The Most Awesome TV Shows of the '80s

The 80's was truly the pinnacle of Television, the Zenith if you will. There were so many great TV shows in the 80's to select one best will be very difficult, though I am well qualified to choose. I did spend a good 6 to 10 hours a day on research for the decade. The 80's was all about TV shows. This was the peak of the TV generation, the birth of MTV, the cable TV service explosion and by far the highest quality time for prime time network TV. In the morning I would watch for an hour, two hours of cable shows after school on Nickelodeon or TBS, then the syndicated sitcoms through dinner to prime time. There was always something to watch whether is be Must see Thursday or TGIF in prime time, and then of course there was Carson and Letterman late Night. So join me on a brief tour through the magical time that was 80's TV

In the 80's the stars were on TV. There were prime time dramas like Dallas and Dynasty and there were always stars traveling on The Love Boat. Moonlighting had Cybil Sheppard AND Brice Willis to entertain us. Action shows like the timeless, star studded The A-Team with Mr T and George Peppard and Knight Rider with Hasselhoff and Kitt his talking Pontiac Trans Am. And who could forget Tom Seleck in Magnum PI? The wonder years? Fred Savage, The wonder years... Remember?!?

For the older generations we had Matlock, Murder She Wrote and The Golden Girls, which more than a few of my 30 something tough guy friends still think is great in reruns.

The 80's brought us more day time talk shows like Oprah, Maury Povich, Geraldo and poor poor Jerry Springer, who went from well meaning disgraced politician to well meaning talk show host, then caved into the wants of the network for exaggerated trashy drama.

But the type of show that dominated the 80's TV feel was the Sitcom. Some of the many highlights were Growing Pains, the new 80's family, The Cosby Show which demonstrated an American black family can be successful and have class while Reagan was cutting social programs, and Roseanne glorified the new small town mid America poor with plenty of laughs and drama. And after work in Boston you had Cheers, where everyone knows your name, which no one did anymore in real life, in the cheaply built mass-produced 80's .

But after all those hours of kneeling before the glowing box, I must admit that ALF, the show about the loveable cat-eating alien that crashes into a Ham radio operator's garage takes the cake.

Which Cake I'm not sure. Because clearly M*A*S*H was the one show that tops the decade. M*A*S*H took a controversial time in our history and mixed war with plenty of comedy and drama through outstanding writing and acting. It is a must still for those of us with DVRs to record in reruns. I remember the final show, how life seemed to change from the end of the series on, and since there has not been another show that comes close to the quality of M*A*S*H.