Doctor Who: The Three Doctors, Part 1
The 330th episode of Doctor Who airs on BBC1. This is the series’ first “multi-Doctor” celebratory story, featuring Patrick Troughton as the second Doctor, with appearances by William Hartnell as the first Doctor (though Hartnell’s participation in the story has been significantly reduced due to his failing health; he never appears on set with his successors, appearing only in pre-recorded film inserts). Stephen Thorne guest stars as Omega. Oddly, given the timing of this episode’s broadcast, the “tenth anniversary story” begins airing closer to the ninth anniversary of Doctor Who’s premiere than its tenth.
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Night Gallery: She’ll Be Company For You
NBC airs the 39th episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek) guest stars.
The Sixth Sense: The Eyes That Wouldn’t Die
The 25th and final episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Percy Rodrigues (Star Trek), Tom Bosley (Happy Days), and Frank Ashmore (V) guest star.
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Ghost Story: Time Of Terror
NBC airs the 14th episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Patricia Neal and Craig Stevens guest star. This is the final episode to air under the “Ghost Story” banner; the series will be retitled Circle Of Fear when it returns to the schedule in 1973.
Search: The Gold Machine
NBC airs the 11th episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search, starring Hugh O’Brian and Burgess Meredith. Mark Lenard (Star Trek) guest stars.
Night Gallery: Finnegan’s Flight
NBC airs the 38th episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Burgess Meredith guest stars.
The Sixth Sense: Gallows In The Wind
The 24th episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Meg Foster (Cagney & Lacey) guest stars; Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) appears in one of his earliest screen roles.
Ghost Story: Creatures Of The Canyon
NBC airs the 13th episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Angie Dickinson and Madlyn Rhue guest star. 
Nimbus 5
NASA launches the Nimbus 5 satellite, designed to observe weather patterns from orbit and test new weather and climate detection technologies. Launched into a polar orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, Nimbus 5 includes newly-developed experiments to examine Earth in the microwave and infrared portions of the spectrum.
Night Gallery: Fright Night
NBC premieres the 37th episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Stuart Whitman (Night Of The Lepus), Barbara Anderson (Star Trek, Ironside), and Ellen Corby (The Waltons) guest star.
The Sixth Sense: Five Widows Weeping
The 23rd episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins.
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Ghost Story: Touch Of Madness
NBC airs the 12th episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Geraldine Page and Rip Torn guest star. (This series will be retitled Circle Of Fear in 1973.)
Apollo 17: the last man on the moon
The final manned lunar landing mission lifts off atop a Saturn V rocket. Apollo 17 is the first mission to include a qualified geologist, Harrison Schmitt, in its crew; Gene Cernan and Schmitt descend to the surface aboard the lunar lander Challenger, where the last two men to walk on the moon spend a total of 22 hours exploring the Taurus-Littrow valley. For the third mission in a row, a lunar rover is stowed into one side of the lander. Astronaut Ron Evans orbits overhead in the command/service module America. The astronauts return on December 19th, bringing home nearly 250 pounds of lunar soil and rock samples.
The Sixth Sense: If I Should Die Before I Wake
The 22nd episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Stefanie Powers (The Girl From UNCLE, Hart To Hart) guest stars.
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Ghost Story: Elegy For A Vampire
NBC airs the 11th episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Hal Linden and Mike Farrell guest star. (This series will be retitled Circle Of Fear in 1973.)
Pong
Atari releases its first product, the arcade game Pong. A more refined version of the basic video ping pong game introduced by the Magnavox Odyssey, it’s simpler than Nolan Bushnell’s earlier attempt to put video games in public spaces (the complicated Computer Space), and is an engineering trial-by-fire for its designer, engineer Al Alcorn. The game is implemented with analog logic rather than an expensive (at the time) microchip, and is a success, ushering in the coin-op video game era to stay.
The Sixth Sense: And Scream By The Light Of The Moon, The Moon
The 21st episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky & Hutch) guest stars in an episode directed by John Newland (One Step Beyond).
