I agree. Classics like Newhart, Family Ties, Knight Rider, and Silver Spoons along with underrated shows like Square Pegs and Matthew Star. However, 1982 laud out some huge turds like Star of the Family, It Takes Two, Voyagers, The Devlin Connection, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
Yah, it was the apogee of Network Television for sure. It was all downhill from there. Network shows are mostly ads interspersed with bits of a show now.
@@Gunman610 While I totally agree that Mike Post is one of, if not the greatest, theme song writers even (I still have an LP of his theme songs), the St. Elsewhere theme was written by Dave Grusin.
Agree. Not all of these were good, and the actual shows weren't all as good as the intros, but even the duds don't look lazy or hackneyed or phoned in. Almost every title here looks like it *could* be a good show with the right follow through.
@@75aces97 some of these just suffered from network 'management' and probably marketing dictating a lot of the 'creative' process, like, 'you need a precocious kid!' or, 'where's the comic relief?!' along with the required, 'okay, so who's the love interest?' in other words, they had no bite, just usually miscast and watered-down drivel sticking to the same lame and inoffensive television notes as they ever did. in the fall of '82 i was 13 years old and even i knew most of these things were derivative, rip-offs, and had poorly defined characters meandering around cliche plots. okay, so i was rough on t.v. shows even at a young age, lol. but, i grew up somewhat understanding about these things, too, so bullshit was kind of easy to spot. i actively avoided anything with children in it as much as possible (which is my main gripe with 'indiana jones and temple of doom,' it was just too sugary like that). something like the indiana jones rip-off could have been fun were it not just so... bad, lacking anything broaching on originality. you know when you can't even capitalize on a globe-trotting adventure seeker at the height of indiana jones then you just suck at your job, lol.
Lol. I grew up watching Buck Rogers, my wife was born in 83 so she missed it. I was telling her and our kids the other day that according to that show we should all be flying around space
@@michaels2208 I met Gil Gerard back in the day at a Scout convention. He was signing autographs and was a real douche. Don't know what ever happened to the autograph.
her being on both shows messed with my head as a Kid, I was like 6, and I understood Fiction and that TV isn't real... but she was one of the first where her work overlapped and there was a disconnect between Future Space Lady and 80's Girlfriend Buck had quick turnaround into syndication (because/in spite of it's short run) so both shows would air in close proximity with Buck as Sunday afternoon filler and Silver Spoons in early Prime time Tom Hanks' guest spots on Family Ties & Happy Days were a little weird too when the rerun loops put those episodes close to one another or back to back with Bosom Buddies
I don't know if anyone else noticed, but the male leads of 'Star In The Family' & 'It Takes Two' are connected by one movie - 'First Blood'. Brian Dennehy played the sheriff and Richard Crenna played Rambo's commanding officer
Meredith Baxter Birney of Family Ties was married to David Birney of St. Elsewhere. They even had a show in the early 1970s called "Bridget Loves Birney".
You notice in Seventh Heaven you have Stephen Collins and Catherine Hicks- Star Trek one and four...I know, that show didn't come until later but Tucker's Witch reminded of it.
The memories😁. Thank you. I remember my childhood watching these shows, sitting on the floor in front of the television, and my mom yelling at me for sitting to close. ( 1982 I remember ).
Finally!...a year with some 'hit TV shows' in the lineup! 👏👏😂😄 Knight Rider, Cheers, Newhart, Remington Steele, St. Elsewhere, Newhart, Family Ties, etc., just to name a few!
Man, 1982! What was in the water? Not only one of the strongest years in the history of cinema, but also in TV! So many amazing shows started this year! Tartikoff was really turning the tide for NBC, starting the "Must See TV" era here! So many wonderful memories from so many of these shows! THANK YOU FOR THIS!
After seeing shows like Cheers, Newhart and Family Ties become classics, it's hard to believe they were once "new." All of these shows came out at the same time and all of them had the same chances to succeed or fail. As they say, the cream always rises to the top. Also a shout out to Ripley's Believe it or Not - one of my favorite shows! Also loved Voyagers! and of course Knight Rider!
