In the sci-fi sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, John Lithgow plays Dick Solomon, the leader of an extraterrestrial team of explorers studying Earth culture. Dick and his crew assume human guises and pretend to be a typical family of four, but their behavior is anything but normal. Despite his erratic personality, Dick manages to hold down a job as a physics professor and keep a human girlfriend, Dr. Mary Albright (SNL veteran Jane Curtin).

Guilty pleasures don't come more guilty than The A-Team, television's only tongue-in-cheek drama about the exploits of renegade Vietnam vets. The primetime series' 1983 debut season was intentionally ludicrous, encouraging viewers to enjoy sundry talents of a colorful cast and laugh off storylines perhaps sillier than those on Charlie's Angels. Co-created by Stephen J. Cannell (Wiseguy) and Frank Lupo (Hunter), The A-Team introduced Lt. Col. John "Hannibal" Smith (George Peppard), the cocksure leader of a band of fugitive American soldiers framed for a crime in Vietnam and now thriving in Los Angeles. Hiring themselves out as soldiers of fortune, Hannibal's crew--including Lt. Templeton "Face" Peck (baby-faced Tim Dunigan in the pilot, Dirk Benedict thereafter), Sgt. Bosco Albert "B.A. (for 'Bad Attitude')" Baracus (Mr. T, outfitted with his trademark gold), and, most comically, Capt. H.M. "Howling Mad" Murdock (Dwight Schultz)--assist (mostly) ordinary people having a problem with bad guys. The A-Team ostensibly charges large fees, but much of the time the guys seem to be doing pro bono work for the helpless.

Adam-12 is a television police drama which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.

"He's just like E.T.," says a character of the fuzzy extraterrestrial stranded on Earth in the pilot episode of ALF. But the fun of this late 1980s family sitcom is that the sardonic ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form) is nothing like the interplanetary innocent of Steven Spielberg's classic. With his whiplash wit and huckster sensibility, ALF (real name: Gordon Shumway from the late planet Melmac, Lower East Side) enters the lives of the Tanner family as a fully formed rascal whose spacecraft crashes into their garage one night. Worried that the feds will chop ALF up for research purposes, the Tanners--father Willie (Max Wright), a cautious civil servant who doesn't like a lot of fuss at home; wife Kate (Anne Shedeen), and kids Lynn (Andrea Elson) and Brian (Benji Gregory)--reluctantly take ALF in like a shambling, profligate uncle who cracks wise despite having fallen on hard times.

Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series (behind Gunsmoke) and still continues to air in syndication.

Directed by Karen Arthur, written by a female team, and starring two filmic heroes of the feminist movement--Sharon Gless as Christine Cagney and Tyne Daly as Mary-Beth Lacey--the show pioneered on-screen presentation of independent, working women. With Cagney as the career-minded single woman, and Lacey as the mother/wife juggling job with home time, the two detectives serve as foil characters, the way other cop shows such as ChiPs, Moonlighting, or Charlie's Angels starred police with opposing opinions. But where other shows cast the foxiest people possible, Cagney & Lacey relied on character development instead of sex.

Sam Malone, a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, owns and runs Cheers, a cozy bar in Boston. Somewhat snobby, beautiful and intelligent Diane Chambers - forced to become a waitress when her fiance jilts her - constantly bickers with Sam. Eventually, they fall in love. Several wacky characters make the bar their home-away-from-home, including sarcastic waitress Carla, beer-loving accountant Norm and know-it-all letter carrier Cliff. A few seasons later, Sam sells the bar to buy a boat and sail around the world. But his boat sinks and he returns to bartending. Rebecca Howe, the new (more ambitious) manager, hires him back. They love to hate each other and eventually get together as well.

CHiPs followed the adventures of two hunky California Highway patrolmen, Francis "Ponch" Poncherello (Erik Estrada) and Jon Baker (Larry Wilcox). Ponch was the wisecracking ladies' man, while more reserved Jon played Ponch's straight man. But when it came to busting criminals and protecting the good drivers of California, Ponch and Jon were all business. Estrada and Wilcox were supported by a strong cast, including the long-suffering, no-nonsense Sergeant Joseph Getraer (Robert Pine) and luckless Officer Grossman (Paul Linke).

