To Midlanders, it was an institution. To the rest of the country it became a laughing stock and a byword for all the was bad about British television - wobbly sets, acting more wooden and the scenery.
But maybe it wasn't as bad as everybody thought it was - because there are 49 other homegrown TV shows worse than Crossroads, according to a new survey.
The soap opera, featuring the trials and tribulations of life at a fictional Midlands motel, features at number 50 in a list of the worst television shows produced in the UK, behind George and Mildred, That's Life! and Through The Keyhole.
Love They Neighbour, with its dodgy racist jokes, and El-dorado, the short-lived BBC soap about expats in Spain are also judged to be worse.
But the top prize goes to Naked Jungle , a bizarre naturist game show which featured presenter Keith Chegwin wearing a pith helmet and nothing else.
Also languishing in TV hell are Emma Thompson's disastrous one-woman sketch show Thompson, and Triangle, a soap set aboard a North Sea ferry.
The list was compiled by writer John Naughton for this week's edition of the Radio Times.
"The homegrown programmes I've picked here all represent moments when television went that extra mile to create something memorably rotten - whether it was an inspirationally flawed concept, a supremely botched execution, or suffered from an unusually irritating presenter," he said.
Seventies sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, about a racist trade unionist horrified when a black couple move in next door, is described as "a low point in British comedy".
The Black and White Minstrel Show, which featured white performers "blacked up" to sing songs from America's Deep South and ran from 1958 to 1978, is dubbed "an anachronistic obscenity".
ITV1's Celebrity Wrestling gets a mention, alongside Denise Van Outen's laugh-free sitcom Babes In The Wood and Davina McCall's doomed BBC chat show.
The "smugathon" Peter Mayle adaptation A Year In Provence is credited as the series which "achieved the near impossible - creating a John Thaw vehicle that nobody liked".
A handful of viewers may remember Heil Honey I'm Home!, in which Hitler and Eva Braun move next door to a Jewish couple. It lasted one episode.
The full list
1 Naked Jungle (2000) 2 Minipops (1983) 3 Triangle (1981-1983) 4 Quickfire Balls (2006) 5 Annie's Bar (1996) 6 Wright Here, Wright Now (2002) 7 Love Thy Neighbour (1972-1976) 8 Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (1984-1991) 9 Through The Keyhole (1983-) 10 A Year In Provence (1993) 11 Heil Honey I'm Home! (1990) 12 The Black and White Minstrel Show (1958-1978) 13 The Borgias (1981) 14 The Good Old Days (1953-1983) 15 Breakfast Time (1983-1989) 16 Thompson (1988) 17 OTT (1982) 18 George and Mildred (1976-1979) 19 Dream Team (1997-2006) 20 Ross Kemp: Alive In Alaska (1999) 21 Kirsty's Home Videos (2000-2004) 22 Clive Anderson All Talk (1996-1999) 23 Celeb (2002) 24 Diana: Her True Story (1993) 25 Eurovision Song Contest (1956-) 26 Celebrity Wrestling (2005) 27 Babes In The Wood (1998) 28 The Edinburgh Military Tattoo (1952-) 29 The Girlie Show (1996) 30 That's Life! (1973-1994) 31 Family Fortunes (1980-2002) 32 Littlejohn: Live and Unleashed (1998) 33 Lock, Stock... (2000) 34 French and Saunders (1987-2004) 35 Alastair Burnet's Royal Interviews (1980s) 36 Eldorado (1992-1993) 37 LA Pool Party (2001-2002) 38 Heartbeat (1992-now) 39 Going For Gold (1987-1996) 40 3-2-1 (1978-1987) 41 Origami (1968) 42 The Gaby Roslin Show (1996) 43 Clive James' Postcar from... (1990-1999) 44 Davina (2006) 45 Kilroy (1987-2004) 46 Wacaday (1985-1992) 47 Fort Boyard (1998-2002) 48 Popstars: The Rivals (2002) 49 Flog It! (2002-) 50 Crossroads.
