If You Grew Up Watching These 80s Family Sitcoms, Your Childhood Was Awesome!

Let's face it, television nowadays kind of sucks. Family shows nowadays seem to promote teen sex, drugs, and broken homes. Back in the 80s, our family-style television shows were truly family friendly. It is not to say that they were not without some scandal, but they were much closer to rated G than the PG-13 and up shows we have today molding the lives of our children.

Diff'rent Strokes

Diff'rent Strokes ran from 1978-1986. It featured Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges who were two black children taken in by a rich white man and his daughter. The show was full of great life lessons and challenges involved with a mixed family like this one.

The Facts of Life

Mrs. Garret was so popular on Diff'rent Strokes that she earned herself her very own spin-off show, The Facts of Life. She played a house mother at an all-girls boarding school in New York. The show ran from 1978 to 1988.

Charles In Charge

Teen heartthrob, Scott Baio, starred in this show about a college student with a unique living situation. He is charged with taking care of the children in the home he is living in. The show ran from 1984 to 1990.

Small Wonder

Small Wonder was a show about a robotic engineer who creates a robot child and tries to pass her off as one of the family. Back then, this show made all of us wish that this possibility would be true. The show ran from 1985 to 1989.

Silver Spoons

Ricky Schroder plays a young boy who goes on a search to find his father. Once he has found him, he moves in with him in order for them to get to know each other better. The show ran from 1982 to 1987.

Webster

Emmanuel Lewis plays a young boy who loses his parents. He ends up getting taken in by his Godfather who also happens to be a pro-football player and his socialite wife. The show follows the struggles of being thrown into parenthood for the adults and Webster adjusting to his new family. The show ran from 1983 to 1989.

Mr. Belvedere

This show follows a butler named Mr. Belvedere and the life as a butler in a home with kids who are not all too happy to have him there. It followed the growing bond between the kids and their butler and the career of their father. The show ran from 1985 to 1990.

Mama's Family

Vicki Lawrence as Thelma Harper in this spin-off from some comedy sketches from the Carol Burnett Show. The show only ran from 1982 to 1984. If you ever watched it and compared it to shows we have today, you will see that Thelma Harper is a lot like the Madea we have today thanks to Tyler Perry, perhaps just without the potty mouth.

The Cosby Show

Even with all of the current scandal surrounding Bill Cosby, most of us will still admit that this was one of our favorite shows. The Huxtables were a family that we all dreamed of being like. They were two successful parents who instilled the same kind of drive into all of their children. While the show only ran from 1984 to 1992, you can still catch re-runs of the show today.

Family Ties

This show followed a very conservative Alex, played by Michael J. Fox and his family which include his hippie parents during the Reagan administration. The show ran from 1982 to 1989.

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