Looking back at season 1 of The Cosby Show, it's easy to forget that momentous history was being made. Not only did this immensely popular sitcom hold the #1 spot among all network TV shows for five consecutive seasons (a record that still stands), but it promoted an evolutionary progression that influenced the entire TV industry from that point forward. African Americans had enjoyed sitcom success in the past (on Julia, The Jeffersons, and Good Times), but the idealized family of Cliff and Clair Huxtable (Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad) represented a new and quietly revolutionary perspective; married for 21 years with five children, the Huxtables were happy and successful, and issues of race were almost entirely irrelevant to the show's universal appeal.

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.

More than just a ratings hit for NBC, the Norman Lear/Bud Yorkin-produced Diff'rent Strokes was a pop-culture phenomenon, thanks largely to the wise-beyond-his-years performance of star Gary Coleman. Launched in November 1978 as a mid-season replacement for the failed Joe Namath series The Waverly Wonders, Diff'rent Strokes vaulted to no. 27 in the Nielsen ratings; audiences responded to the warmth and humorous culture clash between wealthy Philip Drummond (Lear vet Conrad Bain) and Arnold and Willis (Coleman and Todd Bridges), the sons of his late housekeeper whom he adopted. Though Bain, Bridges, Dana Plato (as Bain's daughter), and Charlotte Rae (as housekeeper Mrs. Garrett) all delivered solid performances, it was Coleman's charm, his timing, and most of all, his catch phrase "Whatchoo talkin' bout?" that drew in viewers.

Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

Before Degrassi Junior High and Seventh Heaven, there was The Facts of Life--a feel-good sitcom where a lesson was learned at the end of each episode. Set in an all-girl boarding school, the series spanned nine seasons, countless hairdos, and an array of cast members and guest stars--some of whom (George Clooney, Helen Hunt, Molly Ringwald) would become very, very famous in the future. Tseries introduces TV viewers to characters that represent girls everyone knows--Blair, the rich, spoiled girl; Natalie, the chubby smart aleck; Jo, the rebellious tomboy; and Tootie, the rollerskating tattletale.

Though it emerged during the Reagan era, Family Ties remains as relevant as ever. Most children find their parents a little embarrassing, but what sets this sitcom apart is that former hippies Steven and Elyse Keaton, (Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter-Birney), now find themselves in 1980's America trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Son Alex P. Keaton (three-time Emmy winner Michael J. Fox) is an ambitious young Republican, and his sister Mallory (Justine Bateman) is a shallow victim of the corporate culture, obsessed with music, clothes and boys. Their only normal kid is young Jennifer (Tina Yothers), a bit of a tomboy. In later seasons, the Keatons add a fourth child, Andrew. Most of the comedy arose from the conflict between the liberal parents and the conservative children. It works because the Keatons obviously love each other--foibles and all.

Flipper is an American television program first broadcast on NBC from September 19, 1964, until April 15, 1967. Flipper, a bottlenose dolphin, is the companion animal of Porter Ricks, Chief Warden at fictional Coral Key Park and Marine Preserve in southern Florida, and his two young sons Sandy and Bud.

Before he became a mega-movie star, hip hop artist Will Smith starred in this quintessential '90s sitcom. Will Smith plays a street-smart teenager who grew up on the mean streets of West Philadelphia. After he gets into some trouble, his mother sends him to Bel-Air to live with Will's rich uncle. Will's foils included his stern Uncle Philip, preppy Carlton, and airhead Hilary. Though Smith's rapid-fire wisecracks were the show's main attraction, Will's new family sometimes got the last laugh.

