1985

1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter F) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1985th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 985th year of the 2nd millennium, the 85th year of the 20th century, and the 6th year of the 1980s decade. The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations.

Events

January

MTV

MTV (formerly an initialism of Music Television) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel which is a part of the "Viacom Music and Entertainment Group" unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom, of which it is a subsidiary. The channel itself is headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1, 1981, the original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by television personalities known as "video jockeys," or VJs. The network's current target audience is teenagers and young adults, with programming consisting mainly of original reality, comedy and drama programming and some off-network syndicated programs and films, along with limited music video programming in off-peak time periods. In its early years, MTV's main target demographic were young adults, but today, MTV's programming is primarily targeted at teenagers, high school students and college-aged students.

MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the U.S. and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. MTV's influence on its audience, including issues related to censorship and social activism, has been a subject of debate for years.

Password Plus and Super Password

Password Plus and Super Password are American TV game shows that aired separately between 1979 and 1989. While elements of the original game show format Password were modified for these two programs, both Password Plus and Super Password had the same general format with only subtle differences between the two.

Password Plus and Super Password aired on NBC, and were taped on Stage 3 at NBC Studios in Burbank, California. Password Plus was a Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Production and Super Password was a Mark Goodson Production.

Password Plus aired from January 8, 1979 to March 26, 1982, for 801 episodes (one of which was left unaired until airing on GSN as a rerun in the mid-1990s). The program also won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Game Show in 1982. Super Password aired 1,151 episodes from September 24, 1984 to March 24, 1989.

Cast

Hosts

Password Plus was hosted by Allen Ludden from January 1979 to April 1980, when he had to take a leave of absence from the show due to health problems. Bill Cullen substituted for Ludden during his first absence. Ludden returned in May, but he left the program in late October due to further health problems; he did not appear on television again before his 1981 death. Because Cullen had recently begun hosting Blockbusters, also a Goodson-Todman production airing on NBC, Tom Kennedy took over hosting and remained host until Password Plus ended.Bert Convy was selected as the host for Super Password's entire run.