MY TOP 100 FAVORITE TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME

Agree? Disagree?

Agree with everything except LA Law.

My sister and her husband used to love that show, and I never liked anything they did so that's probably why I never watched it.

I can agree with nearly a quarter. My own list, were I to make one, would include many shows not in this list.

No Rockford Files? or any classic seventies cop shows? Those should be much higher than any reality shows on tv.

But lots of others that are classics! good memory

"Toma" was the only 70s cop show that I could think of that I liked enough to put on the list.  If I think of any others I'll try to squeeze them on.  I didn't really get into "The Rockford Files" that much. 

I just realized I left off "The Fugitive" so I'll have to put that somewhere.

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fpd wrote:
I can agree with nearly a quarter. My own list, were I to make one, would include many shows not in this list.

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A quarter is good.  What are some of the shows you would've listed?

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biped wrote:

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fpd wrote:
I can agree with nearly a quarter. My own list, were I to make one, would include many shows not in this list.

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A quarter is good.  What are some of the shows you would've listed?

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Here's what I can think of right now, broken into categories:

SCI-FI

Doctor Who (both new and old series), Roswell, Andromeda, Babylon 5, The Outer Limits (new series), Torchwood, the Sarah Jane Adventures, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica (new series), Flash Gordon (new series), Eureka, Star Trek: Enterprise

COMEDY (ANIMATED)

The Flintstones, The Simpsons, South Park, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, The Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Laboratory, Robot Chicken, Futurama, Family Guy

COMEDY (LIVE ACTION)

Blackadder, 'Allo 'Allo, Jack of All Trades, the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, I Love Lucy

FANTASY & HORROR

Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Kindred: The Embraced, New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies

SUPERHERO

Smallville, Heroes, Justice League Unlimited, Spider-Man (90's series), Spectacular Spider-Man

SCIENCE

Wired Science, Mythbusters

Some additions to my original list:

MYSTERY/ADVENTURE

Alias, Veronica Mars

TEEN DRAMA

Freaks and Geeks, Jack and Bobby, DeGrassi: Junior High, DeGrassi: The Next Generation

SCI-FI

Battlestar Galactica (original series). The new series may blow it away, but it may still be good enough to make a top 100 list.

I like the following ones--the rest I either don't like or have never seen:

Star Trek: Enterprise, The Flintstones, The Simpsons, The Powerpuff Girls, I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched, I Love Lucy, Heroes, Spider-Man (90's series), Spectacular Spider-Man

Here are a bunch of 70's crime shows (give or take)
that I get tingly over:

Rockford Files
Switch
Mannix
Hawaii Five-O
Startsky & Hutch
Barnaby Jones
Quincy
Columbo
MacMillan & Wife
Charlies Angels
Banacek
Barney Miller (cheating...but love it)
Hart to Hart
Ellery Queen
The Mod Squad
The Streets of San Francisco
Vegas
The Rookies
Kojak
Cannon
Harry O
Hawaiian Eye
Police Woman
McCloud
Serpico
Perry Mason
Cagney & Lacey
Spenser for Hire
Simon and Simon
Magnum PI
Peter Gunn
Iron Side

And some off the wall ones:

Moonlighting
Six Million Dollar Man
Bionic Woman
Wonder Woman
Land of the Lost
Sherrif Lobo
Incredible Hulk
Fugitive

I don't watch a lot of telly these days, though I agree with many on your list, but I would probably have had a few others; 

Arrested Development

Rocko's Modern Life (an ace cartoon)

House (can be a bit one dimensional at times, but ultimately fun)

24

Buffy 

Curb your enthusiasm

Battlestar Galactica (remake)  

The A-Team

Sopranos

The West Wing 

And for some reason I used to enjoy Diagnosis Murder, in an ultimately pointless waste an hour of your day sort of way.

A friend of mine wants me to watch the Wire, which is on my todo list. 

Of the british contingent, Id probably have added Blackadder (series 2 and 4 definately)

Life on Mars

Randal and Hopkirk (deceased) (the original not the remake)

Dangermouse

Red Dwarf 

and Spaced (great comedy starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stephenson)  

Good God.  I don't think I could name 100 TV shows, much less rank them.

