80s TV Shows That Feature Vehicles

Eleven shows where the car, van, bike or helicopter was the real lead. Ranked by how badly we wanted to drive it.

Entries
11
Category
TV
Updated
  1. A red roadster with a gavel on the hood on a coastal road

    11. Hardcastle and McCormick

    ABC · 1983

    A retired judge recruits a car thief to help catch the criminals who got away. The early star was the Coyote X, a fiberglass kit-car sports car that looked like a race car with a learner's permit. Brian Keith growls, Daniel Hugh Kelly drives.

  2. A helicopter over Los Angeles at night with a red searchlight beam

    10. Blue Thunder

    ABC · 1984

    The TV spin-off of the 1983 movie, with a surveillance helicopter that could hear through walls. It went up against Airwolf in the same season and lost the helicopter war in eleven episodes. Still: two attack-helicopter shows at once. What a time.

  3. A futuristic motorcycle racing through a tunnel trailing red light

    09. Street Hawk

    ABC · 1985

    A police motorcycle with a top speed of 300 mph and a secret identity, ridden by Rex Smith. Tangerine Dream did the music. It lasted one short season, which only made the bike more legendary for the kids who saw it.

  4. A white cabin cruiser in a harbor with a red helicopter overhead and a small robot on deck

    08. Riptide

    NBC · 1984

    Two Vietnam vets run a detective agency out of a boat called the Riptide, with a pink helicopter named the Screaming Mimi and a computer nerd who built a robot. It's exactly as fun as that sentence sounds. Southern California, maximum leisure.

  5. A pickup truck flying off a movie-set ramp past a camera crane and a red explosion

    07. The Fall Guy

    ABC · 1981

    Lee Majors plays a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter, and he sang the theme song himself. The GMC pickup took the abuse that stunt work implies. A love letter to the people who actually make action movies happen.

  6. A red convertible sports car with a Hawaiian shirt on the seat, palms behind

    06. Magnum, P.I.

    CBS · 1980

    Tom Selleck, a Hawaiian shirt, and a red Ferrari 308 GTS that technically belonged to the never-seen Robin Masters. Magnum lived in the guest house, drove the boss's car and solved crimes in between. The most enviable job ever written for television.

  7. A sleek black helicopter rising out of a mesa against a red sky

    05. Airwolf

    CBS · 1984

    A supersonic attack helicopter hidden in a hollowed-out mesa, flown by Jan-Michael Vincent with Ernest Borgnine riding along. The opening theme is one of the great synth anthems of the decade. Plausible? No. Thrilling? Every single week.

  8. A white sports car under palm trees before a red sunset and the Miami skyline

    04. Miami Vice

    NBC · 1984

    Crockett drove a Ferrari Daytona Spyder that was really a replica built on a Corvette. Ferrari objected, the show blew the car up on screen, and Ferrari supplied a white Testarossa. Pastel suits, Jan Hammer synths, and the best-dressed car chases on TV.

  9. An orange muscle car numbered 01 jumping over a creek

    03. The Dukes of Hazzard

    CBS · 1979

    An orange 1969 Dodge Charger with welded-shut doors, jumped so often the show wrecked hundreds of them. Acknowledgement: the General Lee was named for Robert E. Lee and wore a Confederate flag on its roof, which is why reruns and the toys got pulled in 2015.

  10. A black van with a red stripe bursting through a barn wall

    02. The A-Team

    NBC · 1983

    A black GMC van with a red stripe, and B.A. Baracus would fight you over it. Nearly every episode ended with the team welding armor onto something in a barn. Thousands of rounds fired, almost nobody hit. Peak 80s television logic.

  11. A black sports car head-on with a red scanner light on an empty highway

    01. Knight Rider

    NBC · 1982

    A talking black Trans Am named KITT, voiced by William Daniels, who went uncredited. David Hasselhoff did the driving, but everyone knew who the star was. Turbo boost remains the most requested feature that no car company will ever ship.

Honorable mentions

  • Two police motorcycles on a freeway under an overpass with a red sun between them

    CHiPs

    NBC · 1977

    Two California Highway Patrol motorcycles and a lot of freeway pileups. It started in the 70s, so it watches from the shoulder.

Every list.
On tap.

No newsletter. Point your AI at our public MCP server, or follow the RSS feed. New lists show up in both.

Get the MCP RSS