Season 1981

From the desk

How this season is filed

Filed by Max Sterling · Streaming Confidential

Hollywood as nightly news, invented before social media could do the job for free. Mary Hart's durability, red-carpet stand-ups, and the grammar of the entertainment newsmagazine — tease, clip, smile, next — still run every awards-season broadcast. Appointment gossip infrastructure: the industry talking about itself, on purpose, every weeknight.

TV Flash files Season 1981 of Entertainment Tonight (1981–present) on Syndication as the first listed season of 36 — 25 listed hours, 1981-09-14–1981-10-16 from “HILL STREET BLUES WINS BEST DRAMA, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, BURT REYNOLDS, DEBORAH HARRY” (S1981E01) to “101681” (S1981E25). Broadcast log — titles and dates, not a plot bible.

Desk essentials in this season

1. S1981E01 HILL STREET BLUES WINS BEST DRAMA, RICHARD CHAMBERLAIN, BURT REYNOLDS, DEBORAH HARRY

   Hill Street Blues Wins Best Drama is night-one grammar: tease, clip, smile, next. Hollywood inventing nightly news about itself, awards as the first lede.