1980's TV Shows - Best of 80's TV @ The Classic TV Database

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1980's TV Shows

Listing of 1980's Classic TV Shows

21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street is an American police procedural crime drama television series that aired on the Fox Network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focused on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues.

The A-Team

The A-Team

The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The show featured Mr. T and aired on NBC from 1983 to 1987.

ALF

ALF

ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990, created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.

Bosom Buddies

Bosom Buddies

Bosom Buddies was an American sitcom starring Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari created by Robert L. Boyett, Thomas L. Miller and Chris Thompson. It ran from 1980 to 1982 on ABC and in reruns in the summer of 1984 on NBC.

Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey

Cagney & Lacey is an American television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from 1981 to 1988. A police procedural, the show stars Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless as New York City police detectives who led very different lives: Christine Cagney (Gless) was a single, career-minded woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Daly) was a married working mother. The series was set in a fictionalized version of Manhattan's 14th Precinct.

Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels is an American crime drama television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men. The show aired on ABC from 1976 to 1981.The

Cheers

Cheers

Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. The show is set in the Cheers bar (named for the toast "Cheers") in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, chat and have fun. The show's theme song, written and performed by Gary Portnoy, and co-written with Judy Hart Angelo, lent its famous refrain, "Where Everybody Knows Your Name", as the show's tagline.

CHiPs

CHiPs

CHiPs is an American television drama series that aired on NBC from 1977 to 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol, Baker and Ponch.

The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show

The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from 1984 until 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an affluent African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

Dallas

Dallas

Dallas is an American soap opera that revolves around the Ewings, a wealthy Texas family in the oil and cattle-ranching industries. The series won four Emmy Awards, including a 1980 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series win for Barbara Bel Geddes. Throughout the series, Larry Hagman stars as greedy, scheming oil baron J. R. Ewing. The show also starred stage/screen actress Barbara Bel Geddes as family matriarch Miss Ellie, and movie Western actor Jim Davis in his last role as Ewing patriarch Jock Ewing before his death in 1981.

Dear John

Dear John

Dear John is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from 1988 to 1992. The series was originally based on the British sitcom of the same name. Dear John starred Judd Hirsch as easy going high school teacher John Lacey who is dumped by his wife, Wendy, via a Dear John letter. Wendy ends up with everything in the divorce settlement, including custody of the couple's son, forcing John to move into an apartment in Queens.

Diff'rent Strokes

Diff'rent Strokes

Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from 1978 to 1985, and on ABC from September 1985 to March 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, two African American boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman named Phillip Drummond (Conrad Bain) and his daughter Kimberly (Dana Plato), for whom their deceased mother previously worked.

Doogie Howser, M.D.

Doogie Howser, M.D.

Doogie Howser, M.D. is an American television comedy-drama starring Neil Patrick Harris as a 16-year-old doctor who also faces the problems of being a normal teenager. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, ABC aired the show from 1989 to 1993 for four seasons totaling 97 episodes.

The Dukes Of Hazzard

The Dukes Of Hazzard

The Dukes of Hazzard is an American television series that aired on the CBS television network from 1979 to 1985. The Dukes of Hazzard follows "The Duke Boys", cousins Bo and Luke Duke, who live in a rural part of the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia with their attractive cousin Daisy and their wise old Uncle Jesse, as they race around in their customized 1969 Dodge Charger stock car, christened (The) General Lee, evading crooked county commissioner Boss Hogg and his inept county sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, and always managing to get caught in the middle of the various escapades and incidents that often occur in the area.

The Facts Of Life

The Facts Of Life

The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from 1979 to 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focused on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes a housemother (and after the second season, dietitian as well) at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.

Family Matters

Family Matters

Family Matters is an American sitcom about a middle-class African-American family living in Chicago, Illinois, which aired for nine full seasons. The series was a spin-off of Perfect Strangers, but revolves around the Winslow family. Midway through the first season, the show introduced the Winslows' nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel (played by Jaleel White), who quickly became its breakout character and eventually a main character. Family Matters aired from 1989 to 1997 on ABC and on CBS from September 1997 to July 1998.

Family Ties

Family Ties

Family Ties is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, from 1982 to 1989. The sitcom reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s. This was particularly expressed through the relationship between young Republican Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) and his ex-hippie parents, Elyse and Steven Keaton (Meredith Baxter-Birney and Michael Gross).

