A long time ago, about three decades back, there were no streaming platforms, no YouTube, and no other choice for TV entertainment but the TV itself. So you bought a TV program guide, circled the shows you’d like to watch, and planned your week around them (unless you had some futuristic VHS device that could record your series for you). If you happen to like one of your circled choices, a whole ritual will soon have developed – snacks were made, the phone was off the hook, the comfiest couch spot dibbed a day before, and your pee times coordinated with commercial intermissions. Even entertainment required a bit of effort in the ’80s, but oh, how nostalgic it all looks now.
If you’d like to revisit those sentimental times, we’ve rounded up a list of the best ’80s TV series. Some you might know by the heart, others looked rather silly at the time, and some of them might’ve skipped your radar back then. But, no matter the grounds on which you’ve opened this article, you’ll end up binge-watching at least one of these ’80s shows by the time you’ve finished reading.
So now, scroll on down below and check out our top contenders for the best TV series that have spawned in the ’80s list – from Star Trek to Married…With Children, all of your favorite shows are here. All you have to do is pick your choice, find a streaming platform that has it (which isn’t much in the ’80s spirit, but so be it), and relax on your couch. Don’t forget to vote for the worthiest TV series, and share this article with your friends!
#1 The Golden Girls
Who would’ve thought that watching grumpy older ladies could be fun? Well, the ’80s, obviously! The Golden Girls, a critically acclaimed and plentifully awarded ’80s TV series, follows four dames as they go about their daily lives in a shared house they occupy together. And the grouchier their moods – the louder the laughs in the staple behind-the-scenes track. It’s also worthy of mentioning that one of The Golden Girls’ leads is played by our beloved megastar Betty White.
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#2 The Muppet Show
A puppet show for adults, The Muppets was ahead of its time with its absurdist and surreal humor, burlesque nature, and uniquely designed characters. The Muppets were presented as a variety show, featuring recurring sketches and musical numbers unified by several plotlines, mainly Kermit the Frog’s struggles to control the cast. The Muppets were also one of the rare series presented with the Peabody award given only to the most enlightening and invigorating stories and programs.
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#3 Quantum Leap
Quantum Leap, a science-fiction series, follows Dr. Sam Beckett, a physicist who involuntarily leaps through time due to an experiment gone wrong and fixes what he thinks as historical mistakes. Supplemented by characters as holograms and self-aware artificial intelligence computers, the series was thoroughly original and captivating. And though Quantum Leap was slow to gain a solid position in the ratings, it was later named by TV Guide as one of the best cult series ever.
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#4 Cheers
After its premiere in September 1982, Cheers nearly got canceled as its ratings were at about sea bottom level. Thankfully, though, the broadcasting channel did not give up on it, and during the summer reruns of the first season, Cheers suddenly gained its audience, which proved to be an ever-growing one. A sitcom in all of its essence, Cheers follows a group of friends that meets and spends their time together at a bar called, you guessed it, Cheers. Filmed in front of a live audience, it has that signature sitcom laugh track and is often set in the same location. It’s also a series that birthed probably one of the most successful spin-offs ever. If not for Cheers, we wouldn’t have gotten Frasier!
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#5 Married… With Children
Married… With Children follows the lives of Al Bundy, a misogynist shoe seller, Peggy, his vain and lazy wife, and their two kids – stereotypic blonde Kelly and very uncool yet smart Bud. And if you haven’t heard about this legendary series, you are definitely a rare specimen as it was an absolute ’80s TV staple. Loathed by plenty for its mean-spiritedness, Married… With Children still had a solid allure based on Ed O’Neill’s portrayal of Al, relatable family situations, and a pretty gloomy sense of humor which resonated with audiences worldwide.
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#6 The A-Team
This action-adventure series follows a foursome of ex-military personnel, wrongfully sentenced and imprisoned. Of course, the four of them escape to Los Angeles and become soldiers of fortune, bringing justice to the little man. Impressionable characters, cartoonish violence, and cool catchphrases are what made The A-Team an iconic series of the decade. Also, its episodic nature, where you can tune in whenever without missing essential plot details, made it very agreeable with audiences and The A-Team soon skyrocketed to the top of the ratings.
