| Date | Event |
| January 1 | ABC affiliate KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri, owned by the University of Missouri, swaps affiliations with NBC affiliate KCBJ-TV, reversing a swap that took place in 1982. KCBJ-TV subsequently changes its call letters to KMIZ to reflect the change. |
| January 6 | A Vicks Formula 44 cough medicine advertisement premieres, featuring Peter Bergman from All My Children, in which he told the viewing audience "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV". This phrase, first used during the early 1970s by actor Robert Young of the series Marcus Welby, M.D. fame, was subsequently parodied by many popular culture references. |
| A revival of Card Sharks premieres on CBS. In order to make room for the show (which aired at 10:30 AM), CBS moves Press Your Luck to the 4:00 PM timeslot. |
| January 17 | Dana Plato makes her final appearance as Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes. |
| January 18 | On Saturday Night Live, The Replacements perform "Bastards of Young" and "Kiss Me On the Bus", both from the Tim album. The entire band was drunk during both their performances. As one reviewer succinctly observed, the band could quite often be "mouthing profanities into the camera, stumbling into each other, falling down, dropping their instruments, and generally behaving like the apathetic drunks they were." After this incident, they were banned permanently from SNL, although lead singer Paul Westerberg would return as a solo musical guest during the 19th season. |
| January 25 | HBO begins scrambling its signal. |
| January 26 | NBC's pregame coverage for Super Bowl XX includes what became known as "the silent minute"; a 60-second countdown over a black screen (a concept devised by then-NBC Sports executive Michael Weisman). Also featured was an interview by NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw of United States President Ronald Reagan at the White House (this would not become a regular Super Bowl pregame feature until Super Bowl XLIII, when Today show host Matt Lauer interviewed U.S. President Barack Obama). |
| January 28 | NASA's Space Shuttle Challenger spacecraft disintegrates. CNN is the only news service to broadcast the disaster nationally. |
| The premiere episode of Melba, a vehicle for singer/actress Melba Moore, ranks as one of the lowest-rated programs of the week. CBS immediately pulled the show from its schedule. The remaining episodes were later aired during the summer. |
| February 9 | Helen Martin joins the cast of the NBC comedy 227, after appearing on every episode in the 1985–86 season. Martin replaces Kia Goodwin (who was dismissed from the cast after the first season), who portrayed Rose's (Alaina Reed) daughter, Tiffany, before written off the show initially during 1988. |
| February 11 | Culture Club's main singer Boy George appears on an episode of the NBC drama The A-Team. |
| February 14 | Frank Zappa appears on an episode of the NBC drama Miami Vice. Zappa plays a crime boss named "Mr. Frankie" in the episode "Payback". |
| February 17 | Rod Roddy becomes the permanent announcer of the CBS daytime game series The Price Is Right, replacing Johnny Olson, who had died the previous October. |
| February 22 | In honor of the 20th anniversary of the first episode of the television series The Monkees, MTV broadcasts "Pleasant Valley Sunday", a 22-hour marathon of Monkees episodes. |
| March 1 | Bay Area TV station KEMO-TV changes its call sign to KOFY-TV. |
| March 3 | The made-for-TV movie Diary of a Perfect Murder airs on NBC. This pilot episode serves as the basis for Matlock, which premieres September 23. |
| March 6-12 | A female contestant named Barbara Lowe appears on the game show Jeopardy! winning 5 games with approximately $50,000 in cash winnings. She was later found ineligible after it was revealed that Barbara appeared on about seven different game shows (most notably Bullseye, which was already off the air by the time of Jeopardy! current syndicated run) under four different aliases with as many Social Security numbers. Her winnings were originally withheld until Barbara sued the show's distributors Merv Griffin Enterprises and King World Productions. She ended up receiving her winnings, and was subsequently banned from the 1986 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions and any future tournaments on the show. |
| March 7 | WNEW-TV, TV station in New York changes its call sign to WNYW, in anticipation of its switch to Fox on October. |
| March 7 | Dallas/Fort Worth independent television station KRLD-TV changes its calls to KDAF in anticipation of its switch to Fox in October. |
| March 9 | On the NBC soap opera Search for Tomorrow, the entire town of Henderson is washed away in a flood. Main character Joanne Tourneur's motel is the only structure in town left standing. |
| Punky Brewster broadcasts a "very special episode" concerning Punky's reaction to the real life Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. This would be the final episode of Punky Brewster to be broadcast on NBC. Its final two seasons would be produced for the first-run syndication market. |
| March 15 | On the Saturday Night Live sketch "Mr. Monopoly", cast member Damon Wayans plays a minor police officer character role as a gay stereotype, which would later result in his firing.[1][2] In the season finale however, executive producer Lorne Michaels invited Wayans back to perform stand up on the show, even though he had been fired by Michaels from the show two months prior. |
