80s TV Shows: Memorable Moments

The 80s brought us the best and worst in television programming and for every series that was memorable we had two or three that were inane. Sometimes the inane and the memorable were one and the same. For every great TV show like Growing Pains we had to collectively put up with stupid but popular fare like A-Team which has now been turned into an equally ridiculous movie.

80s tv shows included some great sitcoms that stay with us to this very day. There were awesome and innovative shows like Taxi, which brought us the late great Andy Kaufman and introduced us to the great Danny DeVito who went on to movie fame in films such as Ruthless People. Newhart starred Bob Newhart (duh) and was a witty, hilarious, adult comedy that featured the droll humor of its sardonic star. Cheers brought us Woody Harrelson and other great stars. Roseanne starred the big-mouthed and obnoxious Roseanne Barr (later Roseanne Arnold) who, along with tv hubby John Goodman, brought a working class mentality to the genre which was appreciated by television watchers from all walks of life.

So who remembers the god-awful Alf featuring a foul-mouthed, wise-cracking muppet-like puppet from outer space? Nightcourt was good and so was One Day at a Time with the very young Michael J. Fox.

One of the biggest 80s TV shows of them all, and the most popular sitcom was the perennially number one The Cosby Show starring Mr. Jello Puddin himself, the great comedian Bill Cosby. The Huxtable family became a part of Anericana and brought a resurgence of ratings success to the once floundering network NBC. The Cosby Show broke a lot of ground in the way it treated delicate subject matter and paved the way for shows like Seinfeld and many others that followed.

Dallas was a serial-like primetime soap opera that became Americas favorite addiction. The mystery surrounding who shot villain J.R. Ewing swung the shows ratings to new highs. Dallas was the first show of its kind and spawned a whole generation of copycats and tributes that followed such as Knots Landing, Dynasty and Falcon Crest.

One of the worst 80s TV shows was the horrible Love Boat which was only equaled in sheer stupidity by the brain-dead Fantasy Island. Both of them, not surprisingly, became number one shows and blew up all of the ratings. Any show that featured Zsa Zsa Gabor had to be bad. Herve Villechaise played the tiny Tatoo, assistant to Ricardo Montalbans dapper Mr. Roarke, host of Fantasy Island.

Action shows also suffered from moronic writing and ideas. 80s TV shows like The A-Team, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Knight Rider were big on explosions and low on brain cells. Since America loves mediocrity, these shows were destined to become gigantic hits and they did.

There were also a bunch of detective shows like Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, Matlock and the top dog of all, Magnum P.I. starring the charming and handsome Tom Selleck.

In the end, 80s TV shows proved that you could have the best and the worst at the same time.