Explore 1980s Drama Titles
Browse retro titles and filter by type, genre, platform and era. Every title opens onto where to watch or play it, ratings, cast, trivia and related classics.
Showing 1–24 of 76 titles
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Harlem Nights
1989 · Comedy · 116 min
'Sugar' Ray is the owner of an illegal casino and must contend with the pressure of vicious gangsters and corrupt police who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organised crime and police corruption in the 1920s, any dastardly trick is fair.
Shoot the Moon
1982 · Drama · 124 min
After fifteen years of marriage, an affluent couple divorce and take up with new partners.
Miss Marple: The Body in the Library
1984 · Crime · 1 series
Amateur detective Miss Jane Marple investigates the murder of a young woman whose body is found in the library at Gossington Hall, home of Colonel and Mrs. Arthur Bantry.
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
1986 · Animation · 1 series
The year is Universal Century 0088. Directly after the end of the Gryps War, Haman Karn and her army of Zeon remnants on the asteroid Axis begin their quest of reviving the lost empire of the Zabi's, and proclaim themselves as the Neo-Zeon. With the Earth Federation as hapless as ever, only the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) is able oppose the plans of Neo-Zeon. In need of all the help it can get after being decimated in the previous war and losing many of its key members, the AEUG ship Argama enlists the aid of a young junk collector from the Side 1 colony of Shangri-La named Judau Ashta to pilot its newest mobile suit, the ZZ Gundam.
The Bill
1984 · Crime · 26 series
The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
Cagney & Lacey
1982 · Crime · 7 series
Mary Beth Lacey and Chris Cagney are teamed up as NYPD police detectives. Their opposing personalities (one is tough and the other sensitive) mesh to make this one of the great crime-fighting duos of all time.
21 Jump Street
1987 · Crime · 5 series
21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.
Hill Street Blues
1981 · Drama · 7 series
A realistic glimpse into the daily lives of the officers and detectives at an urban police station.
Brookside
1982 · Soap · 22 series
The ground-breaking soap set in a housing estate on the outskirts of Liverpool.
Urusei Yatsura
1981 · Animation · 1 series
The invasion of an alien race known as the Oni begins a new life for Ataru Moroboshi, a lecherous trouble-making tenth grader in the small town of Tomobiki. After unwittingly proposing to the Oni princess Lum Invader instead of his sweetheart Shinobu, Ataru becomes a conduit for aliens arriving on Earth, causing all sorts of havoc for him and his companions, not to mention his own reputation!
Miami Vice
1984 · Crime · 5 series
The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.
MacGyver
1985 · Drama · 7 series
He's everyone's favorite action hero... but he's a hero with a difference. Angus MacGyver is a secret agent whose wits are his deadliest weapon. Armed with only a knapsack filled with everyday items he picks up along the way, he improvises his way out of every peril the bad guys throw at him. Making a bomb out of chewing gum? Fixing a speeding car's breaks... while he's riding in it? Using soda pop to cook up tear gas? That's all in a day's adventures for MacGyver. He's part Boy Scout, part genius. And all hero.
Saint Seiya
1986 · Animation · 1 series
Ages ago, the goddess Athena was served by fighters called Saints who channeled the power of the Cosmos within them. Now a youth named Seiya has trained to become a Saint himself by earning the mystical Cloth of Pegasus. He is joined by other Saints with Cloths of their own to fight for Athena.
Magnum, P.I.
1980 · Crime · 8 series
A private investigator who works when he wants, lives in a beachfront estate in Hawaii, drives a posh Ferrari, runs up an unlimited tab at a swank bar, and charms attractive women in peril - that's the lifestyle of Thomas Magnum, aka Magnum, P.I.
Agatha Christie's Poirot
1989 · Crime · 13 series
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
Hammer House of Horror
1980 · Mystery · 1 series
Each self-contained episode features a different kind of horror, varying from witches, werewolves, ghosts, devil worship and voodoo, but also includes non-supernatural themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers.
Faerie Tale Theatre
1982 · Drama · 6 series
A live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales.
Classic Ghost Stories
1986 · Drama · 1 series
Five partially-dramatized readings of classic M.R. James ghost stories by actor Robert Powell. Including "The Mezzotint", "The Ash-Tree", "The Rose Garden", "Wailing Well" and "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad".
The Outsiders
1983 · Crime · 91 min
In 1960s Tulsa, class divisions ignite a violent rivalry between the working-class Greasers and the privileged Socs. When a deadly encounter forces two Greasers, Ponyboy and Johnny, to flee, their struggle for survival and redemption exposes the fragile innocence and enduring bonds of youth on the wrong side of town.
Good Morning, Vietnam
1987 · Comedy · 121 min
A disk jockey goes to Vietnam to work for the Armed Forces Radio Service. While he becomes popular among the troops, his superiors disapprove of his humor.
Dead Poets Society
1989 · Drama · 129 min
At an elite, old-fashioned boarding school in New England, a passionate English teacher inspires his students to rebel against convention and seize the potential of every day, courting the disdain of the stern headmaster.
The Brotherhood of Justice
1986 · Thriller · 93 min
High-school students start a vigilante group in their neighbourhood but, as their power increases, they become more abusive and dangerous.
Life Goes On
1989 · Drama · 4 series
Life Goes On is a television series that aired on ABC from September 12, 1989, to May 23, 1993. The show centers on the Thatcher family living in suburban Chicago: Drew, his wife Elizabeth, and their children Paige, Rebecca, and Charles, who is known as Corky. Life Goes On was the first television series to have a major character with Down syndrome.
Mask
1985 · Drama · 120 min
A significantly deformed but highly intelligent teenage boy and his biker gang mother attempt to live as normal a life as possible under the circumstances.