A lot happened in the year 1987, including the debut of a family-friendly TV sitcom set in San Francisco. The name of the show was Full House, and we’ll be doing a deep dive into this popular comedy over the coming weeks.
But first, to get a sense of the times and trends that helped shape this series, here’s a quick look at the other notable TV shows that premiered in 1987.
Unsolved Mysteries
Unsolved Mysteries is an American mystery documentary television show, created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, documenting cold cases and paranormal phenomena. It became a full-fledged series on October 5, 1988, hosted by Robert Stack. After nine seasons on NBC, the series moved to CBS for its 10th season on November 13, 1997. After adding Virginia Madsen as a co-host during season 11 failed to boost slipping ratings, CBS canceled the series after only a two-season, 12-episode run on June 11, 1999. The series was revived by Lifetime in 2000, with season 12 beginning on July 2, 2001. Unsolved Mysteries aired 103 episodes on Lifetime, before ending on September 20, 2002, an end that coincided with Stack’s illness and eventual death.
After a six-year absence, the series was resurrected by Spike in 2007, and began airing on October 13, 2008. This new, revived version was hosted by Dennis Farina, who mainly tied together repackaged segments from the original episodes. Farina hosted 175 episodes before the series ended again on April 27, 2010. On January 18, 2019, Netflix picked up a reboot of the series which premiered on July 1, 2020. The first season of the reboot was split into two volumes containing six episodes each. In September 2022, Netflix announced that a third volume of new episodes would begin streaming in October 2022.
Eyes on the Prize
Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network, and it also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at his film production company Blackside, and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills, and interviews by participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the title of the folk song “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize”, which is used as the opening theme music in each episode.
The series won a number of Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards, and was nominated for an Oscar.
A total of 14 episodes of Eyes on the Prize were produced in two separate parts. The first part, Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954–1965, chronicles the time period between the United States Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. It consists of six episodes, which premiered on January 21, 1987, and concluded on February 25, 1987. The second part, Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965–1985, chronicles the time period between the national emergence of Malcolm X during 1964 to the 1983 election of Harold Washington as the first African-American mayor of Chicago. It consists of eight episodes, which aired on January 15, 1990 and ended on March 5, 1990.
Amerika
Amerika is an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987 on ABC. The miniseries inspired a novelization entitled Amerika: The Triumph of the American Spirit. Amerika starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the United States after a bloodless takeover engineered by the Soviet Union. Not wanting to depict the actual takeover, ABC Entertainment president, Brandon Stoddard, set the miniseries ten years after the event, focusing on the demoralized U.S. people a decade after the Soviet conquest. The intent, he later explained, was to explore the U.S. spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet coup.
Described in promotional materials as “the most ambitious American miniseries ever created”, Amerika aired for 14 and a half hours (including commercials) over seven nights and reportedly cost $40 million to produce. The miniseries was filmed in the Golden Horseshoe and southwestern Ontario Canadian cities of Toronto, London, and Hamilton, as well as various locations in Nebraska – most notably the small town of Tecumseh, which served as “Milford”, the fictional setting for most of the series. Donald Wrye was the executive producer, director, and writer of Amerika, while composer Basil Poledouris scored the miniseries, ultimately recording (with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra) eight hours of music – the equivalent of four feature films.
The Bold and the Beautiful
The Bold and the Beautiful (often referred to as B&B) is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. It premiered as a sister show to the Bells’ other soap opera The Young and the Restless; several characters from each of the two shows have crossed over to the other since the early 1990s. Set in Los Angeles, California, the show centers upon the Forrester family and their haute couture business.
The program features an ensemble cast, headed by its longest-serving actors John McCook as Eric Forrester and Katherine Kelly Lang as Brooke Logan. Since its premiere, the show has become the most-watched soap in the world, with an audience of an estimated 26.2 million viewers. As of 2010, it continued to hold on to the second-place position in weekly Nielsen Ratings for daytime dramas. The Bold and the Beautiful has also won 77 Daytime Emmy Awards, including three for Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, in 2009, 2010, as well as 2011.
On September 7, 2011, the series switched to high-definition television, making it the second-to-last American soap to make the switch, at the time. B&B was the last American soap opera to make the transition due to the cancellation of ABC’s One Life to Live before it returned along with All My Children on April 29, 2013. It is the youngest airing daytime soap opera in the United States, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary on March 23, 2017. The serial aired its 8,000th episode on January 4, 2019. Currently, the series has been renewed by CBS to run through the 2023–2024 television season.
