1981 TV Show Openings Part 2

[MetallicBill]

Only giving my thumbs up for BENSON.... The best, Bar None! hahaha How DO you say Rene's last name? I am stumped on that one

[MSL2007]

Wow! Good work!

Please, where can I get this "That's Incredible" episode?

[DickieAnginson]

Falcon Crest was a horrible spin-off of Dynasty. I hate the show but I loved the theme music. :)

Too Close for Comfort's Lydia Cornell still looks beautiful. I wish I could say the same about Deborah van Valkenburgh.

[pnighswander]

Love Sidney was way ahead of its time and perhaps deserved a second life. The Christian right wing tools basically chloroformed it

[Hard2guard24]

Where can you find the episodes for "That's Incredible"? I think i was on it when i was 1, now am 30. I have newspaper clippings from the show and being on it, but never seen the actual show. Any help?

[MetallicBill]

@Hard2guard24 I used to watch it, sadly, not lasting long, and not in syndication

[wolf25ph]

I remember that's increadable. That was the first show that I hid behind my hands. To a four and five year old, this show was very scary and yet I kept wanting to see it each time it was on. Eventually my mother stopped me from watching it as I would get nightmares.

[daverossi5436]

Benson was way ahead of it's time. I was watching it recently on dvd and there were several episodes filled with political situations paralleling real politics of Washington today. Incredibly excellent and super funny and witty.

[MetallicBill]

@daverossi5436 I vote Benson and Soap the all time best comic Sitcoms. They stand the test of time, truly!! Everyone should see both

[NewsLynne]

"Love Sidney's" theme song is like a root canal.

[radioonemike]

My Gosh-- Love, Sidney AND Dark Room??!

Excellent!

[mccarrpo]

That Tony Randall Show makes me want to fucking cry, and it is only a fucking theme song. This show must have been copied by Punky Brewster.

[mccarrpo]

When I was a kid, I thought that woman on "That's Incredible" was married to both those guys, and that they were both her husbands.

[fordxbgtfalcon]

ah! falcon crest was such a great show... nothing like watching rich people pretend they have problems!

[jmuduke99]

Joe Theismann's wife was hot!!

[trexmex67]

wow....Tony and Swoosie could not sing!

[dadoctah]

I was thinking there was an older daughter on "Love Sydney" who was played by George C Scott's real-life daughter, but after a little research it seems I'm confusing the show with an earlier Tony Randall series.

[freeasabird12907]

wow swoosie kurtz and tony randall

[cansecoisgod]

what in the world is dark room?

[cansecoisgod]

i really loved thats incredible as a kid

[chalklounge]

That Tony Randall bit at the beginning is truly horrid. Wow.

[ThePaddyjoejr1]

Jane wyman Was So HOT!

[neepl8]

When I think of "Darkroom" I also think of that Robert Stack show. I think it was "StrikeForce" I remember they were like back to back on Friday nights.

[neepl8]

Yes. I remember these years when it was all about ABC and ABC was #1

[gpo66]

there were a lot of silly stuff then you old timers so don't throw in your contempt

same then same now in different form

[c1duce]

loved thats incredible great to see it

[Cancrizans]

I really loved this show as a kid...only thing I knew is it had a great theme song and a great cast...as did most of the 80's sitcoms and comedies. I really hate to sound like an old person but tbh the more commercial it gets...

[shittyshit69]

darkroom is some scary shit

[coventrygardens]

this from wikipedia about the theme.

Opening theme "Friends Forever" performed by Tony Randall, Swoosie Kurtz & Kaleena Kiff (1981-1982) then by Gladys Knight (1982-1983)

[sonypics2010]

1981-82 was really the last time I watched TV on a regular basis. Then I became a mid teen and ran around with the crowed. I'm probably bias for saying this but these were the best shows

[KeemLegendPA]

I use to wanna bang Didi Conn, she got me hot when i was10.

[NYNYRaider]

Benson and Too Close were the only ones here that people think of as 80's...the rest are all 70's shows that spilled over into the early 80's...can't believe Benson was almost 30 yrs ago!

[delidude1999]

no benson was a 70's show that spilled over--it stareted on soap

[NYNYRaider]

WRONG! Benson ran from 79 to 86, meaning the ideas for it were 70's but it was much more 80's...same is true of Dallas, Love Boat and several other shows

[delidude1999]

BUT they started in the 70s--obviously if they ran into the 80s and 90s (as Dallas did) the ideas changed to fit the times.

[NYNYRaider]

Yes! Just saying few who remember them would claim them as 70's since they peaked in the 80's...just like few would say Human League, Talking Heads and the GoGo's were 70's groups, albeit they all started then.

[davetteb100]

In the second season, Gladys Knight sung the theme song for this show? Could you please find it?

[ShangoJamal]

THANK YOU! I was beginning to think I was the only one who remembered that.

[kirkrules66]

Ha ha Voyager's Neelix and DS9's Odo both as regulars on Benson. Small world isn't it?

[falconflyer34]

Holy cow, I don't remember Love Sydney looking so 70's. I forgot about Darkroom.

[delidude1999]

it was 1982

[falconflyer34]

oh, now that you mention it, it does look very modern now.

