So You Think You Know 80s Shows?

Murder, She Wrote is a crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons with 264 episodes from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network.

CHiPs was a drama series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1977, to May 1, 1983. CHiPs followed the lives of two motorcycle police officers of the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The series ran for 139 episodes over six seasons, plus one reunion TV movie in October 1998.

Diff’rent Strokes was a sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd. It is about two black boys from Harlem who are taken in by a rich white Park Avenue businessman and widower named Phillip Drummond.

Dynasty is a prime time television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981 to May 11, 1989. The series revolves around the Carringtons, a wealthy family residing in Denver, Colorado. Dynasty stars John Forsythe as oil magnate Blake Carrington, Linda Evans as his new wife Krystle, and later Joan Collins as his former wife Alexis.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was produced by Filmation based on Mattel’s toy line Masters of the Universe. It made its television debut in September 1983 and ran until 1985. Reruns continued to air in syndication until 1988, at which point USA Network bought the rights to the series. USA aired He-Man until September 1990.

Little House on the Prairie was a western drama television series, starring Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Sue Anderson, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The series premiered on the NBC network on September 11, 1974, and last aired on May 10, 1982.

Fantasy Island was a television series that originally aired on the ABC network from 1977 to 1984. It starred Ricardo Montalb√°n as the mysterious Mr. Roarke who grants the fantasies of visitors to the titular island for a price. The series was created by Gene Levitt.

Garfield and Friends was based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. It ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with reruns airing until October 7, 1995. Seven seasons of the series were produced.

Simon & Simon is a detective television series that originally ran from 1981 to 1989. The series was broadcast on CBS, and starred Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker as two disparate brothers who run a San Diego private detective agency.

The Jeffersons was a sitcom that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975. It the second-longest-running American series with a primarily African American cast and the first to prominently feature a married interracial couple.

WKRP in Cincinnati was a sitcom that featured the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working in advertising sales at Top 40 radio station WQXI in Atlanta.

L.A. Law is a legal drama series that ran for eight seasons on NBC, from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. Created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher, it contained many of Bochco’s trademark features including an ensemble cast, a large number of parallel storylines, social drama, and off-the-wall humor.

Growing Pains was a sitcom that aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992.The show ran for seven seasons, consisting of 166 episodes.

T. J. Hooker is a police drama television program starring William Shatner in the title role as a 15-year veteran police sergeant. The series premiered as a mid-season replacement on March 13, 1982, on ABC and ran on the network until May 4, 1985. The show was then picked up for a further single season by CBS.

Perfect Strangers is a sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986 to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton (Mark Linn-Baker) and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean Europe, Balki Bartokomous (Bronson Pinchot).

Barney Miller was a sitcom set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th St in Greenwich Village. The series was broadcast from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982, on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker.

The Love Boat was a comedy television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from May 5, 1977, until May 24, 1986. The series revolves around the ship’s captain and a handful of its crew, with several passengers‚Äîplayed by various guest actors for each episode‚Äîhaving romantic and humorous adventures.

ThunderCats was franchise featuring a fictional group of catlike humanoid aliens. The characters were created by Tobin “Ted” Wolf and originally featured in an animated television series named ThunderCats, running from 1985 to 1989.

DuckTales premiered on September 18, 1987, with its final episode airing on November 28, 1990. The show follows Scrooge McDuck, his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and close friends of the group, on various adventures, most of which either involve seeking out treasure or thwarting the efforts of villains seeking to steal Scrooge’s fortune or his Number One Dime.

21 Jump Street is a police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues.

America’s Funniest Home Videos was a video clip television series on ABC, which features humorous homemade videos that are submitted by viewers. The most common videos feature unintentional physical comedy , pets or children, and some staged practical jokes. Originally airing as a special in 1989, it debuted as a regular weekly series in 1990.

Miami Vice is a crime drama series created by Anthony Yerkovich. The series starred Don Johnson as James “Sonny” Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. The series ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984 to 1989.

The A-Team is an action-adventure series that ran on NBC from 1983 to 1987 about former members of a fictitious United States Army Special Forces unit. The members, after being court-martialed “for a crime they didn’t commit”, escaped from military prison and, while still on the run, worked as soldiers of fortune.

The Jetsons is an animated sitcom originally airing in primetime from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963. The Jetsons live in a comical version of the future, with elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.

Married… with Children was a sitcom that aired on Fox, created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt. Originally broadcast from April 5, 1987 to June 9, 1997, it is the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on Fox and the first to be broadcast in the network’s primetime programming slot.

