I’ve been watching 80s TV in realtime for the last 7 years on a 35-year delay. Started in 1982, it’s 1988 now. Here are my thoughts. Wall of text incoming…
Comedy From the earlier half of the decade Newhart and Cheers are the absolute cream of the crop and nothing even comes close at the time. Most people probably think of Larry, Daryl and Daryl when they think of Newhart but Peter Scolari and Julia Duffy are the stars in my opinion (along with Bob Newhart obviously, and Tom Poston as George Utley is a treasure). They steal the show every time they show up. Shoutout to Jim and Chester too. The earlier seasons aren’t as great but they are still watchable. I look forward to Newhart more than any other show.
There is nothing I could say about Cheers that hasn’t already been said. It’s an all-time great sitcom. For me it’s the link between the greatest 70s sitcoms (Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Bob Newhart Show) and Seinfeld. Contender and probably winner for the best ensemble comedy cast ever.
Golden Girls is brilliant but not my absolute favourite. I think people place it on a higher level than it really deserves, but it is way above average.
Night Court is OK mostly because the cast are so great. But the material is not the best and I don’t think it aged well.
The Wonder Years is brilliant so far (just watched first season). Feels like a 90s show.
Silver Spoons and Diff’rent Strokes were fun in the earlier seasons but took a serious nosedive when the kids got older. Gimme a Break managed to ride out a VERY questionable format thanks to Nell Carter’s talents, but totally lost its way when the Chief died. That guy from Weekend At Bernies doing pratfalls every scene he’s in is a notable low point.
Family Ties manages to raise a laugh most of the time despite a few dips in quality. I don’t think it suffered like the others did in later series. Justine Bateman and Michael J Fox mostly carry the show though.
Married With Children is as funny as it ever was. I love it. It’s dumb fun done right.
ALF is derided these days but whoever was writing those wisecracks had some real talent. It’s a fun watch.
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show is cool. Probably one of the most influential comedies of the 80s in how it played with conventions and broke the fourth wall. Seeing Gilda Radner in her final appearance is bittersweet, but hilarious.
Full House and Growing Pains are full-bore 80s corniness. But they are enjoyable enough so far. A LOT of hugging and learning in these.
Pee-Wee’s Playhouse is insane. Best enjoyed in small doses.
I won’t mention Cosby apart from that I watched it and he deserves to rot in hell. I feel bad for the supporting cast.
Drama 80s TV drama pretty much sucked. There is nothing I would really go back to apart from maybe Wiseguy. Knightrider was a fun concept but got stale quick. Same with Airwolf. Top-notch theme tunes though.
I couldn’t get past 3 episodes of thirtysomething. Dull.
Moonlighting was actually pretty great and it’s no surprise that Bruce Willis became such a big star. He is in his element here.
Apart from that St Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues are probably about as good as it gets for the early 80s and even then they can be hard work. Most the rest is filled up with bad cop / detective shows. Hard to watch nowadays. I really wanted to enjoy Miami Vice but I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I’ll give it a second chance one day. Beauty and the Beast is kind of decent but super cheesy.
The Fall Guy is a ridiculous show. Nice to see a cameo from Andre the Giant in there.
I almost want to put TJ Hooker in the comedy and/or fantasy categories for its pure stupidity. Was anybody really buying Shatner as a tough cop? If you want something to laugh at just watch the opening credits. Turn it off after though - it stinks.
Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy. The 80s weren’t great for genre TV. There was a weird anthology show boom in the mid 80s I think due to the Twilight Zone Movie coming out. Shows like Tales From The Darkside, Amazing Stories, New Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents were decent but I prefer episodic content and I lost interest as time went on. Production quality was good on these shows, for the time. Particularly Amazing Stories. Jim Henson’s Storyteller series is my favourite out of these. Friday the 13th series is probably the worst.
Upcoming shows 1988 suffered from a writers strike and seems a little light on new shows that look to be worth watching. I am looking forward to Roseanne, Murphy Brown and Mystery Science Theater 3000 but that’s about it.
1989 doesn’t seem to be up to much either but at least there’s Seinfeld and Simpsons debuting. Family Matters will be on my watchlist too but I couldn’t mention it in the same sentence as the other 2.
What do you guys think? Did I miss anything?
Did you watch any MASH? It ended in '83, so should have been in your timeline. I watched it back when Netflix was mailing DVD’s in the early 2000’s and it was a lot of fun then. I should probably look for a rewatch.
I have a real problem with shows with laugh tracks (or studio audiences or whatever, same difference). Modern sitcoms have pretty much done away with them and good riddance, so I don’t know if I could even do a rewatch of Friends or not.
Oh yeah I watched a ton of 70s sitcoms a few years back. Mostly Norman Lear and MTM productions. Stuff like All In The Family, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Mary Tyler Moore and its spin-offs. Watch a ton of Happy Days in anticipation of watching one or two of the 80s spinoffs, but never managed to finish it and lost my appetite for any more of that. Lol.
I never finished MASH just because its one of those shows you have to be in the mood for. but I enjoyed it and finished the first couple seasons. I need to finish it sometime.
The laugh track thing is weird - after watching so many 70s and 80s sitcoms I tune it out. I think its not so bad when the jokes are actually good and its a live audience, but some of those early 2000s shows were so obnoxious with it.
Interestingly I think they released some MASH episodes without the laugh track. You should look hat up if you go for a rewatch
Go easy on Mystery Science Theater if you start with the earliest season (the KTMA episodes). They were riffing live, and while there are a few good jokes and a solid proof of concept, the show got WAY better with a writing team.
I powered through those old KTMA episodes years ago. I will probably try and watch them again but I know exactly what you mean. I still love Joel though and I like the way he comes across in the early episodes, and the skits were good if I remember correctly. My biggest complaint with those is the movies themselves - there’s way too many Kaiju and puppet movies for my liking. 5 Gamera movies back to back is tough to say the least.