Here's my briefer list:

1. Twin Peaks
2. Angel
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Monty Python's Flying Circus
5. Max Headroom
6. Cracker (UK Version)
7. The State
8. The Simpsons
9. American Gothic
10. My Two Dads

I can't remember the last time I turned my TV on for anything other than a DVD. I've never even had cable.

But i do like Simpsons, Family guy, Venture Bros and........for some odd reason, Boston Legal.

christopher7murphy,

Of all the crime shows you listed, the only ones I've watched and enjoyed are Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk, Six Million Dollar Man, and Bionic Woman (at least the new series). For me, the appeal of these shows is that they are superhero shows. I'm not much of a crime show fan. The other crime shows I like have a supernatural premise (New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies) or a secret agent focus (Avengers, Alias).

christopher7murphy,

Of all the crime shows you listed, the only ones I've watched and enjoyed are Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk, Six Million Dollar Man, and Bionic Woman (at least the new series). For me, the appeal of these shows is that they are superhero shows. I'm not much of a crime show fan. The other crime shows I like have a supernatural premise (New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies) or a secret agent focus (Avengers, Alias).

Dexter is an excellent crime show, book, and premise!

I just altered my list to include Ironside, The Fugitive, and Wanted: Dead or Alive.

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fpd wrote:

christopher7murphy,

Of all the crime shows you listed, the only ones I've watched and enjoyed are Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk, Six Million Dollar Man, and Bionic Woman (at least the new series). For me, the appeal of these shows is that they are superhero shows. I'm not much of a crime show fan. The other crime shows I like have a supernatural premise (New Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies) or a secret agent focus (Avengers, Alias).

Just to mention a few more shows I forgot in my previous posts: Red Dwarf (a hilarious sci-fi comedy from the BBC), Farscape, Stargate: SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis, Mutant X, Superman (90's cartoon), Lois and Clark: the New Adventures of Superman, and Deparate Housewives (a comedic primetime soap that stars the actresses who played Lois Lane in the two preceding Superman shows, Teri Hatcher and Dana Delany).

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A Lois Lane Classic!-

/comics/christopher7murphy/409361/

I set the super heroes seperate because of that reason...but I guess they were 'crime oriented'

Red Dwarf is great! I also remember another BBC series called The Goodies...kind of a fast paced Monty Python. We use to stay up late to catch it on Saturday nights...it was so absurb!

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christopher7murphy wrote:

A Lois Lane Classic!-

/comics/christopher7murphy/409361/

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That's a lot of Lois Lanes. But you missed Dana Delany, the other Lois Lane who is actually on Desparate Housewives. She was the voice of Lois Lane in the Superman cartoon. Speaking of cartoon voices, the actor who plays Orson Hodge has played Superman in an animated Justice League movie I have yet to see.

no Cheers, no deal

also, Flight of the Conchords, Mighty Boosh, Family Guy

and i would have put money on Tim & Eric being on that list. seems like just your kind of humor

My sister tried to get me into Cheers years ago, and in just a few episodes I grew to passionately despise the show.  Same with Family Guy--I just really hate it. 

Anything that came on in the last few years, I've missed because I don't get cable anymore.

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biped wrote:

My sister tried to get me into Cheers years ago, and in just a few episodes I grew to passionately despise the show.  Same with Family Guy--I just really hate it. 

Anything that came on in the last few years, I've missed because I don't get cable anymore.

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Poo jokes are universal.

I haven't seen much Family Guy, but what I've seen hasn't been impressive.  I never knew why I didn't much care for it until a friend unwittingly struck upon it in conversation:  it's already been done in The Critic.  The celebrity-referencing non-sequitur schtick, that is.  I see the jokes coming enough that the humor is lost.

Also, needs more poo jokes.

i think Family Guy's a bit of an aquired taste. i know i didn't like it at first. then later when i got into it, i asked a couple of friends what they thought of it and they didn't like it either. now a year later, they're both into it too. for me it had to do with not liking Stewie or with the early shows being too formulaic or something. if you watched more shows, you'd be hard pressed to see the jokes coming. it pushes the envelope more than just about any other show on tv. i can't say i ever turn on national tv and expect Cleveland steamers, Molly Ringwald to get raped in Sixteen Candles, or Joan Cusack to be killed and stuffed in a public mailbox. hope, sure. expect, no

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biped wrote:

My sister tried to get me into Cheers years ago, and in just a few episodes I grew to passionately despise the show.  Same with Family Guy--I just really hate it.