Frasier provides a weekly dose of the neuroses and tribulations suffered by an insecure and pompous psychiatrist, Dr. Frasier Crane, host of a Seattle radio advice show at KACL. The twice-divorced doctor's peaceful home life of fine cigars and haute cuisine was shattered when his gruff, ex-cop father, Martin, was injured in the line of duty and forced to move in with Frasier. Martin brought with him a semi-psychic, live-in home-care provider, Daphne Moon, his pesky Jack Russell terrier, Eddie, and a duct-taped recliner that clashes with Frasier's more aesthetically pleasing Eames and Wassily chairs. Their home is frequently visited by Frasier's snobbish and competitive brother, Niles, a fellow psychiatrist whose longtime romantic interest in Daphne was finally happily realized at the conclusion of Season 7. At work, his slightly jaded producer and man-hungry single parent Roz Doyle, supports Frasier. Some of the people who voice the callers to Frasier's radio program are often bigtime celebrities.

A television phenomenon and genuine American cultural artifact, Friends chronicled the misadventures of six twentysomethings navigating their way through the not-so-fast lane of Manhattan life. Like all great sitcoms, Friends featured unforgettable characters we all could identify with: self-absorbed but sweet-natured Rachel; hypercompetitive siblings Monica and Ross; daffy but street-smart Phoebe; insecure and soulful Chandler; and self-styled ladies' man Joey. Like Seinfeld and Frasier, Friends captured the heady zeitgeist of the roaring '90s.

Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams (as Maxwell Smart, Agent 86), Barbara Feldon (as Agent 99), and Edward Platt (as Chief). The show aired on both NBC and CBS from 1965 to 1970.

Launched during the neon-lit 1980s, The Golden Girls shed light on a side of Miami ignored by Miami Vice. In other words, no drugs, no murder--just four women of "a certain age," spending their golden years in the sun. Like the theme, "Thank You for Being a Friend," the long-running sitcom was about friendship (not crime). As for the "girls," they were tart-tongued Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur), former farm girl Rose (Betty White), Southern belle Blanche (Rue McClanahan), and Dorothy's salty Sicilian mother Sophia (Estelle Getty). All were widows, with the exception of the divorced Dorothy. Created by Emmy-winning producer Susan Harris (Soap), The Golden Girls re-ignited the careers of 1970s TV veterans Arthur (All in the Family, Maude) and White (The Mary Tyler Moore Show). At the same time, it made stars of McClanahan (who co-starred on Maude), by playing a comic version of A Streetcar Named Desire's Blanche Dubois, and the scene-stealing Getty, made to look older than her actual age (she and Arthur were born the same year).

A gritty, realistic look at the life of cops in a large (and unnamed) metropolitan city. Led by Capt. Frank Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti), the cops of the Hill Street Station kept the peace -- though there were plenty of casulties along the way. Focusing more on the characters within in the precinct than on the cases they were trying to solve, Hill Street Blues also featured Veronica Hamel as public defender Joyce Davenport (who later married Capt. Furillo), Michael Conrad (who passed away during the 1983 season) as gruff Sergeant Phil Esterhaus, James B. Sikking (Doogie Howser, M.D.) as Lt. Howard Hunter, Betty Thomas as Officer Lucy Bates and Bruce Weitz as Det. Mick Belker (who sometimes resorted to injuring the felons he apprehended).

I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries. The show aired on NBC from 1965 to 1970.

I Married Joan is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from 1952 to 1955. It starred veteran vaudeville, film, and radio comedienne Joan Davis as the manic wife of a mild-mannered community judge, Bradley Stevens (Jim Backus).

Jamie (Helen Hunt) and Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) are a young urban couple with five months of marriage behind them and they're still trying to make some ground rules of living together in an apartment in Manhattan. This is definitely not easy because Jamie & Paul are both equally neurotic - but in totally different ways. Paul is a documentary filmmaker, he is charming and creative, but also extremely careful and analytic. Jaime works as a public relations consultant, and is more of a free spirit, but also has a number of discomforts. Jaime's sister Lisa Stemple (Anne Ramsay) often comes to visit them, just like their friends Mark Devanow (Richard Kind), his wife Fran (Leila Kenzle) and Paul's cousin Ira Buchman (John Pankow). But, they aren't the only ones dropping by the apartment - there are always all kinds of other characters like noisy neighbours, a funny dogwalker (Hank Azaria), family members and others.

