RANKED: The 25 Greatest Shows Of The 80’s
25. Who’s the Boss?
Image Source: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY NETWORK
In Who’s The Boss, Tony Danza plays the “boss.” A former Cardinals second baseman aiming to find a better living situation for himself and his daughter Samantha, Tony stumbles across the gig to be a live-in housekeeper to divorced advertising executive Angela Bower (Judith Light). Premiering in 1984, the show was groundbreaking for a few reasons – one being that it showed that the female could be the breadwinner of the household.
24. MacGyver
Image Source: CBS/Getty Images
This show was so popular that the term “macgyver” is still slang for a masculine guy who can get out of a fix—and also fix anything. MacGyver somehow got himself out of sticky situations with whatever random supplies were on hand, from rubber bands to paper clips to duct tape. For its 139-episode run, Richard Dean Anderson’s MacGyver was the patron saint of non-violent (or at least minimally violent) resourcefulness.
23. Diff’rent Strokes
Image Source: Herb Ball/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank
Diff’rent Strokes starred Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who were taken in by a rich Park Avenue businessman named Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato). Drugs, sexual abuse and racism were faced head-on, even as the effects of child stardom on its three leading kids were swept under the rug. The show was as defined by the way it tackled difficult American issues as it was by Gary Coleman’s endearing catch phrase, “Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”
22. The Love Boat
Image Source: Ron Galella, Ltd./Getty Images
Ahoy, matey! International sensation The Love Boat aired on ABC from 1977 to 1987. Aaron Spelling’s show was an hour long and involved different couples each week finding love on a cruise ship. With 10 seasons and a 1990 TV-movie under its belt, the comedy series had many guest stars as blink-and-you-miss-it characters that are still remembered to this day.
21. Murder, She Wrote
Image Source: Randy Marcus/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
One of the best things about Murder, She Wrote is the improbability of there being so many random murders for Jessica Fletcher to solve. Who can forget Angela Lansbury as the mystery novelist turned detective? While it is not entirely possible that one middle-aged widow could attract so much murder and mayhem, the wildly entertaining show was on the air for over a decade.
20. Full House
Image Source: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
While this show aired mainly in the 1990s, it aired in 1987 meaning it definitely belongs on this list. Starring Candace Cameron (the sister of fellow 80s star Kirk Cameron) this show brought the phrase “how rude” onto playgrounds everywhere and launched the careers of the Olsen twins. Watching it today is even more of a time capsule than most of these shows—I mean really, what says “the end of the ’80s” more than Stephanie Tanner’s dance to The B-52’s “Love Shack.”
19. The Twilight Zone
Image Source: IMDb
The Twilight Zone actually premiered in 1959 and was on and off for decades, but it had some notably good years during the 1980s. Despite the commercial disappointment of the 1983 Twilight Zone movie, CBS decided to resurrect the series in 1985. The new Twilight Zone attracted a number of big-name actors, directors, and writers including George R. R. Martin who would later become better known for writing the Game of Thrones series.
18. Dallas
Image Source: Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images
The soapiest of soap operas, Dallas remains one of the most popular dramas of all-time. The show had the whole nation (and beyond) wondering what would happen next when J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) was shot twice outside his office by a mysterious assailant — over 90 million Americans tuned in. It was a phenomenon that reached all the way to the Queen of England. Not bad for a melodrama about a Texas oil tycoon.
17. Growing Pains
Image Source: Gabriel Olsen/FilmMagic/Getty Images
Growing Pains aired for seven seasons during the late ’80s and early ’90s. The show followed the ups and downs of the close-knit Seaver family, including Jason, Maggie, and their children Mike, Carol and Ben. If you grew up in the 80s or early 90s, then you will remember the show well, and nostalgic memories should begin to flood back just as quickly as you can sing, “Show me that smile again.” There’s not much that sets Growing Pains apart from any other family sitcom of its day, but it somehow manages to be one of the most fondly remembered sitcoms of the ’80s.
16. Star Trek: The Next Generation
Image Source: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Next Generation proved that Star Trek was more than just the adventures of a certain group of characters, but an entire universe. The show kept the basics of the original series intact: there was a ship named Enterprise, and a crew on a mission to “to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” The question of whether you can do Star Trek without Bones, Kirk, and Spock was answered by The Next Generation, which was a hit right from the start.
15. It’s Garry Shandling’s Show
Image Source: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Sitcoms named after the comedians who star on them became popular after the smash success of Seinfeld, but the comic who really started the modern-day version of the trend was Garry Shandling. Everything about it was self-aware: the characters acknowledged and interacted with the studio audience, and no one let you forget the plasticity of the TV making experience. But Shandling took the meta-ness one step further by smashing TV’s fourth wall, which made the audience/viewers feel like they were in on the joke.
14. The Golden Girls
Image Source: NBC/NBCU/Getty Images
Serving as an acerbic, wacky counterpoint to sitcoms like Family Ties was The Golden Girls, a show about four female senior citizens who forge familial bonds in a pastel-toned Miami ranch house. Dorothy (Bea Arthur) is the put-upon voice of reason. Her snarky mother Sophia (Estelle Getty) is always ready with a pithy one-liner. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) reminisces constantly about nights of passionate romance. And all of this goes right over the head of doe-eyed, naive Rose (Betty White). It’s hard to imagine NBC making a show like this today, but the Golden Girls’ adventures found an eager audience, ranking in the top 10 during its first six seasons.