| March 20 | After four seasons, NBC cancels Remington Steele. This announcement results in Pierce Brosnan being named the newest portrayer of James Bond. As a result of the media frenzy concerning Brosnan's appointment, as well as the corresponding increase of Steele's ratings, NBC reverses its decision and announces Steele will return midway through the 1986–87 season. This results in Bond movie producers withdrawing their offer to Brosnan, though he would take on the role of Bond in 1995. |
| March 24 | MTV beings their annual Spring break coverage. |
| April 3 | Merv Griffin sells his company, Merv Griffin Enterprises, to The Coca-Cola Company for $250,000,000. |
| ABC affiliate KDEB-TV in Springfield, Missouri disaffiliates from the network and becomes an independent station as a result of an agreement between ABC and Telepictures, owners of independent station KSPR. KDEB-TV will eventually become a charter affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company a few months later. |
| April 5 | The sitcom Too Close for Comfort is revamped under the new title, The Ted Knight Show. Production for the series is however, halted following star Ted Knight's death from colon cancer on August 26, 1986. Ten of the remaining episodes that were produced would eventually air from September 27, 1986 to February 7, 1987. Rebroadcasts of the single season of The Ted Knight Show would ultimately air under the Too Close for Comfort title. |
| April 7 | The second annual WrestleMania event is broadcast on pay-per-view. It's the only WrestleMania that is not held on the traditional Sunday until the two-night WrestleMania 36 in April 2020. It's also to date, the only WrestleMania to take place at three separate venues: the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York; the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont, Illinois; and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California. |
| April 13 | NBC broadcasts Return to Mayberry, which reunites sixteen original cast members from The Andy Griffith Show. Return to Mayberry would become the highest-rated television film of 1986.[3] |
| April 19 | The series finale of Benson is broadcast on ABC. In the finale, the term-limited Governor Gatling runs for re-election as an independent candidate with Benson securing the party nomination, setting the stage for the two to go head-to-head in the general election. Benson and Gatling—who had strained relations due to the race—make peace with each other and watch the tight election returns together on television. As the broadcaster begins to announce that a winner is at last being projected, the episode ends on a freeze frame of Benson and Gatling, leaving the series with an unresolved cliffhanger. |
| April 20 | Like the previous films, a separate extended edition for Superman III was produced and aired on ABC. The opening credits were in outer space, featuring the main Superman theme with slight differences. This is followed by a number of scenes, including additional dialogue but not added into any of the official VHS, DVD or Blu-ray cuts of the film. The "Deluxe Edition" of Superman III, released in 2006 on par with the DVD release of Superman Returns, included these scenes in its extra features section as "deleted scenes".[4] |
| April 21 | Geraldo Rivera hosts a live two-hour syndicated special The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, infamously coming up empty-handed. |
| April 27 | A man calling himself Captain Midnight jams HBO's signal to protest its monthly fee of $12.95. |
| May 10 | Tommy Lee of the rock group Mötley Crüe marries actress Heather Locklear. |
| May 12 | NBC unveils its new six-feathered Peacock logo during its 60th anniversary special. It is still used by the network today. |
| May 16 | Bobby Ewing is revealed to be alive and showering in his ex-wife Pam's bathroom in the season finale of the CBS drama Dallas; in the September 26 season premiere, it was shown that the entire 1985–86 season was a dream of hers the night after they agreed to remarry. |
| May 22 | Cher calls David Letterman an "asshole" during a taping of NBC's Late Night with David Letterman. |
| May 31 | ABC airs the Indianapolis 500 live for the first time. |
| June 1 | CBS affiliate WCHS-TV in Charleston, West Virginia swaps affiliations with ABC affiliate WOWK-TV, reversing a swap that took place in 1962. |
| June 9 | General Electric completes its acquisition of RCA, owner of NBC at that time, this made Denver's KCNC-TV an NBC owned and operated station. |
| June 18 | St. Louis' CBS affiliate KMOX-TV was changed to KMOV-TV after being bought out by Viacom. |
| June 29 | CBS affiliate WOWT and NBC affiliate KMTV-TV, both in Omaha, Nebraska, agree to swap affiliations, thus reversing a swap that took place in 1956. |
| July 4 | CBS' Washington affiliate WDVM-TV changes its call letters to WUSA-TV. In return, the NBC affiliate in Minneapolis/St. Paul changes its call letters to KARE-TV. |
| July 5 | The opening ceremonies for the first annual Goodwill Games, an international multi-sport event created by Ted Turner in response to the Olympic boycotts of the period, is broadcast on TBS. |
| July 18 | A tornado is broadcast live by NBC affiliate KARE in Minneapolis when the station's helicopter pilot makes a chance encounter. |
| September 1 | For one week, CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather attempts to initiate the use of the word "Courage" as a slogan. The attempt is a failure, and is noticed by other members of the press. |
