# Why have 80's sitcoms aged so poorly?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-80s-sitcoms-aged-so-poorly/976759>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\
**Created:** [December 19, 2022, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-80s-sitcoms-aged-so-poorly/976759 "2022-12-19T01:52:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 8

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**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-80s-sitcoms-aged-so-poorly/976759/141 "2022-12-30T22:38:04Z")

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Here’s the thing- you can only change it so much before it’s no longer a remake. I would not consider _Bel-Air_ to be a remake of _The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air_ - it has the same characters and the same basic premise but one is a sitcom and the other a drama.\* You could make a show where the parents are MAGA types and a kid is a Bernie fan or vice-versa- but “their relationship with their children are strained at best.” would make it a very different show.

\* Every version of Batman has many of the same characters and the same basic backstory - Millionaire Bruce Wayne becomes a crimefighter as a reaction to his parents being murdered - but no one would ever say the later versions are remakes of the Adam West series.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [December 30, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-have-80s-sitcoms-aged-so-poorly/976759/142 "2022-12-30T23:30:58Z")

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> [@california\_jobcase](#):
>
> Mad Magazine was way ahead of Weird Al with parody lyrics. Also, I will always think of the lady from _Lassie_ and _Lost in Space_ as “lovely June Lockliver” because of Mad Magazine. -

> **['Weird Al' Yankovic On The Influence Of 'Mad' Magazine](https://www.npr.org/2019/07/05/738860197/weird-al-yankovic-on-the-influence-of-mad-magazine)**
>
> The trailblazing satirical force Mad magazine announced it will no longer be sold at newsstands after 67 years. "Weird Al" Yankovic is among those who are fans.

> WEIRD AL YANKOVIC: It was the first thing I was obsessed by in my adolescence. And it led me to other things like Monty Python and Spike Jones and Tom Lehrer or Stan Freberg, Frank Zappa, things like that. But Mad Magazine was there first to make me weird.

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