80s Television - ALF | Sledgehammer | LA Law

This morning we heard on the news that Charlie Sheen had been rushed to hospital, the first words out of my dd's mouth were - will Two and a Half Men still be on tonight? It got me thinking about the first time my hubby came over to my house, we were all gathered in the family room and I saw his eyes roaming and suddenly realized he was looking for the television. We didn't have a television set in the family room (my parents still don't), but we do have one in the formal lounge.

In 1988 I emigrated to New Zealand where my parents and brother had been living for nine months and so began a new chapter in all of our lives. Having two living spaces made me feel like we were incredibly rich! It also made our tv watching very special because we made a night of it. Dad would light the fire in the front room and we'd either have fish and chips or a 'quick to make' meal like beans on toast and then it was television night.

Thursday night was the night we used to watch our television starting off with everyone's favorite alien - ALF. As anyone who watched ALF would know his real name was Gordon, but the Tanners called him ALF because it was an acronym for Alien Life Force (do you remember all of the 80s acronyms?). I absolutely loved this little fellow, although how he managed to resist eating the cat I have no idea!

After ALF came a program that I hadn't heard about until I moved to NZ and it was called Sledgehammer. Starring David Rasche my dad used to laugh himself silly during every episode and quickly adopted the saying 'Trust me, I know what I'm doing'.

Our Thursday night was rounded out by LA Law, because let's face it you didn't live through the 80s without watching LA Law. I was quite relieved to find in on television in NZ and happy that my parents watched it because I had started to watch it while living with my grandmother and enjoyed it.

I loved Arnie and Roxanne, Leland and Stuart, Benny and Abby. Unlike other people I wasn't so keen on Grace and Victor, but I still can't wait for this television series to become available on DVD - what's taking the studio so long to release it?

What were your favorite 80s television shows?

80s T-Shirts

Is it just me or are people who aren't old enough to remember the 80s falling in love with the decade as well??? It seems as though everywhere I look people are wearing 80s t-shirts. During my last shift (5 hours in a shop)I saw 6, six, different types of 80s tees being worn by different people!


Don't get me wrong I am not complaining, I thought they were all very cool and wished I'd owned them myself! Soooo - do you have an 80s t-shirt? If you don't there are some great ones available all over the internet - you just have to think about what type of 80s shirt you want to wear in public!

Do you go for an 80s t-shirt of a favorite movie such as Sixteen Candles or Red Dawn?    There are some great 80s movie tees available and I've even compiled a list of them so if you think 80s movies are the type of t-shirt you'd like to wear you'll have to check this site out -

80s Movie Tees

This site offers 80s t-shirts from a wide collection of 80s movies from A Nightmare on Elm Street right through to War Games!   I have a lot of trouble trying to think of my favorite 80s movies because there were so many great ones around - hubby always picks Ferris Bueller though so he would be happy to please!

Maybe when it comes to 80s t-shirts you'd rather celebrate your favorite 80s band??   There are soooo many of these 80s t-shirts around from the classic Frankie Say Relax to Bon Jovi, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears etc band tees. 

With lots of bands reforming and doing tours they're finding more and more money is made on the merchandising side of the concert.   I know this is certainly the case with me and from reading interviews I know I'm not alone.   As you'll know if you've been reading my blog regularly I was lucky enough to see Spandau Ballet perform their Reformation Tour in Australia.   Tears for Fears joined them for their Australian leg of the tour so I got to see two favorite 80s bands for the price of one!

I last saw Spandau Ballet during their Through the Barricades Tour and that time I was a teenage who had spent her money attending the concert, I certainly couldn't afford a lot of merchandise.   This time around I was in my 40s and alot more affluent so I stocked up on t-shirts, guitar picks, mugs.......I was the ultimate consumer!!

Every time I wear my Spandau Ballet t-shirt or Tears for Fears t-shirt it gets commented on from the 'oh did you get to see them' to the 'you do realize you're showing your age' type of comments!

Maybe you'd prefer your 80s t-shirt to remind people of your favorite 80s television show?   Luckily you can also find plenty of tees to remind us of what we were watching on the small box - I miss ALF he was cool!

I also really wanted to own a car just like KITT when I grew up, but that never happened!!!

Those were the days back when the Hoff was still cool, although not as cool as the Knight Industries Two Thousand he drove around in.

The Dukes of Hazzard is probably one of my hubby's favorite television shows of the 80s, although we also both loved the A-Team.    As a brief aside to this discussion of 80s t-shirts, we saw the latest A Team movie the other week and I thoroughly enjoyed it.   I always worry when they try and remake old favorites, but I recommend it if you're looking for an action packed movie to watch over the holiday season.

Of course there are just so many other ideas for 80s t-shirts that you can use, I saw a child who must've been about 5 wearing an awesome Space Invaders t-shirt - I so wanted that.....not that it would've fitted me mind you!

Anyway I'm going to leave you now to ponder on what 80s t-shirt you'd most like to wear and let you see a selection of 80s t-shirts from Zazzle.

I Love The 80's T-Shirt by teeboutique
See other 80's T-Shirts

Gamer t-shirt by Foozyo
Create a customized t-shirt at zazzle

The H is O by globitron

Radio 365-24-7 by globitron