These are all sitcoms whose primary run was entirely or mostly in the 80’s. Have left off titles that were obscure (The Charmings, 1st & Ten, It’s Your Move, …) or extensions/remakes of older sitcoms (Archie Bunker’s Place, New Leave It to Beaver, the Munsters Today, Three’s A Crowd, …), but you may write them in if you feel the need.
Cheers
Yep, Cheers has got to be the best of them all. Only The Cosby Show could come close.
It was short-lived, but another pretty good one was It’s Your Move, which starred a young Jason Bateman as a teenaged con artist. It was pretty edgy for its time. It showed teenagers getting away with lawbreaking, and things like underaged drinking with no consequence. That was really unusual for sitcoms in those days. Sitcom kids in those days usually had to be pretty squeaky clean and learn somber lessons from minor transgressions. Bateman’s character routinely scammed his way out of things without consequence.
Picked Night Court mainly because it was most apt to generate the most painful ROTF belly laughs-Cheers would be my 2nd choice.
The Wonder Years would be my pick, but it isn´t in there. It was about the hippie era seen from an eighties perspective, and hilarious.
I voted for almost all of them because I watched almost all of them on first run.
I forgot about “Just the Ten of Us” until I saw it in this poll. I always thought that it was CRAZINESS that my godmother had four kids. On this show they had eight. Amazing!
Holy cow, I’ve never seen any of these! Some of them I’ve never heard of. I must have had a really good life going when I was younger.
Wait. Small Wonder. Is that the robot girl? Seen it. Leonard Pinth Garnell bad.
The Golden Girls is my favourite, but it is the only one here I’ve seen every episode of. I wasn’t born when these shows were in their first run, so many of the others I’ve just seen every now and then in reruns.
Yeah, I would have voted for it as well. I used to like Family Ties and Cheers, but they haven’t held up for me as well as has the only one I picked, Newhart.
I voted for the ones I watched regularly at the time. I don’t know how well they hold up, necessarily.
I didn’t include The Wonder Years because believe it or not most of the series’ original run was in the early 90’s (I didn’t know either; I had to look it up). Will have to be on the 90’s poll if I get around to it or someone else does one.
What, no love for WKRP in Cincinnati? It started in the seventies, but more than half of its run was in the eighties.
Growing pains for me, though I may have chosen Sledge Hammer if it had been broadcasted in my country during the eighties (I only discovered that show a few months ago).
My vote was for ALF. First, because as a baby of 1980, some of the other shows that are clearly quality shows were a little above my age at the time. Second, because I re-watched the whole ALF series a year or so ago, and it was still pretty funny and well put together from a 30 year old’s perspective.
Cheers, Newhart and Kate and Allie, with an honorable mention to that paragon of parody, Sledge Hammer.
I chose the ones that I liked a lot at the time. In retrospect, the only ones that (barely) hold up are Cheers and Night Court.
I was completely obsessed with Cheers for about five years.
Joe
Another write-in vote for Wonder Years.
Married…with Children and Roseanne should also be on the list.
ETA: Wow, there were some really bad sitcoms in the 80s.
Again, the majority of the Wonder Years(1988-1993), Married…with Children(1987-1997) and Roseanne’s (1988-1997) original runs were in the 90’s.
Cheers
Family Ties
Newhart
Night Court
A lot of these I’ve never even seen or hard of.