Married… with Children
Married… with Children is an American television sitcom created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt for Fox. Originally broadcast from April 5, 1987 to June 9, 1997, it is the longest-lasting live-action sitcom that aired on Fox. Married… with Children was the first series to be broadcast in the primetime slot of the then-new fourth network, Fox. In addition to the show’s original run, one episode that was not aired after filming on January 6, 1989, was aired on FX on June 18, 2002, five years after the series’ conclusion.
The show follows the Chicago lives of Al Bundy, a once-glorious high school football player turned hard-luck women’s shoe salesman; his lazy wife, Peggy; their pretty and dim-witted daughter, Kelly; and their smart-aleck son, Bud. The show also prominently features their neighbors, the stuffy Steve and Marcy Rhoades, both of whom Al finds somewhat annoying, although the feeling is mutual from the Rhoades; and later, Marcy’s second husband Jefferson D’Arcy, a white-collar criminal who becomes her “trophy husband” and Al’s sidekick.
The series is one of the longest running sitcoms in television history, comprising eleven seasons with 259 episodes during its run. Its theme song is “Love and Marriage” by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town.
In 2008, the show made the top 100 on Entertainment Weekly’s “New TV Classics” list, placing number 94. In May 2022, it was announced that an animated revival of the series was currently in the works.
The Tracey Ullman Show
The Tracey Ullman Show is an American television variety show starring Tracey Ullman. It debuted as the network’s second original primetime series to air following Married… with Children, and ran until May 26, 1990. The show was produced by Gracie Films. The show blended sketch comedy with musical numbers and dance routines, choreographed by Paula Abdul, along with animated shorts. The format was conceived by creator and executive producer James L. Brooks, who was looking to showcase the show’s multi talented star. Brooks likened the show to producing three pilots a week. Ullman was the first British woman to be offered her own television sketch show in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
The show is also known for producing a series of shorts featuring the Simpson family, which was later adapted into the longest-running American scripted primetime television series, The Simpsons. The Tracey Ullman Show was the first Fox primetime show to win an Emmy Award, winning a total of 10 over its run.
Rolling Stone ranked The Tracey Ullman Show as the 25th-best sketch comedy show in its “40 Greatest Sketch-Comedy TV Shows of All Time” list.
21 Jump Street
21 Jump Street is an American police procedural television series that aired on the Fox network and in first run syndication from April 12, 1987, to April 27, 1991, with a total of 103 episodes. The series focuses on a squad of youthful-looking undercover police officers investigating crimes in high schools, colleges, and other teenage venues. It was originally going to be titled Jump Street Chapel, after the deconsecrated church building in which the unit has its headquarters, but was changed at Fox’s request so as not to mislead viewers into thinking it was a religious program.
Created by Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell, the series was produced by Patrick Hasburgh Productions and Stephen J. Cannell Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television. Executive Producers included Hasburgh, Cannell, Steve Beers and Bill Nuss. The show was an early hit for the fledgling Fox network, and was created to attract a younger audience. The final season aired in first-run syndication mainly on local Fox affiliates. It was later rerun on the FX cable network from 1996 to 1998.
The series provided a spark to Johnny Depp’s nascent acting career, garnering him national recognition as a teen idol. Depp found this status irritating, but he continued on the series under his contract and was paid $45,000 per episode. Eventually he was released from his contract after the fourth season.
A spin-off series, Booker, was produced for the character of Dennis Booker (Richard Grieco); it ran only one season, from September 24, 1989, to May 6, 1990.
A film adaptation directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller was released on March 16, 2012. The film is set in the same continuity as the series, with Johnny Depp, Holly Robinson and Peter DeLuise reprising their characters in cameo appearances. Richard Grieco and Dustin Nguyen also have cameos in the 2014 film sequel 22 Jump Street.
Good Morning, Miss Bliss
Good Morning, Miss Bliss (also retroactively known as Saved by the Bell: The Junior High Years) is an American teen sitcom that aired on the Disney Channel from 1988 to 1989 (and later in syndication as part of the Saved by the Bell rerun package), starring Hayley Mills as a teacher at John F. Kennedy Junior High School in Indianapolis, Indiana. After one season on the air on the Disney Channel, the show was retooled as Saved by the Bell, which aired on NBC. The show was the first program produced by a Big Three network for cable television – in this case, NBC produced it for the Disney Channel.
Showtime at the Apollo
Showtime at the Apollo (formerly It’s Showtime at the Apollo and Apollo Live) is an American variety show that first aired in syndication from September 12, 1987 to May 24, 2008. In 2018, the series returned on Fox with Steve Harvey hosting. Filmed at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, the show features live performances from both professional and up-and-coming artists, and also features the Amateur Night competition. In many cities such as New York (where it aired on WNBC), it often aired after Saturday Night Live during the late Saturday night/early Sunday morning hours, and was often paired with the similarly-syndicated Soul Train. A live non-televised version of the show takes place every Wednesday (which is the original Apollo Amateur Night competition that has been running for over seventy years), with the taped version of the show for television being recorded in advance on other nights for later airing.
