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Best History TV Series of the 1980s

319 History series that started in the 1980s, ranked by popularity

All History series All series from the 1980s
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Genres as assigned by IMDb. Selecting several means a show must match all of them.

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Rating patterns, computed from IMDb episode-rating trajectories. Deliberately strict: only shows with an unmistakable pattern carry one, so expect small numbers.

Rating patterns

Taste tags, judged by our AI taste model. They cover the 5,000 most-rated shows.

Tone & mood
Pacing & structure
Humor style
Themes & subject matter
Characters & perspective
Emotional payoff
Craft & style
Format & audience
Viewing-culture clusters
Intensity & content character
319 series

Sarbadars

★ 7.4
396 1983–1985
Drama · History · War

Dead Souls

★ 7.6
387 5 1984–1984
Comedy · Drama · History

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years

★ 8.5
377 8 1981–1981
Biography · Drama · History

Shanghai Beach

★ 8.1
367 25 1980–present
Drama · History

Little Tragedies

★ 7.9
366 3 1980–1980
Drama · History · Horror

Captain James Cook

★ 8.1
365 4 1987–2000
Biography · Drama · History

Vietnam: A Television History

★ 8.8
364 13 1983–1983
Documentary · History · War

The Age of Iron

★ 7.2
330 4 1982–1982
Drama · Fantasy · History

In Search of the Trojan War

★ 8.8
318 6 1985–1985
Documentary · History

Ellis Island

★ 7.1
318 3 1984–1984
Drama · History

Dolgaya doroga v dyunakh

★ 7.9
315 7 1982–1982
Drama · History · War

Dumou Fi Oyoun Waqiha

★ 7.1
313 14 1980–1980
Drama · History · War

The Irish R.M.

★ 7.8
302 18 1983–1985
Comedy · Drama · History

Kurulus

★ 8.0
301 1988–1988
Adventure · History · War

Sadat

★ 6.4
298 2 1983–1983
Biography · Drama · History

Lady Lady

★ 7.4
272 21 1987–1988
Animation · Drama · History

Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War

★ 8.5
269 26 1980–1981
Documentary · History · War

Avicenna

★ 7.7
265 9 1987–present
Biography · Drama · History

By the Sword Divided

★ 8.1
262 20 1983–1985
Drama · History · War

Dobrodruzství kriminalistiky

★ 8.5
254 26 1989–1998
Crime · History

The Borgias

★ 7.3
234 10 1981–1981
Biography · Drama · History

The Dismissal

★ 8.2
232 3 1983–1983
Drama · History

Rossiya molodaya

★ 7.6
223 9 1981–1984
Drama · History

Kouchak Jangali

★ 6.4
218 14 1987–present
Biography · Drama · History
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