Explore 1980s Family TV Shows

A live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales.

Chocky is a 1984 children's television drama based on the 1968 novel by John Wyndham and was broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom. Two sequels were produced. All were written by Anthony Read and produced by Thames Television. The series was also broadcast and popular in Czechoslovakia - both dubbings were made. While the 1968 novel was set in an unspecified 'near future', the TV adaptation was set contemporaneously in the mid-1980s. The Gore family acquire a second generation Citroen CX car which was marketed as being technologically advanced at the time.

Two teams compete to win cash and prizes by answering trivia questions and completing messy 'physical challenges' on Double Dare.

A truly amazing, fantastical, science fiction, funny and odd, and sometimes scary, sad and endearing anthology series presented by Steven Spielberg with guest appearances by many famous actors, actresses, and directors.

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.

A housewife sits on the stoop of her apartment building in a black neighborhood of Washington, D.C., and discusses all manner of things with her neighbors.

The shows featured the everyday adventures of a group of characters living on Pigeon Street, an area of flats and terraced housing in a British city, also home to several pigeons which appeared in each show but only occasionally featured in the plot. Characters included Clara the long distance lorry driver, her husband Hugo the chef, Mr Baskerville the detective, Mr Jupiter the astronomer, Mr Macadoo the petshop owner, and twins Molly and Polly, who were only distinguishable by the letter M and P on their jumpers.

The Fraggles are a fun-loving community of creatures who live in a subterranean fantasy land where they love to play, sing and dance their cares away, sharing their world with the tiny Doozers and the giant Gorgs. The series teaches empathy and tolerance and encourages children to understand people different from themselves.

The Snorks is an animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera which ran on NBC from September 15, 1984, to May 13, 1989. Although not as popular as the animated series The Smurfs, the program continued to be available in syndication from 1986 to 1989 as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera's 3rd season, on USA Network in the late-1980s and early-1990s, on the BBC in the late 1990s, and from 2009–2011 and again from 2012–Present on Boomerang.

Jimbo and the Jet Set is a British animated cartoon series broadcast in the 1980s, featuring the adventures of the eponymous Jimbo, a talking aeroplane. Created by Maddocks Cartoon Productions, it originally ran for 25 episodes between 1985 and 1986. The premise of the cartoon is that Jimbo was originally intended to be a Jumbo Jet, but his designer could not tell the difference between inches and centimetres, resulting in his diminutive size. If Jimbo's designer switched the imperial measurements of the Boeing 747 for metric, the result would have been an aircraft with a fuselage length of 91 ft; this would make Jimbo roughly the length of an early-series Boeing 737. The television series features various talking airport-type ground vehicles: Tommy Tow-Truck, Claude Catering, Amanda Baggage, Phil the Fuel Truck, Sammy Steps and Harry Helicopter. Other plane characters appear from time to time, such as Old Timer, a Vickers Wellington bomber who gets into the story while flying to or from an airshow. The story is based at a fictional "London Airport", under the command of an irate controller who frequently ends episodes screaming "I want words with you, Jimbo!".

TUGS is a British children's television series first broadcast in 1988. It was created by the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton. The series dealt with the adventures of two anthropomorphized tugboat fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who compete against each other in the fictional Bigg City Port. The series was set in the Roaring Twenties, and was produced by TUGS Ltd., for TVS and Clearwater Features Ltd. Music was composed by Junior Campbell and Mike O'Donnell, who also wrote the music for Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Due to the bankruptcy of production company TVS, the series did not continue production past 13 episodes. Following the initial airing of the series throughout 1988, television rights were sold to an unknown party, while all models and sets from the series sold to Britt Allcroft. Modified set props and tugboat models were used in Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends from 1991 onwards.

The Flintstone Comedy Show is a 90-minute Saturday morning animated series revival of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera and aired from November 22, 1980 to September 11, 1982 on NBC. Outside North America, the show was released under title of Flintstone Frolics. The show contained six segments: The Flintstone Family Adventures, Bedrock Cops, Pebbles, Dino and Bamm-Bamm, Captain Caveman, Dino and Cavemouse, and The Frankenstones.

The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on the Huxtable family, an upper middle-class African-American family living in Brooklyn, New York.

