80s sitcoms that haven't aged well

[king of comedy]

The 80s was an awesome decade. Great music, movies and tv. Even sitcoms. But over time, what was once funny hasn't age well. Maybe because of the acting, writing, style and the way society has changed. Before I get started, I used to watch these shows and enjoyed them but looking at them now, they became cringeworthy and unwatchable. So just I did the 70s sitcoms, I'll respect your opinion so please be nice. Cool? Okay. Here is my list of 80s sitcoms that haven't age well
10. Webster: This was a Differant Strokes rip off but on ABC. The only good thing about it was that Emmanuel Lewis is still alive and kicking. Bad show. Enough said. Moving on.

9. After M*A*S*H : This was another spin off from the popular series. It followed Potter, Klinger and Father Mulcahey as they rebuild their lives back home. It didn't have the magic the original had and they needed a Hawkeye or Winchester to give a boost but the supporting cast weren't any of those characters. It was a good idea but could have been better.

8. ALF: An alien living in house. Good idea but I will take Kermit and his friends any time. When ALF had to walk around, we knew that was a man in a suit. The muppets had more creativity. Fast forward 2 decades and we have American Dad. The family had an alien named Roger who went outside but also had disguises. He did a lot more because he was animated. Time for ALF to go home.

7. Perfect Strangers: It was cute but Balki wore off his welcome quickly

6. Night Court: The crazy shenanigans of Harry and the gang were funny for the first 3 seasons but then it got too surreal. The final episode had Bull taken away by aliens. Really?!! COME ON!! Court adjurned.

5. Growing Pains: I used to enjoy but looking at it now is very painful. The writing and the jokes fall flat. Especially the fat jokes at Carol. She had health issues and I felt sad for her. What worse was Kirk Cameron. He became a religious fanatic that now he is really unlikeable. I've grown over this show.

4. Family Ties: Michael J. Fox was the shadow and it didn't help the rest of the cast. Reagan and conservatism made this age poorly and the comedy and melodrama didn't mix. I'm splitting ties with this family.

3. Small wonder: Who could forget VICKI the robot? The adorable robot who was a girl played by Tiffany Brisette. The problem was she spoke in a monotone and the character was too stiff. She was a lot better as her evil twin. But that couldn't help save this from bad special effects and bad writing. I could see this rebooted now that technology has improved. But until then, I'm shutting off this one.

2. Murphy Brown: Oh Boy! Candace Bergan is great actress but comedy isn't for her. I can see her in a supporting role in a comedy. She was stiff and shouted her lines. The supporting cast was no better. All were 1 note stereotypes. Did we ask for a revival? No but we got it and boy it bombed. Everyone acted the same as if it still the 80s. Please Murphy. Go away and never come back.

Before we get number one, here are some dishonorable mentions

Joanie loves Chachi: the final Happy Days spin off and was called one of the worst shows ever. These 2 should have stayed on Happy Days.

Charles in Charge: With Scott Baio disrespecting Erin Morgans' death and being called on charges from his cast mates, he should charged with being a real jerk.

Full House: the most overrated, sacchrine show ever created. This show gave me cavities and diabeties. I'm out of this house.

Who's the Boss: Tony Danza went from Taxi to this for 8 years?

1. The Cosby Show: Didn't expect this did you? It was too perfect and clean. Also the most sexist against men. The horrible message was Men are stupid and women are smart. I hated Phylicia Rashad. So smug and arrogant and thinks that she is always right. Man hating show. But the worse was Cosby himself. Mr Dad has been sent to jail on charges he hurted women. He is going to need a lot more than Coke and pudding pops to get out. I'm done with Cosby and I wouldn't want his as my dad.

Well there you have it. Do you agree disagree? Are there any that I have left out? Also as I said before please be nice. I respect your opinion. I may do more. Later.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

The 80s was an awesome decade. Great music, movies and tv. Even sitcoms. But over time, what was once funny hasn't age well. Maybe because of the acting, writing, style and the way society has changed. Before I get started, I used to watch these shows and enjoyed them but looking at them now, they became cringeworthy and unwatchable. So just I did the 70s sitcoms, I'll respect your opinion so please be nice. Cool? Okay. Here is my list of 80s sitcoms that haven't age well
10. Webster: This was a Differant Strokes rip off but on ABC. The only good thing about it was that Emmanuel Lewis is still alive and kicking. Bad show. Enough said. Moving on.

9. After M*A*S*H : This was another spin off from the popular series. It followed Potter, Klinger and Father Mulcahey as they rebuild their lives back home. It didn't have the magic the original had and they needed a Hawkeye or Winchester to give a boost but the supporting cast weren't any of those characters. It was a good idea but could have been better.