Hill Street Blues is a serial police drama that aired on NBC in primetime from 1981 to 1987 for 146 episodes. The show chronicled the lives of the staff of a single police station located on the fictional Hill Street, in an unnamed large city, with “blues” being a slang term for police officers for their blue uniforms.

Cheers was a sitcom that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993. The show was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles. The show is set in a bar named Cheers in Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, and socialize.

The Golden Girls was a sitcom created by Susan Harris that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes spanning seven seasons. The show stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty, as four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida.

Saved by the Bell was a sitcom that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1993. The show follows a group of high school friends and their principal. Primarily focusing on lighthearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, remarriage, death, women’s rights, and environmental issues.

The Equalizer is a crime drama television series, originally airing on CBS from fall 1985 until late-spring 1989. It starred Edward Woodward as a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past, who uses the skills from his former career to exact justice on behalf of innocent people who are trapped in dangerous circumstances.

Star Trek: The Next Generation is a science-fiction television series in the Star Trek franchise created by Gene Roddenberry that ran from 1987 to 1994. The show was very popular, reaching almost 12 million viewers in its 5th season, with the series finale in 1994 being watched by over 30 million viewers.

The Fall Guy is an action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981, to May 2, 1986. It stars Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas as Hollywood stunt performers who moonlight as bounty hunters.

The Incredible Hulk starred the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. It ran two seasons, for 21 episodes, on the television network UPN from 1996 to 1997. Lou Ferrigno, who portrayed Universal’s version of the Hulk on the live-action TV series from 1978 to 1982, provided the Hulk’s voice.

M*A*S*H was a war comedy-drama television series that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1983. The television series is the best-known of the M*A*S*H works, and one of the highest-rated shows in U.S. television history.

Designing Women is a sitcom created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that aired on CBS from September 29, 1986, until May 24, 1993, producing seven seasons and 163 episodes. The series centers on the lives of four women and one man working together at an interior designing firm in Atlanta, Georgia called Sugarbaker & Associates.

The Greatest American Hero is a comedy-drama superhero television series that aired for three seasons from 1981 to 1983 on ABC. Created by producer Stephen J. Cannell, the series features William Katt as teacher Ralph Hinkley (“Hanley” for the latter part of the first season), Robert Culp as FBI agent Bill Maxwell, and Connie Sellecca as lawyer Pam Davidson.

Benson was a sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 13, 1979, to April 19, 1986. The series was a spin-off of the soap opera parody Soap in which the character Benson, portrayed by Robert Guillaume, had first appeared as the wise-cracking yet level-headed African-American butler for the highly dysfunctional Tate family.

The Cosby Show is a sitcom starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired in various forms between 15 January 1955 and 16 May 1991 in over 140 countries. The show consisted mainly of sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody and double entendre.

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from October 1, 1962 through May 22, 1992. It originally aired during late-night.

Magnum, P.I. is a crime drama television series starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living in Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 during its first-run broadcast on the American television network CBS.

The Dukes of Hazzard was an action-comedy television series that aired on CBS from January 26, 1979, to February 8, 1985. The series was inspired by the 1975 film Moonrunners, which was also created by Gy Waldron and had many identical or similar character names and concepts.

The Simpsons is a sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of working-class life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Since its debut on December 17, 1989, 639 episodes of The Simpsons have been broadcast.

Doogie Howser, M.D. is a Medical comedy-drama television series that ran for four seasons on ABC from September 19, 1989, to March 24, 1993, totaling 97 episodes. Created by Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley, the show stars Neil Patrick Harris in the title role as a teenage physician who balances the challenge of practicing medicine with the everyday problems of teenage life.

Moonlighting is a comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes. Starring Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis as private detectives, the show was a mixture of drama, comedy, mystery, and romance.

The Tracey Ullman Show is a television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted on Fox on April 5, 1987 and ran until May 26, 1990. The show blended sketch comedy with musical numbers and dance routines, choreographed by Paula Abdul, along with animated shorts.

Matlock is a television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal-defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show originally aired from March 3, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC; and from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC.

All in the Family was a sitcom TV-series that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network for nine seasons, from January 1971 to April 1979. It starred Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, and Rob Reiner.

Roseanne was a sitcom starring Roseanne Barr. It originally aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997 and again in 2018. Lauded for its realistic portrayal of a working-class American family, the series stars Roseanne Barr, and revolves around the Conners.

Seinfeld was a sitcom that ran for nine seasons on NBC, from 1989 to 1998. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, with the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself. Set predominantly in an apartment building in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in New York City, the show features a handful of Jerry’s friends and acquaintances.

