Ace posts again a link to a New Shows of 1980-something’s title credits, and again, I feel the need to watch the whole video and annotate which ones I remember or, heaven forbid, refer to in my daily life almost forty years later (I’m not stuck in amber–you’re loose in the aether).
Again, I’ve bolded the ones I remember and linked to any referred to on this blog.
- Square Pegs, the Freaks and Geeks for our parents’ generation. Ace calls it “a show that everyone remembers, but I’m not sure anyone actually watched it.” Which is true for me.
- Gloria, a All in the Family spin-off. Not one of the successful ones.
- Silver Spoons. Referred to in passing for the Jason Bateman connection; I am surprised that I did not refer to it on the blog as my inspiration for having full sized video games in my home. I know I’ve mentioned that on Facebook anyway.
- Family Ties. I called Michael J. Fox Alex P. Keaton here; I have a tie-in children’s book somewhere on the shelves here. Perhaps I should read it among the movie paperbacks.
- Star in the Family. Starring Brian Dennehy and Michael Dudikoff. In a sitcom.
- It Takes Two. I want to say I remember it, but probably I remember the song (which is not the theme song for the show).
- Cheers C’mon, man. Although I don’t see a reference to it on this blog, I did refer to it in real life recently as an example of how 80s sitcoms were crass and sexual at times because I remember Rhea Perlman’s character telling someone to announce that she has the thigh sweats for a man.
- Newhart. I saw this a bunch for some reason back in the day. And although I don’t seem to have used the “I’m Larry. This is my brother Daryl. And this is my other brother Daryl.” bit on the blog, I have used it in real life within the last decade (or as I like to say now, “Recently.”).
- The New Odd Couple. Ron Glass’s other show before Firefly. Although I think he had a couple back then, ainna?
- Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!. C’mon, man. You can still hear Jack Palance saying, “Believe it. Or not,” can’t you?
- St. Elsewhere. I can even remember the real name of the hospital without prompting. It was like E.R. for your parents, but with the voice of KITT. But it was a nine o’clock show, so I never saw it as it was past my bedtime.
- Bring Em Back Alive. Which is apparently an 80s show based on the life of trapper Frank Buck, who played himself in Africa Screams.
- Tales of the Gold Monkey. I thought I had mentioned this somewhere, but a quick search says no. I wish I had seen this when I was younger.
- Voyagers! I might remember this, but I never watched it. Basically, it’s like a Sliders for your grandparents. Because Sliders isn’t for kids today. Come to think of it, maybe Sliders is for your grandparents now. Time flies even without a portal.
- The Powers of Matthew Star. You know, I would have been right in the target audience for this one. But I missed it.
- Knight Rider. You know I saw this. I corrected trivia about it in the book report for Super Incredible Trivia.
- Tucker’s Witch. Never heard of it.
- Remington Steele. Mentioned here when I listed a set of television private investigators who were actually private investigators.
- The Devlin Connection. Featuring computers and 80s tech fonts which look like Comic Sans to us in the 21st century. I missed it, though.
- Matt Houston whose star Lee Horsley, as you might remember, made my aunt’s toes curl.
- Gavilan. This was Robert Urich’s show before Spenser: For Hire and after Vega$. I never saw it, but I remember the bit from the promos, also in the titles, where he punches a guy in the face and shakes his hand because it hurt. I’m not saying I’m a Robert Urich fan, per se, but I did create a test user named Dan Tanna on my job just this week.
- The Quest. What is that all about? But it illustrates that certain actors had their runs in different programs through the 1980s: Robert Urich, Perry King, Stephen Collins–these guys always seemed to be leading a television series, even though many of them were pretty short-lived.
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. I didn’t watch it, though, as I was not into Westerns. Also, Richard Dean Anderson was one of those guys, although he hit it big with MacGyver.
I was thinking I did really well on this particular quiz, but it’s only 13 of 23. But I think that’s all of the ones that ran for more than one season and one or two others.
I guess that was a peak year for television for me: My parents were separated, we were on welfare, and my mother could not drive, so she could not take us to the library, so it lent itself to a lot of television.
Also, in 1982, look at the two Raiders of the Lost Ark tag-alongs: Tales of the Gold Monkey and Bring Em Back Alive. And a science fiction bit with Star Wars sound effects in the titles (The Powers of Matthew Star) and a Time Bandits tag-along (Voyagers!). Very derivative stuff, and the television-sized budgets didn’t hold anyone, apparently.
Still, better than I’ll do in another forty years. Or even this year looking back to 1990-something.
