finished movie will retain her writing credit.
The 54th episode of The Bionic Woman, starring Lindsay Wagner and Richard Anderson, airs on NBC. James B. Sikking (Hill Street Blues, Doogie Howser M.D.) and Brock Peters (To Kill A Mockingbird, Star Trek VI, NPR’s Star Wars radio adaptation) guest star.
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The 477th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. Milton Johns and John Arnatt guest star. This is the first appearance of the Sontarans since 1975.
This timeline entry leads to an entry covering this entire Doctor Who serial; there are plans to write new episodic entries in the future. You can support this effort!
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The second episode of Harold Jack Bloom’s sci-fi series Project UFO airs on NBC, portraying fictionalized investigations into what the show claims are actual cases from the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book investigations. William Jordan (Beyond Westworld) and Caskey Swaim star. BarBara Luna (Star Trek, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century) guest stars.
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