Documentary · 1980s
23 shows23 sequences
1 sequenceUnsolved Mysteries
1987–2002NBCDocumentary
Robert Stack in a trench coat, a synthesiser and a fog machine — the most frightening thing on American television that was not fiction.
- Season 1
1 sequenceReading Rainbow
1983–2006PBSDocumentary
LeVar Burton reading to children for twenty-three years, and "but you don't have to take my word for it".
- Season 1
1 sequenceAmerica's Most Wanted
1988–2013FoxDocumentary
The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.
- Season 1
1 sequenceMTV Unplugged
1989–MTVDocumentary
Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCatchphrase
1986–ITVDocumentary
Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.
- Season 1
1 sequenceSolid Gold
1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary
The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceNewsnight
1980–BBC TwoDocumentary
The BBC's late analysis programme, opening on a rotating globe of headlines rather than a presenter.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCountryfile
1988–BBC OneDocumentary
Sunday evening rural affairs, and one of the most watched factual programmes in Britain.
- Season 24
1 sequenceAround the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin
1989BBC OneDocumentary
The Verne route without aircraft, and the series that turned a Python into Britain's travel presenter.
- Season 1
1 sequenceGreat Railway Journeys
1980–1999BBC TwoDocumentary
A writer and a railway line, one country per episode, in the strand that gave Michael Palin his second career.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Living Planet
1984BBC OneDocumentary
The Life on Earth sequel, on habitats rather than lineages, opening on the planet doing the sorting.
- Season 1
1 sequenceNightline
1980–ABCDocumentary
A late bulletin that began as nightly updates on the Iran hostage crisis and outlived the crisis by forty-five years.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe $50,000 Pyramid
1981SyndicationDocumentary
One year of the Pyramid format at its highest stake, between the $20,000 and $25,000 versions.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAmerica's Funniest Home Videos
1989–ABCDocumentary
A clip show assembled entirely from what the audience sent in, and the longest-running entertainment programme ABC has.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAmerican Gladiators
1989–1996SyndicationDocumentary
Members of the public running an assault course against professional athletes in lycra, in a format that outlived its own slot by decades.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBullseye
1981–1995ITVDocumentary
Darts and general knowledge, and a cartoon bull who throws better than the contestants.
- Season 1
1 sequenceCountdown
1982–Channel 4Documentary
The first programme Channel 4 ever broadcast, and a clock sequence that has been recognisable to British afternoons for forty years.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHollywood Squares
1986–1989SyndicationDocumentary
The noughts-and-crosses game revived for syndication, with nine celebrities stacked in a lit grid.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Joy of Painting
1983–1994PBSDocumentary
Bob Ross finishing a landscape in twenty-six minutes, over thirty-one seasons and a permanent afterlife online.
- Season 29
1 sequencePress Your Luck
1983–1986CBSDocumentary
A quiz built around a board that could take everything back, and a contestant who memorised its patterns.
- Season 1
1 sequenceStar Search
1983–1995SyndicationDocumentary
The syndicated talent contest that ran twelve years and handed the singing-competition format almost everything Idol later inherited.
- Season 1
1 sequenceTakeshi's Castle
1986–1990TBSDocumentary
A hundred contestants a week storming a fortress, and the origin of every obstacle-course format that came after it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThis Morning
1988–ITVDocumentary
Daytime television broadcast from the Albert Dock, with a weather map floated in the water outside.
- Season 1