Editing 1971 in television (section)

==Events==
<!-- no rationale: [[File:Greenacres.jpg|right|thumb|250px|''Green Acres'', along with other "rural" CBS comedies, were canceled ''en masse'' in the spring of 1971.]] -->
*January 1 – The final [[cigarette]] advertisements are televised in the United States, with the final one occurring during that evening's broadcast of ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]'' on [[NBC]].
*January 3 – [[BBC]] [[Open University]] broadcasts begin in the [[UK]].
*January 12 – [[CBS]] airs the first episode of ''[[All in the Family]],'' with a disclaimer at the beginning of the program warning viewers about potentially offensive content. Within a year, it became television's most popular program, and started a trend toward realism in [[situation comedy|situation comedies]].
*January 27 – [[Valerie Barlow]] is electrocuted by a faulty hairdryer, and then perishes in a house fire on ''[[Coronation Street]]''.
*February 23 – ''The Selling of the Pentagon'' documentary airs on [[CBS]].
*March 2 – On an ''[[All in the Family]]'' episode, [[Archie Bunker|Archie]] and [[Edith Bunker|Edith]] get brand new next-door neighbors—[[Michael Stivic|Michael]] and [[Gloria Stivic|Gloria]]'s best friend, [[Lionel Jefferson]] (played by [[Michael Jonas Evans|Mike Evans]]) and his parents.  The episode marks [[Isabel Sanford]]'s first appearance as [[Louise Jefferson]]; George Jefferson would not be depicted on-screen until [[1973 in television|1973]] (by [[Sherman Hemsley]]).
*March 11 – [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] cancels ''[[The Lawrence Welk Show]]'' after sixteen years on the network. The show, however, returns to the airwaves in [[Television syndication|syndication]] in September, where it would run for another eleven years.
*March 16 - [[CBS]] releases its schedule for the fall 1971 season, adding new shows with urban/suburban appeal and cancelling what [[Pat Buttram]] would later call "every show that had a tree in it," among them Buttram's ''[[Green Acres]]'', ''[[The Beverly Hillbillies]]'', and ''[[Mayberry R.F.D.]]''<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1971/03/17/archives/cbs-lineup-for-fall-omits-onceprized-country-comedies.html "C.B.S. Line-Up For Fall Omits Once Prized Country Comedies,"] from ''The New York Times'', 3/17/1971 (accessed 7/25/2020)</ref><ref>[https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1971/1971-03-22-BC.pdf "A major face-lifting at CBS-TV,"] from ''Broadcasting'', 3/22/1971 (p. 78)</ref>  Two other victims of CBS' "[[rural purge]]," ''[[Lassie (1954 TV series)|Lassie]]'' and ''[[Hee Haw]]'', would continue in first-run [[television syndication|syndication]] that fall.
*April 3 – [[RTÉ]] launches [[Color television]] in Ireland with the [[Eurovision Song Contest 1971]], held in Dublin.
*April 4 - [[PBS]] airs [[Peter Paul and Mary]]'s "The Song is Love" movie documentary, directed by the most unlikely of people, [[horror movie]]'s [[Tobe Hooper]].
*June 7 – The UK children's magazine show ''[[Blue Peter]]'' buries a [[time capsule]] in the grounds of [[BBC Television Centre]]; it would be unearthed on the first episode of the year 2000.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/590900.stm "Blue Peter digs up the past,"] from BBC News, 1/4/2000 (accessed 7/24/2020)</ref>
*August 1 - The much-acclaimed 6-hour BBC [[miniseries]] ''[[The Six Wives of Henry VIII (BBC TV series)|The Six Wives of Henry VIII]]'', starring [[Keith Michell]] as [[Henry VIII|Henry]], makes its U.S. premiere; CBS would air it over 6 consecutive Sundays through September 5.
*September 13 – U.S. network prime time programming shrinks as the original [[Prime Time Access Rule]] takes effect. NBC, unable to take advantage, immediately feels the pinch and fails to win any of the 1971–72 season's first thirteen weeks.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}
*October 2 – ''[[Soul Train]]'' debuts in syndication. 
*October 21 – One-off [[Television drama|drama]] ''[[Edna, the Inebriate Woman]]'', starring [[Patricia Hayes]], is shown by [[BBC One]] in its ''[[Play for Today]]'' slot.
*November – Top-rated ''[[As the World Turns]]'' loses the #1 slot in the daytime [[Nielsen ratings|Nielsens]] for the first time since 1959.
*[[Michael Zaslow]] first appears as Roger Thorpe on ''[[Guiding Light|The Guiding Light]]''.