Fun trivia bit: It also starred Robert Englund, better known as Freddy Krueger, the same year he appeared in the first A Nightmare on Elm Street and became a horror icon.- Jim Vorel Louis called it “ Dynasty with lizard makeup and laser guns.” It was also plagued by cast issues-Michael Ironside straight-up walked out on the program during its first and only season. Expanded into a full series, however, the show was more like a sci-fi soap opera with lizard people: The Post Dispatch in St. The story of Earth being invaded by friendly-looking “Visitors” who actually turn out to be man-eating reptile people was pure 1950s sci-fi claptrap, simply updated with ’80s fashion, but unfolding over the course of a two-night miniseries, it was cheesy good fun. V in the 1980s is a great example of a concept that worked well as a miniseries but couldn’t support itself as a full-on TV show. Stars: Marc Singer, Faye Grant, Jane Badley, Michael Ironside, Robert Englund

Let us know your favorite shows of the 1980s in the comments section below (besides, of course, Too Many Cooks). 31, 1989, so some great ’70s shows that lasted into the ’80s fell further down the list, while The Simpsons, which we named The Best TV Show of the 1990s, didn’t make the cut during the 1980s with only one Christmas special to its name. We were judging each series on its content between Jan. We’ve dug back into the crazy decade, to find the 80 Best TV Shows of the 1980s. We’re celebrating the best of ’80s TV all week here at Paste. Big hair, loud colors and very special episodes ruled the day, as TV dared to talk about issues that had always been taboo.

Nostalgia for bygone eras gave me a connection to the ’50s with Happy Days and the ’60s with Wonder Years, but mostly shows captured the 1980s in all of its neon glory. It was a golden age for sitcoms and for big, silly action-adventures where the good guys always won-plenty to distract us from the last vestiges of the Cold War and a pair of nuclear arsenals that could do a decent imitation of the Death Star. This was the decade of the VCR, but you still didn’t make plans on Thursday nights. To say that I was raised by 1980s TV is unfair to my wonderful parents, but I certainly spent as much time with the Keatons, the Huxtables, the Seavers, the 4077th and the Cheers gang as I did around my own kitchen table.

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