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#7 Family Ties
In our days, it’s usually the kids that are hip and the parents that are square. Well, in Family Ties universe, it’s all reversed – ex-hippie parents and conservationist ’80s kids. And, that’s precisely where the conflict lies, and it’s never dull to follow this family in their daily lives when their views on life and politics are divided by a chasm. A brilliant depiction of actual events and culture of the decade gained this series plenty of awards and accolades.
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#8 Magnum, P.I.
A womanizer private investigator living life to the fullest while solving heinous crimes will never go out of fashion, and Magnum, P.I. is a true classic of the crime drama series genre. And so is Tom Selleck’s, a.k.a. Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV’s glorious mustache, which plays a part of its own in this series. Oh, and if you love guest star appearances on series that you are watching, Magnum, P.I. had plenty of those, including but not limited to Shannen Doherty, Sharon Stone, and Frank Sinatra, just to name a few.
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#9 MacGyver
MacGyver is an action-adventure series following Angus MacGyver, a secret agent equipped with incredible resourcefulness to solve problems using simple everyday things. In fact, MacGyver is so good at what he does; his name became a term for when you fix or solve something with random stuff at hand. Though the 1985 series saw a slow start in ratings with the first season, it later proved to be a sleeper hit, gaining popularity and loyal fans as MacGyver went on.
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#10 Happy Days
With a sweet vision of life in the ‘50s America, quirky yet relatable characters, and a delightful sense of humor, Happy Days was everyone’s favorite series for its whole ten years of existence. Besides being hugely successful, Happy Days was also the show where Robin Williams started his career, and by a lucky accident! With five spin-offs, loads of loyal fans, and time-defying production, Happy Days is probably one of the best shows aired in the ’80s.
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#11 M*A*S*H
M*A*S*H – an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital – is a war comedy-drama series that graced TV screens for almost ten years, starting from 1972. It follows a team of field doctors stationed in South Korea during the Korean War (1950-1953) and their lives during wartime. M*A*S*H became so wildly popular during its run that the final episode still holds the record for the most-watched finale of any TV series. In fact, so many people watched that episode that the New York City Sanitation Department reported broken plumbing issues after seemingly everyone in NYC went to the bathroom right after the end credits. And though it might be just an urban legend, it perfectly illustrates just how captivated the audience was with M*A*S*H.
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#12 Star Trek The Next Generation
The ’80s birthed many cool things, and one of them, undoubtedly, was Star Trek: The Next Generation. When Sir Patrick Stewart was picked for the series as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, he was a relatively unknown ‘British Shakespearean actor,’ and now we couldn’t imagine our pop culture without him. Praised for its fantastic production, great acting, and unique plotlines supplemented by such guest stars as Stephen Hawking himself and NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, Star Trek: The Next Generation has solidified itself as a cultural phenomenon for decades to come.
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#13 The Simpsons
The Simpsons, which is the longest-running American animated series, has made us laugh, cry, and feel love for the last three decades. It saw Baby Boomers laughing at hidden jokes their Millennial kids couldn’t understand at the time, and it saw those same Millennials showing The Simpsons to their own kids – a staple animated series any generation can find relatable and loveable.
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#14 Mork And Mindy
Mork And Mindy supplied the vastly talented Robin Williams with a breakthrough role and, in return, gained stellar popularity, ranking at third place in the Nielsen Ratings at the time of its release. And how could it not, when you have such an ingenious (even if inexperienced) actor as Robin Williams playing an extraterrestrial from the Ork planet who came to live on Earth?
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#15 Night Court
As shown by many TV series, the night shift at the court is generally a gathering place for low-lives, outcasts, and criminals, often with no comedic element in their endeavors. With Night Court, though, the premise takes another turn, and the night shift proceedings, conducted by a young and very unorthodox judge Harold Stone, are usually a place for hilarious happenings and humor.
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#16 Knight Rider
Now here’s a series that had a serious allure to various audience segments – starting from petrolheads as it stars a heavily modified, AI-equipped Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, to crime and action lovers and ending with David Hasselhoff fans because, well, David Hasselhoff. Knight Rider grips you right from the start with its synth-heavy, mean theme song and does not release you with its action sequences and plot twists.
