Video: Best of 1981: Video

Dallas (CBS). Will Brave Bobby and Barren Pamela adopt the love child of J.R. and his dead mistress Kristin? Enter the Ewing labyrinth and be hooked or be damned.

Early Days (CBS Cable). David Storey’s memorable song at twilight, adapted by Director Anthony Page from Lindsay Anderson’s National Theater production in London. Storey wrote this meditation on age and regret especially for Ralph Richardson, who gives one of his greatest performances.

The Golden Age of Television (PBS). A selection of golden oldies from the ’50s, including Marty and The Days of Wine and Roses, demonstrated that, yes, they really did do things better back then.

Hill Street Blues (NBC). Probing the soul of the inner-city cop with compassion and flipped-out wit, Hill Street won critical raves, eight Emmys and—finally!—enough viewers to make it a hit.

The Patricia Neal Story (CBS). Prime time offered enough triumph-over-a-bizarre-disease TV movies to choke a hospital, but Dirk Bogarde and the redoubtable Glenda Jackson made this particular version wrenching and true.

The Phil Donahue Show: “Missing Kids” (Syndicated). A heartfelt and harrowing episode from what is consistently the best national talk show.

SCTV (NBC). The funniest nights on television, with TV itself the target of repeated maulings by a company of six comic assassins. Their “Sammy Maudlin Show,” an excursion into late-night chat and sleaze, has a kind of purgatorial hilarity, like a Friars’ roast written by Sartre.

The Shock of the New (PBS). A spirited tour, in an eight-part series, by TIME Art Critic Robert Hughes through the art and architecture of that most difficult of all centuries, the 20th.

Steve Martin’s Best Show Ever (NBC). A well-turned hour of live, zoned-out comedy, which featured everything from Belushi to Bartok and raised the question, “Did dinosaurs build Stonehenge?”

Taxi (ABC). A fourth season of high-quality laughs from the Sunshine Cab Co. Taxi, WKRP in Cincinnati (CBS) and Bosom Buddies (ABC) are the win, place and show-off of current sitcoms.