MetaChat - Who are your two favourite characters from 80's sitcoms?

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

21 March 2008

Who are your two favourite characters from 80's sitcoms? →[More:]I was a bit young back then, so it wasn't a surprise that I found Rose Nylund and Balki Bartokomous to be the funniest.

Especially Balki--that guy could have me on the floor laughing in almost every scene!

post by: hadjiboy at: 07:30 | 32 comments

YouTube Videos

posted by hadjiboy 21 March | 07:32

I thought that Perfect Strangers was actually a pretty good show. They were like the Lucy and Ethel of the 80s...very physical, great timing, great chemistry, lots of sight gags.

I think I pretty much blocked out the entire decade because everything was so bad....tv, movies, fashion, hair, music. At least, right now (pre-coffee), I can't recall anything that I liked. Except my wedding. That was pretty good.

posted by iconomy 21 March | 08:05

I was initially thinking about Mork and Mindy cause that's all I could remember, but just discovered it was in 1978. I guess, like iconomy, I've blocked out the 80's ...

Yes, Perfect Strangers was good, I'd forgotten about it.

posted by mightshould 21 March | 08:15

The only show I remember watching in the 80s was Sledge Hammer. Huh.

posted by gaspode 21 March | 08:19

I found this list of 80s tv shows which pretty much reinforces my thoughts that tv pretty much sucked. Punky Brewster, ALF, Charles in Charge.... wowsa. I do see Night Court on that list, which was pretty palatable. Who's The Boss....hah. I actually watched that. "Yo Angerla!"

The absolute worst show of the 80s was Small Wonder. That's pretty much fact. Vicki the Robot...holy hell. I feel sick just thinking about it.

Another show I recall which doesn't even seem to be on the list (the list compiler may have tried to block it from his mind) is Mr. Belvedere. Oh. My. God. So bad. So very very bad.

hadjiboy, you need to find all of these on Youtube and experience the horror for yourself ;)

posted by iconomy 21 March | 08:27

Ah, now I see it. I was watching British tv, for the most part.

posted by gaspode 21 March | 08:30

Data: Star Trek TNG
Cooter: Dukes of Hazard.

posted by danostuporstar 21 March | 08:32

There was a period in the early 80s where sitcoms almost entirely disappeared from American primetime schedules (81-85, more or less). Consequently, my two favorite 80s sitcom characters are actually from the 70s, although they were still making new episodes into the 80s: Fish and Yamana from Barney Miller.

posted by deadcowdan 21 March | 08:33

Oh, 80s sitcoms. Oh geez. Yeah, not possible.

posted by danostuporstar 21 March | 08:36

So my two favorites end up being Tom Hanks' Kip/Buffy character in Bosom Buddies and Balki from Perfect Strangers.

there was a character named Cooter? Haaahah.

posted by iconomy 21 March | 08:36

I remember Punky Brewster being an amazing show. Of course, I was 6 at the time...

I love to watch re-runs of The Cosby Show. Wasn't Red Dwarf sort of a sit-com, which orignially aired in 1988? But yeah, I can't say any particular character from those shows as being very good.

posted by muddgirl 21 March | 08:42

Newhart is on that list. That was funny. I guess I watched some Cheers and Black Adder and Simpsons. Notable is the lack of sympathetic characters, so I'd say Lisa from the Simpsons. I think those were all later in the eighties, so what deadclown said.

posted by rainbaby 21 March | 09:01

I was going to say that I didn't watch too much TV in the eighties but then I remembered Taxi and Cheers. So how about Jim Ignatowski from Taxi and Woody from Cheers?

posted by octothorpe 21 March | 09:10

iconomy, hah! Belvedere, Punky Brewster, Small Wonder--they were all on my viewing list back then. Not to mention What's Happening, 227, Gimme' a Break, Who's the Boss, The Cosby Show, It's a Different World etc, etc.

gaspode, did you also watch MacGyver? I bet you watched MacGyver if you watched Sledge Hammer:)

posted by hadjiboy 21 March | 09:26

Everybody from Seinfeld.

posted by chewatadistance 21 March | 09:33

I remember being hooked on Square Pegs and Max Headroom, myself. (Yes, there was a time when Sarah Jessica Parker was cast as an unattractive geek.)

posted by elizard 21 March | 09:33

The Borg

The house painter on Murphy Brown

Selma Diamond, on Night Court

posted by danf 21 March | 09:46

But MacGyver wasn't a sitcom, hadjiboy. I did watch it, though. But Taxi, that's a good one.

posted by gaspode 21 March | 09:48

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by Atom Eyes 21 March | 09:51

Winnie Goodwin from Free Spirit. *had huge crush on Corinne Bohrer for the better part of a decade*

posted by Eideteker 21 March | 10:28

Was The Wonder Years considered a sitcom? I don't know. I loved that show. The kid and the girl he pined for -- Winnie.

I liked Bill Cosby in The Cosby Show. The wife too, what is her character's name? Hmmm...

Darlene from Roseanne. Was Roseanne in the eighties?

Peggy from Married With Children.

posted by LoriFLA 21 March | 11:27

LoriFLA, her name was Clare. And i loved that show!

posted by ramix 21 March | 12:43

Jo from The Facts of Life and Zack Morris from the NBC version of Saved by the Bell. Yeah, yeah, I know...

posted by TrishaLynn 21 March | 13:34

Max Headroom (Matt Frewer).
Lister in Red Dwarf.
Everyone in The Young Ones (including Alexei Sayle).

posted by Zack_Replica 21 March | 13:49

I used to like that show with Alex Keaton (Michael Jay Fox) -- Family Ties?

posted by Claudia_SF 21 March | 15:04

Alex P Keaton.

posted by small_ruminant 21 March | 15:21

Though not a sitcom, I always dug Thomas Magnum. It seemed he could never really believe just how bad his luck was, accepting, of course, the Ferrari (and the women that seemed to just fall into it accidentally) and the sprawling ocean-side estate with a hands-off landlord.

Higgins was a bit of a spoil-sport though.

posted by la grande chaleur 21 March | 15:28

Plus he looked good in those horrible Hawaiian shirts.

posted by iconomy 21 March | 15:29

Thanks for reminding me of Eldin (the painter) on Murphy Brown.

WKRP started in the 70s and ended in the 80s, but I am a Les Nessman lover (and when I worked for a company that made trophies, I got a custom Silver Sow Award made).

I have to go with Norm (NORM!) from Cheers, Bull from Night Court, Lauren (the chubby one) on Square Pegs, and what the heck is wrong with ALF? ALF is my homeboy!

posted by wendell 21 March | 16:24

Sledge Hammer, by far. What a great show. Also, I had a crush on the best-friend character in Square Pegs.

posted by jtron 21 March | 17:05

≡ Click to see image ≡
I mean, come on...

posted by jonmc 21 March | 20:00

Yeah, I'm late, but I'm gonna have to go with the ENTIRE cast of WKRP. Man, I loved that show. And Reverend Jim from Taxi.

posted by richat 22 March | 14:47

← Amazon oddities || Bunny! OMG! →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN