1988 in Australian television

Events

• 1 January – Australia Live, a four-hour celebration welcoming a year of celebrations for Australia's bicentennial of European settlement airs on the ABC, SBS, the Nine Network and regional solus stations. It's also aired in the U.S. on A&E.
• 2 January – Imparja starts broadcasting to remote Central Australia via satellite It would have its official launch on 15 January.
• 17 January – The first episode of Home and Away one of the longest running Australian TV soaps since Neighbours airs on Seven Network.
• January – Five months after Countdown's demise, Molly Meldrum returns to television and joins Nine's Hey Hey It's Saturday as part of the weekly Molly's Melodrama segment.
• 18 January – A Current Affair launches on the Nine Network after a ten-year absence, hosted by Jana Wendt.
• 24 January – Network Ten unveils new logo, the "X" logo.
• February – Seven Network launches Family Feud.
• 8 February – Canadian teen drama series Degrassi Junior High, the second in the Degrassi trilogy series debuts on the ABC.
• 16 February – The Comedy Company starring Mark Mitchell, Glenn Robbins, Mary-Anne Fahey, Ian McFayden, Kim Gyngell, Chris Keogh, Russell Gilbert, Siobhan Tuke, Paula Gardener and Peter Rowsthorn debuts on Channel Ten.
• 7 March – The ABC begins airing their only Rankin/Bass animated series, The Comic Strip.
• 12 March – Nine Network broadcasts its Australian premiere of the American police procedural television series 21 Jump Street.
• 20 March – The Nine Network takes over the Rugby league rights from Network Ten, which they continue to broadcast to the present day.
• 26 March - In Neighbours, Daphne Clarke becomes the first character in history to die to do so after being in a coma in a car crash four months earlier.
• 28 March - The ABC's current affairs program Four Corners presents a television special called Wither the ABC? which was a debate over the future direction of the national broadcaster. Hosted by Andrew Olle there will be interviews with ABC managing director David Hill, Gareth Evans, Max Walsh, Terry Hayes, Peter Luck and Ted Thomas.
• 28 March - Blah Blah Blah a new Australian comedy series premieres on Australian Broadcasting Corporation at 9:50pm and at 10:45pm. It was hosted by Andrew Denton which also marked his very first hosting role.
• 18 April – The ABC launches an afternoon block for younger children at 4:30pm called Stop at this Station. This block will include animated television series from overseas such as Alias the Jester and the live-action series Tales from Fat Tulip's Garden.
• 25 April - The 10:30pm timeslot becomes an unlikely battle ground as Graham Kennedy returns to the Nine Network after a 13 years absence to co-host Graham Kennedy's News Show up against Seven Network's Newsworld with Clive Robertson and Network Ten's Late Night Australia with Don Lane.
• 29 April – QSTV starts broadcasting to remote Eastern Australia via satellite.
• 20 May – Perth's third commercial television station NEW-10 opens, giving Perth the same number of stations as the eastern states.
• 18 May - In Neighbours, Madge Mitchell and Harold Bishop marry.
• 20 June – ABC debuts a new children's sketch TV series called Swap Shop at 4:30pm.
• 17 July - In Neighbours, this was Charlene Robinson's final episode. Kylie Minogue leaves the show to focus on her recently launched recording career.
• 10 September – Brisbane's TVQ-0 becomes TVQ-10. On the same day, Toowoomba's DDQ-10 became DDQ-0.
• October - Lee Lin Chin defects from ABC Local Radio and moves to SBS Television.
• 3 October – Long running Australian soap opera Home and Away starts airing on Network 2 in Ireland.
• 24-25 October - In Neighbours, Mrs. Mangel marries Englishman John Worthington, immigrate to the UK and lived happily ever after.
• 31 October – The British long running science fiction series Doctor Who returns to the ABC with the very first serial of Season 24 Time and the Rani, which marked the first episode to star Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. Because the show is no longer airing at an early evening timeslot, it now airs as part of the hit weekday afternoon magazine series The Afternoon Show at 5:30pm. The show will also end on 23 November with the last part of Remembrance of the Daleks to celebrate the series' 25th anniversary.
• November - Australian soap opera Home and Away airs on television in Canada for the first time on the country's already newly launched cable television channel YTV.
• 4 November – In Neighbours, Bronwyn Davies and Henry Ramsay get together.
• Christopher Skase buys Perth's TVW-7 & SAS-7 from Alan Bond's Bell Group for $130 million, meaning that all stations in the Seven Network were owned by the one company for the first time.
• 12 December – Final episode of Neighbours for 1988 airs on Network Ten with a Ramsay Street Christmas Party and Jane Harris proposes to Mark Granger.

