Best Shows From The 80s

Wonder Years

#s#The Original Run: 1988-93 Creators: Neal Marlens, Carol Black Stars: Fred Savage, Dan Lauria, Alley Mills, Olivia d’Abo, Jason Hervey, Danica McKellar, Josh Saviano Network: ABC The Question Years is a family present, and yes, a few of its episodes inch dangerously close to afterschool-special territory, but make no error: revisiting this late-’80s/early-’90s staple as a grownup is just as—if perhaps not more—enjoyable than watching it the first time-around. It’s unabashedly nostalgic, but it chronicles the ups and downs of Kevin Arnold’s, Winnie Cooper’s and Paul Pfeiffer’s adolescence against the backdrop of the vietnam-era and our nation’s changing social landscape using a maturity most exhibits geared towards kiddies lack. The tiny childhood moments that stick with us are treated with all the respect they deserve. We giggle when Kevin’s brother Wayne gets him in a head lock and calls him “scrote“for the umpteenth time (try sneaking that by the Nick a T Nite censors today!) or when Kev squares off together with his mortal enemy Becky Slater, and we cry when Kevin’s periodically distant father struggles to relate solely to his teen-age kids. And sorry, but if you don’t hold your breath when Kevin puts that letterman jacket over Winnie’s shoulders, you’re dead inside. Music geeks will value the amazing sound-track as well.

Family Ties

Original Run: 1982-89 Creator: Gary David Goldberg Stars: Meredith Baxter-Birney, Michael Gross, Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman and Tina Yothers Network: NBC We were given the Keatons by one of the best family sit-coms of our time; these were were our family. 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. Fox, whose job was launched together with the collection, produced Alex’s Republicanism amusing however not cliched. The series is still remembered for its very special episode, “A my name is Alex,“ where Alex struggled to take the sudden death of his buddy. Today family comedies continue to try to capture the magic that was Family Ties

Taxi

Original Run: 1978 83 Creators: James L. Ed, Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis. Weinberger Stars: Carol Kane, Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Conway Network: ABC/NBC Let’s just pause for a moment and remember that someone once confident a community to put Andy Kaufman on the air. I just wish it'd been live TV. Like M*A*S*H, Taxi usually tackled significant social issues like drug and gambling habit, but did it with a wonderfully odd cast of characters in the alien-like Latka Graves (Kaufman) to drugged-out hippie Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd) to misanthrope Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito).

Moonlighting

Original Run: 198589 Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron Stars: Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis, Allyce Beasley Network: ABC Because the Blue Moon Detective Agency stopped investigating crimes, David Addison (Bruce Willis) and Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) have become a cautionary tale in the will-they-or-won’t-they television trope. But during the hey day of Moonlighting, no Television couple did sexual pressure like Shepherd and Willis. They actually burned the house down when they ultimately decided to consummate their relationship. While the collection had lots of behind-the-scenes strife (beginning with with all the fact that Shepherd and burgeoning movie star Willis didn’t go along), it consistently entertained, pioneered the dramedy style that's so well-known nowadays, and frequently broke the fourth wall in revolutionary ways.

Newhart

Original Run: 1982 90 Creator: Barry Kemp Stars: Bob Newhart Jennifer Holmes, Julia Duffy, Tom Post-On, William Sanderson Network: CBS You may always rely on on the writers on Bob Newhart’s 2nd effective sitcom to be playful. In the pre-meta-pop culture era, they’d invite Russell Johnson (the professor on Gilligan’s Island) to appear as a Beaver Lodge member watching Gilligan’s Island. But it was the original characters who truly made the show. Larry and his two brothers that are silent, Daryl and Daryl. Handyman George Utley. Spoiled maid Stephanie. And the ultimate straight man, Bob Newhart. Too negative it was all just a dream.

DVD Boxed Sets TV Series

At the Movies

Original Run: 1982 2010 Creator: Gene Siskel Stars: Roget Ebert, Gene Siskel Network: Syndicated Two diverse exhibits, equally titled In The Movies from production companies that were various, the mixture of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel entirely revolutionized the concept of film criticism. Greatly admired for his or her ability to succinctly summarize the newest films in addition to their honesty and integrity in sparring with each other when opinions differed, the pair were also criticized by many for degrading the integrity of film criticism by lowering it to arbitrary “thumbs up“or “thumbs down“gestures. Such was the legacy of Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel and the duality of the show. They were among the only film critics whose opinions an “average American“can frequently be be expected to regard and did significantly for legitimizing the idea of movie criticism outside of a class-room setting. Some may nonetheless criticize the concept of a two-outcome rating program, but it was the approachable eloquence of the hosts that made the format work.

The Jeffersons

Original Run: 197585 Creator: Norman Lear Stars: Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley Roxie Roker Network: CBS Norman Lear produced a run of hit shows in the 1970s, you start with with All in the Family, Sanford and Son (and its British predecessor Steptoe and Son), The Jeffersons, Maude, 1 Day at a Time and Good Times. It might be argued that no one had a larger audience for interracial dialogue than Lear. The Jeffersons was his longest-running sequence, lasting well into the ’80s, and in it, he gave America an affluent African American family dealing with new surroundings. George Jefferson may not have been amodel for race relations (discussing Louise’s interracial few buddies as “zebras”), but as with Archie Bunker, bigotry in the present was revealed for what it was.

Pee-Wee’s Playhouse

Original Run: 1986-90 Creator: Paul Reubens Stars: Paul Reubens Lynne Marie Stewart, Phil Hartman Network: CBS There are two types of people within my life: Those who like Pee Wee Herman and enemies. Years ago, I was gifted the total selection of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse DVDs. Within the years, I’d created a point to view Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Big Top Pee-Wee whenever the mood was right. Just as much as I loved this show as a a youngster, I only expected to get a great kick from an episode here and there, but I found myself inhaling these DVDs. Pee-Wee’s Play-House is joyous morning viewing (over a bowl of Mr. T cereal, of course) or a great way to unwind at evening (I’d suggest taking a drink from a good beer whenever somebody says the “secret word“ only if your day was exceptionally difficult). For a display that had a cast of genies, cowboys, puppet couches, pterodactyls, clocks and breakfast plates, I believe Play-House nevertheless makes sense in 2014. It’s a fully realized vision of Pee-Wee’s whimsical, wacky world—puppet strings and all—and the sequence is just pithy enough to pull in adults that are ready to go on the ride, too. Paul Reubens is a comedy icon and learn of timing, and it’s rare that a well-put Peewee gurgle or squeal doesn’t get a chuckle out of me. If you can’t locate any joy in every one of that, we’ve got to reconsider our friendship.

Sesame Street

Original Run: 1969- Creator: Joan Ganz Cooney Stars: Frank Oz (Bert, Grover), Jim Henson (Ernie, Kermit, Guy Smiley), Caroll Spinney (Huge Fowl, Oscar the Grouch), Jerry Nelson (Depend von Count, numerous), Kevin Clash (Elmo), Bob McGrath, Loretta Long, Roscoe Orman, Will Lee, Sonia Manzano, Emilio Delgado, Northern Calloway Network: PBS The ritual for millions of children in the 1980s was to wake up, start the TV and hear “Sunny Day/Sweepin’the clouds away…“before preparing for college. Big Chicken could see Snuffleupagus, actually although this was straight back before anybody. The residents of Sesame Avenue never skimped in the name of entertainment on entertainment in the title of education or education. With characters like Oscar the Grouch, Burt, Ernie, Count Von Depend and—my favorites—the Yip Yips, we never minded that we were really studying some thing along the way.