Wiseguy
Wiseguy is an American crime drama television series that aired on CBS until December 8, 1990, for a total of 75 episodes over four seasons. The series was produced by Stephen J. Cannell and was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, to avoid the higher studio costs associated with filming in Los Angeles.
Wiseguy originally starred Ken Wahl as Vinnie Terranova, a Brooklyn native and Fordham University graduate who was a deep cover operative for the FBI under the supervision of senior agent Frank McPike, played by Jonathan Banks. The primary cast was rounded out by Jim Byrnes, who played an information operative known as Lifeguard (real name Daniel Burroughs) who assisted Vinnie in the field.
After the third season, Wahl departed from the series. Steven Bauer was brought in to replace Wahl as the lead, with Cecil Hoffman joining as a fourth regular cast member alongside Bauer and the returning Banks and Byrnes. Wiseguy ended its run midway through the 1990–1991 television season with three produced episodes left unaired.
DuckTales
DuckTales is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel for a total of 100 episodes over four seasons, with its final episode airing on November 28, 1990. Based upon Uncle Scrooge and other Duck universe comic books created by Carl Barks, the show follows Scrooge McDuck, his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, and close friends of the group, on various adventures, most of which either involve seeking out treasure or thwarting the efforts of villains seeking to steal Scrooge’s fortune or his Number One Dime.
DuckTales has inspired video games, merchandise, and comic books, along with an animated theatrical spin-off film entitled DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, that was released to theaters across the United States on August 3, 1990. The series is notable for being the first Disney cartoon to be produced for weekday syndication, with its success paving the way for future Disney cartoons, such as Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin, creating the syndication block The Disney Afternoon. The show’s popular theme song was written by Mark Mueller. Also, Launchpad McQuack later returned to appear in another Disney animated series, becoming a main character in Darkwing Duck.
In February 2015, Disney XD announced the revival of the show, with the intention of rebooting the series. The rebooted series premiered on August 12, 2017 and concluded on March 15, 2021.
A Different World
A Different World is an American sitcom television series and a spin-off of The Cosby Show. It aired for six seasons until July 9, 1993. The series originally centered on Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college in Virginia. It was inspired by student life at historically black colleges and universities. After Bonet’s departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belle Whitley Gilbert-Wayne (Jasmine Guy) and math whiz Dwayne Cleophus Wayne (Kadeem Hardison).
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is an American fantasy-drama television series that aired on CBS until August 4, 1990. Creator Ron Koslow’s updated version of the fairy tale has a double focus: the relationship between Vincent (Ron Perlman), a mythic, noble man-beast, and Catherine (Linda Hamilton), a savvy Assistant District Attorney in New York, and a secret utopian community of social outcasts living in a subterranean sanctuary. Through an empathetic bond, Vincent senses Catherine’s emotions, and becomes her guardian.
ALF: The Animated Series
ALF: The Animated Series (also known as ALF on Melmac) is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series that aired on NBC for 26 episodes until January 7, 1989.
ALF: The Animated Series was a prequel and animated spinoff of the primetime series ALF, which had also aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990. Paul Fusco, the creator and puppeteer of ALF in the live-action series, was the only cast member to reprise his role in voice form; none of the human characters from the primetime ALF appeared in the animated series, due to the show’s premise revolving around ALF (Gordon Shumway) traveling to various places on his home-world of Melmac. ALF Tales was a spin-off from the series that also ran on NBC on Saturdays from September, 1988 to December, 1989. The two ALF animated series ran concurrently during the 1988–89 season as the ALF & ALF Tales Hour.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It originally aired until May 23, 1994, in syndication, spanning 178 episodes over seven seasons. The third series in the Star Trek franchise, it was inspired by Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the latter third of the 24th century, when Earth is part of the United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of a Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), in its exploration of the Alpha quadrant in the Milky Way galaxy.
In the 1980s, Roddenberry—who was responsible for the original Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–1974), and the first of a series of films—was tasked by Paramount Pictures with creating a new series in the franchise. He decided to set it a century after the events of his original series. The Next Generation featured a new crew: Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as William Riker, Brent Spiner as Data, Michael Dorn as Worf, LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, Denise Crosby as Tasha Yar, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, and a new Enterprise.