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#17 The Dukes Of Hazzard
An adaptation of the 1975 Moonrunners movie, The Dukes Of Hazzard, shares a very similar premise following the no-good Duke brothers, their cousin Daisy, and the wise patriarch of the family, Uncle Jesse. Filled with comedic action and plot twists in each episode, The Dukes Of Hazzard became an iconic show. And even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve most likely heard about Daisy’s style, especially the skimpy ‘Daisy Dukes’ jean shorts.
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#18 The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years, a coming-of-age comedy-drama, follows teenager Kevin Arnold (played by Fed Savage) as he grows up in a suburban middle-class family in the late ‘60s. The series’ unique storytelling, stellar acting, and relatable happenings gained The Wonder Years many awards and accolades. Today, many critics agree that The Wonder Years is a true classic, having inspired plenty of shows that were created after.
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#19 Three’s Company
Three’s Company, based on the British series Man About The House, follows three roommates – Janet, Chrissy, and Jack – who all live platonically together in an apartment complex in Santa Monica. Often employing exaggerated situations, Three’s Company shows the trio’s funny conflicts often escalated by simple misunderstandings and social life differences. A top-ten hit throughout its run time, Three’s Company bewitched audiences with light-hearted humor and a loveable cast.
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#20 WKRP In Cincinnati
The first sitcom ever to realistically portray the workings of a radio station, WKRP In Cincinnati, was based on the show writer’s experience working at a struggling broadcaster. Many of the characters and depicted events were true, so maybe that’s why WKRP In Cincinnati resonated so well with audiences, especially the DJs of the day. It also didn’t hurt that the well-meaning yet terribly incompetent station staff was hilariously played by the most talented cast.
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#21 Miami Vice
Praised for its stylish visuals and the use of contemporary and pop music, Miami Vice was a phenomenally impactful series. Starting with its realistic depiction of Miami’s seedy underbelly to inspiring the preservation of the city’s famous Art Deco architecture shown in the series – it was a truly groundbreaking crime drama.
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#22 Seinfeld
As a show that’s often described as being ‘about nothing,’ Seinfeld was phenomenally popular and is listed as one of the most influential sitcoms of all time. It starred Jerry Seinfeld, a rising comedian of the ’80s, playing a fictionalized version of himself, though many of the plotlines were real experiences of the series’ writers, including Seinfeld’s. In addition, the series often broke mainstream conventions of television shows and employed loads of irony, which was quite unusual for sitcoms of the ’80s.
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#23 Who’s The Boss?
Consistently successful in ratings, beloved by audiences, and plentifully awarded, Who’s The Boss was a genuine old-fashioned love story in its best sense. It is also unique for its time for a clear role reversal of the characters, where a woman is a breadwinner, and a man takes care of the household. A fresh perspective that agreed very well with viewers.
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#24 Growing Pains
Growing Pains follows the Seaver family – a reporter mom Maggie and a psychiatrist dad Jason who works from home watching over their three kids. Augmented by realistic and relatable situations, a great sense of humor, and stellar acting, Growing Pains was an instant hit in the ratings. And it also had a nice surprise in the seventh season, as a very teenage Leonardo DiCaprio entered the series playing Luke Brower. And who could resist Leo’s charms?
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#25 The Incredible Hulk
There’s probably no need to introduce who The Hulk is, him being one of the staple Marvel Comics characters, right? This time, though, the creators of The Incredible Hulk series were on a mission to discover deeper topics than merely showing a misunderstood hero on his adventures. Thus, they found ways to show how The Hulk manifests in each of us. If in Dr. Brenner (the person behind The Hulk) it manifested in anger, then in others, it might be fear, jealousy, or obsession. That’s how the series’ writers brought the superhero premise down to the everyday audience’s needs and gave it a new kind of relatability.
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#26 Diff’rent Strokes
Diff’rent Strokes is set around the lives of two African-American boys, Arnold and Willis, from Harlem, who are taken in by a wealthy white widower Phillip Drummond. Despite donning a very light-hearted profile, Diff’rent Strokes also did several so-called ‘very special episodes’ in which serious social issues such as racism, illegal drug use, alcoholism, and so on were dramatically explored. One of them, the anti-drug episode, featured none other than the First Lady Nancy Reagan herself!
