Times on Guides Wait for No Man

Ever wonder what aired on your birthday? Anniversary? Some random day in 1986?

Have you ever tried searching for this info on imdb.com, tv.com and epguides.com? Not so easy, is it?

You won't be frustrated anymore.

I've added a feature above that let's you see the US primetime network TV schedule on any date between 1/1/1983 and 10/23/2005. That's right. Pick a date and find out what aired that night.

You're probably thinking, "I'll bet you only included first-run TV series!" Uh-uh. I've also added the following shows to the trivialTV database:

• series repeats, including ep titles for some repeat showings.
  
• movies—theatrical films and made-for-TV movies.
  
• specials, such as ''Fashion Rocks'' and Hurricane Relief Concerts.
  
• award shows and pageants, with pageant winners.
  
• sporting events and final scores.

I estimate that the trivialTV database is about 95% complete and correct during this period. Of course, the d/b is more correct and more complete for more recent dates. I'll continue to make corrections and additions to the database.

If you have any suggestions, comments, corrections or additions, feel free to e-mail me.

Source data: Weekly Nielsen Ratings cross-referenced with the digital guide for Charter Communications, zap2it.com listings, thefutoncritic, TV Guide, UCLA library catalog, US copyright office archives, various other library collections, Brooks and Marsh's Complete Directory, Gianakos' Television Drama Deries Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, Marill's Movies Made for Television: The Telefeature and the Mini-series, Terrace's Television Specials: 1939-1993, various newspapers, sundry magazines, some fan websites, and good old-fashioned logical deduction. I estimate that I've used ~200 sources so far.

I'd like to thank the javascript source for providing a simple pop-up date-picker that I modified for this site.