Young Sujata's TV Drama Recommendations!

Stop re-watching The Office, Friends and Suits (although I really like Suits!), try some of these '80s classics!

A few weeks ago it was announced that an iconic ‘80s show Moonlighting would finally be on streaming TODAY!! With Moonlighting finally available, all my formative TV Dramas are now available on streaming. Growing up I had a lot of TV restrictions imposed on me, but I persisted! Here are my favorite 1 hour dramas from tween and teen Sujata years with you - the genres (Medical, Legal, Detective - with ensemble casts and some good will they or won’t they, humor), continue to be ones I love, and some of these shows brought actors into my life who I still adore.

As I start re-watching them, I wonder which will hold up, which will be just as relevant, and which I will cringe at!!!

St. Elsewhere (Hulu): This was the first medical drama I loved, and the first time I saw, loved and appreciated Denzel Washington and Mark Harmon (who, fun fact, was People’s second Sexiest Man Alive). Classic ‘80s drama - memorable theme song, great cast, cool special guest stars, and “important” story lines of the day. Looking back, I’m not sure why I was watching this show since it starting airing when I was 10 and it had some pretty serious storylines🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️. It has one of the most frustrating, memorable, and controversial series finales ever. St. Elsewhere aired on NBC from 1982-1988.

Remington Steele (Prime Video): My eternal love for Pierce Brosnan (which he recently broke by supporting RFK Jr. for President) stemmed from this very fun show, and it also got me in the feminist vibes since Laura Holt had to make up a male boss named Remington Steele to get taken seriously as a Detective. Remington’s love of old Hollywood movies, got me into them too. I love the chemistry between Remington and Laura, the episode by episode special cases, and the long term mystery of who Remington really was. Mildred Krebs - played by Doris Roberts - also iconic. The theme song and original opening sequence was memorable (at least to me). Remington Steele aired on NBC from 1982-1987. I distinctly remember that it was going to be cancelled and then Pierce took the gig as 007 and then NBC re-upped the show for another season and he was not happy and had to delay becoming 007 for a little while again!

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LA Law (Prime): This was a Steven Bochco show (Hill Street Blues, Doogie Howser MD, NYPD Blue and Cop Rock!), and my real entry into legal drama and my introduction to decades of loving Jimmy Smits and Blair Underwood, John Spencer (Leo McGarry) and even Harry Hamlin. Classic legal cases, important issues of the day, and some very iconic scenes that would for sure be memes if they happened now. The Gorilla Suit grand gesture. Rosalind Shays and the Elevator! The Venus Butterfly! IYKYK. This aired on NBC from 1986-1994!

Moonlighting (Hulu): My friends and I watched this every week live (or we taped it on VCR) and rehashed every minute the next day at school. This was Bruce Willis’ breakthrough role and it’s funny, snarky, and musical. If you only know Willis from Die Hard, Sixth Sense and action movies, this is a must see, a joy! It’s fast talking before The West Wing. The chemistry is off the charts, mostly because Willis and co-star (and fellow Memphian) Cybil Shepherd famously despised each other. They added a love triangle with Mark Harmon, who I already loved from St. Elsewhere, so I was happy! The music was fantastic in every episode and is apparently why it took so long to get on to streaming - they did over 60 shows but used 300 songs, and apparently got 90% of the rights. I learned later that the creator Glen Gordon Caron was inspired to write this show by one of my all time fav movies His Girl Friday (Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell) and Shakespeare’s The Taming of The Shrew. They did full musical episodes, black and white episodes, and one in full iambic pentameter. The theme song was written by Al Jarreau and yes…iconic. The supporting characters were also memorable - Agnes DiPesto and Herbert Viola! This aired on ABC from 1985-1989.

“As I became aware of Bruce Willis’ illness, it became more urgent for me, because I knew a lot of the world knew him as this guy who carried a gun, but they didn’t know that he was this romantic leading man. They didn’t know that he’s incredibly funny and incredibly verbally dexterous. I would write these eight-page monologues for him at 5:30 a.m., and he’d had them memorized word-perfect by 7:20, largely because he was musical, and he approached everything as a musical proposition…” - Glen Gordon Caron, creator of Moonlighting TV Insider