8. ALF: An alien living in house. Good idea but I will take Kermit and his friends any time. When ALF had to walk around, we knew that was a man in a suit. The muppets had more creativity. Fast forward 2 decades and we have American Dad. The family had an alien named Roger who went outside but also had disguises. He did a lot more because he was animated. Time for ALF to go home.

7. Perfect Strangers: It was cute but Balki wore off his welcome quickly

6. Night Court: The crazy shenanigans of Harry and the gang were funny for the first 3 seasons but then it got too surreal. The final episode had Bull taken away by aliens. Really?!! COME ON!! Court adjurned.

5. Growing Pains: I used to enjoy but looking at it now is very painful. The writing and the jokes fall flat. Especially the fat jokes at Carol. She had health issues and I felt sad for her. What worse was Kirk Cameron. He became a religious fanatic that now he is really unlikeable. I've grown over this show.

4. Family Ties: Michael J. Fox was the shadow and it didn't help the rest of the cast. Reagan and conservatism made this age poorly and the comedy and melodrama didn't mix. I'm splitting ties with this family.

3. Small wonder: Who could forget VICKI the robot? The adorable robot who was a girl played by Tiffany Brisette. The problem was she spoke in a monotone and the character was too stiff. She was a lot better as her evil twin. But that couldn't help save this from bad special effects and bad writing. I could see this rebooted now that technology has improved. But until then, I'm shutting off this one.

2. Murphy Brown: Oh Boy! Candace Bergan is great actress but comedy isn't for her. I can see her in a supporting role in a comedy. She was stiff and shouted her lines. The supporting cast was no better. All were 1 note stereotypes. Did we ask for a revival? No but we got it and boy it bombed. Everyone acted the same as if it still the 80s. Please Murphy. Go away and never come back.

Before we get number one, here are some dishonorable mentions

Joanie loves Chachi: the final Happy Days spin off and was called one of the worst shows ever. These 2 should have stayed on Happy Days.

Charles in Charge: With Scott Baio disrespecting Erin Morgans' death and being called on charges from his cast mates, he should charged with being a real jerk.

Full House: the most overrated, sacchrine show ever created. This show gave me cavities and diabeties. I'm out of this house.

Who's the Boss: Tony Danza went from Taxi to this for 8 years?

1. The Cosby Show: Didn't expect this did you? It was too perfect and clean. Also the most sexist against men. The horrible message was Men are stupid and women are smart. I hated Phylicia Rashad. So smug and arrogant and thinks that she is always right. Man hating show. But the worse was Cosby himself. Mr Dad has been sent to jail on charges he hurted women. He is going to need a lot more than Coke and pudding pops to get out. I'm done with Cosby and I wouldn't want his as my dad.

Well there you have it. Do you agree disagree? Are there any that I have left out? Also as I said before please be nice. I respect your opinion. I may do more. Later.

Apparently, Bill Cosby didn't like then-trend of sitcoms with backtalking children (like for example the Conner kids on Roseanne), so he designed a sitcom where all of the kids would be put in their place and the adults would be catered to. Hence, The Cosby Show. Cosby had the scripts approved by his mentor from graduate school who wanted to send the message that black families succeed if the parents are authoritarian and are always teaching their children lessons. An unfortunate side-effect is that they really seemed to look down their noses on anyone who wasn't well educated. In real life, Cosby felt entitled to tell other people (e.g., comedians) what they could and couldn't do (e.g., stop swearing during stand-up). It's especially distributing that Cosby didn't like kids questioning authority, given what we learned of him.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by TMC

Apparently, Bill Cosby didn't like then-trend of sitcoms with backtalking children (like for example the Conner kids on Roseanne), so he designed a sitcom where all of the kids would be put in their place and the adults would be catered to. Hence, The Cosby Show.

The Cosby Show premiered four years before Roseanne, 1984 and 1988. So his show wouldn't have been created to counter their kids.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

5. Growing Pains: What worse was Kirk Cameron. He became a religious fanatic that now he is really unlikeable.

Kirk Cameron is well liked by many Christians like myself. With so many Hollywood actors and media being hostile against Christianity, it is refreshing to see a teen heartthrob who started out as an atheist realize he needed to change and become a strong ambassador for God. The Christian hating media retaliated against his new faith by lying about getting pornographer Julie McCollough fired. While I am sure Kirk did not approve of her posing for smut (I don't either), he did not get Julie fired, that was solely the producers' decision. And since his conversion, Kirk has still had plenty of acting. The Left Behind movies and Fireproof are fantastic, some of the best movies ever made, not that the mainstream media prejudiced against Christianity would ever acknowledge them.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

5. Growing Pains: I used to enjoy but looking at it now is very painful. The writing and the jokes fall flat. Especially the fat jokes at Carol. She had health issues and I felt sad for her. What worse was Kirk Cameron. He became a religious fanatic that now he is really unlikeable. I've grown over this show.