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Ghost Story: Cry Of The Cat
NBC airs the tenth episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Doug McClure (Search), Lauri Peters, and Mariette Hartley (Earth II) guest star. (This series will be retitled Circle Of Fear in 1973.)
N1 Flight #4
The Soviet space program, still determined to reach the moon, again loads an unmanned Soyuz/Korabl capsule and lander combo onto the huge N1 rocket for another test launch. At an altitude of nearly 25 miles, the N1 experiences severe structural stresses and disintegrates in mid-air, effectively ending the Soviet drive for the moon. Another N1 is prepared for another launch, with an eye toward orbiting a massive space station with which to upstage the upcoming American Skylab station, only to be dismantled on the ground in favor of more reliable launch vehicles.
Search: Flight To Nowhere
NBC airs the tenth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search, starring Hugh O’Brian and Burgess Meredith. Joanna Cameron (The Secrets of Isis) guest stars.
Night Gallery: The Other Way Out
NBC airs the 36th episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Ross Martin and Burl Ives guest star.
SAS-B
NASA launches Explorer 48, renamed Small Astronomy Satellite B, from an Italian-owned offshore launch platform off the coast of Kenya. SAS-B is a smaller spacecraft than NASA’s larger Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) series, but can be aimed very precisely at any gamma ray sources that it detects. One of those sources turns out to be the pulsar remnant of a massive supernova, a discovery later named Geminga. An electrical fault will end SAS-B’s functionality in June 1973, and it will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in 1976.
Search: The Adonis File
The ninth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search airs on NBC, starring Hugh O’Brian and Burgess Meredith. Bill Bixby (The Incredible Hulk) and Deanna Lund (Land Of The Giants) guest star.
Night Gallery: Episode 35
NBC airs the 35th episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson and Lindsay Wagner (The Bionic Woman) guest star in a rare instance of a half-hour third season episode containing multiple stories.
The Sixth Sense: I Did Not Mean To Slay Thee
The 20th episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Pamela Franklin (The Legend Of Hell House) and Pernell Roberts (Bonanza, Trapper John M.D.) guest star.
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Ghost Story: House Of Evil
NBC airs the ninth episode of the supernatural anthology series Ghost Story, produced by 1960s horror movie mogul William Castle and starring Sebastian Cabot. Melvyn Douglas, Richard Mulligan, and Jodie Foster guest star in an episode written by Robert Bloch. (This series will be retitled Circle Of Fear in 1973.)
Home Box Office
Service Electric Cable, the local cable company in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, embarks on an ambitious experiment, launching a movie channel that only a few hundred of their subscribers pay extra to receive. The channel, Home Box Office, is the brainchild of a New York City broadcasting entrepreneur seeking a workaround for the tendency of the city’s own high-rise architecture to block over-the-air signals. Originally code-named the Green Channel (presumably for the cash it is hoped it will rake in), HBO begins life with a mix of movies and live sports events (such as pro hockey) with no commercial interruption. Within a year, HBO will be acquired by Time-Life, expanding to nine hours of programming every day. With HBO having proven that cable subscribers will pay extra for an ad-free movie and sports channel, competing pay cable networks such as Showtime will spring up in the years to come. HBO also pioneers the concept of broadcasting exclusively via satellite, years ahead of the broadcast networks.
Search: In Search Of Midas
The eighth episode of Leslie Steven’s “spy-fi” series Search airs on NBC, starring Doug McClure and Burgess Meredith. Barbara Feldon (Get Smart) guest stars.
Night Gallery: The Ring With The Red Velvet Ropes
NBC airs the 34th episode of Night Gallery, an anthology series of original short plays and short story adaptations hosted by Rod Serling. Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey, The Lieutenant) guest stars.
The Sixth Sense: Through A Flame Darkly
The 19th episode of The Sixth Sense airs on ABC, starring Gary Collins. Sandra Dee guest stars.
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