TELEVISION | 1986 | LISTS

TV’s Vault: Top 10 Nielsen Rated Shows of 1986

All of these shows were the top rated television series forty years ago

Photo by PhotoMIXCompany form PxHere Licensing

It is unimaginable that 1986 was forty years ago.

The 1980s were filled with diverse music, feel-good movies, and hilarious sitcoms.

We wore pastels with our collars up and our clothes layered. Our hair was big, our car stereos were loud, and we mostly listened to our music on cassettes and vinyl records.

Television was dominated by sitcoms, comedies centered around families with some unique quirks. Here is a list of the top ten shows from the 1986–1987 television season, according to Nielsen ratings.

10. Who’s the Boss? ABC (Nielson Rating: 22.0)

In this ABC comedy, Tony Danza played retired baseball player Tony Micelli.

Tony is now a maid for successful advertising executive Angela Bower played by Judith Light. Alissa Milano played Tony’s daughter Samantha in this funny sitcom about gender role reversal and the issues that come with raising two families together.

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9. Moonlighting, ABC (Nielsen Rating: 22.4)

Before Bruce Willis was an action/adventure movie star, he was the wisecracking detective, David Addison, on television’s Moonlighting.

The funny detective drama also starred Cybill Shepherd as his partner at the Blue Moon Detective Agency. The show centered around their witty back-and-forth quick banter, and the unresolved sexual tension between the two.

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8. Growing Pains, ABC (Nielsen Rating: 22.7)

Growing Pains was ABC highest rated scripted series during the 1986–1987 season.

The sitcom centered around the Seaver family. The Long Island family consisted of a father, Jason, who was a psychiatrist played by Alan Thicke. The mother, Maggie, played by Joanna Kerns, was in journalism. They had three kids, the trouble-making Mike, played by Kirk Cameron, the smart daughter Carol, played by Tracey Gold, and the youngest son, Ben, played by Jeremy Miller.

Growing Pains was funny and edgy as it tackled some real-life problems facing families including drug abuse, sexual exploration, and homelessness.

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7. Night Court, NBC (Nielsen Rating: 23.2)

Night Court was a unique NBC comedy. Instead of a family, it focused on the antics of staff of all-night Manhattan municipal court.

Judge Harry Stone, played by Harry Anderson, had to keep the slimy public defender Dan Fielding played by John Larroquette in check.

As case after bizarre case came through the court, the side-bar interactions of the judge, prosecutor, public defender, and bailiff turned into comedic gold.

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6. 60 Minutes, CBS (Nielsen Rating: 23.3)

60 Minutes calls itself an investigative television magazine.

With over 50 years on the air, 60 Minutes is, of course, one of the longest running shows in television history. Meet the Press, which started in 1947, currently holds that record.

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5. The Golden Girls, NBC (Nielsen Rating: 24.5)

This hit NBC show broke the mold of classic sitcoms.

Instead of a traditional family led by a clueless father, the show featured four older, previously married women living together and dealing with life with some very funny dialog.

It quickly became a beloved show for Boomers and Gen Xers alike.

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4. Murder, She Wrote, CBS (Nielsen Rating: 25.4)

This drama was CBS’s top performing show that season.

Angela Lansbury plays professional mystery writer and amateur detective, Jessica Fletcher. Fletcher tenaciously solves crime after crime with her cunning skills and infectious charm.

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3. Cheers, NBC (Nielsen Rating: 27.2)

To me, nothing represents 80s television quite like Cheers.

Cheers was about a former Red Sox pitching star, Sam Malone, who became a bar owner once he retired from baseball. All the characters are cleverly written and hilarious. My favorite duo was the know-it-all mailman Cliff Clavin, and always-present bar regular, Norm Peterson.

Norm has some of the best one-liners in television history. For a list of my favorite Norm lines, you can follow this link: Norm!

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2. Family Ties, NBC (Nielsen Rating: 32.7)

Michael J. Fox, Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter starred in this sitcom about a formerly hippy couple trying to raise a family.

Conservative and staunch Republican son, Alex Keaton played by Fox, couldn’t be more different than his peace-loving liberal parents.

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1. The Cosby Show, NBC (Nielsen Rating: 34.9)

With over 30 million viewers, The Cosby Show was the king of 1986 television.

It was Bill Cosby’s portrayal of America’s dad Cliff Huxtable that made it so hard for people to accept Cosby’s downfall and disgrace later in life.

The show featured levelheaded wife Claire Huxtable as the true head of the family as well as Bill Cosby’s famous wit. The four Cosby kids become loved icons for millions as we were given a rare positive portrayal of a successful African American family.

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Clearly, NBC was the channel on which to watch comedy in 1986. The network produced half of the shows in the top ten Nielsen rated series and all of the top three.

What were you watching in 1986? Are your favorite shows on this list? If you were not around in 1986, have you watched the reruns of the above shows?

Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.

Here are the next 10 highest rated television shows of 1986:

11. Dallas (CBS)
12. Newhart (CBS)
13. Amen (NBC)
14. 227 (NBC)
15. Matlock (NBC)
16. CBS Sunday Night Movie (CBS)
17. NBC Monday Night Movie (NBC)
18. Monday Night Football (ABC)
19. Kate & Allie (CBS)
20. NBC Sunday Night Movie (NBC) Source

As always, thanks for reading!

If you like my listicles, you can find the complete list of them here, organized by subject: The Unabridged List of All of my Listicles

For other nostalgic lists by Curt: 10 of the Most Iconic Diners in Television History TV Archives: 10 of the Most Iconic Television Vehicles TV Archive: The Top 10 Shows of 1996 From the Vault: Top 10 Blockbuster Movies of 1986 Going Bad: 10 Times a Normally Heroic Actor Played a Villain 80s Nostalgia: 10 Things Teens Did without Smart Phones 10 Interesting Fads from the 90s 1976 Cinema: The 10 Highest Grossing Films 1976 Throwback: Top 10 U.S. Billboard Hot Songs Gen X Nostalgia: 10 Things We Could Do with Our Landline Telephones Time Capsule: The Top 10 TV Shows from 1976 I Want My MTV: The First 10 Videos 10 Groovy Fads from the 70s 10 Reasons the 70s Shaped a Generation 7 Popular Fashion Choices from the 70s 6 Iconic Cars That Were Popular in the 1970s