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8 eighties TV characters who felt like family

Who didn’t want Matlock as a Grandad?

THEY’RE DOING THE unthinkable; they’re replacing Jessica Fletcher.

Angela Lansbury herself has said she’s not happy about the Murder She Wrote reboot, and we don’t blame here.

Growing up, she and some other TV heroes of the eighties (and into the nineties) were just like family we always wanted…

1. Granny Jessica Fletcher

Despite the fact that wherever Jessica went, death followed, she still would have made a wonderful granny.

She always pulled off the granny glamour:

jess Source: F**k Yeah Murder She Wrote

Source: Cabot Cove Look Book

She had some serious seleb pals:

Source: F**k Yeah Murder She Wrote

Source: NPHFan

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And even though she spent every episode solving gruesome murders, she always ended with a laugh:

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2. Grandad Matlock

Loveable legal rogue Matlock was the grandad everyone wanted.

He had a kind face, always wore a lovely grey suit, and was always getting the better of the bad guys.

 

Source: YouTube/ImgFlip

Now, can you sing the Matlock theme tune without looking it up? You can of course.

(pssst here it is. And now you’ll be singing it all night)

3. Dad Steven Keaton

The patriarch of the Keaton famiily was a beardy ex-hippie who just wanted his kids to follow his ideals.

Instead son Alex and daughter Mallory opted for more conservative values, much to their dad’s chagrin.

He did all the things dads do, like teaching kids how to drive:

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And how to take a successful nap:

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4. Mam Kate Tanner

The mam from A.L.F. not only put up with an Alien living in her house, she was also on a never-ending quest to stop him from eating the cat:

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5. Cool Uncle McGyver

Undoubtedly the coolest guy on TV in the eighties, and maybe ever.

He could get out of any tricky situation:

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And look cool doing it:

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AND he was a divil with a paper clip:

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6. Glamourous Aunty Maddie

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Cybill Shepherd played Maddie Hayes in Moonlighting, and when she wasn’t solving crime, she was involved in some of the most intense onscreen chemistry ever with Bruce Willis.

 

Oh and the clothes. And the hair. Truly an icon.

7. Fashionable sister Samantha

Samantha from Who’s the Boss was eternally embarrassed by her housekeeper dad Tony, his boss Angela and her surrogate little brother Jonathan.

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But man ALIVE could she wear a pair of slouch socks and a huge fringe.

 

8. Annoying little brother DJ

Perpetually bullied by two older sisters, DJ Connor was the baby of the Roseanne family, and he grew up right before our eyes in the late eighties and early nineties.

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He dealt with things like relationship advice:

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Fashion problems:

And being alone:

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Who were the members of your eighties (and and nineties) TV family? Let us know…

Read: Eighties US TV imports we all watched and loved>

More: Angela Lansbury is miffed about the reboot of Murder She Wrote>

About the author:

Emer McLysaght

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