The Bill was broadcast on ITV under the title "Woodentop" on 16 August 1983. "Woodentop" starred Mark Wingett as PC Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as WPC June Ackland of London's Metropolitan Police, both attached to the fictional Sun Hill police station. Although originally only intended as a one-off, "Woodentop" impressed ITV to the extent that a full series was commissioned, first broadcast on 16 October 1984 with one post-watershed episode per week, featuring an hour-long, separate storyline for each episode of the first three series. The first episode of the full series was "Funny Ol' Business – Cops & Robbers". With
Philippine television drama Wakas" became the world's first ever drama series allowing its viewers to choose the story's ending through text messaging. Another groundbreaking teleserye of ABS-CBN was "Basta't Kasama Kita", airing around the same period as of "Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas". Starring Judy Ann Santos and Robin Padilla, the show was notable for its depiction of the country's National Bureau of Investigation and for being the country's first ever local television series to broadcast a live series finale episode in 2004. This introduced the live format of series finales among fictional series on Philippine television - a feat only few teleseryes had