You know Cheers was supposed to be cancelled after it's first year (maybe second) because it had poor ratings. Because they were nominated for multiple emmys The president of the network was able to renew i until it's base had built up. It's a shame those type of people went away from the network (or were canned for more "advertisers first" friendly people), at least before Arrested Development came out. This may be why the pay services (Amazon, Netflix, ...) seem to have better content now.
Actually the history behind these shows show that the cream rarely rises to the top. There is always some backroom deal that keeps shows on the air when rating start to flag.
@@not-so-smartaleck8987 Hey! Newhart was to a Classic as it was a Fun lil show that was revealed to be more so a Spinoff of The Bob Newhart Show in a way that it was more so all Bob's Dream World!
@@ianfindly3257 Can't find The Bob Newhart Show anywhere! All I've seen is snippets here and there on RU-vid! I had to research just to understand the gags in NEWHART that reffered to that show... I will have a grand time when I get my hands on this. Never seen it but boy do I want to.
Man, seeing that Ripley's intro brought back the voice of Jack Palance saying "Believe it....or not!" Nobody ever said it like he did. He made that show great, the same way Robert Stack made Unsolved Mysteries great.
Probably one of my favorite shows as a kid including the intro that started me asking questions about what were they going to show. I probably had the preview from last week still fresh in my head.
I'm a huge fan of Square Pegs because 1982-83 was also my freshman year of high school. I was just as unpopular as Lauren and Patty, so I sat home and watched a lot of TV. There's only a couple of shows I can't recall- including It Takes Two. Great cast for a short-lived sitcom.
Square Pegs was great. It should have lasted 4 years. I have it on DVD complete with interviews from 2008. "I'm not punk, I'm new wave, totally."- Johnny Slash
WOW, powerhouse year for TV. I didn't remember these all premiering in 1982. I was 10 years old that year so I feel in love with Family Ties, Silver Spoons , etc. I didn't appreciate Hill Street Blues until I was older and watched the re-runs.
Good gravy, the '80s truly began this year! There were some seriously '80s-esque action here, and some INCREDIBLE classics too, from "Family Ties" and "St. Elsewhere" to "Cheers" and "Remington Steele". What a titan of a season this was, and with "Square Pegs" having soundly beaten every other show to the punch in ushering in a new age of New Wave music and MTV, a sign of the tide truly turning. BTW, I saw a RU-vid upload of a CBS News special on how a TV show makes it through the pilot stage and gets onto a network lineup, and the two shows featured on said special were "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and... "Family Ties". It was really something seeing a show that was that big of a hit -- and something that was a part of my childhood -- right at the very beginning, just going through the process of trying to make it on the air.
Not only that, but 1982 is as far away from today (2021, so 39 years) as *1943* is from 1982. I think back to watching "Square Pegs" as a kid whereas people in 1982 thought equally far back to... World War II. Doesn't that seem weird? Like, pop music from 39 years ago would include Van Halen and Madonna, whereas in 1982, pop music from equally as far back in time would be stuff like "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. It just seems like a massively greater change even though it's the same number of years.
Wicked Scott In 1984-85, the t.v. was locked on NBC on Thursday nights. 8:00 (Eastern) "The Cosby Show" 8:30 "Family Ties" 9:00 "Cheers" 9:30 "Night Court" 10:00 "Hill Street Blues" Man, 35 years later...I still cannot believe how fast time goes by.
Eyehate P. That 84-85 TV season started soon after I moved to a new city to begin my career (which lasted 34 years, till retirement...I'm still in that city, for now), so I remember that NBC lineup for that reason--plus the fact that they were all good to great shows.
So true. Even the good tv of the 70s looked so drab. All the old men trying to be cool with their long hair, but they just looked overdue for haircuts.
Can you imagine -- I counted 2 mega hits (Cheers, Knight Rider), 3-4 enuring hits (Family Ties, Silver Spoons, St. Elsewhere, Newhart), and a few decent shows that sold pretty well. All that in one year. Now we can't ever get one episodic show that doesn't feel like choking on regurgitated cabbage... I'd say there has been one good 30-minute show in 15 years -- "Fresh off the Boat".
@@gdeangelkick Fresh Off the Boat is the only sitcom I watch in the last 10 years. And it is pretty old school in the way it is put together, almost like it could have come out in the 90's.
