My apologies, I’d have sworn I saw a Richard Moll obit a while back.
I would love to see him back as well.
I’m trying to find the 30 Rock episode with the Night Court cast, but I guess it’s on Netflix. It’s also the episode with Jennifer Aniston in it. It was a great episode.
Shows you should watch immediately: Night Court, Barney Miller, Taxi, Cheers (until Kirstie Alley shows up). Am I missing any? Maybe Welcome Back, Kotter? I never liked it as well. Maybe Married, With Children. Amazing social commentary on the times. Oh, also WKRP in Cincinnati.
Cheers we definitely got, but, yeah, Taxi is definitely one of the others on that list. Also never seen Welcome Back Kotter, though I don’t feel a pressing need to. Barney Miller I’ve never even heard of.
Mash, also.
If you are looking for just pop-culture stuff:
- Magnum PI
- Dukes of Hazard
- Family Ties
- Friends
I would say Cosby show, but that could be painful to watch knowing what he is really like.
Barney Miller was awesome.
We got all of those. There are just some weird gaps, or quasi gaps - for instance, Seinfeld was never big over here because it aired on BBC Two (niche public sector channel) at 11pm or later - in the same slot as The Larry Sanders Show. So certain shows that were huge, or hugely influential, in the US made no impact over here (or perhaps more accurately on me). Same as how Partridge is virtually unknown in the US. Let alone the actually popular comedies like Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
Barney Miller was a work place comedy based around a police precinct. It starred Hal Linden and was really good. It also had the eternal Abe Vigoda.
I like Family Ties, largely for the character of Alex P. Keaton, who is perfectly of his time (the Reagan '80s). Its writing isn’t up to the best of Cheers or Taxi, though, to be sure.
My sitcom memory brain is racing but I think you tagged most of the best ones of the era.
I can’t get over the creepy feeling when re-watching old reruns. There are some exceptions, but they usually aired before I was alive so I have no memories of my own of the time period.
It’s not a sitcom, but I am going to throw out a recommendation for LA Law. In particular Larry Drake’s character, Benny.
Also got plenty of LA Law. In fact, that and Cagney & Lacey are the earliest US shows I can remember watching “live” apart from Sesame Street and stuff on Nickelodeon that I saw when visiting family in the US.
Clearly it’s Judge Dan Fielding on the bench now.
I guess someone is playing Harry’s daughter as the Judge. But having Dan as the Judge was my first guess,
I really hope a central plot thing is Dan still stuck in the crappy job.
I was a huge Soap fan back in the day.
Forgot about Soap. Never really got into it but I remember seeing Billy Crystal and Katherine Helmond on the tube from time to time.
Some perhaps slightly lesser known sitcoms I sometimes watched as a kid:
Kate & Allie
Mr. Belvedere
Sledge Hammer
I Married Dora
227
Amen!
A Different World
I watched so much fucking TV as a kid, it amazes me I had time to play so many fucking videogames.
Hell yeah Sledge Hammer!
Night Court is the first show I remember having the active thought “I love this show and can’t wait for it to be on again”, even as a little kid I couldn’t wait for a new episode to air. My first “appointment TV” show. I wonder if it holds up?
EDIT: Just remembered a bit that I remember slaying me when I was a kid, when Dan is introducing himself to… I want to say some sort of tribesman? I have no idea. He says, “Hi, my name is Dan. Dan Fielding” and the guy replies, “Hello Dan Dan Fielding!”
Brent Spiner on Night Court. His first appearance, because this gag was so funny they kept bringing them back for more, and it got even more riotous.
