Todd VanDerWerff has a follow-up to his ’70s sitcoms primer: an extensive guide to the U.S. sitcom in the 1980s.
Todd VanDerWerff has a follow-up to his ’70s sitcoms primer: an extensive guide to the U.S. sitcom in the 1980s.
Even though my TV viewing began in the ’80s and therefore I remember the era fondly, I think there’s something about ’80s comedies that makes them feel more dated than the sitcoms of other decades. The ’50s, ’60s and ’90s all produced a bunch of U.S. comedies that could be repeated forever. The ’70s shows are more closely tied to their era, but the best of them have managed to endure based on quality. The ’80s produced a few eternally iconic sitcoms — Cheers, Married With Children and, strangely, Full House, which has had more staying power than I ever would have predicted. (It’s the Brady Bunch of the ’80s.) The Cosby Show has also shown a fair amount of staying power after a rough start in syndication: the reruns originally didn’t do as well as expected, but it has managed to carve out a place for itself in repeats. But other shows are… not forgotten, exactly; shows back then were still able to get a fan following after they went off the air. But they are viewed as products of the ’80s. Family Ties had some very fine episodes, but it’s an ’80s cultural artifact; All in the Family is even more topical in its humour, but is celebrated for its continued relevance. I don’t quite know what it is that makes the ’80s comedies feel more remote from our current experience than the shows that came before or after; it can’t just be the fashions and hair.