The 20th episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Jon Gries (Martin, The Pretender) guest stars.
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NBC airs the 18th episode of James D. Parriott’s time travel series Voyagers!, starring Jon-Erik Hexum and Meeno Peluce. Sam Scarber guest stars as Joe Louis. NBC cancels the series after this broadcast, with two remaining episodes being delayed until they are “burned off” in a summer time slot.
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Voyagers! now streaming on Amazon Prime
Space Shuttle Challenger lifts off into orbit for the first time, after extensive technical and mechanical issues keep the shuttle on the pad well past its original January launch date. The payload for this flight is NASA’s own TDRS (Tracking & Data Relay Satellite), designed to keep the shuttle in constant contact with ground controllers even if its orbit takes it out of direct communications. The five-day flight also sees the first spacewalk of the shuttle program. Challenger’s crew consists of Commander Paul Weitz, Pilot Karol Bobko, and mission specialists Donald Peterson and Story Musgrave.
The 21st episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton and Louis Gossett Jr. Kevin Hooks (The White Shadow, He’s The Mayor) guest stars.
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ITV airs the 70th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Bryan Marshall guest stars in the sixth season premiere.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
I.R.S. Records releases R.E.M.‘s debut album Murmur, featuring the single “Radio Free Europe”.
CBS Records releases the Dave Edmunds solo album Information, featuring the singles “Slipping Away” and “Information” (both produced by Jeff Lynne of ELO fame).
The 22nd episode of the science fiction series The Powers Of Matthew Star airs on NBC, starring Peter Barton. This is actually the series pilot, which differs from the rest of the series in numerous major ways, but since the series had been cancelled by this point, it was aired as the final episode.
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ITV airs the 71st episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Bernard Cribbins guest stars.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
Soyuz T-8 lifts off from the Soviet Union, intended to dock with space station Salyut 7. Cosmonauts Vladimir Titov, Gennady Strekalov and Aleksandr Serebrov are due to take up residence on the station, but discover that the ejection of the nose cone of the Soyuz rocket – which protects the non-aerodynamic Soyuz vehicle during launch – has caused critical damage to the vehicle’s communication equipment. The mission is called off for safety reasons, and the crew returns to Earth after only two days.
ITV airs the 72nd episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Hayley Mills guest stars.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
Trying to join the ranks of game companies producing home computers, Mattel Electronics licenses a low-end computer from a Hong Kong manufacturer and releases it in the United States as the Aquarius home computer. The age of Aquarius is short-lived, however, as Mattel is incurring serious losses from slowing Intellivision sales, and the Aquarius computer quickly proves to be underpowered next to even its cheapest competitors (the Mattel programmers tasked with creating games and software for it refer to it as the “system for the ’70s”).
Activision releases the Happy Trails cartridge for the Intellivision home video game system.
NOAA’s GOES-6 Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite is launched from Cape Canaveral into a geosynchronous orbit over 135 degrees west longitude on Earth, a position which will change several times over GOES-5’s career until 1988, allowing it to monitor weather over the continental United States and Europe. GOES-5’s primary set of “eyes” will fail in 1989, leaving GOES-7 as the sole working GOES weather satellite until the mid-1990s. Even while “blind”, GOES-5 will serve as a communications relay satellite until its boost to “graveyard” orbit and shutdown in 1992.
ITV airs the 73rd episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Hugh Fraser guest stars.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
NBC premieres the first part of Kenneth Johnson’s epic alien invasion miniseries V, a political allegory by way of science fiction. Originally intended to be a non-sci-fi Nazi-rise-to-power-in-America tale called It Can’t Happen Here, Johnson turns it into the big TV SF saga of the early ’80s at NBC’s behest during development.
NBC premieres the second part of Kenneth Johnson’s epic alien invasion miniseries V, a political allegory by way of science fiction. Audience reaction to the two-night event is strong enough that NBC immediately taps Warner Bros. and Johnson to produce a sequel miniseries for the following year; Johnson bails out on his own show over creative interference at the studio and network levels.
Mere weeks before Return Of The Jedi arrives in theaters, Atari releases the arcade game Star Wars in the United States, in both upright (standing) and cocktail (sit-down) models, complete with almost-intelligible sample voices from the movie of the same name. Players strafe the Death Star at lightning speeds (thanks to vector graphics, which can draw faster than full-screen raster graphics) after fending off TIE fighters. The Force is with us… for 25 cents.
More about Star Wars video games in Phosphor Dot Fossils
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
ITV airs the 74th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. David Cassidy (The Partridge Family) and Darren McGavin (Kolchak: The Night Stalker) guest star.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
ITV airs the 75th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Susan Penhaligon guest stars.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
ITV airs the 76th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Tom Chadbon guest stars.
More about Tales Of The Unexpected in theLogBook.com Store
Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
Konami introduces the arcade game Gyruss in the United States, a space shooter with a vaguely 3-D perspective and a thumping Bach-by-way-of-techno soundtrack.
Gottlieb introduces the arcade game Krull in the United States, based on the much-hyped fantasy movie of the same name.
More about Krull in Phosphor Dot Fossils
Hear about it on the Sci-Fi 5 podcast
ITV airs the 77th episode of the anthology series Tales Of The Unexpected. Van Johnson guest stars.
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Tales Of The Unexpected now streaming on Amazon Prime
RSO Records releases an LP of selections from John Williams’ soundtrack from Return Of The Jedi, a surprisingly downscaled released compared to the first two movies’ double-album soundtracks.