10 Most Criminally Forgotten '80s Shows, Ranked

Television in the 1980s was a nightly family affair, famous for neon-soaked hits and theme songs everyone could hum. Still, a number of worthy shows slipped from view—sometimes for being ahead of their time, other times victims of brutal time slots. This piece digs into television archives to rescue and rank some of the decade's most criminally forgotten series.

Crime Story (1986–1988) helped trace the roots of prestige TV with a serialized, two-season arc and a two-hour pilot that drew over 30 million viewers. The series followed Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and mobster Ray Luca (Anthony Denison) in a cat-and-mouse battle set in 1960s Chicago, and remained notable for departing from the era's crime-of-the-week format.

Sledge Hammer! (1986–1988) took aim at the renegade-cop trope, starring David Rasche as a walking caricature of TV cops and delivering sharp satire before its two-season run ended.

United States, Chicago

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