This series is largely remembered for the stylish clothes Detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs wore, the soundtrack, and its distinct visuals. But beneath the veneer is a surprisingly dark cop show. The cocaine boom of the 1980s framed many stories about drugs and murder, with Crockett and Tubbs often resorting to violence in the course of their work.

My Two Dads began airing in the fall of 1987 on NBC Sunday nights at 8pm. The sitcom starred Greg Evigan, who had previous fame from the TV series B.J. and the Bear and Paul Reiser, who later starred in the acclaimed TV comedy, Mad About You. The two played lifelong friends, Joey Harris and Michael Taylor respectively. Rounding out the star cast ensemble was newcomer Staci Keanan in her first ever starring role playing Nicole Bradford, the possible daughter of one of the dads. The show begins when Marcy Bradford (Emma Samms), the mother of Nicole Bradford (Keanan), dies. The two men who had competed for the woman's affections before Nicole was born — Michael Taylor (Reiser) and Joey Harris (Evigan) — are awarded joint custody of Nicole. The mix-ups of two single men raising a teenage daughter provided the story each week. Judge Margaret W. Wilbur (Florence Stanley), a family court judge, would frequently visit the new family and served as Nicole's mentor.

One of the zaniest and bawdiest shows to hit network primetime in the 1980s, Night Court starred Harry Anderson as the Mel Tormé-loving, magic-playing, too-young judge Harry Stone presiding over the night beat of New York. Joining him were lecherous assistant district attorney Dan (John Larroquette), bald Bunyanesque bailiff Bull (Richard Moll), uptight court clerk Lana (Karen Austin), earnest public defender Elizabeth (Paula Kelly), and grizzled bailiff Selma (Selma Hacker).

Former test pilot Sam Beckett finds himself trapped in time due to an experiment gone awry, leaping into the body of a different person each week. Al Calavicci, at first known only as The Observer, is Sam's holographic adviser -- he provides Sam with some details about his new identity and gives him guidance on how to help the people affected by his presence. But Al never gives Sam all the info he needs, forcing our hero to bluff his way through many a wacky situation.

An iconic 70s sitcom opening with the classic theme by Quincy Jones, Sanford and Son was the American version of the British sitcom Steptoe and Son. Red Foxx played the grouchy but lovable junkman Fred Sanford, who constantly threatened heart attacks whenever things did not go his way. Foxx was supported by an equally hilarious cast, including his long suffering son Lamont (Demond Wilson), arch-nemesis and sister-in-law Ester (LaWanda Page), and the goat-owning Puerto Rican Julio (Gregory Sierra).

As high school comedies for young viewers go, Saved by the Bell is as light as they come, yet there is something unusually addictive about it. No doubt that's because the series, set at Bayside High School in Pacific Palisades, California, balances fluffy stories with evolving relationships. It's no chore to watch every episode and feel satisfied with the touching, admirable growth and affection between key characters.

Back in 1982, it was perfectly fine to refer to the 12-year-old star of Silver Spoons as Ricky Schroder. It wouldn't be until his young adult years, when he went on to star in such projects as Lonesome Dove, 24, and NYPD Blue that Schroder would try to distance himself from the sitcom that made him a household name and replace Ricky with Rick. But no matter how many plum roles Schroder gets, we will always have fond memories of Ricky--or the Rickster, as he was sometimes called on the show.

Jerry Seinfeld portrayed himself as a young single comic in New York coping with dating, nutty friends, and the indignities of city life. The show revolved around Jerry; Elaine, his ex-girlfriend and platonic pal; George, his worrywart best friend; and eccentric entrepreneur Kramer, the next-door neighbor who constantly wandered in and out of his apartment.

Seinfeld, the "show about nothing," gradually grew into an enormous hit and was the archetypal friends-hanging-out series of the 1990s. Most stories were about life's trivia, waiting in line, forgetting where your car is parked, throwing away someone's prized TV Guide. Seen once in a while were Jerry's parents, Helen and Morty, George's folks, Estelle and Frank (who were as neurotic as he was), and Newman, an overweight mailman who lived in the building.

