50 Fun Facts About 80s Sitcoms

Which Family Ties star spent his nights filming Back to the Future while taping the NBC sitcom by day?

Michael J. Fox taped the sitcom by day, then traveled to the film set and often got home early the next morning. Producers agreed only on condition that Family Ties took priority.

Which Golden Girls actress was over a year younger than Bea Arthur, who played her daughter Dorothy?

Estelle Getty was aged for the camera with make-up and a wig to play Sophia Petrillo, the Sicilian-born mother.

Which future Oscar winner joined the Seaver household on Growing Pains as Luke Brower, a homeless teenager?

Leonardo DiCaprio was cast to win over teenage viewers, then written out so he could start work on the film This Boy's Life.

Which future ER star played a handyman on The Facts of Life years before becoming a movie leading man?

George Clooney was added to the regular cast in a bid to lift the ratings. He went on to play Roseanne Barr's supervisor, Booker Brooks, on Roseanne.

Which future Oscar winner starred in Bosom Buddies as a man posing as a woman to live in a cheap hotel?

Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari played two young admen whose apartment is demolished, so they move into a women-only building in disguise. The sitcom is now best known for launching his film career.

Which animated family debuted in short cartoons on The Tracey Ullman Show before landing its own sitcom?

The Simpsons filled the gaps around the commercial breaks for three seasons. In those early shorts, Homer's voice was an impression of Walter Matthau.

On ALF, which family pets does the furry alien house guest keep trying to catch and eat?

Cats are on his menu, so the Tanners' pet Lucky is never safe. When he adopts one of his own to eat, he grows too fond of it to go through with the meal.

Al Bundy of Married... with Children, once a high school football star, earns a living in which job?

Shoe salesman is the hard-luck job Al Bundy hates, so he keeps reliving his high school glory days as an all-state fullback.

Which twin sisters shared the role of youngest daughter Michelle Tanner on Full House?

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen took turns as Michelle, and for years were credited under a single name so viewers would not realize she was played by twins.

Which hit comedy ended in 1983 with a finale that drew about 106 million American viewers?

M*A*S*H signed off with an episode that out-drew that year's Super Bowl, and half-minute ad slots in it cost more than the big game's.

The bar in Cheers was modeled on the real Bull & Finch Pub in which American city?

Boston is home to the Bull & Finch Pub, which the creators picked out of a phone book. Its exterior is the bar viewers see in the establishing shots.

Which Cheers barfly is an on-and-off accountant who finally lands a dream job tasting beer at a brewery?

Norm Peterson is hailed by name by everyone in the bar each time he walks through the door, a running joke from the earliest seasons.

Which actor joined Cheers as a naive young bartender from Indiana after Nicholas Colasanto died?

Woody Harrelson arrived in the fourth-season opener, an episode that also dealt with the death of Coach. His character happens to share his first name.

Which Cosby Show spin-off followed Denise Huxtable to the fictional, historically Black Hillman College?

A Different World lost Lisa Bonet after one season, then carried on without her and spent four of its six seasons in the ratings top five.

Cliff Huxtable of The Cosby Show, married to lawyer Clair, works as which kind of doctor?

Obstetrician Cliff Huxtable grew out of the star's stand-up routines about his own family life. The first pitch made him a limousine driver instead.

Which Golden Girls housemate tells odd stories about growing up in the farm town of St. Olaf, Minnesota?

Rose Nylund is a naive Norwegian American widow who raised five children with her late husband, Charlie, before moving south to Florida.

On The Golden Girls, which dessert do the housemates famously share during late-night kitchen talks?

Cheesecake came out whenever the women gathered to talk through the week's problem. The dessert even gives its name to a 2025 mystery novel based on the sitcom.

On ALF, the alien who crash-lands in the Tanner family's garage comes from which exploded home planet?

Melmac was destroyed in a nuclear war, and he survived only because he was away on duty with its Orbit Guard at the time.

The blue-collar Conner family of Roseanne lives in the fictional town of Lanford in which Midwestern state?

Illinois is home to Lanford, where Dan picks up sporadic contracting work and Roseanne waits tables at Rodbell's luncheonette.

Which actor narrates The Wonder Years as the adult Kevin Arnold looking back on his suburban childhood?

Daniel Stern voiced the grown-up Kevin and directed several episodes too. Film fans know him as Marv, one of the burglars in Home Alone.

Which Who's the Boss? star had earlier played a boxing cab driver on the sitcom Taxi?

Tony Danza had been a professional boxer in real life before he turned to acting, and both of his sitcom characters shared his first name.

On Night Court, which jazz singer is the judge's musical idol and turns up as himself in several episodes?

Mel Tormé made nine guest appearances as himself on the courtroom comedy, plus one more as a guardian angel.

Which Night Court actor won four straight Emmys as prosecutor Dan Fielding, then withdrew from contention?

John Larroquette took the supporting-actor prize every year from 1985 to 1988, then had his name taken off the ballot for 1989.

On Newhart, backwoodsman Larry has two odd-job brothers who both answer to which first name?

Darryl and Darryl stay silent for the whole run, then finally speak on screen for the first time in the last episode.

The finale of Newhart ends with Bob Newhart waking beside which actress, his wife from his 1970s sitcom?

Suzanne Pleshette returned as Emily Hartley on the old bedroom set, revealing that the entire innkeeping series had been her husband's dream.

