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80s Sitcom Stars Accused Of Serious Crimes

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The wholesome sitcom stars of the 1980s hid some of the ugliest headlines in Hollywood history.

Prime-time comedy in the Reagan era sold America on tidy family values — Cliff Huxtable’s fatherly wisdom, Arnold Jackson’s catchphrases, the Tanner household’s group hugs. Behind the laugh tracks, though, several of the decade’s biggest names were building rap sheets that had nothing to do with sitcom plotlines. Nicki Swift’s rundown of “80s Sitcom Stars Accused Of Serious Crimes” traces how four of television’s most recognizable faces ended up in courtrooms instead of syndication reruns.

• Bill Cosby faced sexual assault allegations from roughly 60 women spanning the 1960s through the mid-2000s, was convicted in 2018 on three counts of aggravated indecent assault involving Andrea Constand, served nearly three years in a Pennsylvania prison, and had that conviction vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in June 2021 over a prior non-prosecution agreement.
• Todd Bridges was arrested in 1989 for shooting a drug dealer amid a severe substance abuse spiral, spent nine months in jail awaiting trial, and was ultimately acquitted of attempted murder.
• Lori Loughlin pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy charges in the college admissions scandal and served two months in federal prison, while Dustin Diamond was convicted following a 2014 Wisconsin bar stabbing.

Bill Cosby’s Fall From “America’s Dad”

No name carries more weight in this story than Bill Cosby’s. “The Cosby Show” turned him into the country’s most trusted TV father, but the accusations that followed him — sexual assault allegations from close to 60 women dating as far back as the 1960s — eventually caught up with the legal system in 2018, when he was convicted on three counts of aggravated indecent assault tied specifically to Andrea Constand. He served nearly three years behind bars in Pennsylvania before the state’s Supreme Court vacated the conviction in June 2021, ruling that a prior non-prosecution agreement should have kept prosecutors from charging him at all.

Roughly 60 women came forward with allegations spanning four decades — and it still took a technicality, not an acquittal, to get Cosby out of prison.

Todd Bridges and the Diff’rent Strokes Shooting

“Diff’rent Strokes” made Todd Bridges a household name as Willis Jackson, but by the late 1980s he was deep into a substance abuse crisis that culminated in a 1989 arrest for shooting a drug dealer. Bridges spent nine months in jail awaiting trial before a jury acquitted him of attempted murder — a stretch of his life that stands as one of the more sobering examples covered in the biggest celebrity prison sentences that were cut short.

Full House and Saved by the Bell Fallout

Two other sitcom-era names round out the list. Lori Loughlin, known to millions as Aunt Becky on “Full House,” pleaded guilty in 2020 to conspiracy charges connected to the college admissions bribery scandal and served two months in federal prison. Dustin Diamond, forever tied to Screech on “Saved by the Bell,” was convicted following a 2014 stabbing incident at a Wisconsin bar — a case that added a violent footnote to a career fans had followed since childhood, much like the losses chronicled among the Saved by the Bell stars you might not know died.

Taken together, the four cases show just how far the distance can stretch between a sitcom’s tidy 22-minute resolutions and the real legal messes waiting for its stars once the cameras stopped rolling.