Maybe for people in the US. Internationally? I haven't watched a single episode of WTR, I don't know anyone who has, but everyone knows who Chuck Norris was.
Not overly popular, but many people already knew him from the Bruce Lee era, so it had a following by default.
Exported media is weird. Like the huge proportion of British/BBC output (usually period, but also often detective in a way redolent of Christie) that is made primarily for export to foreign consumers who think of British upper-class culture as aspirational.
The rights to air these sorts of shows are dirt cheap compared to Friends or Seinfeld, so it makes sense that cheap syndicated garbage like Walker, Texas Ranger and Baywatch were popular internationally, the rights were cheap.
Same with Dallas and The Dukes of Hazzard.
Thinking WTR, Dallas, or TDoH are representative of American culture is... hilarious.
But I guess shows that hit the big American cultural stereotypes hard are maybe the ones that do better abroad?
It was just a fun show. Magnum PI, Different Strokes, McGiver.. were just as popular.
Oh and Married with Children, but it was always very late night and I was not allowed to watch it.
And our teacher always played us ET on VHS. (and that dog playing basketball.)
that's america for me when I was a kid
Knight Rider.
> that dog playing basketball
Air Bud.
I’m not aware of a single person who thinks that, and neither was that the claim of your parent comment.
People understand TV shows are fiction.
(I didn't watch it; my parents believed soap operas were unsuitable for kids)
It was big internationally. But the jokes made Norris known to a whole different generation than the one watching WTR.