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Documentary · 1980s

The 1980s account for 23 of the 190 documentary shows here, and 23 opening sequences.

Syndication carries the most, with five.

23 shows23 sequences

Still from the opening titles of Unsolved Mysteries1 sequence

Unsolved 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
Still from the opening titles of Reading Rainbow1 sequence

Reading 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
Still from the opening titles of America's Most Wanted1 sequence

America's Most Wanted

1988–2013FoxDocumentary

The programme Fox launched itself on, and the one that turned a network into a switchboard.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of MTV Unplugged1 sequence

MTV Unplugged

1989–MTVDocumentary

Sixteen seconds and an acoustic guitar — a format whose whole argument is in the title card.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Catchphrase1 sequence

Catchphrase

1986–ITVDocumentary

Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Solid Gold1 sequence

Solid Gold

1980–1988SyndicationDocumentary

The weekly chart countdown as a dance routine, with its own troupe named after it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Newsnight1 sequence

Newsnight

1980–BBC TwoDocumentary

The BBC's late analysis programme, opening on a rotating globe of headlines rather than a presenter.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Countryfile1 sequence

Countryfile

1988–BBC OneDocumentary

Sunday evening rural affairs, and one of the most watched factual programmes in Britain.

  • Season 24
Still from the opening titles of Around the World in 80 Days with Michael Palin1 sequence

Around 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
Still from the opening titles of Great Railway Journeys1 sequence

Great 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
Still from the opening titles of The Living Planet1 sequence

The Living Planet

1984BBC OneDocumentary

The Life on Earth sequel, on habitats rather than lineages, opening on the planet doing the sorting.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Nightline1 sequence

Nightline

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
Still from the opening titles of The $50,000 Pyramid1 sequence

The $50,000 Pyramid

1981SyndicationDocumentary

One year of the Pyramid format at its highest stake, between the $20,000 and $25,000 versions.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of America's Funniest Home Videos1 sequence

America'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
Still from the opening titles of American Gladiators1 sequence

American 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
Still from the opening titles of Bullseye1 sequence

Bullseye

1981–1995ITVDocumentary

Darts and general knowledge, and a cartoon bull who throws better than the contestants.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Countdown1 sequence

Countdown

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
Still from the opening titles of Hollywood Squares1 sequence

Hollywood Squares

1986–1989SyndicationDocumentary

The noughts-and-crosses game revived for syndication, with nine celebrities stacked in a lit grid.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Joy of Painting1 sequence

The 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
Still from the opening titles of Press Your Luck1 sequence

Press Your Luck

1983–1986CBSDocumentary

A quiz built around a board that could take everything back, and a contestant who memorised its patterns.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Star Search1 sequence

1983–1995SyndicationDocumentary

The syndicated talent contest that ran twelve years and handed the singing-competition format almost everything Idol later inherited.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Takeshi's Castle1 sequence

Takeshi'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
Still from the opening titles of This Morning1 sequence

This Morning

1988–ITVDocumentary

Daytime television broadcast from the Albert Dock, with a weather map floated in the water outside.

  • Season 1