’80s TV Shows That Deserve A Reboot

TV shows from the ’80s just hit differently. The electric era encouraged experimentation, allowing for all kinds of genre series to hit the networks and delight audiences. The mere fact we continue to talk about many of these shows is testament to how revolutionary they were — not just for their time, but for television overall.

Now, we have seen several of them — “Magnum, P.I.,” “Matlock,” “MacGyver,” and more — resuscitated for modern times, but there are others that deserve the same treatment. And, yeah, more than a few have crossed over into the film domain, but we love our TV shows on TV. There’s nothing quite like sitting down on your couch, readying yourself for your favorite TV show and knowing there are several episodes to come.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the ’80s TV shows that deserve a reboot. Which series would you add to the list?

From 1984 to 1996, Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher hooked viewers as the amateur sleuth solving the most dastardly crimes in Cabot Cove, Maine. In “Murder, She Wrote,” every episode sees Jessica using street smarts and her experience as a mystery author to put together the puzzle pieces that others seemingly miss. Across 12 seasons, Jessica foils countless baddies and does the authorities’ jobs for them, serving as the likely inspiration to Richard Osman’s “The Thursday Murder Club.”

In the 2010s, NBC planned a reboot of “Murder, She Wrote,” starring Octavia Spencer, but this disappeared into the ether of announcements never realized. In July 2025, Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that a “Murder, She Wrote” film is happening, with Curtis playing the role of Jessica.

While a movie with Curtis as Jessica should provide oodles of fun, “Murder, She Wrote” works best as a TV show. It’s about the innovative mysteries that need to be solved on a weekly basis, because a one-off case doesn’t show the charm and guile of Jessica Fletcher. If someone could convince Curtis to play the character in a TV show, rather than a film, that would be swell.

In many ways, “Knight Rider” proved to be ahead of its time. Think about it: After a devastating injury, Detective Michael Long (David Hasselhoff) undergoes plastic surgery and becomes Michael Knight. He joins a program to fight crime and gets paired with KITT, a heavily modified vehicle enhanced by artificial intelligence and a whole bunch of cool gadgets. It’s literally the dream of everyone asking ChatGPT to rewrite their work emails for them nowadays!

From 1982 to 1986, “Knight Rider” turned into a pop culture sensation. It’s seen numerous sequels, spin-offs, and reboot attempts, but if we’re being completely honest here, none of them have had the same oomph as the original show. It’s a series that’s in need of an above-average reboot.

While the “Cobra Kai” creators are busy working on a “Knight Rider” movie, as per The Hollywood Reporter, it’s once again a case of a property being designed for the wrong medium. You want to experience the adventures of Michael and KITT across a season (okay, more than just one), since that offers a lot more character development for both the human and AI character, as well as the expected banter between the pair. Maybe if the film is successful, it could lead to a spin-off in the TV or streaming world — just as long as the iconic, bass-heavy theme song stays intact.

To say there aren’t many shows like “Moonlighting” nowadays would be putting it lightly. The comedy drama sees former model and businesswoman Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) run the Blue Moon Detective Agency along with the sarcastic detective David Addison (Bruce Willis). They’re an odd pairing and clash over methods, but there’s a sizzling will-they-won’t-they romantic energy developing between Maddie and David that keeps the audience on their toes, wondering when the inevitable will happen. Spoiler alert: It does.

The show ran for five seasons between 1985 and 1989 before Willis yippee-ki-yayed himself to global superstardom in “Die Hard.” Surprisingly, “Moonlighting” isn’t a series that anyone has tried to remake since it ended. It won a number of awards and proved popular in its heyday — and its concept isn’t exclusively tied to the ’80s — so why not take the gamble? Maybe it’s because of the on-screen chemistry between Shepherd and Willis. Even though they were TV co-stars who had an infamous feud behind the scenes, it would be difficult to replicate that once-in-a-lifetime synergy. It’s worth trying, though, right?

“The Golden Girls” holds a special place in the history of the sitcom genre. From 1985 to 1992, audiences laughed until they snorted watching the escapades of the Fab Four — Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan), Rose Nylund (Betty White), Dorothy Zbornak (Bea Arthur), and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty) — who navigated their later years as single women and friends. Sassy and sharp, “The Golden Girls” never failed to elicit chuckles across seven seasons. Also, who can ever forget the incredible theme song, Cynthia Free’s “Thank You for Being a Friend”? Sing it in the shower the next time you feel lonely, because it brightens up any day.

