Only true ’80s kids can match all 10 of these sitcom theme songs to the show
Every ’80s sitcom opened the exact same way. A full minute of theme song, sung with total earnestness, laying out the show’s entire emotional thesis before a single joke landed. Ten lyrics below. Name the show behind each one.
Question 1
“Show me that smile again, don’t waste another minute on your cryin’…”
Answer
Growing Pains. “As Long as We Got Each Other” was written by Steve Dorff and John Bettis, not by anyone in the cast, though Alan Thicke did play the Seaver family patriarch the song was written for.
Question 2
“I bet we’ve been together for a million years, and I’ll bet we’ll be together for a million more…”
Answer
Family Ties. “Without Us” launched right alongside the career of a young Michael J. Fox as a teen heartthrob, playing the conservative son, Alex P. Keaton, opposite his ex-hippie parents.
Question 3
“Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got…”
Answer
Cheers. Widely considered one of the most beloved theme songs in television history. Written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart-Angelo, the same duo also behind Punky Brewster’s theme.
Question 4
A theme summed up by one fan’s brother-in-law in exactly three words: old ladies hugging.
Answer
The Golden Girls, “Thank You for Being a Friend.” Side hugs, shoulder squeezes, and group huddles included.
Question 5
“You take the good, you take the bad, you take ’em both, and there you have…”
Answer
The Facts of Life. A Diff’rent Strokes spinoff, starring housekeeper Edna Garrett in a lateral career move into housemother of an all-girls boarding school.
Question 6
“Nothing’s gonna stop me now…”
Answer
Perfect Strangers, performed by David Pomeranz, matching a show about two mismatched cousins chasing the American dream in Chicago.
Question 7
“What might be right for you, may not be right for some…”
Answer
Diff’rent Strokes. Written by Alan Thicke, Gloria Loring, and Al Burton, the theme set the tone for a show about two boys from Harlem adopted into a wealthy household.
Question 8
“There is more to life than what you’re living, you take a chance and face the wind…”
Answer
Who’s the Boss, “Brand New Life.” Written by series creators Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, the theme is part of a subgenre of ’80s sitcoms centered on male caretakers, alongside Charles in Charge and Mr. Belvedere.
Question 9
A theme voiced by a genuinely little-girl-sounding singer, Shandi Sinnamon, for a show about a college guy babysitting kids. Something about that pairing never quite sat right.
Answer
Charles in Charge. One retrospective called the mismatch between the theme’s tone and the show’s actual premise genuinely a little unsettling once you think about it.
Question 10
“As days go by…”
Answer
Family Matters. Written by Jesse Frederick, Bennett Salvay, and Scott Roeme, the same team behind several other ABC TGIF theme songs of the era.
Final score
Ten for ten means genuine fluency in a decade that took its theme songs seriously enough to write an entire emotional arc into ninety seconds of music. Half right still counts.
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