The 1980s were a glorious fever dream of neon leg warmers, synth-pop, and TV experiments that make today’s programming look downright safe. While Cheers and The Golden Girls were winning Emmys and America’s hearts, a different kind of sitcom crept through the rabbit hole of network television—one filled with talking cars, sentient puppets, and robots with bowl cuts.
Welcome to the upside-down world of ‘80s sitcoms: a place where logic took a backseat, and the weirder the premise, the more likely it was greenlit. These shows didn’t always last long, but they made a mark on our Gen X brains—and we’re still wondering how they ever got past the pitch meeting.
Small Wonder (1985–1989)
Premise: A robotics engineer builds a little girl android named Vicki and passes her off as his daughter. Hijinks—and awkward programming—ensue.
Why it was weird: Vicki spoke in a monotone voice, wore the same dress every day, and had the social skills of a toaster. But hey, what child of the ’80s didn’t wish they had a robot sibling who could lift furniture?
Behind the scenes: The show ran for four seasons in syndication despite being critically annihilated. It was cheap to produce, which meant networks kept it alive like a Frankenstein’s monster in pigtails.
Fun fact: The girl who played Vicki, Tiffany Brissette, later left Hollywood completely. Vicki, however, still haunts our dreams.
Out of This World (1987–1991)
Premise: Evie Garland is a teenager who discovers her father is an alien, which gives her the ability to freeze time by touching her fingers together.
Why it was weird: Evie freezes time, talks to a glowing cube that houses her dad’s voice, and somehow still stresses about high school drama. Her dad (voiced by Burt Reynolds!) never physically appears, because intergalactic child support is complicated.
Behind the scenes: The show was produced by the same studio that made Small Wonder, and let’s just say the production values… matched. The theme song (“Would You Like to Swing on a Star”) still lives rent-free in our heads.
Fun fact: The character Troy Garland was voiced by a then-superstar Reynolds, but he never once showed up on camera—likely to maintain his dignity.
Jennifer Slept Here (1983)
Premise: A family moves into a house haunted by the ghost of a murdered Hollywood starlet, Jennifer Farrell (played by Ann Jillian). Only the teenage son can see her.
Why it was weird: Imagine Casper meets Three’s Company with a dash of Hollywood Squares. Jennifer gives the kid advice and flirts with the living. It’s all very wholesome-dead-girl-next-door.
Behind the scenes: Despite a prime spot on NBC’s Friday night lineup, it tanked in ratings and was canceled after just 13 episodes. But Gen X kids who watched it? We never forgot.
Fun fact: It was one of the first shows to flirt with the idea of mixing the supernatural with the standard sitcom formula. Ann Jillian’s popularity briefly surged… but not enough to save this ghost from cancellation.
My Mother the Car (Technically 1965, but reran in the ’80s)
Premise: A man’s deceased mother is reincarnated as a vintage car and talks to him through the radio.
Why it was weird: Let’s not gloss over this: HIS MOM IS A CAR. A car with opinions. Imagine getting relationship advice from your mom, but she honks if you ignore her.
Why it’s here: Okay, yes, it originally aired in 1965, but it found new life in syndicated reruns during the early ’80s. Kids who stumbled across it on lazy Saturday mornings were very confused.
Fun fact: Often cited as one of the worst sitcoms ever made, it still developed a cult following. You know Gen X—if it’s bad enough, we’ll ironically love it forever.
Manimal (1983)
Premise: A suave British professor named Jonathan Chase has the ability to morph into any animal. And he uses this gift… to fight crime.
Why it was weird: The transformation scenes alone were worth the price of admission. Limbs cracking, faces stretching—it was like watching a werewolf movie on loop. Also, the man turns into a falcon in nearly every episode. Convenient.
Behind the scenes: Only 8 episodes aired before NBC pulled the plug, but those 8 were magnificent chaos. It was ahead of its time—or maybe just out of its mind.
Fun fact: Manimal later showed up in an episode of NightMan, another bizarre 90s superhero show, proving that weird TV is like a Hydra: cut off one, two more grow in its place.
Misfits of Science (1985–1986)
Premise: A team of quirky young scientists with superpowers work together to fight evil. One has shrinking abilities, another shoots electricity, and one is played by a young Courteney Cox.
Why it was weird: It was basically X-Men before X-Men was cool, but with all the neon chaos of the ‘80s. The plots were bonkers, the characters one-note, and the budget… let’s say it was ambitious.
Behind the scenes: NBC hoped this would be their answer to Ghostbusters and Knight Rider. Instead, it was canceled after one season. But it inspired a generation of oddball superhero fans.
Fun fact: The pilot episode cost nearly $4 million to produce—huge for the time. The final few episodes looked like they were filmed with lunch money.
The Charmings (1987–1988)
Premise: Snow White and Prince Charming are zapped into 1980s California suburbia—complete with their wicked stepmother and magic mirror.
Why it was weird: It tried to blend medieval fairy tale logic with modern sitcom tropes. Imagine Prince Charming trying to work a microwave. Also, the mirror was snarky.
Behind the scenes: Despite an okay first season, ratings dipped in the second. Audiences preferred real problems over magic-induced hijinks. Still, it paved the way for future fairytale sitcom mashups like Once Upon a Time.
Fun fact: The evil stepmother character was a scene-stealer and eventually got more screentime than the actual Charmings. You can’t keep a good villain down.
Why So Weird?
In the post-Mork & Mindy TV landscape, networks in the 1980s were desperate to recapture that zany magic. So they threw a lot at the wall—robots, ghosts, aliens, animal shapeshifters—and some of it stuck. Some didn’t. But for Gen X, these shows weren’t just strange—they were a weird, wonderful part of our upbringing.
We didn’t need logic. We just needed a theme song, a laugh track, and maybe a robot maid who vacuumed the house by blinking. The ’80s sitcom was the Wild West of television, and these misfits rode tall.