ALF Tales is an animated American series that ran on the NBC television network on Saturdays from August 1988 to December 1989. The show was a spinoff from the series ALF: The Animated Series. The show had characters from that series play various characters from fairy tales. The fairy tale was usually altered for comedic effect in a manner relational to Fractured Fairy Tales. Each story typically spoofs a film genre, such as the "Cinderella" episode done as an Elvis movie. Some episodes featured a "fourth wall" effect where ALF is backstage preparing for the episode, and Rob Cowan would appear drawn as a TV executive to try to brief ALF on how to improve this episode. For instance Cowan once told ALF who was readying for a medieval themed episode that "less than 2% of our audience lives in the Dark Ages".

Adapted from Forrest Wilson's books, the children's programme revolves around a grandmother with super powers and her arch nemesis, The Scunner Campbell.

The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy is an American animated television series that aired on CBS from 17 September 1988 to 1 September 1990. Based on the dolls Raggedy Ann and Andy by Johnny Gruelle, the series was produced directly by CBS in honor of the 70th anniversary of the characters. The show was retired in 1990, although CBS aired reruns in August 1991 when Pee-Wee's Playhouse was shelved.

ALF: The Animated Series is an animated cartoon spin-off based on the live-action Sitcom series ALF. It premiered on September 26, 1987 and ran for 26 episodes. ALF Tales was a spinoff from the series that ran on the NBC television network on Saturdays from August 1988 to December 1989. The show had characters from that series play various characters from fairy tales. The fairy tale was usually altered for comedic effect in a manner relational to Fractured Fairy Tales.

Dinosaucers is an animated television series co-produced in the United States and Canada. It was created by DIC Entertainment which has done the overseas animation and in association with Ellipse Programmé and Nelvana. This animated program originally aired in syndication in the USA in 1987 by Coca-Cola Telecommunications. 65 total episodes were made throughout the show's broadcasting, but it only lasted one season during the 1987-1988 television season. The show's first 21 episodes can be purchased individually by episode or as a set from online retailer Amazon.com. There were originally plans by Galoob to release a Dinosaucers toyline, and prototype figures were produced; however, the line was scrapped after the show was canceled. The toys included Stego, Bronto-Thunder, Allo, Bonehead, Plesio, Quackpot, Ankylo, and Genghis Rex.

Ponyland is the home of all your favorite classic Little Ponies. Together, they live a life of games, songs and harmony with allies like the Bushwoolies and Furbobs. But, occasionally, there are problems in Ponyland and the Little Ponies of Paradise Estate must face evil witches, goblins, Stone Backs, Grundles and more!

Three chipmunk brothers, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore are adopted by human, Dave.

Chip and Dale head a small, eccentric group of animal characters who monitor not only the human world, but the animal community as well, solving mysteries wherever they may be. The "Rescue Rangers" take the cases that fall through the cracks.

Maid Marian and her Merry Men is a British children's sitcom created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. It began in 1989 on BBC One and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994. The show was a partially musical comic retelling of the legend of Robin Hood, placing Maid Marian in the role of leader of the Merry Men, and reducing Robin to an incompetent ex-tailor. The programme was much appreciated by children and adults alike, and has been likened to Blackadder, not only for its historical setting and the presence of Tony Robinson, but also for its comic style. It is more surreal than Blackadder, however, and drops even more anachronisms. Many of the show's cast such as Howard Lew Lewis, Forbes Collins, Ramsay Gilderdale and Patsy Byrne had previously appeared in various episodes of Blackadder alongside Robinson. Like many British children's programmes, there is a lot of social commentary sneakily inserted, as well as witty asides about the Royal family, buses running on time, etc. Many of the plots spoofed or referenced film and television shows including other incarnations of Robin Hood in those mediums.

An American animated children's television series inspired by A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

The Trap Door is a claymation-style animated television series, originally shown in the United Kingdom in 1984. The plot revolves around both the daily lives and the misadventures of a group of monsters living in a castle. Although the emphasis was on humour and the show was marketed as a children's programme but also for family entertainment, the show drew much from the genres of horror and dark fantasy. The show has since become a cult favourite and remains one of the most widely recognised kids' shows of the 1980s. Digital children's channel Pop started rerunning the show in 2010.