The Greatest 80s TV Moments That Changed the Medium

TV as we know it was born in the 1980s. The broad availability of cable introduced the thrilling concept of multiple channels – where once there were three, suddenly there were hundreds – and the deregulation of home recording and the relative affordability of VCRs turned viewers into programmers, freeing them from the tyranny of the schedules. The 80s also gave rise to phenomena such as 24-hour news cycles and live reporting from around the globe. This drastically affected the form and content of programs and laid the foundations for how viewers watch television now.

Naturally, with so much innovation going on, 80s TV also provided a multitude of memorable moments: historical events, pioneering ads, poignant farewells to much-loved shows, heart-stirring human interest stories, and, perhaps best of all, self-important pseudo-journalists being smacked in the face with a chair. Read on to relive the magic of the best 80s TV moments.

1. Who Shot J.R.? (March 21, 1980)

When Dallas’s arch villain J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) took a bullet, the already popular oil biz soap hit the motherlode in the ratings. The mystery of who fired the fateful – if not fatal – shot triggered a global frenzy of speculation, rumor, and novelty mug buying. Tens of millions tuned in to find out the identity of the shooter, making it one of the defining 80s TV moments.

2. The Day After (November 20, 1983)

Aired on the ABC network without ad breaks, director Nicholas Meyer’s harrowing 120-minute TV movie depicting the effects of a nuclear strike on the US was watched by over 100 million people, profoundly affecting the national discourse on nuclear weapons. It’s claimed that Ronald Reagan was so troubled by the film it led directly to the November 1985 nuclear summit with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

3. The Miracle on Ice (February 22, 1980)

Around 34 million Americans tuned in to watch the men’s ice hockey semifinal at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, roughly 30 million more than watched the Stanley Cup final. Why? Because the American team, a bunch of amateurs and college kids, took on the invincible Soviet Union and won. And in the depths of the Cold War, less than two months after the Red Army rolled into Afghanistan, that made a hockey fan of anyone stateside.

4. The Birth of MTV (August 1, 1981)

“Video killed the radio star,” trilled The Buggles, slightly overstating the case but ushering in a new era of both TV and music, one which put the humble promo film on an equal footing with the music itself.

The instant success of MTV meant no record had a chance of chart success without an accompanying video, and production skyrocketed. The results were varied, to say the least, running the gamut from brilliantly inventive (A-Ha’s “Take on Me,” Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing,” to name a few) to the mind-numbingly terrible (Starship’s “We Built this City” and everything by Styx, to name far too many).

5. Andy Kaufman on Letterman (July 28, 1982)

All bets were off whenever comedian Andy Kaufman put in an appearance. Guesting on Letterman in a neck brace to rant about his latest ill-advised run-in with pro wrestler Jerry Lawler, he caused maxim mayhem when Lawler himself showed up. Their screaming match, accompanied by flying coffee mugs, upturned furniture, and countless bleeps, culminated in Lawler slapping Kaufman hard.

As ever with Kaufman, the world will never know whether he planned it all as a choreographed stunt. But either way, audiences got one epic bleeper-bleeping, bleep-bleeping bleepshow.

6. Michael Jackson Moonwalks (May 16, 1983)

When Jacko broke out his breathtaking signature move at the Motown 25 anniversary show, TV audiences could barely believe their eyes. The dude walked forward, but, but… moving backwards! Just like someone walking on the moon (actually, nothing like someone walking on the moon, but still). One small step for a man, one giant leap for boardwalk mime artists the world over.

7. “Morning Again In America” (Spring 1984)

Love it or hate it, ad exec Hal Riney’s legendary ad campaign for Ronald Reagan‘s re-election bid did its job. The spots hit such a resounding chord with voters they returned The Gipper to the White House with a landslide majority.

By supplanting nuclear fear-mongering and economic doomspeak with bright-eyed optimism and a heart-warming vision of America’s golden age (the one with the white picket fences but minus the segregation and polio, presumably), Riney captured Reagan’s folksy appeal perfectly, setting the tone for future campaigns promising to return the country to a mythical, idyllic, and non-existant past. For better or worse, it still ranks as one of the defining 80s TV moments.

8. Andy Warhol boards The Love Boat (October 12, 1985)

“The Boat,” as audiences affectionately referred to it (at least by producers who grew fat on the reruns), could boast an extraordinary list of guest stars. Even so, the prince of pop art tottering up the gangplank was the topper. It’d be hard to duplicate the same shock value in today’s media landscape, but to get an idea, imagine Banksy doing “Baby Shark” on The Masked Singer.