13. Family Ties
Image Source: Ron Tom/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
One of the best family sitcoms of our time, Family Ties gave us the Keatons. Liberal working parents Steven (Michael Gross) and Elyse (Meredith Baxter) raised their three children — smart and conservative older brother Alex (Michael J. Fox), flighty and fashionable middle child Mallory (Justine Bateman) and sarcastic younger sister Jennifer (Tina Yothers) — with love, compassion and limits. Family Ties was an enormous hit and ran for seven seasons, wrapping up just months after Ronald Reagan left office.
12. Moonlighting
Image Source: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/WireImage
Three years before Die Hard turned him into an enormous movie star, Bruce Willis was known to the world only as Detective David Addison on the ABC cop show Moonlighting. Since the Blue Moon Detective Agency stopped investigating crimes, David Addison and Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) have become a cautionary tale in the will-they-or-won’t-they television trope. While the series had plenty of behind-the-scenes strife (Shepherd and burgeoning movie star Willis didn’t get along), it consistently entertained, and pioneered the dramedy genre that is so popular today.
11. Night Court
Image Source: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
Night Court was a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1984-1992 about the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. “Harry” Stone (Harry Anderson). The show’s oddball cast of characters and risqué humor thrust them into a myriad of tongue-in-check antics revolving around the non-violent and petty crimes brought before the bench in each episode. This lively, ludicrous comedy based on a courtroom’s graveyard shift was a success on NBC’s comedy lineup for nine seasons.
10. The A-Team
Image Source: NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
The A-Team was like the live-action adaptation of a Saturday morning cartoon for slightly older audiences. The show was about a group of former Special Services officers hired to perform extremely dangerous jobs. Mr. T was the breakout star, and his face was quickly appearing on lunch boxes, action figures and pillowcases all over the country.
9. Married… With Children
Image Source: Frank Trapper/Corbis/Getty Images
The show that Fox built its empire on, Married…with Children may seem fairly tame by today’s standards. At the time, however, the show represented a fierce subversion of the traditional family sitcom. Using Al and Peggy Bundy’s blatant ineptitude as parents for comedy fodder, the show was crass, controversial and often very funny.
8. ALF
Image Source: IMDb
Combine a sarcastic furry alien, an average suburban family, and one destroyed planet and you end up with a television hit — in the 80s at least. A bizarre show in retrospect, ALF was about an alien named “Gordon Shumway” who crash-lands in the backyard of a suburban family and then proceeds to work his way into their hearts. This popular NBC family sitcom first aired on September 22, 1986 and ran until June 18, 1990.
7. Miami Vice
Image Source: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
If 80’s television had to be boiled down to a single show, it might well be Miami Vice. The edits were fast, the clothing was bright, cocaine was everywhere in sight and the women were barely dressed. Miami Vice was so popular that stars Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas both had music videos on MTV. The show ended in 1989 — right on time.
6. M*A*S*H
Image Source: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
On Feb. 28, 1983, the nation seemingly shut down to watch the final episode of CBS’ groundbreaking military comedy M*A*S*H. Set in the Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, the show spent 11 seasons following a unit of doctors, nurses, and support staff as they staved off boredom during the slow stretches of the war and performed “meatball surgery” when casualties were heavy. The shows series finale was the most-watched TV episode up to that point in history with 125 million viewers.
5. The Wonder Years
Image Source: Esther Horvath/Getty Images
This dramedy about small-town life in Vietnam-era U.S.A. painted a nostalgic sheen on the tiny tragedies and awkward encounters endured by its adorable adolescent protagonist, Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage). The show taught kids about war, the moon landing and why it’s important to hang onto your old friends even if they become huge nerds in their teenage years. The Wonder Years continues to be relatable to viewers young and old.
4. Saturday Night Live
Image Source: Alan Singer/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
Saturday Night Live launched the careers of Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Kristen Wiig, and so many more. The show got off to a rocky start in the early 80s however, with Lorne Michaels and Bill Murray leaving. But by 1986, John Lovitz and new cast members Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and Victoria Jackson formed the core of what would become one of the show’s best lineups.
3. The Cosby Show
Image Source: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
George Jefferson may have been moving on up, but The Cosby Show gave the nation a more relatable glimpse of the growing middle-class among African Americans, dealing with race, but much more often, dealing with the trials that we all faced. Cosby’s legacy might currently be in shambles, but the show was bigger than the man. The Cosby Show holds the crown as not only the best African American television show, but one of the best televisions shows ever made.
2. Hill Street Blues
Image Source: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
In many ways, the 1980s served as the coming-of-age period for TV crime dramas. Hill Street Blues was an incredibly popular program about a group of police officers and unlike many modern-day procedural shows, you saw the cops both at home and on the job. The show won a slew of Emmy’s and became a defining example of how TV could equal the scope and depth of cinema.
1. Cheers
Image Source: Paul Drinkwater/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images
The idea of a place where everybody knew your name was central to the success of Cheers, even as Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) was replaced by Woody (Woody Harrelson), Diane (Shelley Long) was replaced by Rebecca (Kirstie Alley) and Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) found his own stool at the bar. But the beauty of the show was that all these people became an unlikely family unit. The show ran for an incredible 11 seasons, and then Grammer played Frasier for another 11 seasons on a hugely successful spin-off.