[delidude1999]

all those NBC shows--facts of life, different strokes, silver spoons, they all had the same kinds of bulky sets

[johnny07652]

Oh, Mithter Ruuuushhh!!!

MON-ROOOOOOOOEEE!!! YOU'RE GETTING ON MY LAST NERVE!!!

lol, classic

[xxitsjorynxx]

one of the worst theme songs ever-but a great show!

[nowdid]

Love,Sydney was a very good capsule of Manhattan in the late 70's early 80's

[kfag101]

@nowdid  yet it was filmed in L.A.

[Sox575]

We had to sing the "Friends Forever" theme song from "Love, Sydney" in chorus when I was in jr. high. It was a great song, but I never got into the show.

"That's Incredible!" I watched religiously and I still remember that opening!

[WestVirginiaRebel]

That and "Real People"! Early reality TV that rocked!

[Sox575]

LOL! "Real People" I totally forgot about that show. That was another great show that I never missed.

[tnawcwvictoria]

Whenever people think of Tony Randall, they think of Felix Unger from The Odd Couple and Swoosie Kurtz would go on to greater success with Sisters and Kaleena Kiff went on to play the voice of Daisy Darrett on the CBS Saturday Morning Series Pole Position produced by DiC Entertainment.

[snoopy64116]

We sung that in school as well!

[stableshadow]

Love Sydney SUCKED. Benson rocked.

[delidude1999]

sidney was cuting edge for the time and of course benson was great.

[Maestro80sMusic]

I remember Darkroom...hosted by Lee Marvin I think...a Twilight Zone wanna-be (best episode was when an abusive father was attacked one night by his son's GI Joe's).... Look for Deborah Van Valkenburg from Too CLose for Comfort as William Shatner's love interest in the movie Free Enterprise

[stableshadow]

Dark Room was great -- it was James Coburn, though...

[stableshadow]

YES -- THE GI JOES!  I SAW THAT ONE!

[WestVirginiaRebel]

That was an adaptation of "Battlefield," a story that was done better on "Nightmares and Dreamscapes".

[mathewbailey08]

Was Punky Brewster a knockoff of Love Sidney?

[delidude1999]

no--henry wasn't gay--sidney was--but it was downplayed in the series

[Marckymarc71]

As a kid I thought that Tony Randall was gay and that Love Sidney was his "coming out". My gaydar never was very good :P

[quelita1971]

@Marckymarc71 You were right for the show. We studied this show in History of televison class. His character was gay, but they were not allowed to say it.

[Marckymarc71]

@quelita1971

Yes, well they COULD have said it, but they were afraid of losing advertising sales--especially in the South and Midwest, so they decided to play it safe.

[Iamonad]

@Marckymarc71 Actually, your "Gaydar" was quite good! Tony Randall was a "flaming queen," but he kept it "secret" as best he could!

[Marckymarc71]

@Iamonad  No, actually he wasn't. He was "metrosexual" before there was such a term, but he was straight.

[mikehlebik]

@Marckymarc71 same here! when i found out he fathered a child in his 60s or early 70s, i about croaked

[wilfred35]

Too close for comfort funny because that was my old neighborhood in the 80's we use to walk past it and say that's the house from to close for comfort .With deborah van valkenburgh from the Warriors.What a fucked up surname .

[stableshadow]

WARRIORS! COME OUT AND PLAY!

[twev30theprince]

I still sing this song and my kids look at me like I'm crazy

[pjasher]

Love Sidney was really ahead of it's time back in 1982. My mom and i watched it when it aired.

[funnygal200]

Love Sidney good theme song!

[1980sgod]

Darkroom? What is that all about???

[soundsfromnothing]

Forgot to add, I also remember the "Oral Implantology" segment on that's incredible. I used to watch the show as a young kid in the early 80's, but remember seeing that segment when the original show was re-ran, in 90-91

[soundsfromnothing]

Kaleena Kiff ended up being in the new Leave it to Beaver series that was on for most of the 80's.

[LeanaJoH76]

Where is she nowadays?

[soundsfromnothing]

She's a director now. The last I heard, when I looked her up a little while back, was that she was directing a series called "Alice & Huck." They actually have a trailer for it on Youtube:

h t t p : / / w w w . y outube . c om/watch?v=I3pNBCKJkjg&feature­=related

[phoenixmoon3]

i'll never forget Love Sidney, though I thought it was called I love Sidney. and i watched it all the time. thank you :)

[jimmyjosephs]

These tv openings are so cool...bring back so many memories! I used to love watching Love, Sidney!!

[depg1979]

Did you know......

The stars of TCFC appeared on The Match Game-

Hollywood Squares Hour in seperate occasions.

[alarbman39]

Some of the 80's (Miami Vice, etc) shows wern't too bad, but IMO: This is when the long slide to today began...60's and 70's were still the best for me...LOL

[1980sgod]

well the actual slide started getting bad in the early 90s. Music went down the slide as well and many other issues in this country started going down hill

[jmjfanss]

@alarbman39

Not really, it started in the 1990's.

[gli7utubeo]

What's with all the cats at 2:34?