Subscribe to Listverse30 TV Memories of the 80s
- Published October 16, 2007 - 68 Comments
The 80s. Television was a family affair, and we all gathered round the set to watch our favorites. There were so many popular series, and The List Universe has come up with 30 of them – in no particular order. Some edging into the 70’s, some into the 90’s but all very well remembered from the 80’s. We hope you have as much fun watching the trailers as we did finding them. Enjoy!
30. The A-Team
29. Miami Vice
28. CHiPs
27. Who’s The Boss
26. Magnum P.I.
25. Charles In Charge
24. Sledgehammer
23. Night Court
22. That’s Incredible!
21. MacGuyver
20. Married With Children
19. 21 Jump Street
18. Knight Rider
17. Fame
16. Dallas
15. Dynasty
14. Hill Street Blues
13. Taxi
12. Family Ties
11. Diff’rent Strokes
10. Eight is Enough
9. One Day At A Time
8. The Love Boat
7. Fantasy Island
6. Mork and Mindy
5. Alice
4. The Dukes of Hazzard
3. The Incredible Hulk
2. The Greatest American Hero
1. Alf
Technorati Tags: 1980s, television
October 16th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
i live in south africa…for me this list is 30 memories of the 90s!
October 16th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
The video for Fantasy Island and Mork and Mindy are the same.
I don’t remember that being the case when I used to watch the programs on TV. But then again, I’ve tried to forget much of the 80’s…
October 16th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
This was pretty cool. You need to do a list of obscure 80’s shows: Manimal, Automan, Max Headroom, Remington Steele, Moonlighting, etc…
October 16th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
zubair: haha – obviously we got things sooner in NZ because it is definitely a list of 80s memories for me.
RobS: Thanks – fixed
Just give in to it! You know you want to 
Dan: Max Hedroom, Remington Steele, and Moonlighting were all very close to being on the list.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
What, no Facts of Life? lol
October 16th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Oh my….. I enjoyed this list. I was pointing out all my fav chars from each show to my son. He was asking me what all this was. I had to explain to him that this was my Drake and Josh.
October 16th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I was flipping through getting more and more worried that there would be no ALF lol. Great list!
October 16th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Actually none of this sillyness ever existed here in the United States during the eighties. Sorry to be the first to break the news to all the others elsewhere around the world (I’ll ignore the CIA knocking at my door right now to take me away and “not” torture me with a “sledgehammer”) but this was all just one big ellaborate practical joke. In fact, what most Americans fine tuned their audio/visual recievers (as we called them) to, was nothing but ourselves pausing for a moment in time from the previous generation’s birth of our parents. Now here we are!
Ah! the memories.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Why is “Manimal” not on this list?
More seriously no “Newheart”?
October 16th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
THUNDAH…THUNDAH…THUNDAH CATS, BIG BOOTY HOOOOOEEEESSSS!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Oh Sh*t! rakaka: stop it man, that’s too funny!
October 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
In the brilliant but cancelled category, how about Frank’s Place? It was only on one season but was different from other shows and had a number of memorable episodes.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
No Transformers?
October 16th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Hi Zubair. Same here. I also thought some were from the 90’s. I had to go to IMDB and check.
At least some good things came from the 80’s.
How about V. It was only a mini series but it was classic.
October 16th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Oh my – now I remember all of those. Hart to Hart, Scarecrow and Mrs King , BJ Mckay and his best friend Bear, Silver Spoons, Benson, and the list just goes On and On. Wasnt Punky Brewster 80s???
October 17th, 2007 at 1:33 am
sarahj: I forgot Hart to Hart! I did think of BJ, and Benson – I couldn’t find a clip for Benson otherwise I would have included it. I think Punk Brewster was definitely 80s because they did an episode on the Space Shuttle disaster. It was getting pretty late by the time we reached thirty so we just stopped adding.
Gryphon: I loved V – it was one of my favorite shows!
ImplosiveFire: we left off kids shows and cartoons because they would fill a whole other list in the future.
Beirne: I am not sure if I ever saw that show. I can’t find a clip on youtube either – if you know of one let me know so I can check it out
Dave: Argh! Completely forgot Newhart – thanks for mentioning it.
Shane S.: I thought I had put it on the list – I must have forgotten when I had a brainwave for another show. I loved the Facts of Life.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Wasn’t The Cosby Show from the 80s?????
October 17th, 2007 at 3:16 am
What about the Prince of Bell Air ?
October 17th, 2007 at 6:19 am
^90’s
No Fall Guy?
