Not only was TV more family-friendly in the 1980s, it was simply better.
So said actor Todd Bridges, who played Willis on the popular show Diff’rent Strokes, which ran on NBC from 1978 to 1985.
Bridges reminisced and shared his thoughts with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin on Wednesday as part of the network’s introduction to CNN’s new show, “The Eighties,” which premiered on Thursday.
“Back in those days, in the ‘80s TV shows actually meant something, and they all had like, a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they always were very helpful toward people you know, learning how to live their life and learning how to live it the right way,” Bridges said.
Bridges, who is producing a new game show, Lovers or Losers in Las Vegas said shows from the ‘80s were just “great shows” and held meaning for all kinds of people.
“Somewhere along the line it got muttered up and now we just have shows that, um, are about nothing,” said the star. “Back in the ‘80s all of our shows meant something. And it meant something to children; it meant something to adults.”
Bridges remarked that the once family-friendly nature of TV has been lost.
“And you could actually let your kid watch it without being in fear that something bad is going to come on or something bad is going to happen in it that a kid’s not going to understand,” Bridges said of shows a few decades ago.
Bridges painted a broader cultural picture when he pointed out that the ‘80s were comparatively safer for children in other ways as well.
“The ‘80s were also a lot more safer [sic] for kids to be out in the streets. … A kid can go, you know, four, five, five, six-year-olds can go down the street, and they were pretty, very rarely, you know, they were very safe. And nowadays it’s not as safe as it was back then,” he said.
Bridges is no stranger, however, to the darker side of culture even in the ‘80s. The substance abuse of his fellow cast members made him a “better human being” he said, since now he is able to “counsel different people for different situations.”
The actor battled a cocaine addiction in his 20s and in 1988 was tried but acquitted for the attempted murder of drug dealer Kenneth "Tex" Clay.
“Just knowing that I’m like one of the last survivors of that particular core show is a blessing in itself because everyone thought that I’d be the first to go, and I ended up being the last man standing,” he concluded.