Yeah, for me, the later seasons, after Kirk Cameron had Julie McCullough fired and brought in his own Christian girlfriend, are difficult to watch. Knowing what transpired behind the scenes makes it a bit painful. With Kirk trying to get cast and crew fired (he called the producers "pornographers" for the "racy" scenes on Growing Pains), it marred the later seasons for me.

With Tracey so sick, too, the fat jokes during her battle with anorexia just feel mean-spirited.

[king of comedy]

I have another one.

Cheers: I know that this was very popular but now there are a lot of things about it that made it aged badly. The characters stayed mainly the same from the very beginning to the end. We see everybody come to drink and get drunk and we see no reason why they come all the time. On M*A*S*H* the characters drink too but they were doctors fighting the stress of the Korean War but they did their job. We also never what their lives outside the bar. We know Carla has a family but that is a joke. How can she afford to have 11 kids on a waitress'es salary? Where does Norm work? We never see that. They became one note characters who got later mean spirited. I'm glad Frasier got his own series. That was better and it aged better.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

I have another one.

Cheers: I know that this was very popular but now there are a lot of things about it that made it aged badly. The characters stayed mainly the same from the very beginning to the end. We see everybody come to drink and get drunk and we see no reason why they come all the time. On M*A*S*H* the characters drink too but they were doctors fighting the stress of the Korean War but they did their job. We also never what their lives outside the bar. We know Carla has a family but that is a joke. How can she afford to have 11 kids on a waitress'es salary? Where does Norm work? We never see that. They became one note characters who got later mean spirited. I'm glad Frasier got his own series. That was better and it aged better.

10 Things Frasier Did Better Than Cheers

[Schmoopie]

The ones I like out of your list are as follows:


Growing Pains-I still like this show and I just try to watch it with a grain of salt when it comes to Kirk Cameron. It still makes me laugh.



Family Ties-Same thing, and I love Michael J Fox in pretty much anything. Some episodes are much better than others but it's better than a lot of the other new stuff on TV these days.



Full House-I loved this show forever until Fuller House kind of ruined it for me. I still like it okay, but it's not a favorite anymore. But when it was on prime time I absolutely loved it.


Joanie Loves Chachi- I'm not afraid to admit that I loved this show when it came on, probably just for the romantic aspects of it, although I can only recall one episode now.

[favoriteshow]

It seems the cheesy shows and sillier sitcoms tend to age better. Shows like Full House, 227 and Golden Girls. ALF and Perfect Strangers (orignal season) weren't very popular but are much the same years later.

Small Wonder wasn't that big of a show in the 80s. It was just a first-run syndicated show, so it can't really go any lower in visibility as it ages.

I agree that these shows: Family Ties, Growing Pains, Cosby, Cheers, Murphy Brown haven't aged well. The Cosby Show might have aged better if Bill Cosby didn't commit his sexual crimes. I'm not sure about a few others (Joanie Loves Chachi) as I haven't watched it then or now to comment. I never cared for Night Court although I like the opening theme. It's funny that a few people who commented on the Night Court theme (in the YouTube comments section) remember it as when it was time for them to go to bed.

[BigManMike]

I still love the Cosby Show despite what has happened to Bill Cosby and will continue to watch it one DVD for many years to come.

[Heenan Fan]

Facts Of Life, Different Strokes, and the later seasons of Happy Days.

[king of comedy]

Newhart: Bob has struck gold again but I struck out with this one. He is more of a reactor and sometimes the situations just fall flat. Mary Fran didn't have the right chemistry with Bob as Suzanne did. I don't remember her last name but the last scene in the finale is classic. Also, those 3 brothers are really creepy. I've been to Vermont and there were no such characters. If there were, I get out of there quickly.

Well, the 90s are next. Later.

[Heenan Fan]

Originally Posted by king of comedy

Also, those 3 brothers are really creepy. I've been to Vermont and there were no such characters.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by Heenan Fan

the later seasons of Happy Days.

My god, yes. What were they doing wearing all of that 1970s clothing?!

[Crusinforabrusin2.5]

The Facts of Life and Mama's Family have aged very badly.

Saved by the Bell came on in 89', but it doesn't hold up at all

The Cosby Show hasn't aged badly, but is difficult to watch knowing of Cosby's legal issues