October 17th, 2007 at 6:53 am
Oh my gosh my parents totally didn’t allow me to watch married with children haha. It was one of the only shows that I was forbidden to see.
October 17th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Jackie: I loved that show – it was so funny and gave cause for much cringing!
October 17th, 2007 at 8:49 am
Night Court was the best ever. Still need Moonlighting though. For all the people that thought Bruce willis should be on the worst actors list they should be forced to watch it.
October 17th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
I recently saw an old Chips rerun- Dude, that show was so stupid! But I loved it as a kid.
I downloaded the “sad piano music from the end of the Incredible Hulk” (Family Guy reference again.) and play it on repeat when the party’s over and people need to go home.
My wife says I’m a jerk.
I agree with her!
October 17th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
was Cheers up there on that list heh
October 17th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Yarr: haha I would hate that and call you a jerk too – the party must never end!
sarahj: I think it was but there were so many shows being yelled out across the room that some got lost
October 18th, 2007 at 4:34 am
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, this was great.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
That was great! My family didn’t watch that much TV (I was in school for part of the ’80’s) but we did watch some, and I remember seeing most of those shows. I don’t think I ever would have thought back then that I’d miss sitting on the couch with my family watching some corny TV show, but I could go for just one night of it right now.
October 19th, 2007 at 7:20 am
I was born in the 90s so I haven’t watched most of these TV shows. The only one I really watched regularly and liked was Married With Children. There was also an Argentinean remake of it last year, which was very successful because it adapted the original scripts to an Argentinean family, and Argentinean people are pretty much like the Bundys, who always try to take advantage of the situations (not all of them, at least I’m not like that, but most are).
There was also an Argentinean remake of The Nanny (it was good too), one of Who’s The Boss? and another of Bewitched (those two weren’t successful).
I remember watching Alf when I was young but I wasn’t crazy about it, and my mom and dad always talk about Fantasy Island.
October 19th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Happily, I was born in 2002, so I never had to suffer all these trashy TV shows.
I wish.
October 21st, 2007 at 12:26 pm
dude… where’s Cheers??
October 21st, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Mathilda: you are so right – it was nostalgia that gave rise to this list. I would love to be back home with my parents watching these too – I can still remember the smells in the house from dinner cooking while these shows were on!
che: for a five year old you have amazing talent with typing and general use of the internet!
melissa: Cheers was great – I should have included it for sure.
Co: wow – I would love to see some of those! Fantasy Island was on when I was very young, so I have vague images of bits of it but not a lot.
October 28th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
My favorite show during the eighties was QUANTUM LEAP with Scott Backula as Dr. Sam Beckett and his pal Dean Stockwell as Al! Best show about time travel that isn’t DR. WHO ever! I miss that show…
November 5th, 2007 at 12:57 am
Um, some of these shows were from the ’70s.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Order008: the criteria was that the show had to have been in the 80s – it doesn’t matter when it started – every show on this list ran for at least one year in the 1980s
November 5th, 2007 at 9:30 am
TV will never be this good again.
November 21st, 2007 at 7:58 am
wow…this took me back to my childhood and bought back good memories of me eating potato chips with my mom on the couch
November 21st, 2007 at 8:02 am
srichards: I am so glad that youtube is filling up with these things – it is so good to get reminders of your youth
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
My 15 seconds of fame was as an extra on Webster when I was in fourth grade. I got to sit right behind him in the “classroom” so I had a lot of camera time. I wish I could find episodes online.
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:57 pm
I thought Good Times was “Dyn-o-mite!!!”
I watched most of these growing up and loved every minute of them! Trivia: Who guest starred on Family Ties as Elyse’s brother?? Hint: Oscar winner
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
i once was a part of making the longest ice cream sunday in the late 1980’s. Does that count. it didnt last long… so , anyway my extra “acting” role in a movie , lasted a blink of an eye in a “staight to video release”/////Perhaps your “Webster” episode will be played on and on forever more on some cable-like station.. If t.v. extends on, or if the “full human video archivives” becomes available, then maybe we will be able to turn a knob to a specific time and place within our minds.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 am
Although MASH was mostly a 70’s show, the most viewed show was the final episode in 82-83 season. That reason alone it should have been included.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:41 am
M*A*S*H is awesome……
January 17th, 2008 at 2:28 am
man, the memories;
The A Team-fuckin bad ass back in the day, thats the og show right there
miami vice-gay
chips-gay
whos the boss-gay
magnum pi-decent show, not bad
charles in charge-a favorite of mine when i was a kid
sledgehammer-pretty bad ass show
night court-had a few funny episodes
thats incredible-never heard of that fuckin show
macgyver-i bet he could make one hell of a bong
married with children-a fuckin classic, love that show
21 jump street-gay
knight rider-another bad ass show
fame-fuckin gay!
