Five Great ‘80s SITCOMS that you Forgot Existed
From Five Alive! Netsite, posted November 14th, 2017
Ah, those classic ‘80s SITCOMS we all know and love: three cameras, canned laughter, and jokes that straddled the line between Clever and Corny! Shows like
Cheers,
Night Court,
Perfect Strangers,
Golden Girls,
Production!,
Alf,
Newhart,
The Facts of Life,
Full House,
Family Ties,
The Cosby Show…legendary names and legendary shows. But what about those now-forgotten but once beloved shows? The ones that you may have forgotten that you used to love? Well, here are five of the great forgotten SITCOMS of the late 1980s!
#5 – Growing Pains
Growing Pains (1985-1989) is a show that was beloved by its cast, crew, and fans alike…for about three years. And then scandal after scandal and an increasingly hostile working environment ripped the show apart at the height of its popularity. The show followed father Dr. Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke), wife Maggie (Joanna Kerns), son Mike (Kirk Cameron), daughter Carol (Tracy Gold), and youngest son Ben (Jeremy Miller). In many ways it was your standard DOMCOM and was buoyed by good cast chemistry and the popularity of Cameron with young female audiences. But the fun was not to last. In 1988 actress Tracey Gold had gained some weight over the break. The writers made her weigh a source of constant jokes. Gold developed an eating disorder as a result was rushed to a hospital after passing out on the set in 1989[1]. She got counseling, but on the advice of her doctor quit the show and began the long road to recovery. The writers had the character “join the Peace Corps”. Actor Jeremy Miller started receiving creepy letters from a stalker and became increasingly withdrawn. The event reportedly contributed to his later substance abuse issues[2].
In the late ‘80s actor Kirk Cameron found fame, found influence, and found God, which is all well and good. We at
Five Alive fully support a person following their own faith. Unfortunately for the sake of the show, his faith was such that he found the rest of the cast and crew
wanting in the moral and spiritual sense and openly and constantly criticized the writers, the crew, and his fellow actors for their failure to live up to his increasingly exacting moral standards. Those who read science books or practiced other religions were greeted with contempt or threats of damnation. He revolted when Julie McCullough, a former Playboy model, joined the cast in ’89 and reportedly had her fired. And he used his Tiger Beat gravitas to force the writers and show runners to do things his way[3]. This all came to a head when he reportedly verbally attacked actor Alan Thicke for dating the 19 year old Kristy Swanson, then attacked him for being divorced, and, most critically, allegedly suggested that by extension Thicke’s sons were bastards, or at least that’s how Thicke interpreted it. Thicke gave the producers an ultimatum: Cameron or him. They chose Cameron and Thicke quit on the spot. Joanna Kerns followed him out the door. Miller took the opportunity to leave as well, hoping to escape the spotlight and the eyes of his stalker. A lot of the writers and crew left with them.
The producers tried to launch a new Cameron-helmed show
Closer to Thee following Cameron’s character Mike Seaver going to divinity school, but the show tanked after a half a season, showing fairly good numbers in the Bible Belt but losing ground with families elsewhere. I guess the “Growing Pains” were too much for the show.
#4 – Police Squad!
Police Squad! (1982, 1986-88) was a show ahead of its time, an absurdist slapstick from the team of Zucker Abrahams Zucker who brought you
Airplane! and
Top Secret! Starring once-dramatic actor Leslie Nielsen as Lieutenant Frank Drebin, the show was a nonstop set of absurd sight gags, puns, and wordplay jokes. I'd describe the show, but it defies description. You just have to see it! Despite lots of Emmy buzz, it lasted half a season in ’82 before getting cancelled for the obscene reason of “the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it”
[4]. However, producer Paramount TV replayed the episodes on their new PFN channel, where they were successful enough to spawn two new seasons in 1986-88 and a film,
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, in 1988, spawning a trilogy.
Police Squad is celebrated today, even though it was largely ignored back in ’82. It is absolutely worth your time if you liked the popular films.
#3 – Wheelers and Dealers
The Wheelers on Night Court (Image source “imnotstalkingyou.wordpress.com”)
In 1986,
Night Court was one of the highest rated shows on television, and two of its most popular recurring characters were the hard-luck Wheelers, husband Bob (Brent Spiner) and wife June Wheeler (Annie O'Donnell). The Wheelers inevitably ended up in front of Judge Harry with some amazingly bizarre set of bad luck circumstances that led them there. And show creator Reinhold Weege saw potential for a spinoff. Thus,
Wheelers and Dealers (1987-1992) was born[5]. The Wheelers moved from New York City to suburban New Jersey where Bob launched a shady used car dealership in partnership with his old high school friend Remington “Rocky” Rogers (Chris Rock in his breakout role).
The comedy came from Bob’s mopey hard luck pessimism running smack into Rocky’s charismatic pie-in-the-sky hustle. Rocky, a self-styled “ladies man and master salesman” who was anything but in either respect, would hatch some insane scheme to “put Rocky Wheels Auto Sales on the map” or otherwise get rich quick. Inevitably, Rocky’s overconfidence would get the better of him or Bob’s disaster magnetism would strike, dooming things back to the perpetual status quo of always just squeaking by on the margins. Buoyed by good writing,
Night Court cameos (Dan Fielding became a frequent “legal advisor” and “investor”), and a great chemistry between Spiner and Rock, the show was a successful follow-up to
Night Court. While it never broke the Top Ten, it made five good seasons, helped launch Brent Spiner’s career as a character actor (you probably know him as “that guy who was in that movie”), and catapulted Chris Rock into the limelight.
