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.

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.

When Allie Lowell divorces her husband and gets custody of their two children, she moves to New York City and moves in with her best friend, Kate McArdle, also divorced and raising a daughter. They form a unique kind of family unit in this comedy from the 1980s.

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.

The Stones consist of loving homemaker Donna, her pediatrician husband Alex, and their children Mary and Jeff. Many situations arise like when they found a baby on their doorstep or take in a rebellious youth or when Donna tries to patch up marital spats among friends.

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.

Frances "Gidget" Lawrence lives with her widowed college-professor father in Southern California. Anne is her older sister who is married to John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student. Gidget spends most of her free time hanging out with friends and surfing at the beach. She also has a knack for getting in and out of trouble. Gidget speaks to the audience during her journey to adulthood, letting them know exactly what's on her mind and what she's discovered about life. She also receives moral instruction from her father and gains wisdom from her experiences.

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.

George Baxter was a highly successful corporation lawyer who was always in control of everything at the office, but almost nothing at home. When he returned from the office at day's end, to his wife Dorothy, and his young son Harold, he entered the world of Hazel. Hazel was the maid and housekeeper who ran the Baxter household more efficiently than George ran his office. She was always right, knew exactly what needed doing, and pre-empted his authority with alarming, though, justified regularity.

Lucy Carter's a widow with 2 teenage kids; -Kim and Craig, living in LA. She works as secretary to her brother-in-law Harrison Otis "Carter, owner of an employment agency. Lucy's manner often causes her to stumble into embarrassing slapstick situations, much to the chagrin of her best pal Mary Jane.

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.

Maxwell Smart is a bumbling secret agent, assigned by his "Chief" to foil KAOS' latest plans for taking over the world. Invariably, Smart's bumbling detective style lands him in hot water. Lucky for him, his faithful assistant "99" is there to bail him out.

The sometimes-comic, sometimes-dramatic exploits of the Bradford family, father Tom (a columnist for a Sacramento, California newspaper), mother Joan and their eight children: Mary, David, Joanie, Nancy, Elizabeth, Susan, Tommy, and Nicholas. After Joan's death, Tom met teacher Abby, and they were married to make the family feel complete again. The kids all had friends and relationships as well, turning the Bradford Bunch into a free-for-all of loved ones and family members.

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.

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).

This sitcom follows recently divorced mother (Ann Romano) and her two teenage daughters (Barbara and Julie) as they start a new life together in Indianapolis, They are befriended by the building superintendent (Dwayne Schneider), who treats them like family. Together, these four main characters face life's challenges together.