@@gdeangelkick I liked The Middle too. Modern Family has lost a step or two but was also perfectly acceptable. So is American Housewife. So of course, 2/3rds of these are gone/will be gone. What did you say about going back to only watching old school shows?
Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Stranger Things, and on and on. We're currently experiencing the golden age of television. I grew up watching this crap and it's cringingly bad when compared to modern shows. To pretend any of this is better than what we have now is biased and wholly untrue.
Cannon G . A crappy shows they have in Fall TV since the dawn of time I rather see the Shelf in the fifties and watch these again I think I had to agree myself 😣😠👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎
I was 16 in '82, so I remember a bunch of these - some are obvious, others I recall but were not great, some are in the 'have to trust you on that'! Couple of interesting things - the decades warp time, so it is weird seeing some of these as having started the same exact time. Also, I remember us all thinking how distinct we were from the 70s, and yet so many of these shows reek of late 70s influences. We watched all 5 seasons of 'Hart to Hart' over the last year (pandemic viewing, right?) and you can watch the styles evolve with each passing year and it is pretty cool. It is also fun seeing so many new faces (Helen Hunt and Anthony Edwards in the very forgettable It Takes Two) as well as stars of the 60s & 70s in their later years ... thanks for putting this together!
So many great theme songs. It's a shame most shows don't even have them anymore. The one chance that they may make a comeback is that seemingly ever show on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon has a theme song. Hopefully, future executives who grew up on that stuff will be more open to them.
I agree. That's something that's missing in today's TV shows. Back then some of the theme songs even had a life of their own on the radio, some becoming hit songs.
This was a great season when I was an 8 year old. Knight Rider, Tales of the Gold Monkey, Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, and Silver Spoons were my tune ins that year.
@@DavidTSmith-jn5bs For Bruce Boxleitner, don't forget Scarecrow & Mrs. King.🌞 But yes, I loved both those shows and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I was 18 in 1982; a good time to be young and have adventure in your blood!(lol).
@@toshomni9478 How much of a coincidence is it that TWO tv shows premiered in 1982 that ended up being just a dream. Of course Newhart's ending was a spoof of St. Elsewhere's and Dallas so it wasn't a coincidence as it was Newhart's quirky and illogical universe.
*Knight Rider* was the big stuff back in the day and everybody was making replicas of the "Knight Industries 2000", itself based upon the (then) new-for-'82 "F-body" Pontiac Firebird. I'm wondering how much does the original would cost if put in auction........
I think someone has the molds and there have been a number of replicas made. They don't go for as much as you would think... given how iconic the show was.
@@kevinbrown4073 Hexum thought he could hold a gun that shot blanks to his head as there was no bullet in it. No, but there was a lot of gun powder in there and other stuff.
Had he lived, I think Jon-Erik Hexum would have been a leading man in Hollywood. He would have attained the level of fame that Mel Gibson reached. Too bad actors weren't schooled better on the gun props. Apparently one day on the set of Cover Up, there were technical problems and filming was delayed. The cast were getting irritated by the wait. Jon-Erik was with some of the female co stars and put the gun to his head and jokingly said "It's enough to make you want to kill yourself." The paper wadding shot out and blew a piece of his skull, about the size of a quarter, into his brain.
@@briancooper2112 when did Bell 'switch Teams' I could have sworn she was married to a dude back in the JAG days (obvious that does not exclude anything, as evidenced by 'Baxter-Birney'
These videos are a reminder of how many different TV shows my all-time biggest celebrity crush, Helen Hunt, appeared on. Sadly, I rarely got to watch those shows because my parents chose to watch something else. She has appeared on so many of these videos that it would seem the shows she starred on didn’t fair well.
Yeah THAT show had an early 80's post-punkish thing going on, which was something that, at the time, made it quite unique, modern, edgy, hip and stand apart from the OTHER shows - which, you'll notice, still look and sound sort of stuck in the late 70's by comparison.
@@ianfindly3257 CBS had trouble finding 'young, hip' sitcoms for the '80s...so it settled for 40-something yuppie fare like 'Kate & Allie', 'Murphy Brown', and the semi-yuppified stuff that could still appeal to CBS's usual 'grandma' demo, like 'Newhart' and 'Designing Women'.
