The 1980s was the golden age for children’s television. There were entertaining and interesting shows available after school, at night, and on weekends. Some shows were educational, like 3-2-1 Contact or Square One TV, but there were also shows that were pure fun.
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Many kids rushed home from school to watch shows like Inspector Gadget or DuckTales, the latter of which had a catchy theme song that most people who grew up during that era can still remember today. Of course, most of these shows were canceled a long time ago, but that doesn’t mean that people who grew up in the 1980s don’t still remember the best shows today.
7) Inspector Gadget
Inspector Gadget was one of the more bizarre cartoons that came out of the 1980s, but kids loved it. Don Adams, best known as bumbling special agent Maxwell Smart on Get Smart, voiced the title character. Inspector Gadget was so named because he had all sorts of gadgets installed: roller skates, extensions for his arms so he could reach far away objects, and even a helicopter propeller.
Unfortunately, these rarely worked right, leading to comical accidents, plus Gadget was often on the wrong trail when investigating a case. Fortunately, he had his niece, Penny, and his dog, Brain, to do all the hard work of stopping the evil Dr Claw’s latest scheme. Every ’80s kid likely remembers the faceless Dr. Claw shaking his fist and shouting, “I’ll get you next time, Gadget!” at the end of every episode.
6) You Can’t Do That On Television
This often-disgusting sketch comedy launched Nickelodeon to the top of the ratings in the 1980s. It was a Canadian-produced comedy show using various kids, well known for sketches involving a gross and possibly cannibalistic burger joint owner, kids being put in front of a firing squad and begging for their lives… and, of course, green slime that poured from the ceiling onto someone’s head if they said “I don’t know.”
Some parents hated this show, which made kids love it even more. Interestingly, in its later years, one of the kids featured was Alanis Morrisette, who was 14 at the time and had not yet begun her singing career.
5) Small Wonder
Small Wonder was a 1980s show that followed in the footsteps of 1960s shows about people masquerading as humans such as My Favorite Martian or Bewitched. In this case, the show centered around a family with a father who was a robotics engineer, his wife, his son… and the android daughter he built named Vicki.
This series was so popular with children around the world that it was dubbed in several different languages. The humor centered around Vicki’s difficulty understanding the nuances of human behavior — she took things literally, spoke in a monotone, and didn’t understand emotions. However, she passed well enough for human to go to school, though of course there was a nosy neighbor who was always trying to find out what was really going on.
4) ALF
ALF relied on some of the same tropes as Small Wonder. However, it was even harder for the Tanner family to hide what was going on since they had a furry alien living with them. ALF was a wisecracking, sarcastic creature with a personality similar to the iconic cartoon cat, Garfield (except he would have eaten Garfield, since he ate cats.)
As with all sitcoms in this genre, a lot of ALF’s humor came from trying to hide his existence from the neighbors. The Tanners also worked to try to teach ALF human ways, with varying levels of success.
3) Mr. Belvedere
Mr. Belvedere was about a strait-laced British butler who joined a middle-class family in Pittsburgh. Much of the humor came from him clashing with the family patriarch, played by real-life sports broadcaster Bub Uecker. Additionally, he had to deal with the kids, especially the youngest, Wesley, who was as bratty as 80s kids came.
This series was one of several family-oriented sitcoms of the era, but it is unforgettable because of Mr. Belvedere’s British wit and refusal to compromise his values to get along with his employer. Plus, every episode ended with the title character writing in his journal, typically with an amusing perspective on what had just happened.
2) Square One TV
Square One TV was an innovative PBS children’s show dedicated to teaching kids math. It was the opposite of dry and boring — it used parodies of popular TV shows, music videos similar to those found on the new-to-the-era MTV, and game show segments to teach children concepts such as mathematical problem-solving, combinatorics, and probability.
Best of all, the series included Mathnet, a 10-minute parody of Dragnet that offered a continuing mystery story featuring Kate Monday and George Frankly, two detectives who used math to solve each week’s crime. The first story included Yeardley Smith, best known as the voice of Lisa Simpson, as a teenage girl who wanted to find a gorilla who had disappeared from the zoo.
1) DuckTales
DuckTales was a Disney cartoon about the miserly Scrooge McDuck and his three nephews. Episodes often focused on the McDuck family going on adventures to gain treasure, though sometimes they also had to fight with Scrooge’s enemies, especially those who wanted to steal his fortune.
This show’s popularity led to a bunch of other Disney shows in the 1980s and 1990s as well as video games and other spinoff merchandise. It was rebooted in 2017 and ran another four years, but the original Ducktales is still a source of fond memories for many 1980s kids.
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