The big question is, can “The Golden Girls” work today? Absolutely. Many older citizens find themselves alone after being widowed or divorced, but they crave community and don’t know how to go about creating it. A show like “The Golden Girls” demonstrates that it’s never too late to start a new chapter in life, with new friends and new adventures.

Of course, you do wonder if a reboot of this popular ’80s TV show will work without the four magnetic personalities that made it such a hit in the first place. Unquestionably, there are a number of older Hollywood actors who would prove that it can.

For five seasons, John “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard), B. A. Baracus (Mr. T), “Howling Mad” Murdock (Dwight Schultz), and Templeton “Face” Peck (Dirk Benedict) blended action and comedy as the irrepressible A-Team. These mercs with a heart were an unconventional motley crew, but they saved the day in “The A-Team,” which ran from 1983 to 1987.

The team received a reboot in the form of a 2010 feature film; it was directed by Joe Carnahan and starred Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, Sharlto Copley, and Quinton Jackson. However, the movie failed to spark a renewed interest in the ’80s action icons. There were talks about a reboot show in the mid-2010s, but this effort wandered off into the big black hole of failed-to-launch productions.

Yet, it’s surprising that a streaming service like Prime Video hasn’t jumped at the chance to bring “The A-Team” to its platform. Considering the popularity of military-themed shows like “The Terminal List” and “Reacher,” Hannibal, Face, B. A., and Murdock would be right at home there. Of course, it’ll require a showrunner, cast, and crew that strikes the appropriate balance between action and comedy, since “The A-Team” was never an overly violent nor outright comedic series to begin with. It’s more about the group of characters and the chemistry they have together on screen that keeps the viewer watching and wanting more.

If you think about it, Gordon Shumway and Superman share a similar origin story. Their home planets are destroyed, and they arrive on Earth, being taken in by a human family as they try to fit into this new world. Unlike Kal-El, Gordon — who comes to be known by the name of ALF — loves to misbehave, getting into all kinds of trouble and wanting to eat cats, including the Tanners’ pet feline, Lucky.

Running for four seasons between 1986 and 1990, “ALF” delivered side-splitting comedy, especially as ALF’s intergalactic traits put him at odds with Earth’s norms and expectations. Yet, there was a lovable quality to the sitcom, too, as he began to feel at home and created a new family with the Tanners.

The series received animated spin-offs and a talk show à la Johnny Carson. There were also plans for an “ALF” reboot TV show in 2018, but that exploded faster than a rocket ship entering the Earth’s atmosphere. It would be interesting to see an “ALF” reboot on a streaming service in the modern era, though. Imagine the lighthearted humor packaged in a family sitcom setup, complete with the weird alien puppet with a jelly roll-looking nose. Heck, maybe even set it in the ’80s for nostalgic value, too.

Before “Friends,” there was another hilarious sitcom about a group of pals living in an apartment block: “227.” The story takes place at 227 Lexington Place in Washington, D.C., as housewife Mary Jenkins (Marla Gibbs) gets up to all sorts of hijinks with her neighbors. From spreading gossip to starting feuds over seemingly nothing, every episode provides comedy fodder that’s usually born from conversations between the neighbors on the stone stairs. Also, keep your eyes peeled for a fresh-faced Regina King, who appears as Brenda, in her first acting role.

“227” aired for five seasons between 1985 and 1990, even securing two Emmy nominations and one Emmy win for Jackée Harry, who nabbed the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series award for her portrayal of Sandra Clark. Without question, the series remains highly watchable and entertaining, largely thanks to how it makes full use of its ensemble cast and their comedic talents.

It isn’t too difficult to imagine a “227” reboot working nowadays either. Sure, there would need to be certain adjustments made in terms of covering the middle-class challenges of the modern era versus the ’80s, but there’s still a demand for watching ordinary people getting into extraordinary situations in their daily lives.

There’s a comforting quality to “Designing Women,” an ’80s sitcom following the ups and downs of the interior design firm Sugarbaker & Associates and its main characters: Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter), Suzanne Sugarbaker (Delta Burke), Mary Jo Shivey (Annie Potts), Charlene Frazier (Jean Smart), and Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor). The first five seasons of “Designing Women” are powerhouse television packed to the brim with wit and wile, and even though the show dips in quality for the final two seasons (mostly due to big cast departures), it still goes out on a relative high note compared to other shows that limp over the finish line.