9. Spike Lee and Michael Jordan: “It’s gotta be the shoes…” (February 21, 1988)

The decade that gave the world the Energizer Bunny also gave it the dream-team pairing of Spike and Mike, the former playing Jordan superfan Mars Blackmon (and directing the ads, of course), the latter his inimitable godlike self. A turning point in sports marketing, the geek-cool spots put the Nike Air Jordan brand on the map, doing much to cement Jordan’s legendary status and to bring sneakerhead culture into the mainstream.

10. The Royal Wedding (July 29, 1981)

Around 75 million Americans watched the wedding of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (now King Charles III of England), and Lady Diana Spencer, drawn in by the pageantry and the fairytale nature of the event, safe in the knowledge that the happy couple truly would live happily ever after. Please ignore the sound of giggles.

11. Patrick Swayze cries on The Barbara Walters Special (May 11, 1988)

It wouldn’t cause a ripple these days, but back in the distant pre-TikTok past, Swayze’s emotional breakdown while discussing his battle with cancer shocked and moved viewers in equal measure.

12. Tiananmen Square (June 5, 1989)

When a Friday night episode of Dallas was interrupted by news anchor Peter Jennings with a report on the human rights protests in Beijing, one image imprinted itself on the popular consciousness like few before or since. The sight of a lone, unidentified man, armed with little more than a shopping bag, facing down a column of Type 59 tanks is one that no one who saw it will ever forget.

It was surreal, funny, agonizingly tense, and heart-stoppingly courageous: the might of the People’s Liberation Army brought to a dithering halt by a guy in a floppy hat who dared to stand in its way. Mercifully, and despite the Chinese government’s ceaseless attempts to erase him, “Tank Man” remains the defining image of the Tiananmen Square protests rather than the horrifying massacre of civilians that ended them.

13. Skinheads Vs. Geraldo (November 3, 1988)

In the 80s, every daytime talk show needed some form of emotionally charged confrontation, preferably heavy on the yelling and swearing. Still, bumptious twit Geraldo Rivera got more than he bargained for when he pitted black activists against white supremacists during a live taping. The resulting punch-up got so out of hand he was lucky to escape with a broken nose.

14. Band Aid (July 13, 1985)

The world had seen plenty of charity concerts by 1985; George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh kicked off the trend in 1971. But the scale of Live Aid set it apart from any concert before – two gargantuan events featuring the most popular pop, rock, R&B, and rap acts straddling the pond from London to Philadelphia – and the presence of the TV cameras. This was no exclusive bash for those lucky enough to score a ticket; this show was a global event that belonged as much to the viewers glued to their screens as it did to the crowds thronging Wembley and JFK Stadium.

15. The Oprah Winfrey Show (September 8, 1986)

The moment Oprah went national, the “boys’ club” chat show monopoly was over. The musty couch-bound format was reborn as a riotous group therapy session, with the host often trundling out her own personal issues in harmony with her rapturous audience. A pivotal cultural moment, Oprah paved the way for every female host who followed her.

16. M*A*S*H “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”
(February 28, 1983)

The beloved anti-war sitcom had lost its satirical edge long before Season 11 rolled around, but that didn’t stop 105 million Americans from settling in for the emotionally charged finale. Four decades on, it remains one of the most-watched TV episodes in history, a fitting tribute to a truly groundbreaking show.

17. Michael Jackson’s Thriller (December 2, 1983)

In the age of MTV, there were music videos, and there was Thriller. The 14-minute mini-epic, directed by American Werewolf in London helmer John Landis, became an unmissable TV event that fully lived up to the hype. The over-the-top video featured choreographed zombies, a voiceover from horror legend Vincent Price, and the King of Pop transforming into a werewolf courtesy of makeup effects genius Rick Baker.

18. Jessica McClure Rescue (October 16, 1987)

All three major networks interrupted prime-time programming to cover the rescue of eighteen-month-old Texan Jessica McClure from the well in which she’d fallen for an agonizing 58 hours.

19. Arrival of the Mac (January 22, 1984)

Ridley Scott’s boldly cinematic ad for Macintosh Computers didn’t just announce a new kid on the block – its overtly Orwellian premise was a none-too-subtle poke at industry leaders IBM – it changed the face of TV advertising forever.

20. The Wall Falls (November 9, 1989)

If the novelty of live, on-the-spot reporting had worn off as the 1990s loomed, nothing – not even David Hasselhoff’s singing – could have blunted the spectacle of euphoric East Germans pouring into West Berlin as armed guards stood impotently by and citizens from both sides of the divide continued to smash down the Wall.

It was a moment of unfettered optimism, the future of the former Eastern Bloc still a blank slate and the specter of fresh tyranny, not even a speck on the horizon. The world watched with great interest, including a 37-year-old KGB lieutenant colonel named Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.