| Disney Channel, at the time a premium cable network, begins broadcasting a 24-hour-a-day schedule. |
| September 8 | Oprah Winfrey's Chicago-based talk show goes national. |
| Al Michaels makes his debut as the new play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football. Michaels succeeds Frank Gifford, who was transferred to a color commentating role. Michaels would remain as the play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football until the end of the 2005 season, when ABC terminated their broadcasting relationship with the National Football League. |
| September 13 | The film-review program Siskel & Ebert makes its debut in syndication. Although the two critics have been working as a pair since 1975, this will be their longest running program and will run in various incarnations until 2010. |
| September 17 | ABC becomes the second American network to discontinue use of chime intonations at the beginning of telecasts, switching to satellite feed activation. |
| September 20 | The pilot episode for what would become Lucille Ball's final television series, Life with Lucy, airs on ABC. Only 8 out of the 13 episodes produced were aired before ABC cancelled the series. Unlike Ball's previous sitcoms, Life with Lucy was a failure in the ratings and poorly received by critics and viewers alike, ranking among the worst sitcoms in broadcasting history. |
| September 27 | On the NBC comedy The Facts of Life, Charlotte Rae quits the role of Mrs. Garrett (who marries her old friend Bruce Gaines, played by Robert Mandan), and is replaced by Cloris Leachman, who played Beverly Ann Stickle, Mrs. Garrett's sister. |
| Mama's Family begins its third season now in first-run syndication after spending its first two seasons on NBC. |
| Sheryl Lee Ralph joins the cast of the sitcom It's a Living as Ginger St. James. Ralph replaces Ann Jillian, who portrayed Cassie Cranston and departed after three seasons (the first two on ABC and the third in first-run syndication). Ralph would remain on It's a Living until its conclusion in 1989. |
| September 28 | CBS returns the 4:00 PM timeslot to its affiliates following the cancellation of Press Your Luck a month earlier. |
| ABC airs the broadcast network television premiere of Raiders of the Lost Ark. |
| October 4 | While walking to his New York City home, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather is accosted and beaten on the sidewalk by two men, who pummeled and kicked him while repeating the question "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" |
| October 6 | The game show Double Dare premieres on Nickelodeon. Almost overnight, the show would make Nickelodeon (which by this time was struggling and only had a couple of hits, such as You Can't Do That on Television) the most watched cable channel. It would go on to be the channel's longest running game show (and the longest running series overall by episode count). |
| October 9 | The Fox Broadcasting Company (then abbreviated as FBC; now Fox) launches as the United States' fourth commercial broadcast television network, the first such attempt since 1967. It's very first program is The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. |
| October 11 | Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon[5] officially join the cast of Saturday Night Live. The season opener features Madonna, who hosted of the previous season's opener, reading a "statement" from NBC about Season 11's mediocre writing and bad cast choices.[6] According to the "statement", the entire 1985–86 season was "... all a dream. A horrible, horrible dream." |
| October 12 | Fox signs its first affiliate outside of its charter group, when WTUV in Utica, New York signs-on. |
| October 25 | NBC's broadcast of Game 6 of the World Series, in which the New York Mets came from behind to defeat the Boston Red Sox in ten innings, causes the first cancellation of Saturday Night Live in its eleven-year history up until that point. That night's episode, which was hosted by Rosanna Arquette with musical guest Ric Ocasek, actually filmed starting at 1:30 AM EST. Instead, it aired two weeks later on November 8 with an introduction by Mets pitcher Ron Darling, who playfully apologized for the cancellation. |
| October 31 | As a Halloween special, WPIX in New York City airs the uncut Invasion of the Body Snatchers, followed by an uncut episode of The Twilight Zone. |
| November 9 | A night for programs that could be described as anything but eventful. On ABC, a special celebrating the 15th birthday of Walt Disney World airs followed by the network television premiere of Splash. On NBC, Perry Mason: The Case of the Shooting Star is shown for the first time. While on CBS, part 1 of the miniseries Monte Carlo airs. |
| November 19–23 | Murder, She Wrote's Jessica Fletcher crosses over to Magnum, P.I. in a plot that sees her coming to Hawaii to investigate an attempt to murder Robin Masters' guests. She then tries to clear Thomas Magnum when he's accused of killing the hitman. |
| November 30 | The Disney Channel signs off for the last time. From 7 a.m. on December 1, 1986, the channel broadcasts 24 hours a day. |
| December 20 | Saturday Night Live features a sketch where William Shatner, sick of Star Trek fans asking him inane questions, tells them to "Get a life!" |
| December 25 | Liberace makes what turns out to be his last public appearance on a prerecorded interview with Oprah Winfrey. |
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