Wheelers and Dealers was a popular if largely forgotten ‘80s treat, and well worth finding on your direct viewing service.
#2 – Just Duckie
Effectively this, but actually played in order and backed by Disney Animation’s behind the scenes stories
In 1984 Mary Tyler Moore (MTM) Productions producer Allan Burns partnered with
Buffalo Bill producer Jay Tarses and classic animator Herbert Klynn to produce a new show, tentatively titled “
The Duck Factory”. Tarses was producing
Buffalo Bill, which was a critical darling but struggling with audiences, and wanted a fallback. When NBC finally decided to pull the plug on
Buffalo Bill, Hyperion TV Producer Bernie Brillstein moved the show to Disney’s Hyperion Channel, where it established a small but loyal following. Tarses and Burns and took their Duck Factory idea to Bernstein, who liked the idea, but wanted to add some verisimilitude by bringing in some actual Disney animators to share their crazy behind-the-scenes stories with the writers. After a bit of revamping,
Just Duckie (1984-1988) was born. Comedian Jim Carey was cast as cartoonist Skip Tarkenton, a well-meaning but naïve young cartoonist thrown in the middle of the craziness of producing the animated “The Dippy Duck Show”. He faced bizarre coworkers Wally Wooster (Don Messick), cynical and lazy writer Marty Fenneman (Jay Tarses); old school animator Brooks Carmichael (Jack Gilford), young storyboard artist Roland Culp (Clarence Gilyard, Jr.), sarcastic editor Andrea Lewin (Nancy Lane), and cheapskate business manager Aggie Aylesworth (Julie Payne). Complicating matters was the fact that the studio was now owned by the Dippy Duck creator and original owner’s widow, Mrs. Sheree Winkler (Teresa Ganzel), a former topless ice dancer.
The show briefly replaced
Buffalo Bill on NBC before getting moved to Hyperion itself, where it built a cult following. Carey’s strange, surreal mix of childish immaturity and childlike sincerity won him a following and likely launched his 1990s film career. To this day animators call it “a documentary disguised as a SITCOM”.
#1 – Honey, I’m Home!
More or less this, but with Sam Kinison and Rosanne Barr
When producers Michael Moye and Ron Leavitt watched TV in the 1980s, they saw nothing much to write home about. Chief among the targets of their ire was
The Cosby Show, with its impossibly well-off upper-class family and easily resolved family conflicts. Where, they thought, were the “normal Americans?” They decided to remedy this with what they called, simply, “Not the Cosbys”. And they knew just who they wanted in the lead roles as the unhappily-married Al and Peggy Bundy: comedians Sam Kinison and Rosanne Barr.
Honey, I’m Home! (1987-1991) was born[6].
The show was everything that your typical 1980s SITCOM was not: the interfamily conflicts were never solved. The husband and wife hated and disrespected each other but were codependently unable to divorce. The son was a pathetic loser. The teenage daughter was a slut. The family did
not come together in a loving embrace at the end of each episode. Al’s job sucked. Peggy’s life as a housewife sucked. The neighbors were obnoxious Yuppies, not quirky oddballs. And Kinison and Barr’s mutual dislike for each other manifested in a beautifully acrimonious screen chemistry. The show’s misanthropic, deconstructive nature, lifted by the obnoxious comedy of Kinison and Barr, captured a huge audience share. Early success led the show runners to push, at Barr’s insistence, for deeper context and better writing and addressed real world issues of life for working class families. The show and cast were nominated for and even won Emmys.
But at the height of its popularity, Kinison and Barr, who frequently sparred on the set, quit to pursue their own projects. Kinison went on to produce his own SITCOM
Sam (1992-1995) before the show’s increasingly overt misogyny and homophobia led to protests and cancellation. Kinison would, sadly, die of a drug overdose in 1997. Barr, meanwhile, turned to drama, where her dark comedy-tinged primetime drama
Blue Collar (1992-1996), co-starring John Goodman in parallel to his breakout film career, would gain a good following and critical acclaim, netting many Emmys and Golden Globes over its short run. Barr’s attempts to break into film never quite paid off, though.
Honey, I’m Home! represents an interesting time capsule of comedy in transition, capturing two comedians at the height of their fame. The show influenced scores of shows to come afterwards and is often credited with killing the “eighties SITCOM formula”.
And that brings our list to the end. What other forgotten ‘80s SITCOMS did we miss? Let us know in the Comments!
[1] The only thing that didn’t happen in our timeline is the “passed out and rushed to the hospital”. Otherwise yes, the writers contributed to her body image issues.
[2] Also true. This show was cursed!
[3] All allegedly happened in our timeline too. Cameron ultimately apologized to the rest of the cast for his “immaturity”, but not to McCullough, who has attacked him on social media, and with whom he still has never spoken. In our timeline
Growing Pains continued on into the early ‘90s and is considered an ‘80s classic.
[4] As OTL. I can’t come up with a good butterfly to save it on its first run.
[5] Battered fedora tip to
@nick_crenshaw82 for reminding me about this role. In our timeline the writers tried to integrate the characters into the regular cast by having them buy the news stand, but it went nowhere.
[6] In our timeline they missed getting Kinison and Barr and ended up with Ed O’Neill and Katey Sagal, and a long-running Classic was born. O’Neill and Sagal are talented enough that they will find alternate jobs, don’t worry.
