FlickFuture Home

🎬 Explore Guides Hub

Best TV Series of 1989 Ranked

The definitive guide to the greatest TV series that premiered in 1989. Ranked by audience and critic ratings.

#1. Ranma ½ (1989–)

★ 8.6/10 1,555 votes

Ranma Saotome, a teenage martial artist, and his father Genma travel to the 'cursed training ground' of Jusenkyo in China. There, despite the warnings of the Chinese guard, they fall into the cursed springs. From now on, whenever Ranma is doused in cold water, he turns into a girl and a cute, well-built redhead at that. Hot water changes him back into a man again, but only until the next time. To make matters worse, his father engages him to Akane Tendo, a girl who hates boys.

#2. Dragon Ball Z (1989–)

★ 8.4/10 5,061 votes

Now happily married and with a son, martial arts champion Goku must defend Earth from a series of extraterrestrial invaders bent on destruction.

#3. Dekalog (1989–)

★ 8.3/10 119 votes

The Ten Commandments, exact and uncompromising, literally cast in stone, continues to provide a source of moral conflict in contemporary society. In the ten part collection of films, The Decalogue, Krzysztof Kieślowski examines the dilemma of fundamental sin in the lives of ordinary Warsaw citizens.

#4. Seinfeld (1989–)

★ 8.3/10 2,498 votes

A stand-up comedian and his three offbeat friends weather the pitfalls and payoffs of life in New York City in the '90s. It's a show about nothing.

#5. Our People (1989–)

★ 8.2/10 30 votes

Bizimkiler (Ours, Our People) was a Turkish drama, represented the lives of the people shared the same neighborhood. It is one of the longest-running series in Turkish television drama history.

#6. Tieta (1989–)

★ 8.2/10 25 votes

Inspired on Jorge Amado's romance "Tieta do Agreste", the plot is set on the fictional city of Santana do Agreste, at Brazil's northwest, and has as main theme Tieta's life turnarounds. Twenty-five years after being chased out of town by her father Zé Esteves, she returns to her home town seeking revenge against everyone who mistreated her and laugh at her face in the past.

#7. Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–)

★ 8.2/10 598 votes

From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.

#8. The Simpsons (1989–)

★ 8.0/10 11,128 votes

Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.

#9. Quantum Leap (1989–)

★ 8.0/10 813 votes

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

#10. Tales from the Crypt (1989–)

★ 8.0/10 1,030 votes

Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?

#11. Mobile Cop Jiban (1989–)

★ 8.0/10 227 votes

Naoto detective Jiban fights for justice against Bioron and his evil plans to conquer the world.

#12. Lonesome Dove (1989–)

★ 7.9/10 221 votes

A pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers crave one last adventure before hanging-up their spurs. After stealing over a thousand head of cattle from rustlers south of the border, they recruit an unlikely crew of hands to drive the herd 3,000 miles north to the grasslands of Montana.

#13. A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–)

★ 7.9/10 140 votes

A British comedy television series with turns of phrase and elaborate wordplay, written by and starring former Cambridge Footlights members Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

#14. Rescue 911 (1989–)

★ 7.9/10 23 votes

Rescue 911 is an informational reality-based television series that premiered on April 18, 1989 and ended on August 27, 1996. The series was hosted by William Shatner and featured reenactments of emergency situations that often involved calls to 911. Though never intended as a teaching tool, various viewers used the knowledge they obtained watching the show. Two specials, titled "100 Lives Saved" and "200 Lives Saved," were dedicated to viewers who had written to CBS with their stories on how the knowledge they obtained watching the show allowed them to save the life of someone else. At least 350 lives have been saved as a result of what viewers learned from watching it.

#15. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989–)

★ 7.9/10 43 votes

In the final days of the One Year War, a Zeon special forces group infiltrates a colony to gather information on a new Gundam unit. Alfred Izuhara, a 10-year-old student, befriends Zeon rookie pilot Bernie Wiseman during a brief mobile suit combat. Meanwhile, Al meets up with Christina MacKenzie, his former neighbor and babysitter. Little does he know that not only is Christina a member of the Earth Federation, she's the test pilot of the new Gundam NT-4 prototype.