Full House

Full House

Set in San Francisco, family-friendly sitcom Full House centers around the adventures of a widowed father, his three children, and his two best friends. Danny (Bob Saget of America's Funniest Home Videos) is a straight-laced sportscaster, Joey (David Coulier) is a fun-loving stand-up comedian, and brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos) is an Elvis-obsessed rocker. Danny's children include 11-year-old D.J. (Candace Cameron), five-year-old Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and baby Michelle (big-eyed future superstars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). Created by Jeff Franklin (Laverne and Shirley), the show ran on ABC for eight seasons.

The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls

The Golden Girls is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris, which originally aired on NBC from 1985, to 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a home in Miami, Florida.

The Greatest American Hero

The Greatest American Hero

The Greatest American Hero is an American comedy-drama television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, it premiered as a two-hour movie pilot on March 18, 1981. The series stars William Katt as teacher Ralph Hinkley ("Hanley" for the latter part of the first season), Robert Culp as FBI Agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson.

Growing Pains

Growing Pains

Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.

Happy Days

Happy Days

Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America.

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O

Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett, portrayed by Jack Lord. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Most episodes would end with McGarrett instructing his subordinate to "Book 'em, Danno" sometimes specifying a charge such as "murder one."

Head Of The Class

Head Of The Class

Head of the Class is an American sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1991 on the ABC television network. The series follows a group of gifted students in the Individualized Honors Program (IHP) at the fictional Monroe High School (later Millard Fillmore High School) in Manhattan, and their history teacher Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman). The program was ostensibly a vehicle for Hesseman, best known for his role as radio DJ Dr. Johnny Fever in the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982). Hesseman left Head of the Class in 1990 and was replaced by Billy Connolly (in his first major American production) as teacher Billy MacGregor for the final season.

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues

Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series that were made.

The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons is an American sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, through June 25, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The show was produced by the T.A.T. Communications Company from 1975–1982 and by Embassy Television from 1982-1985. The Jeffersons is the longest-running sitcom with a predominantly African American cast in the history of American television.

Knots Landing

Knots Landing

Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired from December 27, 1979 to May 13, 1993 on CBS. Set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles in California, the show centered on the lives of four married couples living in a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. Initially intended to be a Scenes From a Marriage-type drama series, storylines also included rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, corporate intrigue and criminal investigations. By the time of its conclusion, Knots Landing had become one of the longest-running primetime dramas on U.S. television after Gunsmoke and Law & Order, and tied for third place with Bonanza.

Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley

Laverne & Shirley is an American television situation comedy that ran on ABC from January 26, 1976, to May 10, 1983. It starred Penny Marshall as Laverne De Fazio and Cindy Williams as Shirley Feeney, roommates who worked in a fictitious Milwaukee brewery called "Shotz Brewery".

The Love Boat

The Love Boat

The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24, 1977, until May 24, 1986. The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain. It was part of ABC's popular Saturday night lineup that included Fantasy Island until the latter show ended in 1984.

MacGyver

MacGyver

MacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC and follows secret agent Angus MacGyver, played by Richard Dean Anderson. MacGyver prefers non-violent resolutions where possible, and refuses to handle a gun. He works as a troubleshooter for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles. He is a resourceful agent with an encyclopedic knowledge of science, able to solve complex problems with everyday materials he finds at hand, along with his ever-present duct tape and Swiss Army knife.

Married... With Children

Married... With Children

Married... with Children is an American sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997.

MAS*H

M*A*S*H

M*A*S*H is an American television series developed by Larry Gelbart, adapted from the 1970 feature film MASH. The series is a medical drama/black comedy that follows a team of doctors and support staff stationed at the "4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital" in Uijeongbu, South Korea, during the Korean War. M*A*S*H's title sequence featured an instrumental version of the song "Suicide Is Painless", which also appears in the original film.

Miami Vice

Miami Vice

Miami Vice was an American television crime drama series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs respectively, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. The series ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984 to 1989.

Mork & Mindy

Mork & Mindy

Mork & Mindy is an American science fiction sitcom broadcast from 1978 until 1982 on ABC. The series starred Robin Williams as Mork, an alien who comes to Earth from the planet Ork in a small, one-man egg-shaped spaceship. Pam Dawber co-starred as Mindy McConnell, his human friend and roommate. In 1997, the episode "Mork's Mixed Emotions" was ranked #94 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list.

Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Belvedere is an American sitcom that originally aired on ABC from March 15, 1985, until July 8, 1990. The series is based on the Lynn Aloysius Belvedere character created by Gwen Davenport for her 1947 novel Belvedere, which was later adapted into the 1948 film Sitting Pretty. The sitcom stars Christopher Hewett in the title role, who takes a job with an American family headed by George Owens, played by Bob Uecker.

Murphy Brown

Murphy Brown

Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television newsmagazine.

The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show

The Muppet Show is a American television programme produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and featuring Muppets. After two pilot episodes were produced in 1974 and 1975, the show premiered on September 5, 1976, and five series were produced until March 15, 1981, lasting 120 episodes.

My Two Dads

My Two Dads

My Two Dads is an American sitcom that starred Staci Keanan, Paul Reiser and Greg Evigan. It aired on NBC from 1987 to 1990 and was about a two men who could have been the father of the main character Nicole.

Night Court

Night Court

Night Court is an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from 1984 to1 992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan court, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. "Harry" Stone (played by Harry Anderson). It was created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, who had previously worked on Barney Miller in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers

Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for 8 seasons from March 25, 1986 to August 6, 1993 on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean Europe, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot).

Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap

Quantum Leap is an American television series that was broadcast on NBC from 1989 1993. The series starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist from six years in the future who becomes lost in time following a time travel experiment, temporarily taking the places of other people to "put right what once went wrong".

Roseanne

Roseanne

Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from October 18, 1988 to May 20, 1997. Starring Roseanne Barr, the show revolved around the Conners, an Illinois working class family. The series reached #1 in the Nielsen ratings becoming the most watched television show in the United States from 1989 to 1990, and remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, and in the top twenty for eight.

Saved By The Bell

Saved By The Bell

Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired between 1989 and 1993. The series is a retooled version of the 1988 series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was itself later folded into the history of Saved by the Bell. The series followed the exploits of several students along with their principal at fictional Bayside High School.

Silver Spoons

Silver Spoons

Silver Spoons is an American sitcom about an extremely wealthy family that aired on NBC from 1982 to 1986 and in first-run syndication from September 15, 1986 to March 4, 1987.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1989 to 1998. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment block on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the show features a host of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, in particular best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes, and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer.

Small Wonder

Small Wonder

Small Wonder is an American science fiction sitcom that aired in first-run syndication from 1985 to 1989. The show chronicles the family of a robotics engineer who, after he secretly creates a robot modeled after a real human girl, tries to pass it off as their daughter.

St. Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere

St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC 1982 to 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood. The show starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels all as teaching doctors, who gave interns a promising future in making critical decisions.

Taxi

Taxi

Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series", focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher.

Three's Company

Three's Company

Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House. The story revolves around three single roommates: Janet Wood, Chrissy Snow and Jack Tripper who all platonically share Apartment 201 in a Santa Monica, California apartment building owned by Mr. and Mrs. Roper.

The Waltons

The Waltons

The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show is centered on a family in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II.

Webster

Webster

Webster is an American situation comedy that premiered on ABC on September 16, 1983, and ran on that network until September 11, 1987, but continued in first-run syndication until 1989. Like NBC's earlier hit Diff'rent Strokes, it featured a young African American boy adopted by a white family.

Who's The Boss?

Who's The Boss?

Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984 to April 25, 1992. The series starred Tony Danza as a retired major league baseball player who relocates to Fairfield, Connecticut to work as a live-in housekeeper for a divorced advertising executive, played by Judith Light. Also featured were Alyssa Milano, Danny Pintauro, and Katherine Helmond.

WKRP In Cincinnati

WKRP In Cincinnati

WKRP in Cincinnati is an American situation comedy that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI (AM) in Atlanta. The ensemble cast consisted of Gary Sandy, Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, Loni Anderson, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders and Frank Bonner.

The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years

The Wonder Years is an American television comedy-drama created by Carol Black and Neal Marlens. It ran for six seasons on ABC from 1988 through 1993. The pilot aired on January 31, 1988 after ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXII.

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