Most Impactful TV Show of All Time?

[shadowkat]

Saw this on FB:

Most impactful TV shows of all time? Not just ones you liked, but ones that got you through stuff, made your heart ache, made you feel like the characters were your friends. Ones you couldn't wait to see the next episode of because you were so invested in what happens next. Ones you'd record on your VCR if you're old like me because you couldn't bear to miss them and waiting for a rerun or video release just wasn't an option.

My answer?

Gee, I don't know, guess?



Buffy the Vampire Slayer - no contest.

It's the only television series that I got obsessed enough over to write about.
And join a fandom. And a spoiler board to speculate on what would happen next.
And I kept the VCRs until the died, then shifted to DVDs, and read the comics.

Also Buffy in some ways saved me. I was in a horrible work situation, the less said about the better -- and the Buffy fan community helped me stay sane.


What are yours?

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Not just ones you liked, but ones that got you through stuff, made your heart ache, made you feel like the characters were your friends. Ones you couldn't wait to see the next episode of because you were so invested in what happens next. Ones you'd record on your VCR if you're old like me because you couldn't bear to miss them and waiting for a rerun or video release just wasn't an option.

I find that these are all very different things to me. I don't think any show got me through anything. And I'd record them because having an official copy wasn't possible for some time, especially for TV shows. Even so, I kept few shows recorded. By the time VCRs came along I'd seen Star Trek enough times that I didn't need to, but at the time I did audio tape episodes!

However characters I loved and shows I couldn't wait to see the next episode of have been numerous. I think the real question is which ones I still feel that way about many years later, that I'm always up for rewatching. And for that I'd have to say the original Star Trek & Buffy & Angel.

[shadowkat]

I interpreted it as a show or series that I became "insanely" obsessed over -- to the point that I'd seek out a fandom, hunt down spoilers, want to discuss, want to write about, pick up magazines on, write fanfic about, etc.
(I didn't write it - grabbed it from someone else.)

Even so, I kept few shows recorded. By the time VCRs came along I'd seen Star Trek enough times that I didn't need to, but at the time I did audio tape episodes!

Audio tape?? Do you mean just the audio?

I taped shows I couldn't see -- or would miss with VHS. Then I got obsessed with Buffy and taped all the episodes and rewatched them about a gazillion times. I do remember video taping reruns of MASH -- so I could write a paper on it in college. I'd set up a VHS machine that I had access to and tape the episodes. Also checked out tapes from the library.
Watching and taping a television series for class was an interesting experience.

However characters I loved and shows I couldn't wait to see the next episode of have been numerous. I think the real question is which ones I still feel that way about many years later, that I'm always up for rewatching. And for that I'd have to say the original Star Trek & Buffy & Angel.

The dividing line between a show I love and can't wait to see the next episode and a show that I find myself watching over and over and one that, well, I'm obsessed about is well "Fanfic" and "Fan Boards". If I don't hunt down fanfic about it or meta, I'm not that obsessed.

Because the shows I loved and couldn't wait to see the next episode for are well numerous...but the shows that I re-watched to death, less so, and the shows I hunted fanfic on or wrote it in my head -- I can count on hand.

[yourlibrarian]

Audio tape?? Do you mean just the audio?

Yup! This was pre-VCRs. Mike used to as well, and we were not alone in doing so.

If I don't hunt down fanfic about it or meta, I'm not that obsessed.

Same.

[shadowkat]

I never heard of audio-taping the show. How do you...television is so visual. I can't imagine it being enjoyable. Sort of like listening to a radio broadcast, I guess? Or a podcast?

[wendelah1]

For me, it's thirtysomething. I was "thirtysomething" when it began airing. We had a new baby, just like Hope and Michael, and a money pit for a house just like Hope and Michael. Difficult parents. Crazy friends. We taped every episode, because I could never count on getting off work in time to see it in real time. I loved those characters so much, I suffered when they suffered, and worried about them constantly.

I do have the series on DVD but except for the year I watched a few episodes to write fic for Yuletide, I've never rewatched it. It was so intense the first time around, I don't know if my heart could take it. They killed off one of the main characters (unusual at the time) in what turned out to be the last season--and you would have thought a real person had died, I was that devastated.

Anyway.

[shadowkat]

I remember 30 something, and the big character death -- they were among the first to do it.

Oh my goodness

[jesse_the_k]

...yes, 30something really spoke to me. I was also running a small business with close friends, and so could relate to the business ups & downs of "the boys."

My mother died a few months before Gary did, and that really wrecked me.

I so miss Melanie Mayron!

[mefisto]

Buffy without question.

Edit: This is supposed to reply to SK. Not sure how it ended up here.

[shadowkat]

You're in the right spot now. ;-) So far the only one who referenced Buffy...I'm thinking the Buffy shippers are either gone or busy at the moment. ;-)

[anoyo]

Honestly? There are quite a few. I've always used fictional characters as a counterbalance to my bizarre life.

In order, probably:

Gundam Wing
Stargate SG-1
Yami no Matsuei
Fullmetal Alchemist
Gilmore Girls
Veronica Mars
Supernatural (through 2011)
Merlin
(movie: 2009 Star Trek reboot)
(movie: Inception)
Grey's Anatomy
Hawaii Five-0 (through 2013)
The Vampire Diaries
Lost Girl
Teen Wolf
Killjoys
The Expanse
The Magicians
~today~

Roswell, New Mexico should probably get added to the list, and Arrow and Supergirl are in there somewhere, too. There are books & comics, too. Also, I'm definitely missing things.

BUT, if we want what I think are the most influential on my life, and that I use as emotional barometers:

Stargate SG-1
Gilmore Girls
Grey's Anatomy

♥

[shadowkat]

Hmmm..

Of the one's you listed? I've loved:

Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls the most - I just find both to be rather comforting at times.

I also rather loved Vampire Diaries, Veronica Mars and Merlin.

The Final Frontier

[cjlasky7]

The answer should be BUFFY, right? BtVS is when I dove into internet fandom, where I met you and most of the people on my flist, where I dug deep into my soul and poured out essays and fanfic to a (thankfully) patient audience.

It should be Buffy. But it's not.

It's STAR TREK.

I was only seven years old when TOS debuted, and I don't remember it on NBC. But when it went into syndication in the early 70s, it hit my sweet spot; I was old enough to understand the social and philosophical points Roddenberry and his team were making, and I appreciated the pure optimism of the series' vision--the idea that, yes, exploring the universe will have its perils, but as long as we have our shit together as a species, we'll make it through.

What makes Trek the answer for me is that its importance has been reinforced at many points in my life. The Animated Series was my first "new" Trek. (I still have "Yesteryear"--when Spock time-traveled back to his childhood on Vulcan--tucked away on my DVR.) Then came "Wrath of Khan" and its sequels, which reaffirmed my love for the original crew while helping me deal with growing older and life's changes.

TNG and the Berman era shows brought me into middle age, and Jean-Luc Picard was the perfect hero for that period in my life: intellectual, philosophical, courageous and compassionate. I was ready for the dark side of the Federation's dream with DS9, and I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Janeway and B'Elanna and 7. (And what the hell, even Trip and Phlox. But not Archer.)

Maybe I'll break down and get CBS All Access so I can enjoy Burnham and Saru and the rest of the Discovery gang, and see what Jean-Luc is up to as we both journey into old age. But even if I don't, Trek has been my lifelong friend