The 50 best TV shows of 1988

The series is a dramatization of the Duck universe comic series created by Carl Barks. The viewer follows the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his three grandnephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Important secondary characters, that often take part in the adventures, include Donald Duck, Scrooge's pilot Launchpad McQuack and butler Duckworth, the inventor Gyro Gearloose, and the nanny Mrs. Beakley and her granddaughter Webby.

Three naval cadets accidentally get possession of a secret diary that was stolen from Bestuzhev, a vice-chancellor of Russia. If this diary ever gets abroad, the consequences for the country would be grave. The cadets are trying to return the papers to their owner, but there are others who want to get the papers...

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American animated television series produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. The pilot was shown during the week of December 14, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries and began its official run on October 1, 1988. The series featured the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created in comic book form by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comic, to make it more suitable for children and the family. The initial motivation behind the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series was that, upon being approached to create a toy line, Playmates Toys was uneasy with the comic book characters' small cult following. They requested that a television deal be acquired first, and after the initial five-episode series debuted, the California toy company released their first series of Ninja Turtles action figures in the summer of 1988. The two media would correspond in marketing style and popularity for many years to come. David Wise and Patti Howeth wrote the screenplay for the first five-part miniseries. When the series continued in the second season, comic artist Jack Mendelsohn joined the show as the executive story editor. Wise went on to write over seventy episodes of the series, and was executive story editor for four later seasons as well. Wise left the series partway through the ninth season, and Jeffrey Scott took over as the story editor and chief writer for the rest of the show's run.

A Russian version of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel. Edmond Dantes is falsely accused by those jealous of his good fortune, and is sentenced to spend the rest of his life in the notorious island prison, Chateau d'If. While imprisoned, he meets the Abbe Faria, a fellow prisoner whom everyone believes to be mad. The Abbe tells Edmond of a fantastic treasure hidden away on a tiny island, that only he knows the location of. After many years in prison, the old Abbe dies, and Edmond escapes disguised as the dead body. Now free, Edmond must find the treasure the Abbe told him of, so he can use the new-found wealth to exact revenge on those who have wronged him

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo is the eighth incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. This spin-off of the original show was created by Tom Ruegger and premiered on September 10, 1988 and ran for three seasons on ABC and on The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera as a half-hour program, until August 17, 1991Following the show's first season, much of Hanna-Barbera's production staff, including Tom Ruegger, left the studio and helped to revive the Warner Bros. Animation studio, beginning with Tiny Toon Adventures. This was notable for being the last series where Don Messick voiced Scooby-Doo, and one of the few animated series in which someone other than Frank Welker voiced the character of Fred Jones. Messick and Casey Kasem were the only two voice actors from other Scooby-Doo series to reprise their roles in this version, and both received starring credits for their work.

Married... with Children is an American sitcom that aired for 11 seasons. It featured a dysfunctional family living in a fictional Chicago, Illinois, suburb. The show, notable for being the first prime-time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt. The show was known for handling nonstandard topics for the time period, which garnered the then-fledgling Fox network a standing among the Big Three television networks. The series' 11-season, 259-episode run makes it the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on the Fox network. The show's famous theme song is "Love and Marriage" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town. The first season of the series was videotaped at ABC Television Center in Hollywood. From season 2 to season 8, the show was taped at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, and the remaining three seasons were taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. The series was produced by Embassy Communications on its first season and the remaining seasons by ELP Communications under the studio Columbia Pictures Television.

Follow the intergalactic adventures of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and his loyal crew aboard the all-new USS Enterprise NCC-1701D, as they explore new worlds.

In the Autumn of 1941, a young war correspondent is assigned to accompany German submarine U-96 on a patrol through the Atlantic.

For decades, the Galactic Empire has been locked in an interstellar war with the Free Planets Alliance, a conflict that involves thousands of spaceships and millions of soldiers on both sides. Two new commanders enter the conflict with great hopes: Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the FPA's Yang Wen-Li. As they deal with superiors and subordinates, maneuver through complicated political arrangements, plot strategies, and win battles, each will be tested, and ultimately, changed, by the reality of war.

