The Most Popular TV Show the Year You Were Born

Chances are, you don't remember watching the most popular TV series from the year you were born, but you were probably bouncing along to its theme song!

Whether your family had a chunky TV with a wood frame and a VHS player, or, more recently, a sleek flat-screen mounted on the wall, this show likely lit up the screen at some point, even if your parents were skipping channels.

While the content has certainly evolved over the years, like changing fashion, cultural references, and backdrops, the structure of TV shows has pretty much stayed the same: multiple seasons jam-packed with episodes. Back when many of these classics aired, you couldn’t binge-watch a whole season in one sitting. Instead, you had to tune in at a scheduled time each week for the next episode.

Occasionally, you’d catch a TV channel airing marathon episodes of a single series, but it was nothing like today, when you can access an entire show from start to finish at your convenience thanks to modern streaming services.

Some of these programs are so iconic that we still watch them today; household names like Cheers, Seinfeld, Friends, and The Simpsons have yet to go out of style, gaining new fans with every generation.

They not only offer storylines that keep you entertained for hours on end, but also reveal something about the decade in which they were broadcast. Older shows give us a glimpse into a simpler time before smartphones and social media, while recent series help us keep up with new slang and current events. What ‘80s and ‘90s babies remember as the TV Guide, children born in 2010 will recognize as an app, a profile, and a quick selection.

The ‘60s gave us Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show, and Bewitched, while the ‘70s introduced us to All in the Family, The Brady Bunch, and The Partridge Family. But for this list, we’re starting with 1980.

So, let’s flip on the television and discover the most popular TV show from the year you were born, perhaps inspiring a binge-watch that teaches you something new about that time.

THE MOST POPULAR TV SHOW THE YEAR YOU WERE BORN

1980
Charlie's Angels

1981
MAS*H

1982
Knight Rider

1983
Cheers

1984
Miami Vice

1985
The Dukes of Hazzard

1986
The A-Team

1987
Married... with Children

1988
Magnum P.I.

1989
Who's the Boss?

1990
Seinfeld

1991
Baywatch

1992
Law and Order

1993
The X-Files

1994
Friends

1995
The Simpsons

1996
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

1997
South Park

1998
That '70s Show

1999
The Sopranos

2000
The West Wing

2001
Family Guy

2002
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

2003
Curb Your Enthusiasm

2004
Survivor

2005
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

2006
Entourage

2007
Californication

2008
Mad Men

2009
Scrubs

2010
Lost

2011
30 Rock

2012
Breaking Bad

2013
Arrested Development

2014
24

2015
Silicon Valley

2016
Veep

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