
(Photo by Herb Ball/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
FALL 2019 TV SURVEY: 20 TV Shows That Defined the 1980s
For Rotten Tomatoes’ annual Fall TV Survey, we asked thousands of our users what they’re most looking forward to in the coming TV season and to reflect on the best shows from seasons past.
Cheers to Cheers! Rotten Tomatoes users selected the show about a bar where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came as the top show of the 1980s. The series was truly an ensemble effort with Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, George Wendt, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, and Shelley Long as the principal cast.
Cheers took top spot with 66% of the vote, followed by The Cosby Show at 53%, The Golden Girls at 47%, Magnum, P.I. with 46%, and the 1980s edition of Saturday Night Live taking fifth place with 45%.
Which star ruled the 1980s? Your vote went to SNL star Eddie Murphy with 16%, followed by The Golden Girls cast with 14%, and Tom Selleck with 12%. Bruce Willis was at No. 4 with 12%, and Don Johnson took fifth with 7%.
Disagree with the survey results? Tell us in the comments who you think should have made the list or have been ranked higher.
Synopsis: A feisty widow solves murders when she's not writing about them in her home town of Cabot Cove, Maine, a...
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Synopsis: A popular sitcom about a furry Alien Life Form from the planet Melmac who crash-lands on Earth and finds a...
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Synopsis: The excessive '80s fueled this lavish, campy soap about the Carringtons, a brood of beautiful bed-hoppers with twisted family ties...
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Synopsis: A former police officer gets a new identity and teams with a talking supercar to fight crime....
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Synopsis: Series revolving soldiers with bad attitude and the hero rescues....
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Synopsis: A man shares an apartment with two women and pretends to be gay so the landlord won't kick him out...
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Synopsis: The sly, hip, often imitated romantic dramedy about an ex-model and a PI who team up to run the Blue...
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Synopsis: The Robin Hood-style escapades of two cousins at odds with a greedy, bombastic politician and his blundering lackey, the local...
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Synopsis: Young L.A. cops go undercover in high schools in this teen-oriented police drama, which helped jump-start the new Fox network...
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Synopsis: Steven Bochco's landmark ensemble crime drama was an often electrifying mix of realism and humor within continuing storylines (in an...
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Synopsis: Former 1960s flower children raise their kids during the conservative Reagan era in one of the best written and acted...
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Synopsis: Teens study, date and scheme at a California high school, where silly storylines didn't stop droves of kids from watching...
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Synopsis: The popular adventures of a resourceful former Special Forces operative, who undertakes impossible missions at the behest of a crimefighting...
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Synopsis: Power, passion and duplicity drive this landmark saga set at the Southfork ranch, home of the oil-rich Ewing clan and...
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Synopsis: A hip, MTV-tinged drama about a pair of high-style detectives that added neon and attitude to the genre and drew...
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Synopsis: A variety show packed with some Emmy-winning satire for laughs....
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Synopsis: CBS reworked its successful `Hawaii Five-O' formula into a hit spun around a charismatic PI. The scenic backdrop and action-oriented...
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Synopsis: Sitcom about four mature single women sharing a house in Miami....
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Synopsis: Cosby played a doctor and dad in this all-time classic, which was TV's biggest hit in the 1980s and almost...
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Synopsis: This hugely successful, multi-Emmy-winning sitcom is set in a friendly Boston bar run by Sam Malone, a former Red Sox...
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