Roddenberry, Maurice Hurley, Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor served as executive producers at various times throughout its production. The series was broadcast in first-run syndication with dates and times varying among individual television stations. Stewart’s voice-over introduction during each episode’s opening credits stated the starship’s purpose:
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.”
The show was very popular, reaching almost 12 million viewers in its 5th season, with the series finale in 1994 watched by over 30 million viewers. Due to its success, Paramount commissioned Rick Berman and Michael Piller to create a fourth series in the franchise, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which launched in 1993. The characters from The Next Generation returned in four films: Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002), and in the television series Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023). The series is also the setting of numerous novels, comic books, and video games. It received many accolades, including 19 Emmy Awards, two Hugo Awards, five Saturn Awards, and a Peabody Award.
Thirtysomething
Thirtysomething is an American drama television series created by Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz for United Artists Television (under MGM/UA Television) and aired on ABC until May 28, 1991. It focuses on a group of baby boomers in their thirties who live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and how they handle the lifestyle that dominated American culture during the 1980s given their involvement in the early 1970s counterculture as young adults. It lasted four seasons. It was canceled in May 1991 because the ratings had dropped. Zwick and Herskovitz moved on to other projects. The series won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, out of 41 nominations, and two Golden Globe Awards.
On January 8, 2020, ABC confirmed that a television pilot, which would serve as a sequel to the series, had been ordered. The pilot was never filmed, but was set to be directed by Zwick, written by Zwick and Herskovitz, and have four members of the original cast (Olin, Harris, Busfield and Wettig) reprising their roles. In June 2020, ABC passed on the series.
Friday the 13th: The Series
Friday the 13th: The Series is a fantasy horror television series that ran for three seasons, until May 26, 1990, in first-run syndication. The series follows Micki and Ryan, cousins who inherit an antiques store; after selling all the antiques, they learn from Jack Marshak that the items are cursed. The trio then work together to recover the objects and return them to the safety of the shop’s vault.
Originally, the series was to be titled The 13th Hour, but producer Frank Mancuso Jr. thought this would turn away viewers and instead took the name Friday the 13th to deliberately draw in audiences. Despite this title, the series has no story connections to the film series of the same title, as Jason Voorhees does not make an appearance, nor does any character connected to the films.
The series and the films have several cast and crew ties, however. The show’s producer, Frank Mancuso Jr., was producer of the film series from Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) until the final installment distributed by Paramount (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan in 1989, a year before the TV series ended). One of the show’s stars, John D. LeMay, went on to star in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, guest star John Shepherd played Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning, and episode director David Cronenberg appeared in Jason X. Fred Mollin, Rob Hedden, and Tom McLoughlin worked behind the scenes of both series.
CBS This Morning
CBS This Morning (CTM) is an American morning television program that aired on CBS until October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program aired from Monday through Saturday. It aired live from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in the Eastern Time Zone. On weekdays, it aired on a tape-delay in the Central and Mountain Time Zones; stations in the Pacific, Alaska and Hawaii Time Zones received an updated feed with a specialized opening and updated live reports. Stations outside the Eastern Time Zone carried the Saturday broadcast at varied times. It was the tenth distinct morning news-features program format that CBS has aired since 1954, having replaced The Early Show on January 9, 2012.
The program emphasized general national and international news stories and in-depth reports throughout each edition, although it also included live in-studio and pre-taped interviews. The format was chosen as an alternative to the soft media and lifestyle-driven formats of competitors Today and Good Morning America following the first hour or half-hour of those broadcasts, in an attempt to give the program a competitive edge with its infotainment format. (CBS has historically placed a distant third in the ratings among the network weekday morning shows.)
On August 31, 2021, CBS announced that the weekday program would be replaced with the reformatted CBS Mornings effective September 7, while the Saturday edition of CTM was renamed CBS Saturday Morning on September 18, 2021, completing the transition.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (initially known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some European countries) is an American animated television series produced by Fred Wolf Films, and based on the comic book characters created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Set in New York City, the series follows the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their allies as they battle the Shredder, Krang, and numerous other villains and criminals. The property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comics, to make it more suitable for children and the family.
The pilot was shown during the week of December 14, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries, and the show began its full-time run on October 1, 1988. The series ran until November 2, 1996, when it aired its final episode. The show was the first television appearance of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and helped launch the characters into mainstream popularity, becoming one of the most popular animated series in television history. Action figures, breakfast cereals, plush toys, and other merchandise featuring the characters appeared on the market during the late-1980s and early-1990s, and became top-sellers worldwide. By 1990, the series was being shown daily on more than 125 television stations.
Characters from the show have been included in crossovers with later entries of the franchise, including the 2009 film Turtles Forever and cameos in the 2012 TV series.
SCREEN TIME WITH SAM 