  Debuts

Domestic

• 17 January – Home and Away
• 18 January – A Current Affair
• 27 January – Richmond Hill
• 29 January – Overseas and Undersold
• 7 February – Compass
• 16 February – The Comedy Company
• 29 February – c/o The Bartons
• 27 March – Touch the Sun
• 28 March – Blah Blah Blah
• 10 April – The Dirtwater Dynasty
• 18 April – Stop at this Station
• 19 April – Alien Years
• 23 April – Seven's Super Saturday
• 30 May – Mulligrubs
• 20 June – Swap Shop
• 28 June – Just for the Record
• 29 June – The Gerry Connolly Show
• 10 July – House Rules
• 25 July – The Oz Game
• 1 September – Bush Tucker Man
• Family Feud

  New International Programming

• 3 January – Durrell in Russia
• 3 January – Dinosaur!
• 4 January – Spirit Bay
• 12 January – A Pot of Gold
• 13 January – Shell Game
• 22 January – Our Backyard
• 27 January – The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
• 28 January – Skorpion
• 29 January – Who Sir? Me Sir?
• 1 February – The Tracey Ullman Show
• 7 February – The Tale of the Bunny Picnic
• 8 February – Degrassi Junior High
• 9 February – Sledge Hammer!
• 9 February – Hooperman
• 13 February – The Inspector's Kids
• 13 February – Thomas and Senior
• 14 February – Dolly
• 15 February – Tour of Duty
• 16 February – The Dame Edna Experience
• 17 February – Bill and Bunny
• 18 February – Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills
• 24 February – My Two Dads
• 1 March – '
• 3 March – Jake and the Fatman
• 3 March – A Very Peculiar Practice
• 6 March – Noble House
• 7 March – The Comic Strip
• 11 March – Rude Health
• 12 March – 21 Jump Street
• 14 March – The Story of English
• 14 March – Tass is Authorized to Announce
• 20 March – Sky Commanders
• 21 March – The Children of Green Knowe
• 22 March – Check It Out!
• 2 April – Houston Knights
• 3 April – '
• 8 April – Chance in a Million
• 17 April – The Lucie Arnaz Show
• 17 April – An Audience with Peter Ustinov
• 23 April – '
• 25 April – Dream Stuffing
• 25 April – Charlie & Co.
• 28 April – The Brothers McGregor
• 28 April – The Duty Men
• 4 May – '
• 19 May – Unsolved Mysteries
• 24 May – Alfred Hitchcock Presents
• 26 May – Ever Decreasing Circles
• 9 June – Out of This World
• 12 June – The Day the Universe Changed
• 13 June – Brush Strokes
• 15 June – Downtown
• 16 June – A Perfect Spy
• 22 June – Mann's Best Friends
• 24 June – / Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
• 27 June – Starman
• 28 June – Gnostics
• 30 June – Brothers
• 4 July – AfterMASH
• 4 July – Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea
• 5 July – Half Nelson
• 6 July – The Telebugs
• 7 July – Hot House People
• 10 July – Foofur
• 11 July – The Comedians
• 15 July – Fortunes of War
• 16 July – Werewolf
• 18 July – Frank's Place
• 20 July – The Disappearance of John Avlakiotis
• 20 July – Powerhouse
• 22 July – Tales from the Lower Town
• 23 July – The Taste of Health
• 1 August – Beauty and the Beast
• 6 August – Popeye and Son
• 8 August – The New Adventures of Beans Baxter
• 8 August – Don't Miss Wax
• 8 August – Worlds Beyond
• 11 August – Me and Mom
• 15 August – Fresno
• 23 August – Joy and Shadows
• 23 August – Floodtide
• 24 August – Dead Entry
• 24 August – AIDS Now
• 28 August – The Fear
• 30 August – Blackadder II
• 5 September – / Worzel Gummidge Down Under
• 19 September – The Japan Project
• 23 September – The New Statesman
• 24 September – BraveStarr
• 24 September –
• 24 September – / Dinosaucers
• 1 October – / Bionic Six
• 1 October – / The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
• 2 October – Maharajas
• 4 October – Sable
• 7 October – Buddy
• 9 October – / The Rainbow Warrior Conspiracy
• 10 October – Alice in Wonderland
• 18 October – One More Audience with Dame Edna Everage
• 28 October – The Haunting of Barney Palmer
• 5 November – Hot Shots
• 8 November – Down and Out in Beverly Hills
• 9 November – Tumbledown
• 13 November – Mickey's 60th Birthday
• 15 November – Crazy Like a Fox
• 20 November – I Married Dora
• 21 November – Steel Riders
• 22 November – Hannay
• 23 November – Outlaws
• 24 November – Prospects
• 24 November – J.J. Starbuck
• 24 November – Women in Prison
• 28 November – Your Mother Wouldn't Like It
• 28 November – The Highwayman
• 29 November – The Slap Maxwell Story
• 1 December – The Law & Harry McGraw
• 1 December – King and Castle
• 3 December – The Old Men at the Zoo
• 3 December – ///// Quo Vadis?
• 4 December – /// Race for the Bomb
• 5 December – C.A.B.
• 5 December – The New Gidget
• 16 December – The Body Electric
• 19 December – The Ghosts of Motley Hall
• 21 December – Jack and Mike
• 24 December – Christmas Everyday
• 25 December – / Fox Tales
• 26 December – The December Rose
• 30 December – Clarence
• 31 December – // Treasure Island in Outer Space
• Tales from Fat Tulip's Garden
• Gran
• Creepy Crawlies
• Playbox
• Pursuit of Happiness

  Changes to network affiliation

International

Television shows

1950s

• Mr. Squiggle and Friends

  1960s

• Four Corners

  1970s

• Hey Hey It's Saturday
• Young Talent Time
• 60 Minutes

  1980s

• Sale of the Century
• Wheel of Fortune
• Sunday
• Today
• Neighbours
• The Flying Doctors
• Rage
• Home and Away
• The Comedy Company
• Seven's Super Saturday

  Ending this year