TV I Grew Up With (80s & 90s)

A teenage genius deals with the usual problems of growing up: hanging out with his best friend, going to parties, finding his style, and finding and having a girlfriend--all on top of being a licensed physician in a difficult residency program.

Ralph Kramden is a New York bus driver who dreams of a better life. With his eccentric good friend, Ed Norton the sewer worker, he constantly tries crackpot schemes to strike it rich. All the while, his exasperated wife Alice is always there to bring him down to earth--or to pick him up if he beats her to it. For as much as they fight, even dunderhead Ralph knows that she is the greatest and vice versa, despite his constant threats of domestic violence.

The post-retirement season is suddenly disrupted for football player George Papadapolis and his wife Katherine when Webster, the orphaned son of a former teammate, moves in. Laughter, and life lessons, in every episode.

Phil Fish is a detective with the New York Police Department who moves into a house with his gravelly-voiced wife Bernice, and adopts five foster children: street-smart Victor, black hipster Loomis, shy Jilly, charmer Mike and youthful Diane. Charlie was the social worker shrink who dropped in from time to time to make sure everything was OK.

Television series about a wealthy mystery man who runs a detective agency via a speakerphone and his personal assistant, John Bosley. His detectives are three beautiful women, who end up in a variety of difficult situations. The cast changed substantially over the life of this show, as actresses left for various movie, television, and modelling deals.

The Cleavers are the 1950's 'All-American Family' in this 'feel-good' family sitcom. Parents Ward and June, and older brother Wally, try to keep Theodore ('the Beaver') out of trouble. However, Beaver continues to end up in one kind of jam or another. Unlike real life, these situations are always easily resolved to the satisfaction of all involved and the Beaver gets off with a few stern moralistic words of parental advice. Instigator and troublemaker Eddie Haskell is an older kid who always manages to avoid being caught.

Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to run into. He is always sensible. He maintains order over a squad room of detectives who gamble for a hobby, get hit on by anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. Nearly all of the action takes place in the squad room where the citizens and criminals are brought in to complicate the mix.

Roger, Rerun and Dwayne are three buddies growing up in Los Angeles. The three of them always have a penchant for getting into mischief and trying to find ways of getting rich quick. Almost always the trio's schemes wind up getting them into trouble and it is up to Roger's mother to get them out of it. Also, half of the time, the boys get into trouble because of Roger's bratty sister Dee.

Louie De Palma is a cantankerous, acerbic taxi dispatcher in New York City. He tries to maintain order over a collection of varied and strange characters who drive for him. As he bullies and insults them from the safety of his "cage," they form a special bond among themselves, becoming friends and supporting each other through the inevitable trials and tribulations of life.

The story of young Ricky Stratton and his millionaire father, Edward, who lives very much like a young boy himself, in a house filled floor to ceiling with toys. Still, Edward takes raising Ricky seriously, and tries to avoid spoiling him while still letting him enjoy his childhood.

Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) was a self-made millionaire, the C.E.O. of Hart Industries, a global conglomerate. His gorgeous wife Jennifer (Stefanie Powers) was a freelance journalist. They were both amateur sleuths, and in every episode found themselves up to their eyeballs in murder, smuggling, theft, and international espionage. They also managed to find time to snuggle together, as they loved each other very much. Max (Lionel Stander) was their loyal, gravelly-voiced butler, cook, and chauffeur, and Freeway their pet canine.

The marriage of architect Mike Brady and homemaker Carol Martin née Tyler will be the second for both. They have the issue of blending their two already large families, Mike who has three children and Carol who has three children. One additional issue is that the Brady household was testosterone laden with Mike's children being three boys - Greg, Peter and Bobby - and the Martin household was estrogen laden with Carol's children being three girls - Marcia, Jan and Cindy. The six children not only have their usual issues in growing from children to teenagers, and in this situation in getting used to a new parent and new siblings, but also interacting with new siblings whose mentality generally reflects their specific gender, which more often than not is totally foreign to them. Mike and Carol also have the new roles of parent to daughters and sons respectively. Add to the mix the girls' cat Fluffy, the boys' dog Tiger, and Mike's longtime housekeeper Alice, and the collective new Brady bunch has the potential to get into one misadventure after another.