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I've never cared for Cheers myself. I do enjoy Family Guy, though there have been moments when I thought it was stupid and temporarily decided to stop watching it. It's more crass than the Simpsons, and it's not as intelligent as South Park, but it's also not as idiotic as it may sometimes appear to be. My favorite characters are Stewie and the crazy Adam West (played by the real Adam West).

so good then, we're all agreed. Family Guy > South Park > Simpsons >> The Critic > Pink Lady and Jeff

I like Pink Lady and Jeff and The Simpsons better.

that's okay. if everyone agreed with me, there'd be no "wrong" in the world and we'd all be insufferably smug

I hate it when other people are insufferably smug, but I think it's one of my cutest and most endearing qualities.

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fpd wrote:

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faggot wrote:

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fpd wrote:

Fuck why does everybody like family guy

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Well.... (ahem) It seems today that all you see is violence in movies,
and sex on TV. So you have to ask, where are those good ol' fashion values that we used to rely? (The answer is quite simple.)Lucky there is a Family Guy!
Lucky there is a man who, possitivly can do,
all the things that make us, well...in a nutshell: Laugh and cry!

And that's why there's a fuckin' Fam---ily----Guyyyyyyyy!

Step kick shuffle  

 

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faggot wrote:

Fuck why does everybody like family guy

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As the opening sequence indicates, and as Seth MacFarlane states outright, Peter Griffin is based on Archie Bunker. There is also a Ralph Kramden influence, as Family Guy follows in the line of such popular Honeymooners based cartoons as the Flintstones and the Simpsons. Family Guy is a lot like the Flintstones, though somewhat crasser. Like Fred Flintstone, Peter is a fat working class guy, married to a hot redhead, who likes to hang out with his buddies. His son Stewie has a condescending sense of superiority like the Great Gazoo.

none of that has anything to do with why it's funny. it's funny because of that little word you use: crass. put another way: balls. they go places no other show can or will. it's the same kind of thing that The Simpsons originally had before it lost it to testicular torsion and became the tame version of itself you see today

...and side-boobage! Don't forget the side-boobage!

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mandingo wrote:
none of that has anything to do with why it's funny. it's funny because of that little word you use: crass. put another way: balls. they go places no other show can or will. it's the same kind of thing that The Simpsons originally had before it lost it to testicular torsion and became the tame version of itself you see today

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The last I knew, the Simpsons was still funny. The Flintstones were funny without being crass. Family Guy may go places other shows won't, but that is not the sum of why it is funny. Also, some shows are too crass, such as Drawn Together, which seems to mistake crassness for humor. They are not the same thing.

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fpd wrote:

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mandingo wrote:
none of that has anything to do with why it's funny. it's funny because of that little word you use: crass. put another way: balls. they go places no other show can or will. it's the same kind of thing that The Simpsons originally had before it lost it to testicular torsion and became the tame version of itself you see today

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The last I knew, the Simpsons was still funny. The Flintstones were funny without being crass. Family Guy may go places other shows won't, but that is not the sum of why it is funny. Also, some shows are too crass, such as Drawn Together, which seems to mistake crassness for humor. They are not the same thing.

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mandingo wrote:

no, they're not. but it seems to me (and this isn't an attack) like you mistake your relatively conservative idea of what crass is for what most people think it to be. call it a hunch, or call it the fact that you think The Simpsons is still funny and reference shows like the Archie Bunker and The Flintstones to make your points

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I take your hunches with a grain of salt. 

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mandingo wrote:

i think a lot of people who believe that humor ends where shock begins make the mistake of not realizing that something can be funny whether it's shocking or not, and not funny whether it's shocking or not. instead, they kneejerk when they see something crass, assuming that it's replacing funny with crass. basically they let their mental roadblocks get in the way, whereas others are able to see when something's funny regardless of the packaging it comes in

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I do not believe that humor ends where shock begins. I recognize that pushing the envelope can increase humor, and I enjoy various shows that do this to good effect, such as South Park, Robot Chicken, and Family Guy. But I don't believe that crassness is a ready formula for humor that is always going to work, and I do believe there is plenty of humor to be had without it. Drawn Together is an example of taking crassness too far, and the Flintstones is an example of being funny without being crass.