Anne Shirley, now a schoolteacher, has begun writing stories and collecting rejection slips. She makes the acquaintance of a handsome, rich, bachelor, chases a cow, and wins (to her chagrin) a baking soda company's writing contest. She acts as Diana's maid of honor, and refuses Gilbert Blythe's marriage proposal; which sends her to teach Kingsport Ladies' College, an exclusive girls school, where she meets opposition from one of the teachers, Miss Brooke, and the Pringle clan (one of whom is a rich, handsome bachelor). But while Anne enjoys the battle, and the friends she makes, she returns to Avonlea.

Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future is a 1987–88 Canadian-American science fiction/action television series, merging live action with animation based on computer-generated images, that ran for 22 episodes in Canadian and American syndication. A toy line was also produced by Mattel, and during each episode there was a segment that included visual and audio material which interacted with the toys.

Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis, as well as a large cast of notable actors and actresses.

21 Jump Street revolves around a group of young cops who would use their youthful appearance to go undercover and solve crimes involving teenagers and young adults.

Jack the Ripper is a 1988 two-part television film/miniseries portraying a fictionalized account of the hunt for Jack the Ripper, the unidentified serial killer responsible for the Whitechapel murders of 1888. The series coincided with the 100th anniversary of the murders.

An unconscious man is washed ashore on the beach of a small French village during a heavy storm. A retired doctor takes care of the unconscious stranger. When the mysterious man recovers, he can't remember a thing...he does not know his name, he does not know where his flashback memories come from, and he does not know why the access code for an anonymous Swiss bank account is implanted in his thigh. As he seeks his own identity, things quickly become dangerous. There are attempts to kill him, he is well known in first class hotels across Europe, and worst of all, there are strange similarities between his memories and reported actions of the notorious terrorist, Carlos the Jackal.

The Wonder Years tells the story of Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) facing the trials and tribulations of youth while growing up during the 1960s and 70s. Told through narration from an adult Kevin (Daniel Stern), Kevin faces the difficulties of maintaining relationships and friendships on his enthralling journey into adulthood.

The animated stories of Garfield the cat, Odie the dog, their owner Jon and the trouble they get into. And also Orson the Pig and his adventures on a farm with his fellow farm animals.

Freddy's Nightmares is an American horror anthology series, which aired in syndication from October 1988 until March 1990. A spin-off from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, each story was introduced by Freddy Krueger. This format is essentially the same as that employed by Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Tales from the Crypt, or The Twilight Zone. The pilot episode was directed by Tobe Hooper, and begins with Freddy Krueger's acquittal of the child-murdering charges due to his officer's lack of reviewing the Miranda warning at the time of Freddy's arrest. A mob of parents eventually corners Freddy in a power plant, leading to him being torched by the police officer, dying and gaining his familiar visage.The series was produced by New Line Television, producers of the film series. It was originally distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures. However, Warner Bros. Television would assume syndication rights after acquiring Lorimar-Telepictures.

The adventures of the last human alive and his friends, stranded three million years into deep space on the mining ship Red Dwarf.

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are evacuated from London at the beginning of the Second World War, little dreaming of the magical adventures that lie ahead.

Young Gerald explored his passion for the animal kingdom with his inspirational tutor, Dr Theodore Stephanides. The backdrop was sunshine, happiness and the love and laughter of a doting, slightly eccentric family

The Goddard family is about to be torn apart by the arrival of Australian conscription during the Vietnam War.

Baby Boom is an American sitcom series starring Kate Jackson. The series is based on the 1987 film Baby Boom. The pilot premiered September 10, 1988 on NBC, and the series began on November 2, 1988.

A morning talk show with A-list celebrity guests, top-notch performances and one-of-a-kind segments that are unrivaled on daytime television, plus spontaneous, hilarious and unpredictable talk.

After the death of his wife, Danny enlists his best friend and his brother-in-law to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle.

Police Academy: The Series, also known as Police Academy: The Animated Series, is a 1988 American animated television series based on the Police Academy series of films. The show was produced by Ruby-Spears Productions for Warner Bros. Television. It aired weekdays and lasted two seasons for a total of 65 episodes.Some episodes feature a crime boss named Kingpin. His keen intelligence, girth, and stature are very similar to the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Other new characters were added to the show as well. Among them were a group of talking police dogs called the Canine Corps. They were made up of Samson, Lobo, Bonehead, Chilipepper, and Schitzy. The theme song is performed by the Fat Boys who also make an appearance in two episodes as House's Friends: Big Boss, Cool and Mark.While the character of Carey Mahoney did appear in the show, he did not appear in either Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach, Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, and Police Academy: Mission to Moscow.