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#27 Tom And Jerry Comedy Show
Tom And Jerry’s exploits could be added to a list of basically any list mentioning TV shows, as the duo, in various incarnations, has been gracing our screens from the ‘50s right up to this day. The Tom And Jerry Comedy Show, though, ran for half an hour and included two segments of our favorite pair’s antics and also a Droopy cartoon right in the middle. Unfortunately, this Tom And Jerry embodiment lived only for a couple of months in the early ’80s, but the episodes were later added to syndicated Tom And Jerry packages.
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#28 Laverne & Shirley
A spin-off of Happy Days, this series follows two characters we’ve already met – Laverne and Shirley. The two roommates work as bottle-cappers in a fictitious brewery and spend their free time with upstairs neighbors and friends. Filled with physical comedy played by a charming cast, Laverne & Shirley went on to be one of the most-watched American series. In addition, this show, which was already a spin-off, gained its own spin-off animated series that followed the girls during their army training.
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#29 The Facts Of Life
A spin-off of another series featured on our list – Diff’rent Strokes – The Facts Of Life was the longest-running sitcom of the ’80s (starting in 1979 and ending in 1988). The series further follows the Drummonds of Diff’rent Strokes former housekeeper Edna Garrett as she takes up the role of a housemother in an all-girls boarding school. New and already beloved characters, an ever-present great sense of humor, and the general shenanigans of the girls made this show into an absolute ’80s staple. It’s also worthy of mentioning that one of the recurring characters was played by Geri Jewell – one of the first actors with cerebral palsy on our TV screens.
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#30 Chips
CHiPs, a series whose two main characters are motorcycle officers in the California Highway Patrol, brings the best of both crime and comedy-drama worlds. With signature over-the-top freeway vehicle pileups, incredible stunts, and a great sense of humor, CHiPs quickly gained a solid position in ratings and a place in viewers’ hearts. Besides the rambunctious leading duo, the series also starred Caitlyn Jenner. While it wasn’t her first appearance on the big screen, her collaboration with CHiPs (not counting the Keeping Up With The Kardashians show) was the longest-running.
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#31 Moonlighting
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#32 Taxi
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#33 Murder, She Wrote
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#34 Perfect Strangers
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#35 Fraggle Rock
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#36 Alf
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#37 Barney Miller
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#38 21 Jump Street
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#39 Inspector Gadget
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#40 Roseanne
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#41 Ducktales
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#42 Murphy Brown
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#43 Saved By The Bell
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#44 Fantasy Island
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#45 He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe
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#46 Unsolved Mysteries
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#47 Charlie’s Angels
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#48 The Smurfs
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#49 The Greatest American Hero
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#50 Alice
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#51 Bosom Buddies
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#52 Little House On The Prairie
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#53 The Love Boat
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#54 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
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#55 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
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#56 Hart To Hart
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#57 Fame
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#58 The Jeffersons
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#59 Benson
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#60 Remington Steele
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#61 Newhart
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#62 Thunder Cats
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#63 Buck Rogers In The 25th Century
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#64 Hill Street Blues
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#65 Dallas
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#66 Saturday Night Live
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#67 Quincy, M.e.
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#68 Designing Women
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#69 Simon & Simon
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#70 Full House
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#71 Doogie Howser, M.d.
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#72 Cagney & Lacey
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#73 The Transformers
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#74 Coach
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#75 Airwolf
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#76 Tales From The Darkside
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#77 Garfield And Friends
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#78 Gimme A Break!
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#79 Mama’s Family
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#80 Alvin And The Chipmunks
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#81 Kate & Allie
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#82 Head Of The Class
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#83 The Fall Guy
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#84 Matlock
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#85 Empty Nest
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#86 The Equalizer
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#87 A Different World
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#88 Highway To Heaven
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#89 Charles In Charge
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#90 Hunter
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#91 Webster
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#92 Dynasty
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#93 Amazing Stories
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#94 The Cosby Show
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#95 Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo
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#96 Scarecrow And Mrs. King
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#97 Too Close For Comfort
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#98 In The Heat Of The Night
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#99 T.J. Hooker
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#100 Knots Landing
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