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fpd wrote:

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mandingo wrote:

no, they're not. but it seems to me (and this isn't an attack) like you mistake your relatively conservative idea of what crass is for what most people think it to be. call it a hunch, or call it the fact that you think The Simpsons is still funny and reference shows like the Archie Bunker and The Flintstones to make your points

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I take your hunches with a grain of salt.

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Well, I think we can all agree on one thing, anyway--Family Guy is a crappy show that isn't funny.

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biped wrote:
Well, I think we can all agree on one thing, anyway--Family Guy is a crappy show that isn't funny.

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I'll drink to that! Heh, just like that time I *verbed* *minor celebrity* back in *place/year*

*insert ham-fisted satire*

hahaha lima reminds me of that one time he firebombed the orphanage

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biped wrote:
Well, I think we can all agree on one thing, anyway--Family Guy is a crappy show that isn't funny.

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Excerpt from a recent interview with the creator of Family Guy:

"We are shooting for the 'Pink Lady and Jeff' demographic."

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mandingo wrote:

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fpd wrote:
But I don't believe that crassness is a ready formula for humor that is always going to work

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it's always going to work if it's funny

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That's like saying attempted murder always works when the target dies. Of course crassness is going to work when it's funny. Being funny is the criterion for it working. But crassness isn't always funny.

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mandingo wrote:

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fpd wrote:
and I do believe there is plenty of humor to be had without it.

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there's plenty of humor to be had if it's funny

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Yes, exactly right.

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mandingo wrote:
redundant, but it's my whole point. if it's funny, it's funny. crassness doesn't have anything to do with it except in two senses. the first being that if it runs into someone's roadblock of being too crass, then it won't be recognized as funny even if it is by all their other standards. and two, crassness has a leg up on non-crass material because it has that all-important ingredient for jokes: novelty. stuff that hasn't been done much or at all before that keeps people from guessing the punchline ahead of time

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I agree with your first point. I provisionally agree with the second, but I'll add that the ability of crassness to add novelty depends upon the audience not becoming desensitized to it. With the show Drawn Together, crassness became such a matter of course that it began to lose its edge. And the show was so dependent on its crassness, it didn't have much else supporting it. So I lost interest in it. To use your tagline as an example, a certain episode of South Park was made funny precisely because "nigger" is considered such a profane and taboo word. If the word meant kite, it would not have been funny when Stan's father was on Wheel of Fortune and answered N*GGERS, people who annoy me, as he did. For crassness to work best, it has to be used sparingly enough to retain its novelty and shock value.

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mandingo wrote:

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fpd wrote:
Drawn Together is an example of taking crassness too far

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too far because it's too crass to be funny, or too far because it mistakes crassness for funniness? if it's the former, that's the roadblock i was talking about above, if it's the latter, it's not that it took crassness too far but rather that it didn't take t3h funny far enough

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As I explained above, it used crassness so much, crassness became a matter of course, causing it to lose much of its ability to arouse shock and humor.

Just to add one more example of what I was talking about. When I was still a teenager, I stayed up one night to watch Saturday Night Live and saw a sketch about a children's TV show called Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood, a parody of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Mr. Robinson, a black man, introduced the word "bitch" and told the audience to say it to their mother if they didn't know what it meant. Back then, I had never heard that word spoken on TV, though I had learned it from kids at school, and the crassness of saying it enhanced the humor of the sketch. Nowadays, the word "bitch" is all over TV. It has become a commonplace word and has lost much of its shock value. The Mr. Robinson sketch might not be as funny to a contemporary audience who regularly hears the word on TV, though given that Mr. Rogers would never use that word on his show, it may retain some shock value given the context of the parody.

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fpd wrote:

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mandingo wrote:
redundant, but it's my whole point. if it's funny, it's funny. crassness doesn't have anything to do with it except in two senses. the first being that if it runs into someone's roadblock of being too crass, then it won't be recognized as funny even if it is by all their other standards. and two, crassness has a leg up on non-crass material because it has that all-important ingredient for jokes: novelty. stuff that hasn't been done much or at all before that keeps people from guessing the punchline ahead of time

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I agree with your first point. I provisionally agree with the second

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