5 Forgotten '80s Action Shows That Still Hold Up Today

The 1980s were full of TV shows that everyone needs to watch at least once, and screens big and small often intersected with varying success; this was an era that saw several hit 1980s movies turned into massive TV show flops. However, one genre managed to exist both in movies and on TV: the action genre. 

The musclebound action heroes of the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger variety ruled the roost in the theaters, and their lesser kin did the same on direct-to-video. Meanwhile, the small screen started attracting hard-fisted heroes with specialized gadgets and recurring villains. They might not have been quite as muscular as their cinematic counterparts, but they were equally lantern-jawed and ready to fight evil with a stiff right hook and a weaponized one-liner.

The 1980s gave us shows like "Knight Rider," "Airwolf," "MacGyver," "The Equalizer," "Magnum, P.I.," "The A-Team," and "Miami Vice." Of course, that's just the tip of the iceberg. For every classic 1980s action series that everyone remembers even today, there was the B-roster of shows that were perfectly good and still hold up today, but that simply failed to capture the long-term attention they deserved for one reason or another. Today, we pay homage to these forgotten 1980s action shows by taking a look at five particularly worthy ones.

Rick (Gerald McRaney) and A.J. Simon (Jameson Parker) are brothers, but they couldn't be more different. One of them is a salt-of-the-earth hothead with a glorious mustache; the other is a classic squeaky-clean hero type. Together, they fight crime. And own a private detective agency in San Diego.

Sometimes, it doesn't take much more than that, and Philip DeGuere's "Simon & Simon" uses the dysfunctional duo trope to a wonderful effect. The devil is truly in the details, here: The fact that the laid-back redneck Rick lives in a boat that's in the backyard of the preppier A.J. is a great visual that immediately shows their dynamic. You have a devil-may-care brother and a stickler for the rules, who nevertheless get along and love each other. The cases of the week that they investigate might not always be special, but the pair's dynamic and chemistry are generally enough to steal the show.

"Simon & Simon" ran for eight seasons on CBS. It may not be talked about all that much anymore, but the show remains great and is well worth checking out if you happen to come across it.

Imagine Indiana Jones created by original "NCIS" main man Donald P. Bellisario, and you have "Tales of the Gold Monkey." The action-adventure show takes us back to the year 1938, when ace pilot Jake Cutter (Stephen Collins) operated a cargo plane service out of a South Seas island and got up to all sorts of shenanigans. 

Indy by the way of Tintin, "Tales of the Gold Monkey" has plucky sidekicks and overly smart dog buddies. It has Nazi spies, alluring U.S. Government operatives, undercover missions, daring escapades, and a general fight against evil — not to mention plenty of 1980s-style action and humor in exotic locales. The show never got a second season, but the 22 episodes that do exist are an interesting look into the adventure-making sensibilities of its era.

There's one caveat to the show still holding up today, though. While "Tales of the Gold Monkey" is a highly entertaining show overall, it does feature a highly stereotypical Japanese villain called Princess Koji (Marta Dubois), as if to remind the viewer that this was the 1980s and inclusiveness was still putting on its marching boots.

Stephen J. Cannell's "The Greatest American Hero" tackles the 1980s trend of endowing a civilian with great powers and having them fight crime with a particularly interesting twist. Here, William Katt's Ralph Hinkley is a mild-mannered teacher who, out of sheer happenstance, comes across advanced aliens who bestow upon him a superhero suit that gives him just about every power imaginable. His marching orders: team up with a gruff FBI agent (Robert Culp) and a hot lawyer (Connie Sellecca) and use the suit's power to fight crime.

"The Greatest American Hero" manages to infuse heart, some very inventive superpowers, and a seriously catchy theme song into its case-of-the-week investigations. The ABC show ran for three seasons, and its main gimmick of the suit's powers proving difficult to control because Ralph has lost the instruction manual provides a surprising number of genuine chuckles. The show keeps whipping out outlandish powers such as controlling dogs with holograms.

Perhaps no other dysfunctional buddy duo in the history of television has been quite as dysfunctional on paper as Brian Keith's Judge Milton C. Hardcastle and Daniel Hugh Kelly's expert racer and petty criminal Mark "Skid" McCormick. In "Hardcastle and McCormick," the two come together when the aging Hardcastle ponders a massive number of dismissed cases he feels would benefit from being solved and decides to take care of them all. To this end, he needs someone who's both capable and unafraid to operate in the gray areas of the law, so McCormick gets to serve his parole by working for Hardcastle on his many missions to catch serious criminals.

Stephen J. Cannell and Patrick Hasburgh's three-season ABC action-crime drama is good fun. Keith anchors the show with his stony and imposing presence, while Kelly takes care of the action and the car chases, of which the show features galore. The Coyote X custom car that McCormick drives is one of the cooler 1980s cars that don't get talked about as much as they deserve, and while it's no K.I.T.T., it's always a welcome sight on the screen.

While we're on the subject of cool 1980s vehicle-themed shows that fell by the wayside while "Airwolf" and "Knight Rider" hogged the limelight, look no further than "Street Hawk." The one-season series focuses on injured police officer Jesse Mach (Rex Smith), who escapes desk duty by becoming a vigilante — the skilled rider of Street Hawk, an experimental urban war machine that resembles a motorcycle. The catch? His day job boss, Captain Altobelli (Richard Venture), absolutely loathes this new vigilante, forcing Jesse to lead a difficult double life that's motivated by a sense of adventure and the desire to do good in the world. 

Okay, so "Street Hawk" isn't the most complicated show in the world, and its sleek motorcycle and 1980s synth theme song veer a touch close to "Knight Rider" at the best of times. Still, that doesn't mean the show isn't a great watch. "Street Hawk" knows precisely what it is and fulfills its concept of "cool guy fights crooks on a cool motorbike that also shoots missiles sometimes" extremely well. Sometimes, you just want to bang action figures together, and "Street Hawk" is a show that serves that particular corner of action drama entertainment in spades. Pay attention, and you may even spot young George Clooney.