Following on The Return of Optimus Prime (and in place of The Rebirth), The Headmasters is the first Japanese-exclusive Transformers franchise.

Micki and Ryan with the help of their friend Jack try to recover cursed antiques so they can store them in safety inside the antique store's vault.

The Storyteller aided by his cynical dog, narrates classic folk tales, fables, and legends.

Akira is just another normal kid in modern-day Tokyo, until an old friend of his, Ryo, shows up and turns his world upside down. Akira learns that there is an upcoming war of demons on humanity and he has just been enlisted for a major tour of duty. But the only way to fight a demon is with their power, so Akira and Ryo risk a dangerous ceremony in an attempt to create humanity's only hope: the powerful Devilman.

In the near future, Tokyo was left flattened as a result from a great earthquake. A new city, MegaTokyo, was then recreated due in no small part from the aid of a multi-million dollar company, Genom Corp. Genom created and mass-produced biomechanical creatures called Boomers to aid in the restoration of MegaTokyo. When the Boomers began to run out of control, the ADPolice at first tried to stop them, but they proved to be far more difficult to deal with than was first imagined. Under the ever looming Boomer threat, a group of four girls from varying degrees of society banded together. Calling themselves The Knight Sabers, they were the only ones with enough firepower and resourcefullness to defend the fledgling MegaTokyo from Genom and it's berserk Boomers.

Beauty and the Beast is an American drama series which first aired on CBS in 1987. Creator Ron Koslow's updated version of the fairy tale has a double focus: the relationship between Vincent, a mythic, noble man-beast, and Catherine, a savvy Assistant District Attorney in New York; and a secret Utopian community of social outcasts living in a subterranean sanctuary. Through an empathetic bond, Vincent senses Catherine's emotions, and becomes her guardian.

Five young men with mystical armor fight to save the mortal from the evil Talpa.

Home and Away is set in the fictional town of Summer Bay, a coastal town in New South Wales, and follows the personal and professional lives of the people living in the area. The show initially focused on the Fletcher family, Pippa and Tom Fletcher and their five foster children Frank Morgan, Carly Morris, Steven Matheson, Lynn Davenport and Sally Keating, who would go on to become one of the show's longest-running characters. The show also originally and currently focuses on the Stewart family. During the early 2000s, the central storylines focused on the Sutherlands and later, the Hunters. Home and Away had proved popular when it premiered in 1988 and had risen to become a hit in Australia, and after only a few weeks, the show tackled its first major and disturbing storyline, the rape of Carly Morris; it was one of the first shows to feature such storylines during the early timeslot. H&A has tackled many adult-themed and controversial storylines; something rarely found in its restricted timeslot.

Continuing drama combining romance and intrigue set against the glittering backdrop of Beverly Hills and the American fashion industry.

A dynastic struggle occurs for the throne of Hastinapur, the kingdom ruled by the Kuru clan, between the Kauravas and Pandavas, collateral branches of the clan, which causes the Kurukshetra War.

Ryo Saeba works the streets of Tokyo as the City Hunter. He's a "sweeper" and with his sidekick Kaori Makimura, he keeps the city clean. People hire the City Hunter to solve their dangerous problems, which he does with a Colt Python. When Ryo's not working on a case, he's working on getting the ladies, and Kaori must keep him in check with her trusty 10 kg hammer.

Follow the adventures of fireman Sam and his colleagues as they protect the citizens of the Welsh town of Pontypandy. Whenever the alarm sounds, brave Sam and his co-workers can be counted on to jump into a fire engine, hop onto a helicopter, or even launch an inflatable lifeboat to battle blazes, mount rescue missions, or provide medical attention to those in need.

