Editing 1971 in television (section)

===Debuts===
*January 10 – ''[[Masterpiece (TV series)|Masterpiece Theatre]]'' on [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] (1971–)
*January 12 – ''[[All in the Family]]'' on CBS (1971–79)
*April 2 – ''[[The Return of Ultraman]]'' on ''[[Tokyo Broadcasting System|TBS]]'' in Japan (1971–72)
*April 3 – ''[[Kamen Rider (1971 TV series)|Kamen Rider]]'' on [[MBS TV]] and [[TV Asahi|NET]] in Japan (1971–73)
*April 10 – ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' on [[BBC One|BBC1]] in the UK (1971–87)
*June 19 - ''[[Parkinson (TV series)|Parkinson]]'' on [[BBC One|BBC1]] (1971–82, 1987–88, 1998–2004, then on [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] from 2004 to 2007)
* July 4 - ''[[The Cat in the Hat (TV special)]]'' on [[CBS]] (1971)
*August 1 – ''[[The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour]]'' on CBS (1971–74)
*September 11 –
**''[[Sabrina, the Teenage Witch]]'' (1971–72) and ''[[Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch]]'' (1971–74) both on CBS Saturday Morning.
**''[[The Jackson 5ive]]'' (1971–73), ''[[The Funky Phantom]]'' (1971–72), and ''[[Lidsville]]'' (1971–73), all on ABC Saturday Morning.
*September 15 - ''[[Columbo (TV series)|Columbo]]'' (1971–78) as part of a rotation of detective shows on the ''[[NBC Mystery Movie]]''
*September 17 –
**''[[McMillan & Wife]]'' on NBC (1971–77)
**''[[O'Hara, U.S. Treasury]]'' on CBS (1971–72)
*September 18 – ''[[The New Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' on CBS (1971–74)
*September 19 – ''[[The Jimmy Stewart Show]]'' on NBC (1971–72)
*September 21 – ''The [[Old Grey Whistle Test]]'' on [[BBC Two|BBC2]] (1971–87)
*October 2 – ''[[Soul Train]]'', the [[African-American]] equivalent to ''[[American Bandstand]]'' (1971–2006)
*October 10 – ''[[Upstairs, Downstairs (1971 TV series)|Upstairs, Downstairs]]'' in the UK on [[ITV (TV channel)|ITV]] (1971–75, 2010–)
*October 25 – ''[[The Electric Company]]'', a skit-based children's program aimed at teaching reading skills, on [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] (1971–77)