Beginning its six-year run in 1982, St. Elsewhere was neither television's first ensemble medical drama nor, heaven knows, its last. Even now, when "reality" programming blights the landscape like some biblical plague, doc, cop, and lawyer shows remain staples of the medium, and while the likes of C.S.I., E.R., and Grey's Anatomy have it all over St. Elsewhere in the sizzle department--the production values are much flashier, the content sexier, more graphic, and faster-moving, the technology both in front of and behind the camera light years more sophisticated--the older show, despite its somewhat cheesy '70s vibe, is the hands-down winner when it comes to the actual steak. That's because it does it the old-fashioned way: by relying on good writing, vividly-drawn, identifiable characters, and excellent performances by an eye-opening group of actors.

Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry and produced by Desilu Productions. Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969. Although this television series had the title of Star Trek, it later acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began. Star Trek's Nielsen ratings while on NBC were low, and the network canceled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. The show became a cult classic in broadcast syndication during the 1970s, leading to five additional television series, 11 theatrical films, and numerous books, games, and other products.

This character-driven humane comedy from the creators of The Mary Tyler Moore Show rolled out of the garage with a full tank of gas: a lightning-in-a-bottle ensemble, smart, witty, and compassionate writing, and extraordinary characters. The Sunshine Cab Company was a much grittier workplace than the sunny WJM newsroom. Its down, but never out employees--single mother Elaine (Marilu Henner), aspiring actor Bobby (Jeff Conaway), hapless boxer Tony (Tony Danza), reptilian dispatcher Louis (Danny DeVito), naive rube John (Randall Carver), and indeterminately foreign mechanic Latka (comic iconoclast Andy Kaufman)--struggled to keep rolling along. Judd Hirsch's salt-of-the-earth cabbie Alex Rieger solved everyone's problems but his own. Christopher Lloyd was the burn-out Reverend Jim joined the cast in season two.

A popular and well-regarded comedy that ran for eight seasons in the '90s, Wings was created by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, the team that worked together on Cheers and later created Frasier. Tim Daly and Steven Weber play two brothers, Joe and Brian Hackett, respectively, who parted ways many years ago when a woman left Joe to marry Brian. Joe, the straitlaced do-everything-right brother, is running Sandpiper Air, a small airline on the island of Nantucket that runs commuter flights to the New England coast, when he reluctantly offers a job to Brian, the carefree brother who's also a pilot. Others who work at the airport are Helen (Crystal Bernard), the former girl-next-door who now works the lunch counter and aspires to be a professional cello player; Lowell (Thomas Haden Church), the not-all-there mechanic; Roy (David Schramm), the owner of the rival airline AeroMass; and Fay, who handles Sandpiper's front desk.

A spoof of superhero melodramas, the cartoon Underdog has a similar Clark Kent-style character, the ordinary dog Shoeshine Boy. But whenever there is trouble afoot, Shoeshine Boy ducks into a phone booth to don his uniform and become Underdog (his quick change routine usually accompanied by the phone booth's explosion). Always speaking in rhymes, the heroic Underdog must thwart evil plots from the likes of Simon Bar Sinister, Riff Raff, and Overcat.


Cast and Characters
Voices

• Wally Cox as Underdog
• Norma MacMillan as Sweet Polly PureBred
• Allen Swift as Simon Bar Sinister
  Recurring characters
• Underdog
• Sweet Polly PureBred
• Simon Bar Sinister
• Riff Raff
• Overcat

Broadcast History
First Telecast:October 3, 1964
Last Telecast: September 2, 1967
Number of Episodes: 124
Number of Seasons: 6
Original Network: NBC, CBS, Syndication

Theme Song and Opening Credits

Theme by W. Watts Biggers

When criminals in this world appear, And break the laws that they should fear, And frighten all who see or hear, The cry goes up both far and near for Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Underdog! Speed of lightning! Roar of thunder! Fighting all who rob or plunder! Underdog! Underdog!

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