Steven and Elyse Keaton, once 1960s radicals, now find themselves in Reagan-era America trying to raise a traditional suburban family. Their three first kids are Alex (a very ambitious Young Republican), Mallory (a ditzy and boy-crazy fashionista), and Jennifer (whom we first get to know as a precocious nine-year-old tomboy). Later on, a fourth child (Andrew) was added to the family. Most of the comedy arose from the conflict between the ex-hippie parents vs. the conservative Alex and the brainless beauty Mallory.

Popular 1980s sitcom based on the Gwen Davenport novel "Belvedere," which in turn was thrice adapted to the big screen. Like its earlier novel and big-screen brethren, "Mr. Belvedere" featured British butler Lynn Belvedere, who takes a job as a live-in nanny for a typical American family and records their everyday experiences in his diary for future use in writing a novel. In the 1985 small-screen version, the Owens family served as that "typical American family" and the source of fodder for Belvedere, who had previously worked as a gentry for Winston Churchill and had connections to British royalty. Family patriarch George (played by sportscaster Bob Uecker) was, in an example of art imitating life, a sportswriter; the matriarch was Marsha, a law student. The couple, who had settled in suburban Pittsburgh, had three children: awkward teenager Kevin; precocious, easily-embarrassed Heather; and mischievous prankster Wesley. George was initially uncomfortable hiring the worldly Belvedere but eventually came to appreciate the Englishman's friendship (as well as his expert culinary skills). Unlike his older siblings, Wesley never seemed to get along with Belvedere, but even he came to appreciate the British native's regularly-dispensed advice. Each episode ended with Belvedere writing in his journal, giving the show's moral while putting everything into perspective. In later years, Marsha graduated from law school and got her first job, and Kevin and Heather graduated from high school and entered college. The 1985 small-screen adaptation of "Mr. Belvedere" marked the end of a long succession of unsuccessful attempts to bring Davenport's novel to television; the three earlier pilots were made in the 1950s (soon after the final big-screen movie) and 1960s.

In this spinoff of "Soap," Benson DuBois is sent out West to serve as butler to widowed state governor Gene Gatling, an honest but bumbling servant of the people. Although he has his rivals in German maid Kraus and persnickety aides Clayton and Taylor, Benson, armed with an acerbic wit and plenty of smarts, becomes the Governor's close friend and helper, and eventually is elected Lieutenant Governor.

Widower Steven Douglas is left to bring up three boys with the aid of his father-in-law, Michael "Bub" O'Casey, and later Bub's brother, "Uncle Charley." The series revolves around the trials and tribulations of life's experiences as a single parent family.

Janet and Chrissy get Jack as a roommate for their Santa Monica apartment. Jack can cook (he's studying to be a chef) and, when called to do so, pretends he's gay to legitimize the arrangement. Landlady Roper wishes husband Stanley showed more interest in her.

Phillip Drummond, a widowed Manhattan millionaire and president of the mega-firm Trans Allied Inc., adopts two African American orphans from Harlem, 8-year-old Arnold and 12-year-old Willis. Drummond had made a promise to their dying mother, his housekeeper, that he would care for the boys after she passes away; their father had died years earlier. The boys, whom Drummond always introduced as his two sons, went from rags to riches literally overnight. At first, Willis was rather skeptical of their newfound wealth, but eventually, both he and Arnold felt right at home in their newfound surroundings. Also part of the family were Drummond's beautiful daughter, 13-year-old Kimberly; and his no-nonsense housekeeper, Edna Garrett. As the years passed, Mrs. Garrett left to become housemother at the Eastland School for Girls; she was replaced by the cantankerous Adelaide Brubaker and still later, charming Pearl Gallagher. Arnold's friends, Dudley and Robbie (and later, Charlie); Willis' girlfriend, Charlene; cast members from "The Facts of Life"; and Drummond's sister, Sophia, were frequently seen. In early 1984, Drummond found true love, marrying fitness instructor Maggie McKinney; she had a 6-year-old son, Sam. While most series revolved around the typical lessons of growing up, some were quite serious (including a frightening encounter with a child molester and a memorable episode dealing with drug abuse guest starring First Lady Nancy Reagan).