Man From Atlantis IV: The Disappearances
The science fiction TV movie-of-the-week Man From Atlantis IV: The Disappearances airs on NBC, starring Patrick Duffy and Belinda J. Montgomery. Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters) guest stars. Man From Atlantis will continue as a weekly series in the fall 1977 season. 
Jupiter probe, Space Telescope approved
Congress approves the largest NASA budget in ten years, including authorization and funding for two major unmanned spacecraft: a Space Telescope to be deployed into Earth orbit via Space Shuttle, and a yet-to-be-named Jupiter orbiter and atmospheric probe, originally proposed in the late 1960s as part of the outer planets Grand Tour mission plan. The Jupiter probe, which must be ready to launch in 1982 to take advantage of a planetary configuration providing the shortest distance between Earth and Jupiter, is the subject of a fierce budget fight in Congress. (This spacecraft will go on to be named Galileo.)
Science Report: Alternative 3
UK broadcaster Anglia TV (later part of ITV) premieres the TV movie Science Report: Alternative 3, a “mockumentary” positing a scenario about Earth’s best and brightest young minds leaving their doomed world to start a colony on Mars. Originally intended to air on April 1st, 1977, the special – which is presented as an episode of a non-existent “Science Report” series – has been delayed due to broadcast industry strikes, but despite the end credits still carrying the April 1st date, the joke is lost on members of the viewing public, who call Anglia demanding further information; the “Alternative 3” scenario will gain traction as an actual conspiracy theory in the years to come, particularly when its 1978 novelization replaces the TV movie’s fictional astronauts with the names of real astronauts.