Charlie’s Angels was a crime drama television series that aired on ABC from September 22, 1976 to June 24, 1981, producing five seasons and 110 episodes. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and was produced by Aaron Spelling.

Coach was a sitcom that aired for nine seasons on ABC from February 28, 1989 to May 14, 1997, with a total of 200 half-hour episodes. The series stars Craig T. Nelson as Hayden Fox, head coach of the fictional Division I-A college football team the Minnesota State University Screaming Eagles.

Dallas was a prime time television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978 to May 3, 1991. The series revolves around a wealthy and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who own the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork.

The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an animated television program on CBS for Saturday mornings. The show lasted two seasons (with season two consisting of reruns) and the individual episodes were eventually added to syndicated Tom and Jerry packages.

MacGyver is an action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff and starring Richard Dean Anderson as the title character. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles during seasons one, two, and seven, and in Vancouver during seasons three through six.

Head of the Class is a sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1991 on the ABC television network. The series follows a group of gifted students in the Individualized Honors Program (IHP) at the fictional Monroe High School (later Millard Fillmore High School) in Manhattan, and their history teacher Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman).

Eight Is Enough was a television comedy-drama series that ran on ABC from March 15, 1977 until May 23, 1981. The show was modeled on the life of syndicated newspaper columnist Thomas Braden, a real-life parent with eight children, who wrote a book by the same title.

Inspector Gadget debuted in 1983 and introduced audiences to the adventures of a clumsy, simple-witted bionic detective named Inspector Gadget. Inspector Gadget was the first cartoon show from DiC Entertainment to be produced directly for syndication.

Quincy, M.E. (also called Quincy) was a medical mystery-drama television series from Universal Studios that aired from 1976 to 1983 on NBC. Jack Klugman stars in the title role, as a Los Angeles County medical examiner.

Soap was a sitcom that originally ran on ABC from September 13, 1977 until April 20, 1981. The show was created as a night-time parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy.

Taxi was sitcom that originally aired on ABC from September 12, 1978 to May 6, 1982 and on NBC from September 30, 1982 to June 15, 1983. It focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher.

Family Feud is a television game show created by Mark Goodson where two families compete to name the most popular responses to survey questions in order to win cash and prizes. It is considered a spin-off of Match Game, whose panel included original host Richard Dawson.

ALF is a sitcom that aired on NBC from September 22, 1986, to March 24, 1990. The title character is Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF (an acronym for Alien Life Form), who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.

The Muppet Show was a family-oriented comedy-variety television series that was produced by puppeteer Jim Henson and features The Muppets. The show lasted for five series consisting of 120 episodes which were first broadcast in Britain between 5 September 1976 and 15 March 1981 on ATV.

Full House was a sitcom created by Jeff Franklin for ABC. The show chronicles the events of widowed father, Danny Tanner, who enlists his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis and best friend Joey Gladstone to help raise his three daughters in his San Francisco home. It aired from September 22, 1987, to May 23, 1995.

Family Ties is a sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series reflected the move in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.

Cagney & Lacey is a television series that originally aired on the CBS television network for seven seasons from March 25, 1982 to May 16, 1988. A police procedural, the show starred Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly as New York City police detectives who led very different lives: Christine Cagney (Gless) was a career-minded single woman, while Mary Beth Lacey (Daly) was a married working mother.

Remington Steele is a series co-created by Robert Butler and Michael Gleason. The series, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan, blended the genres of romantic comedy, drama, and detective procedural.

Super Friends was about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and was based on the Justice League of America and associated comic book characters published by DC Comics.

Mama’s Family is a television sitcom starring Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper (Mama). The series is a spin-off of a recurring series of comedy sketches called “The Family” featured on The Carol Burnett Show (1974‚Äì78) and Carol Burnett & Company (1979). The sketches led to the made-for-TV movie Eunice, and finally the television series.

Lou Grant is a drama television series starring Ed Asner in the title role as a newspaper editor that aired on CBS from September 20, 1977, to September 13, 1982. The series was the third spin-off of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Unsolved Mysteries was a television program, hosted by Robert Stack from 1987 to 2002 and later by Dennis Farina from 2008 to 2010. The show began as a series of specials, presented by Raymond Burr, Karl Malden, and Robert Stack, on NBC on January 20, 1987, becoming a full-fledged television series on October 5, 1988, hosted by Stack.

The Smurfs secured their place in North American pop culture in 1981, when the Saturday-morning cartoon series The Smurfs, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.A.R.L, aired on NBC from September 12, 1981 to December 2, 1989 (reruns until August 25, 1990).

