5 Cult '80s TV Classics Long Overdue for a 2020s Comeback

We keep reviving old shows because, frankly, it works. Studios love familiar IP: it is cheaper than building something from scratch, you are not starting from zero with the audience, and even if half of them fizzle, the math still checks out. Paramount+ rebooted 'Frasier,' NBC brought back 'Night Court,' and this year alone we already got new seasons of 'Scrubs' and 'Malcolm in the Middle.' There is even a new take on 'The X-Files' brewing with Ryan Coogler. And while the 90s and early 2000s have gotten most of the second-chance love lately, the 80s are still sitting on a pile of shows that either stumbled the first time out or quietly shaped TV and then disappeared. Here are five from that decade that deserve another shot.

1. Misfits of Science (1985–1986)

   NBC ran this one for 16 episodes before low ratings pulled the plug, which is a shame because the premise was a pre-MCU oddball gem: a team at the Humanidyne Institute mixes scientists and powered misfits, including a researcher who can shrink, a rock guitarist who stores and discharges electricity, and a telekinetic teen played by a pre-'Friends' Courteney Cox. Fun footnote: episode nine was Tim Kring's first paid writing credit, about 20 years before he created 'Heroes.'

   Why it stalled then is obvious now. In 1985, there was no real serialized template for a superhero ensemble on network TV, and the budget could not sell the powers. Today, the audience knows the team-up language cold and VFX can actually back it up. A smart reimagining could finally give this idea the sandbox it needed.

2. Sledge Hammer! (1986–1988)

   Before 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' brightened the cop-comedy lane, ABC's 'Sledge Hammer!' delivered a razor-edged send-up of the Dirty Harry archetype across 41 episodes. Creator Alan Spencer cast David Rasche as Inspector Sledge Hammer, a gun-obsessed, due-process-optional cop so extreme the show played as both a straight action series and a precise parody at the same time.

   The wildest bit: season one ends with a nuclear blast that wipes out the city. The writers assumed they would not be renewed. They were. Season two had to be set five years before the events of season one to keep the show alive. Given how conversations about qualified immunity, police militarization, and accountability have moved to the center of public debate, a revival here would be painfully timely. With streaming money to stage big, practical gags, it could hit harder than the original while tapping into a very loyal cult base.

3. The Greatest American Hero (1981–1983)

   Stephen J. Cannell's ABC series ran three seasons and nailed a simple, durable joke: substitute teacher Ralph Hinkley (William Katt) gets an alien supersuit, immediately loses the instruction manual, and lurches into heroics under the relentless prodding of FBI agent Bill Maxwell (Robert Culp). Ralph can barely fly in a straight line, which is the point. In an era crowded with ultra-violent riffs on superhero failure, the buoyant tone here still feels like its own thing.

   People have tried to bring it back. A 1986 spinoff pilot fizzled. Fox passed on two Phil Lord/Chris Miller-developed reboot pilots in 2014 and 2015. ABC shot a 2018 pilot with Hannah Simone and never aired it. Not one of those attempts got to a single broadcast episode. It has been close to a decade since the last serious swing; a streaming version with room to play could finally stick the landing.

4. Moonlighting (1985–1989)

   Glenn Gordon Caron's 'Moonlighting' mashed screwball comedy, mystery, and romance into something TV had not really seen before. Across 66 episodes on ABC, Cybill Shepherd's Maddie Hayes and Bruce Willis's David Addison ran the Blue Moon Detective Agency while the show took huge stylistic swings: breaking the fourth wall, doing an entire hour in iambic pentameter, and dropping a season-two black-and-white episode at a time the show was reportedly spending around $2 million per episode. The Directors Guild of America even nominated it for Best Drama and Best Comedy in the same year, which had never happened.

   The engine is portable: snappy overlapped dialogue, meta-winks, romantic tension, and weekly cases. You do not need the original stars for that to work (though, yes, the chemistry was lightning in a bottle). With modern budgets and the freedom to be as playful as Caron always wanted, a new duo could make this sing again.

5. Crime Story (1986–1988)

   Michael Mann's 'Crime Story' might be the most consequential under-watched 80s drama. Over two seasons and 44 episodes on NBC, Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) leads a Major Crimes Unit hunting mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison) from early-60s Chicago into the neon of Las Vegas. The whole run plays like one long, relentless arc — years before American TV embraced serialized crime the way 'The Sopranos' eventually made commercially undeniable.

   It even premiered like a movie: the two-hour pilot screened in theaters, then pulled more than 30 million viewers on broadcast. And still, scheduling shuffles and getting outgunned by 'Moonlighting' on the other network kept it on the bubble until it was canceled before finishing the story. Maddening. Streaming exists for exactly this kind of long-form pursuit. Mann has proven the form on the big screen ('Heat,' 'Collateral,' 'Ali'); let him finish what he mapped out back in the 80s.

Bottom line: the 80s left a lot on the field — big swings, half-baked gems, and shows that quietly taught TV how to tell stories. With the revival machine running hot, these five are overdue. Which 80s cult series would you bring back first? Drop your pick in the comments.