The old days:
Barney Miller
WKRP in Cincinnati
Mash
Laugh In
Hawaii 5-0
Columbo

more recently:
Whose Line is it Anyway
Deadliest Catch
Seinfeld
Melrose Place
Chappelle
My Name is Earl

Let's make a few revisions to my previous ten....

quote:

1. Arrested Development (Comedic perfection. About as intelligent as comedy will ever be.)

2. The Wire - Do I need to explain myself?

2. 3. The Simpsons (Really played a huge part in changing the PACE of programs.....we now see faster comedies with bigger laughs)

4. Northern Exposure - This dramedy is one of the funniest comedies ever. It's also the most literate series in TV history. There's been some great steps in the genre since then (Gilmore Girls, Slings & Arrows, the Studio 60 pilot), but nothing holds a candle to this masterpiece, even with its unfortunately unraveled ending.

3. 5. Seinfeld (Dared to tell us a lot about nothing in particular, breaks so many conventional TV rules.)

4. 6. King Of The Hill (Woefully underrated gem. Wonderful character based humor.)

5. 7. The Wonder Years (Greatly altered television comedy ....freedom from the background laughs!)

8. Twin Peaks - Most important genre shaper in history. Season two's problems are minor and only nitpickers tuned out. What the hell else were people watching back then to make them stop viewing Peaks?

6. 9. Survivor (Receives far too much slack from millions that never bothered to watch. Its uncanny ability to reinvent itself, along with casting the most interesting bunch of individuals you can find in America, makes it the God of Reality. Forever.)

7. 10. The Office UK (The finest sitcom from the world's sharpest people.)

8. 11. Futurama (Matt Groening, the only TV creator to truly strike gold twice.)

9. 12. Star Trek: The Original Series (Despite its age, still more clever, faster moving and bolder than any science fiction series since)

10. 13. The Amazing Race (Sit back, enjoy the ride.)

Wow. I do not watch much TV. I do have the largest HD LCD TV made, however, but I use it more as a DVD monitor. I don't know if I can come up with ten, but:

1. Picket Fences
2. The Sopranos
3. Six Feet Under
4. 24
5. Prison Break
6. King of the Hill (it certainly is an underrated gem, I agree)
7. The Simpsons
8. The X-Files
9. Raymond (usually I HATE sitcoms, but this one was just so old-fashioned and family oriented, I love it - not Debra's nastiness, though)
10. Frasier

I only chose American shows. If I would have included British, the list would have been VERY different.

don't know if I can think of 10 though...

24
Grey's Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
Friends
Sex and the City
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Star Trek (TOS)
Seinfeld
The X Files
The Office (British version)
Batman: the Animated Series
The Twilight Zone (original)
The Simpsons
Deadwood
The Larry Sanders Show
... and one spot left open for future addition!

Simpsons
Seinfeld
Penn and Teller: Bullshit
Conan O'Brien
Twilight Zone
House
Futurama
Family Guy
The Office
And most importantly...
Mystery Science Theater 3000...seriously how could anyone not mention it?

This is a great topic and following the creator’s criteria, I will limit it to ten. I am not that old so most of these are either from my childhood or teen years and the rest are relatively new. I do believe that “The Simpsons” is the best show of all time, then and now. I also don’t like it because I feel I should but because it is amazingly brilliant. First five are in order, the rest are not.

1. “The Simpsons”
2. “The Wonder Years”
3. “Seinfeld”
4. “Six Feet Under”
5. Late Nite with Conan O’Brien
6. “Roseanne”
7. “Sponge Bob Squarepants”
8. “Saved by the Bell”
9. “The Sopranos”
10. “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”

Honorable mention (which I also read was allowed): “Dawson’s Creek” was always a guilty pleasure of mine. I always watched it and was addicted to it; I know too much about it and have too many opinions on it to not mention it. “Jeopardy!” is a great show all on its own, “The Office” is a new show that seems to be getting better and better, “Robot Chicken” is a also a new show that is simple, dumb fun and the last of the great family-based shows “Everybody Loves Raymond” is a pretty great show. And I always thought that "Beavis and Butthead" and "King of the Hill" were two awesome, yet underrated shows.

OK so this topic hasn't been touched since Aug 14 but I'll give it a go. Now this is just off the top of my head so I may be omitting some stuff I loved.
In no particular order:

1. The Wire(Actually this is the best show ever!!)
2. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
3. Freaks and Geeks
4. Homicide Life on the Streets
5. Buffy the Vampires Slayer
6. Seinfeld
7. Star Trek(the original)
8. The Sopranos
9. LA Law
10 WKRP in Cincinnati

Great to see a vote for Homicide.

Gotta get me that series on DVD!!!

I agree that Homicide: Life on the Streets was fabulous. I wish I could say why. No one in the show seemed happy excepting the character played by Belzer (I think), but man the emotion was there and the plots were appealing and they sucked me right in.

Favorite? 'Cause 90210 doesn't make it anywhere near my 'best' list, but my favorite list? Call it a Guilty pleasure.