I was a junior in high school when it debuted. It was a cool show. Even my dad liked it. Shame it only lasted one season. Word is, the kids couldn't behave themselves cuz the adults in the room were even worse.
When I was a kid I watched Tales of the Gold Monkey, loved Voyagers and the Powers of Matthew Starr. Both those shows deserve big screen remakes. If their done well! Also, Louis Gossett Jr back on TV in 2019 on Watchman! May he live many more years.
Cheers, Newhart and cool Odd Couple theme solid three in a row themes. If I had dollar for every detective that had to chase a crook down a water slide...21:29
So many memorable programs debuted on "the Peacock Network" in the autumn of '82--"Silver Spoons," "Family Ties," "Cheers," "St. Elsewhere," "Knight Rider," and "Remington Steele"! Thanks to the late, great Brandon Tartikoff as NBC's president, things were slowly starting to turn around for the "Peacock Network" after a seven-year period of mediocrity. "The A-Team" would premiere at midseason in January of '83 (following Super Bowl XVII) and become an instant success.
The A Team was crucial to NBC's success since they were going against ABC once powerful Happy Days now falling after Ron Howard's departure. Mr. T coming off after Rocky 3 made ads slamming the Fonz and promoting his show which brought in viewers. Of course ABC tried to counter the following year with the I Dream of Jeannie rip off Just Our Luck but failled.
This one is interesting. A lot of new shows. Some would become iconic. Many went on for several seasons ( even the ones I didn’t like). One notable show, would have continued, if it weren’t for the untimely demise of the main character. The show: “VOYAGERS” A very well done and interesting show. John Erik Hexum, accidentally shot himself, and died. Meeno Peluci was a decent actor, never seemed to get the right breaks. I now own the series on DVD.
I believe he accidentally shot and killed himself while doing a short lived detective show called "Cover Up". He was replaced by another actor and the show didn't last much longer, but I remember seeing a couple episodes with the other actor.
OMG--What a trip down memory lane! I turned 22 that fall, a new mom (my daughter is now 37) and I remember pretty much all of these shows. I always think of St. Elsewhere every time I see Howie Mandel or Denzel Washington. And nothing needs to be said about David Hasselhoff and his car "Kit" (Knight Rider) lol!
("3-28-19") it's still one of my Favorite Theme Songs of the 80's Especially the Time they also had the Extended Version of the Song I Assume it was before the Cheers Finale Had Started + I also Enjoyed The Theme Song to ("Knight Rider") + the Show as well.
What a great time capsule. There are a few that I had completely forgotten about, like Tales of the Gold Monkey, and quite a few that I never even heard of. Now I know which shows bombed that season.
I used to visit Universal Studios and visit the set of Silver Spoons. There was a large mini train track on the set. Ricky and Alfonso, when not working would be running around, playing soccer, etc. just being kids. One time I met Ray Bolger when he was in an episode.
I don't remember the 80s show called The Quest, but there was a 70s show, also called The Quest, starring Tim Matheson and Kurt Russell that I loved. I LOVED Tucker's Witch.
Matt Houston, too. I think Pamela Hensley was one of the most attractive women on TV of the time, but just the intro let you know that you were in for an enjoyable hour.
Stephanie Zimbalist looked so good. The Powers of Matthew Star was good but it kept getting changed and the fact that the actor who played Matthew was seriously burned in early filming and had to take off for a year hurt the show.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I remember Tim Topper later played in a Saturday morning show, called "Going Bananas", with James Avery. If the show hadn't been cancelled, I believe each brother was to be married off each season.
I do! Of course I remember Bob Newhart's other television shows as well, especially the first one where he played a psychologist with Suzanne Pleshette as his wife and a great supporting cast and great writing! On this 1982 Newhart show though, Tom Poston stole the show!
A lot of these made it across to the UK. 1982 saw the beginning of our 4th TV channel (Channel 4....). Cheers opening episode aired on it's first night. I was hooked at once. It used to air every Friday at 10pm. For while, when Cheers was off season, they'd run Newhart. Monday night at 9.25 was St Elsewhere. Good times.