Hannay was a 1988 spin-off from the 1978 film version of John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps which had starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay.In the series, Powell reprised the role of Hannay, an Edwardian mining engineer from Rhodesia of Scottish origin. It features his adventures in pre-World War I Great Britain. These stories had little in common with John Buchan's novels about the character, although some character names are taken from his other novels.There were two series, the first with six episodes, the second with seven. The combined 13 episodes ran for a total of 652 minutes.One episode, A Point of Honour, was based on a story of the same name by Dornford Yates that appeared in his 1914 book The Brother of Daphne, although Yates was not credited.Another episode used a plot device from the Leslie Charteris Saint story The Unblemished Bootlegger, from the 1933 book The Brighter Buccaneer, again uncredited.

Kyosuke Kasuga, fifteen, moves to a new city and falls for Madoka Ayukawa. She's friendly when they're alone, but acts like a delinquent when in front of others. Kyosuke meanwhile struggles not to break the heart of Hikaru Hiyama, who fell in love after seeing him make an impossible basketball shot. To add the cherry to this particular sundae, Kyosuke and his family (sisters, grandfather, and cousins) all have various powers. And while Kyosuke's desperate to keep those powers a secret, his younger sisters (among others) aren't quite as concerned about it.

BraveStarr is an American Space Western animated television series. The original episodes aired from September 1987 to February 1988 in syndication. It was created simultaneously with a collection of action figures. BraveStarr was the last animated series produced by Filmation and Group W Productions to be broadcast. Bravo!, a spin-off series was in production along with Bugzburg when the studio closed down. Reruns of the show aired on Qubo Night Owl from 2010 to 2013, and reruns air on the Retro Television Network from 2010 to Present.

The Munsters Today is an American sitcom that aired in syndication from 1988 to 1991. The series served as a sequel to the 1960s sitcom The Munsters.

Its central characters are a vampire girl named Miyu and her demonic companion Larva. Miyu is the daughter of both a human and a shinma (demon) and as such she was awakened as the guardian whose destiny is to hunt down all stray shinma and send them back to the darkness.

A stranded spaceship pilot captured by mad scientists survives a blitz of cheesy B movies by riffing on them with his funny robot pals.

Thirtysomething is an American television drama about a group of baby boomers in their late thirties. It was created by Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick for MGM/UA Television Group and The Bedford Falls Company, and aired on ABC. It premiered in the U.S. on September 29, 1987. It lasted four seasons, with the last of its 85 episodes airing on May 28, 1991.The title of the show was designed as thirtysomething by Kathie Broyles, who combined the words of the original title, Thirty Something.In 1997, "The Go Between" and "Samurai Ad Man" were ranked #22 on TV Guide′s 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.In 2002, Thirtysomething was ranked #19 on TV Guide′s 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and in 2013 TV Guide ranked it #10 in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time.

Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) is a recovering alcoholic who returns to the fictional newsmagazine FYI for the first time following a stay at the Betty Ford Clinic residential treatment center. Over 40 and single, she is sharp tongued and hard as nails. In her profession, she is considered one of the boys, having shattered many glass ceilings encountered during her career. Dominating the FYI news magazine, she is portrayed as one of America's hardest-hitting (though not the warmest or more sympathetic) media personalities.

Combines four to five segments of dramatic re-enactments, interviews and updates of real human and paranormal mysteries. An audience interactive call-to-action request allowed viewers to call in with tips to help solve the cases.

A Different World is an American television sitcom which aired for six seasons on NBC. It is a spin-off series from The Cosby Show and originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional mixed but historically black college in the state of Virginia. After Bonet's departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belle Whitley Gilbert and mathematics whiz Dwayne Wayne. The series frequently depicted members of the major historically black fraternities and sororities.While it was a spin-off from The Cosby Show, A Different World would typically address issues that were avoided by The Cosby Show writers. One episode that aired in 1990 was one of the first American network television episodes to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. As of 2011, Monsters airs on NBC Universal's horror/suspense-themed cable channel Chiller in sporadic weekday marathons.In a similar vein to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode of Monsters featured a different monster which the story concerned, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats.Similar to Tales, however, the stories in Monsters were rarely very straightforward action plots and often contained some ironic twist in which a character's conceit or greed would do him in, often with gruesome results. Adding to this was a sense of comedy often lost on horror productions which might in some instances lighten the audience's mood but in many cases added to the overall eeriness of the production.

Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles.The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series.