Items11The creator’s order
  1. 1Magnum, P.I. (1980)Magnum, P.I. (1980) 7.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Dec 11, 1980Tom Selleck plays a former Navy SEAL turned private investigator who lives in the guesthouse of a Hawaiian estate, with free use of a Ferrari 308 GTS and a caretaker, John Hillerman's Higgins, who disapproves of all of it. It is a detective show on paper, but the Oahu scenery, T.C.'s charter…0
  2. 2The Greatest American Hero (1981)The Greatest American Hero (1981) 7.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 18, 1981A high school teacher is handed a superhero suit by aliens and promptly loses the instruction book, so he has to learn its powers by trial and error, and nearly every flight is a crash waiting to happen. William Katt plays Ralph Hinkley as a decent guy out of his depth, and Robert Culp steals…0
  3. 3The Fall Guy (1981)The Fall Guy (1981) 7.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 4, 1981Lee Majors is Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter, which gives every episode an excuse to end with his big GMC pickup flying off something. Heather Thomas plays fellow stunt performer Jody Banks, and Majors sings the theme himself, "Unknown Stuntman," a cheerful…0
  4. 4Knight Rider (1982)Knight Rider (1982) 7.0/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 26, 1982The car is the star, and the show knows it. KITT, a customized 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that talks in William Daniels's dry, fussy voice, turns David Hasselhoff's Michael Knight into half of a double act. Glen A. Larson's formula sets early: a town with a problem, a villain with a truck, a…0
  5. 5Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982)Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982) 8.0/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 22, 1982Arriving the year after Raiders of the Lost Ark, Donald P. Bellisario's series is the closest TV came to that film's pulp fun: 1938, a South Pacific backwater, and Stephen Collins as Jake Cutter, an ex-Flying Tigers pilot flying a red and white Grumman Goose seaplane for whoever is paying. His…0
  6. 6The A-Team (1983)The A-Team (1983) 7.5/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 23, 1983Four ex-Army special forces men, on the run after being convicted "for a crime they didn't commit," help a different underdog every week, and most episodes end with them improvising weapons and vehicles out of whatever parts are lying around. Hannibal plans, Face talks, B.A. Baracus drives the 1983…0
  7. 7Hardcastle and McCormick (1983)Hardcastle and McCormick (1983) 6.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 18, 1983A judge on the verge of retirement finds files on 200 people who escaped conviction on legal technicalities, and recruits an ex-con race driver to help him bring them in. Brian Keith's crusty Judge Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly's Mark "Skid" McCormick bicker like father and son, and that…0
  8. 8Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983)Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) 7.0/10 on IMDbFirst aired Oct 3, 1983A spy being chased hands a package to a divorced mom of two and tells her to give it to the man in the red hat. Trouble is, the train is full of men in red fezzes. That opening sets the tone: Kate Jackson's Amanda King ends up working for the Agency alongside Bruce Boxleitner's Lee Stetson, while…0
  9. 9Airwolf (1984)Airwolf (1984) 6.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Jan 22, 1984Jan-Michael Vincent plays Stringfellow Hawke, a reclusive former test pilot who keeps an advanced attack helicopter hidden from the agency that built it until they find his brother, St. John, missing since the Vietnam War. Ernest Borgnine is his warm, grizzled partner. The flying, done with a…0
  10. 10MacGyver (1985)MacGyver (1985) 7.6/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 29, 1985The hero who would rather build his way out than shoot his way out. Richard Dean Anderson's Angus MacGyver, a troubleshooter for the Phoenix Foundation, avoids firearms and gets out of trouble with a Swiss Army knife, duct tape and whatever is lying around. The improvised fixes are the pleasure,…0