What was the Best TV Show of the '80s?

1980's television was very different than what television is today. Even though I do not enjoy the privilege of having spent much of my life in the 80's, I have watched many sitcoms from that time period. I still consider some of those shows to be the greatest pieces of television ever produced.

With shows like Different Strokes, Growing Pains, Alf, Threes Company, and The Cosby Show, the 80's gave television audiences so many characters to fall in love with. In the 1980's, TV wasn't all reality shows and shows with characters most audiences can't relate to. It was about family. The working class ruled primetime. Most of the situations characters in 1980's television would deal with were normal instances that would happen to a normal person.

Television continued to be like that through a lot of the 1990's as well with shows like Saved by the Bell, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and Boy Meets World. But like most things in life, these types of shows got old and audiences grew out of them. Television shows of today have characters that are really fashionable, rich, powerful, and not ordinary at all.

Television isn't the same today as it was in the 80's and that's not totally a bad thing because once something gets old, people move on. The family sitcoms that made up TV back then have died out and any attempt to remake shows like those of the 80's would just be something that audiences have seen over and over again. But just because these types of TV shows are old and we can't remake them, it doesn't mean that we can't think back to the good times we had watching 80's television.

The most influential show on my life from the 1980's is The Wonder Years. This statement isn't only true for me and a few others, but it is the way most of the people that got the chance to watch this show feel about it. To me, the Wonder Years wasn't just a TV show I used as entertainment. It was one of those outlets that I learned a lot of life lessons from. In my teenage years, the show was something that helped lessen the confusion of growing up. The Wonder Years is one of the best written and directed pieces of Television to date, because not only did the audience laugh and cry when they were supposed to, but they were so absorbed by the storyline that they felt as if they were a part of the characters lives. The situations the characters went through in the show were real life events that everyday people have been through, and that's the main reason this is such an appealing show.

The Wonder Years debuted on television in 1988 on ABC, and had five seasons through 1993. The plot of the show is set during the troubles of the late 1960's to the 1970's in a suburban town. Kevin Arnold, who is the main character of the show, goes through some of the most difficult times in life; his teenage years from age 13 to 18. The show is beautifully created in so many ways. It is a comedy, but it is different than other comedies of the time because it had no studio audience causing the show to have a sense of drama as well. The show is also made more interesting as the story is told through the memory of the adult Kevin Arnold, narrated by Daniel Stern.

Kevin lives with his parents Jack and Norma (Dan Lauria and Alley Mills) and two siblings; a hippie older sister Karen (Olivia D'Abo), and a smart-alecky older brother Wayne (Jason Hervey). This was a family full of characters audiences were familiar with but still really interested in. Two other characters that have to be mentioned are Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano), who was Kevin's little nerdy best friend, and Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper (Danica McKellar), who was Kevin's love interest and friend in the show. All these characters made the show as interesting as it was, and audiences couldn't help but get caught up in their fictional lives.

The Wonder Years is one of those shows that will be remembered forever by its audience. It made me laugh, feel, cry, and love the characters so much so that when I saw a rerun of the show on TV a few years back, I couldn't help but forget what I was doing and watch as old memories dashed back in my brain and my stomach started churning in excitement as if I had seen an old best friend. The Wonder Years was such a powerful and bright show that I have to admit that I wouldn't be as well learned in life's lessons without it.

In fact, I feel really bad for the people that have not experienced watching such an amazing sitcom. I suggest everyone that hasn't watched it to give it a try and see if they like it because it might change their lives a little bit. I only wish now that the show would come out on DVD, because I would definitely play every episode for my kids. The only reason that it hasn't come out on DVD so far is because of the problems they are having with the property rights of some of the music used in the show. Once that is fixed and the show is released on DVD, there will be high numbers of people buying it instantly.

Shows like The Wonder Years are what made not only 80's television so great but also the 1980's altogether. When people think back to this show, they will remember the good times they had during such interesting years.

Sources:

http://www.askmen.com/top_10/entertainment/4b_top_10_list.html

http://www.imdb.com/