dallas-i shot jr bitch
dynasty-gay
hill street blues-decent
taxi-pretty damn funny
family ties-justine bateman was fine!
differnt strokes-gay
eight is enough-gay
one day at a time-gay
the love boat-gay
fantasy island-gay
mork and mindy-robin williams made it gay
alice-pretty cool show
the dukes of hazzard-i would have given daisy duke many many many babies
the incredible hulk-gay after 13 years old
the greates american hero-never heard of it
alf-alf was the shit
by the way good times was gay and mash was bad ass
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
family ties and taxi my favorites
January 26th, 2008 at 12:55 am
First: ‘GAY’ (in negative context) and ‘FAGGOT’ are horrible words, and your mouth should be washed out with acid if you use them.
Otherwise: I’m equally upset that ‘The Facts of Life’ wasn’t included, as well as ‘The Golden Girls’ (didn’t that start in the 80’s?)
Great list, though. The Growing Pains theme is now stuck in my head .. ACH! It WON’T GO AWAY!
January 26th, 2008 at 12:56 am
.. sha-na-na-naaa.
February 1st, 2008 at 5:01 am
Silver Spoons ?
April 27th, 2008 at 3:18 am
i miss thos 80s live hmm wen see this 80s tv shows i miss alots……
May 10th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Square Pegs, Rags to Riches and can’t forget Hunter..lol
June 10th, 2008 at 7:39 am
What is it about the eighties that was so incredibly awesome? I mean come on the tv shows the music everything (well, except maybe the fashion) was great. I was born in the eighties but was to young to watch most of these when they were on, but I’ve seen just about all of these in reruns and love em (except fantasy island, the little guy kinda creeped me out).
June 15th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
WKRP in Cincinnati No???
Loved taxi “What does a yellow light mean?”
“Slow Down.”
“Whaat doooos a yyyeelllow liiiight mean?”
“Slow down,”
“Whaaaaaat doooooeees aaaa yyyyellllow liiiiiiight meeeeeaan?”
Funniest scene EVER.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:00 am
yo the old things r shit and hu would want 2 talk about old stuff anyway i would rather talk about games or stuff like new instead of old grannie stuff so all of
July 18th, 2008 at 8:12 am
OK guys, if you are THAT into the 80’s you really should come to the I HEART THE 80’s night I’m going to at Curzon Soho (London) on Fri 25th. 2 great films (I chose ‘Breakin’) DJ’s, a free beer and 80’s karaoke! http://www.curzoncinemas.com. not sure if they’ll screen the A-Team but here’s hoping!
August 15th, 2008 at 8:19 am
Wow, time warp. I’ve got so many theme songs playing in my head now.
October 9th, 2008 at 1:15 am
WHERE’S M.A.S.H.????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beauty and the Beast?
Star Trek: The Next Generation?
October 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
no tj hooker or the fallguy ! what about streethawk or terrorhawks for that matter ! fragle rock/quantumn leap/star trek tng ?
November 6th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
was alice a robot by any chance?….i remember watching a show a long time ago about a robot who lived in a house “/…..i havent bothered watching the youtube clip!….LOL
November 12th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I wish there was descriptions of these.
I’m not able to watch videos right now.
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
All in the Family was a great show to watch!
March 10th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
love who’s the boss and night court
i still watch night court on tvland lol
March 17th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Gotta love how 30 youtube screens at the same time froze up my computer for a while.
March 25th, 2009 at 5:46 am
hey..does anyone remember a tv show in south africa where the guy in a white suit gives away money and says’ e50..e100..e150???? PLEASE tell me. i cant stay up any longer trying to figure this out!
May 25th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
wheres cheers
July 5th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
my favorite tv is from the 80s. Its so… mindless and doofy, i love it.
July 21st, 2009 at 11:07 pm
How about the shows.. Little House On the Prarie and
Whiz Kids..
August 26th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Attention Hanna: You are a douchebag punk and will be gang raped in prison.
September 25th, 2009 at 3:36 am
Sir,
CHIP’S aka Califonia Highway Patrol Group.With erik Estrada started during the late 70’s between 76-77 So its not supposed to be in the 80’s