1] Buffy The Vampire Slayer
2] The Soprano's
3] Frasier
4] Veronica Mars
5] Seinfeld
6] Arrested Development
7] House
8] Angel
9] Beverly Hills, 90210
10] Dexter

I'm a big fan of modern character-profiles, so naturally I'm attracted to House, Dexter and The Soprano's.

I'm also a sucker for smart, young-adult drama that the WB popularized in the 90's. Veronica Mars, Buffy and Angel fill that mold.

Seinfeld did so much with so little, but Frasier was the epitome of dramatized sitcoms and was ultimately better, I feel; Really a smarter, refined version of what Cheers originally pioneered.

Arrested Development is in a category of it's own.

90210 was just compelling to me. No matter how contrived, no matter how bad the acting got or how many characters left the show, I couldn't stop caring about it - even when I despised almost all the characters for a stretch in Season 7.

quote:

Originally posted by SK13:
Favorite? 'Cause 90210 doesn't make it anywhere near my 'best' list, but my favorite list? Call it a Guilty pleasure. ...90210 was just compelling to me. No matter how contrived, no matter how bad the acting got or how many characters left the show, I couldn't stop caring about it - even when I despised almost all the characters for a stretch in Season 7.

That’s exactly how I feel about “Dawson’s Creek.” I thought the acting was poor, their forced wanna-be intellectual vocabulary was dumb and the story-line(s) were too dramatic but I loved it. I was pretty obsessed with it. One summer, a few years back, they would show it back to back on a cable channel in the mornings and I would purposely wake up early to watch it. My girlfriend was taking summer classes then and she would come see me on her breaks and I would just talk to her about what happened in the show. Sure, she thought it was dumb but she would humor me.

Well that was embarrassing but welcome to the site and post as much as you want.

I loved so many TV shows in my 28 years, but only a few shows I've watched completely (or at least as much as I can):

1.) Simpsons
2.) PBS: Frontline
3.) PBS: Nova
4.) Wonder Years

I'm starting to watch Lost and The Wire. They're both great so far. Also, I netflixed the first disc, season 1 of Arrested Development, and I like what I saw so I'll probably buy the whole series. I'm looking forward to the Wonder Years coming to DVD. Not sure what the holdup is.

quote:

Originally posted by Casper:
8. Twin Peaks - Most important genre shaper in history. Season two's problems are minor and only nitpickers tuned out. What the hell else were people watching back then to make them stop viewing Peaks?

I think people just weren't ready for Twin Peaks. The mix of drama and supernatural mystery was a little weird for people. It probably doesn't seem all that weird now after The X-Files and Lost. I'm still amazed at David Lynch's ability to get such a Lynchian program on the air for nearly two seasons and not have to dumb it down at all.

I was in high school when it came out, and I loved it. The reveal of Laura Palmer's killer near the end of season 1 truly freaked me out.

in no particular order:

1. freaks and geeks
2. the simpsons
3. twin peaks
4. the wonder years
5. lost
6. carnivale
7. the sopranos
8. survivor
9. my so called life
10. the cosby show, but only that one episode where theo comes home and they have transformed the house into an apartment building and cliff is the landlord and claire runs a restaurant and rudy is a little lawyer or something.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Angel
Firefly
Six Feet Under
Heroes
Friends
Veronica Mars
Curb Your Enthusiasm
House

I'm awfully glad Buffy and Angel are getting much more love forums the forums than the networks. =D

quote:

I'm awfully glad Buffy and Angel are getting much more love forums the forums than the networks. =D

Buffy is one of those shows that transcends the medium. It was never massively popular in the ratings, but it's incredibly well known and referenced. College professors have based curriculum's and speech's on it.

It gets a lot of credit among fans of television.

1. This Life. Great British series from the 90s set in a house of young lawyers. This is what people in their 20s actually look like, and sound like, and behave like.

2. Thirtysomething.

3. Six Feet Under

4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

5. Arrested Development

6. Pee Wee's Playhouse

7. Will and Grace

8. That Girl

9. The Sopranos

10. Twin Peaks

quote:

Originally posted by Peewee:


6. Pee Wee's Playhouse

Coincidence? I think not! I just bought the DVD sets.

Also, Thirtysomething is an inspired choice. I loved that show. I can still remember the theme so clearly. Looking back, it's a bit strange I liked it since it came on when I was age 10-14.

My top ten shows are as follows. Some of the shows I will list are 1950's and 1960's tv shows. My dad shown them to me and I've became attached to them. Show one will be my favorite and show ten will be the show I like but can't be number one. I'm going to count down from ten to one.

10. top cat
9. toon heads
8. angry beavers
7. catdog
6. rocko's modern life
5. doctor who
4. Hawaii five o
3. ( old version) Twilight Zone
2. ( old version) The Outer Limits
1. Voyage to the bottom of the sea

I wonder if any of my shows I listed will bring back memories to anyone?

martian leader.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: martian leader,