Which child star played Arnold Jackson, a Harlem boy taken in by a Park Avenue widower, on Diff'rent Strokes?

Gary Coleman had caught producers' attention in commercials, and the sitcom was devised as a vehicle for him and co-star Conrad Bain.

Which future Brat Pack star was written out of The Facts of Life after one season as an original schoolgirl?

Molly Ringwald was one of four original actresses written out together. She had won the part after an appearance on parent series Diff'rent Strokes.

Which Growing Pains dad also co-wrote the theme songs for Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life?

Alan Thicke was a busy theme composer before he played Dr. Seaver, and also wrote the original theme for the game show Wheel of Fortune.

On Punky Brewster, the title orphan's dog was named for NBC's programming chief and so answers to which name?

Brandon the dog honors network boss Brandon Tartikoff, who also named the heroine after a tomboy he had a crush on as a boy.

Which child actor played troublemaking friend Derek on Silver Spoons before starring in The Hogan Family?

Jason Bateman was such a hit as the bad-boy friend that producers gave him a sitcom of his own, It's Your Move. At 18 he was directing episodes too.

Which actress played Murphy Brown, the hard-hitting news anchor of the fictional TV newsmagazine FYI?

Candice Bergen played the anchor whose single motherhood drew criticism from Vice President Dan Quayle in a 1992 speech.

Sugarbaker & Associates, the interior design firm in Designing Women, is based in which Southern city?

Atlanta is where the elegant, outspoken Julia Sugarbaker runs the firm out of her own home, with three women and one man on the team.

Which sitcom paired Larry Appleton of Chicago with Balki, his shepherd cousin from the island of Mypos?

Perfect Strangers launched a hit of its own when elevator operator Harriette Winslow was spun off into Family Matters, which outlasted it.

In the sitcom Small Wonder, engineer Ted Lawson passes off which secret invention as his adopted daughter?

A robot built to help disabled children is what he brings home to mature in a family setting, while nosy neighbors keep almost uncovering the secret.

Which former Happy Days star played the student working as a live-in babysitter in Charles in Charge?

Scott Baio was reunited with Ellen Travolta, who played his mother here just as she had on Happy Days.

Which actor played Detective Frank Drebin in Police Squad!, canceled after six episodes but reborn on film?

Leslie Nielsen brought the deadpan cop back in The Naked Gun films, made by the same trio who had cast him in Airplane!

In Newhart, author Dick Loudon and his wife leave New York City to run the Stratford Inn in which state?

Vermont is where the couple take on a 200-year-old inn, and where he later hosts a local TV talk show full of bizarre guests.

Which actress starred as Mama in Mama's Family, a role she first played in The Carol Burnett Show sketches?

Vicki Lawrence at first turned the spin-off down, unwilling to wear a fat suit and play an old lady every week without her sketch partners.

Which actress went from playing maid Florence Johnston on The Jeffersons to starring in the NBC sitcom 227?

Marla Gibbs also co-produced 227 and sang its theme song. The sitcom grew out of a play staged at her own theater in Los Angeles.

Which Golden Girls spin-off starred Richard Mulligan as a widowed pediatrician living next door to the women?

Empty Nest was first tried out as a backdoor pilot inside a 1987 episode of the parent sitcom, and all four women later dropped by as guests.

Which comedy about gifted Manhattan students was the first American sitcom filmed in the Soviet Union?

Head of the Class shot an entire 1988 episode in Moscow, where its honors students took on a Russian academic team.

Which actor won Emmys for playing butler Benson DuBois on both Soap and the spin-off Benson?

Robert Guillaume won the first in 1979 and the second in 1985, and later voiced Rafiki, the mandrill in The Lion King.

Which actress, a former Annie on Broadway, starred as teen misfit Patty Greene in Square Pegs?

Sarah Jessica Parker took over the title role in the hit musical in 1979, three years before the high-school sitcom, which lasted just one season.

Which actor went from playing George Jefferson to Deacon Ernest Frye in the church sitcom Amen?

Sherman Hemsley first played George on All in the Family, two years before the character was given a spin-off of his own.

Which Rhoda star was fired from her own NBC sitcom, which later carried on as The Hogan Family?

Valerie Harper was dismissed after two seasons and her character was killed off, while the series went through two changes of title.

Which future Friends star played Lauren Miller, Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend, late in the run of Family Ties?

Courteney Cox played Lauren for the final two seasons. An earlier girlfriend, Ellen, was played by Tracy Pollan, who married the leading man in real life.

Which Wonder Years actress, who played Winnie Cooper, went on to write math books aimed at teenage girls?

Danica McKellar earned a mathematics degree with highest honors from UCLA, and her books carry titles such as Math Doesn't Suck.

Which original Saturday Night Live cast member won back-to-back Emmys as Allie Lowell in Kate & Allie?

Jane Curtin played the more conservative of two divorced mothers who share a Greenwich Village brownstone and raise their children together.

Which Mary Tyler Moore Show actor starred as cartoonist Henry Rush in Too Close for Comfort?

Ted Knight had played vain newscaster Ted Baxter, and also turned up as Judge Smails in the golf comedy Caddyshack.

On ALF, the title nickname is short for Alien Life Form, but what is the furry visitor's real name?

Gordon Shumway followed an amateur radio signal to Earth before crashing into a suburban garage in California's San Fernando Valley.