Newhart is a sitcom that aired on CBS from October 25, 1982, to May 21, 1990, with a total of 184 half-hour episodes spanning over eight seasons. The series stars Bob Newhart and Mary Frann as an author and wife who own and operate an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that is home to many eccentric characters.

Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an late-night live television variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC’s Saturday Night. The show’s comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse is a children’s television program starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman which ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991.

Laverne & Shirley was a television sitcom that ran for eight seasons on ABC from January 27, 1976, to May 10, 1983. It followed the lives of Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, two friends and roommates who work as bottle-cappers in the fictitious Shotz Brewery in late 1950s Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Happy Days was a television sitcom that aired first-run from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984 on ABC. The series presented an idealized vision of life in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s Midwestern United States. It became one of the biggest hits in television history.

Alice was a sitcom that aired on CBS from August 31, 1976, to March 19, 1985. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start life over again, and finds a job working at a roadside diner in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

The Facts of Life is a sitcom originally aired on NBC from August 24, 1979 to May 7, 1988, making it one of the longest-running sitcoms of the 1980s. The series focuses on Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae) as she becomes a housemother (and after the second season, a dietitian as well) at the fictional Eastland School, an all-female boarding school in Peekskill, New York.

That’s Incredible! is a reality television show that aired on the ABC television network from 1980 to 1984. In the tradition of You Asked for It, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and Real People, the show featured people performing stunts and reenactments of allegedly paranormal events.

Gimme a Break! is a sitcom that aired on NBC for six seasons from October 29, 1981 until May 12, 1987. The series stars Nell Carter as the housekeeper for a widowed police chief (Dolph Sweet) and his three daughters.

Quantum Leap was a fictional television series that originally aired on NBC for five seasons, from March 1989 through May 1993. Created by Donald P. Bellisario, it starred Scott Bakula as Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who leaps through spacetime during an experiment in time travel, by temporarily taking the place of other people to correct historical mistakes.

Scarecrow and Mrs. King is a television series that aired from October 3, 1983, to May 28, 1987 on CBS. The show starred Kate Jackson and Bruce Boxleitner, as divorced housewife Amanda King and top-level “Agency” operative Lee Stetson, who begin an unusual partnership and eventual romance, after encountering one another in a train station.

Murphy Brown is a sitcom that aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television newsmagazine.

Night Court is a television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 31, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a Manhattan municipal court, Criminal Court Part 2, presided over by a young, unorthodox judge, Harold T. “Harry” Stone (played by Harry Anderson).

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are four fictional teenaged anthropomorphic turtles named after Italian artists of the Renaissance. They were trained by their anthropomorphic rat sensei in the art of ninjutsu. From their home in the sewers of New York City, they battle petty criminals, evil overlords, mutated creatures, and alien invaders while attempting to remain hidden from society. They were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.

Charles in Charge is a sitcom starring Scott Baio. Baio starred as Charles, a college student attending the fictional Copeland College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, who finds a unique living arrangement with a family in need of a caretaker for their young children.

Knight Rider is a television series created by Glen A. Larson. The series was originally broadcast on NBC from 1982 to 1986. The show stars David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a high-tech modern crime fighter assisted by KITT, an advanced artificially intelligent, self-aware and nearly indestructible car.

St. Elsewhere is a medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, underrated Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions.

A Different World was a sitcom that aired for six seasons on NBC from September 24, 1987 to July 9, 1993. The series originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in Virginia. It was inspired by student life at historically black colleges and universities.

Hart to Hart is a mystery television series which premiered on August 25, 1979, on ABC. The show features Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers who play Jonathan and Jennifer Hart, a wealthy couple who lead a glamorous jetset lifestyle and regularly find themselves working as amateur detectives in order to solve crimes in which they become embroiled.

It’s Garry Shandling’s Show is a sitcom that was initially broadcast on Showtime from 1986 to 1990. It was created by Garry Shandling and Alan Zweibel. The series is notable for breaking the fourth wall.

Who’s the Boss? is a sitcom created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, which aired on ABC from September 20, 1984, to April 25, 1992. The series starred Tony Danza as an Italian-American retired major league baseball player who relocates to Fairfield, Connecticut to work as a live-in housekeeper for a divorced advertising executive, played by Judith Light.

Three’s Company was a sitcom that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. The story revolves around three single roommates: Janet Wood, Chrissy Snow, and Jack Tripper, who all platonically live together in a Santa Monica, California apartment complex.

The Transformers was robot superhero television series which originally aired from September 17, 1984 to November 11, 1987. The first of many series in the Transformers franchise, it was based upon Hasbro’s Transformers toy line and depicts a war among giant robots that can transform into vehicles and other objects.