Considering how popular and beloved the series was from 1986 to 1993, it’s almost unfathomable how no one has repeated the formula and rebooted it, or even revived it with some of the main cast members who are still alive today. There was supposed to be a “Designing Women” sequel at ABC once upon a time, but that never happened. The workplace sitcom has never gone out of fashion — with programs like “The Office” and “Superstore” confirming there’s always an audience for the subgenre — so why hasn’t anyone taken a risk by redesigning “Designing Women” yet? 

In a world where a high-tech supersonic helicopter with stealth abilities and superior weapons gets pinched by its original creator, only one man can recover this prized aircraft and keep the world safe: Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent). If this sounds like Don LaFontaine providing a trailer voiceover to a brand-new action spectacle, that’s the full intention. Airing for four seasons from 1984 to 1987, “Airwolf” is all gas, no brakes in the high-octane department. It’s a fan-favorite and classic series among action aficionados, even if many would agree the fourth and final season was a disappointing mixed bag.

Since it’s so revered and has an ardent fanbase, one would expect that it would be rebooted by now. If “MacGyver” — another classic of the era that turned its star, Richard Dean Anderson, into a household name, like “Airwolf” did for Jan-Michael Vincent — can receive the revival treatment, then “Airwolf” can, too. Some elements, such as the series’ focus on political issues of the time, would need to be tweaked, but its winning combination of espionage and all-out action would go down well now, much like it did in the ’80s.

David Leitch’s 2024 action comedy “The Fall Guy,” starring Ryan Gosling as Colt Seavers, is an excellent film that deserves way more praise than it received, but it failed to perform at the box office. What most people — who weren’t around in the ’80s, at least — may find surprising is that it was based on a series of the same name.

In “The Fall Guy,” which ran for five seasons between 1981 and 1986, Lee Majors played the role of Colt Seavers. However, in this version of the story, Colt works as a stuntman and bounty hunter, making full use of his experience performing dangerous stunts and car chases to fulfill missions and stop the bad guys.

Now, doesn’t “The Fall Guy” TV show sound like something that would be brilliant to watch nowadays, too? It has a built-in procedural element that allows for each episode to focus on a major stunt set piece — whether that be a death-defying dive from the top of a building or a high-speed boat ride. Plus, there are a number of Hollywood actors who started out as stuntmen who would be ideal for this starring role.

There weren’t many superhero shows to enjoy in the ’80s, especially not the selection we have now. One of the few was “The Greatest American Hero,” starring William Katt as Ralph Hinkley, a school teacher who receives a super suit from aliens. Sadly, Hinkley loses the instructions for the suit, so he needs to use trial and error to discover his superpowers. For three seasons between 1981 and 1983, “The Greatest American Hero” made everyone believe that anyone can become a hero, but also tickled the funny bone as viewers watched Hinkley bumble his way through the episodes.

With the burgeoning popularity of superhero content, especially during the 2010s, you’d think that networks would trip over themselves in a scramble to pick up the rights to an established IP like this. Turns out that ABC did. “New Girl” actress Hannah Simone was set to star in a gender-swapped version of “The Greatest American Hero,” but the network passed on the project altogether. Speaking about the decision, Simone posted a now-deleted message on X (via The Hollywood Reporter), writing, “We just found out that network TV isn’t ready for the first brown female superhero on TV.”

Could “The Greatest American Hero” reboot still happen? We wouldn’t bet against it.

Set in the future, “The Highwayman” is one of the most ambitious TV shows of the ’80s. Yet, it might have been a little too ambitious for its time, requiring better special effects and higher budgets to complement its futuristic narrative. The basic premise is simple enough: A group of Highwaymen drive around in high-tech trucks and keep law and order, while encountering aliens, clones, and time travel. “Flash Gordon” star Sam J. Jones plays the main guy known as the Highwayman here. Only a pilot and nine subsequent episodes of the series were produced, but those who watched it know its potential was infinite.

As mentioned above, “The Highwayman” would have needed a larger budget to effectively do what it wanted to do. In that era, TV show budgets weren’t what they are today. A modern reboot of “The Highwayman,” with the proper love and support, could accomplish what it dreamed of in the ’80s. While not a well-known franchise or IP, the premise alone might pique viewers’ interest, or unlock the memory banks of those old enough to remember the original show.