100 Best TV Shows of All Time Meme - or rather the 100 best Mainstream TV shows of all Time Meme

[shadowkat]

Is it just me or is LJ slow tonight?

Anyhow, ganked from spacedoutlooney - Time Magazine's 100 Best TV Shows of all Time. I have a few quibbles about this list - "Doctor Who" isn't mentioned for one thing nor is Laugh-In nor The Wonderful World of Disney - which changed TV and was amongst the first shows in color. Also, reading the list? I've become aware of one thing - I have watched far too much television in my life time.

I'm thinking they made their choices based on what changed the climate of television or expanded the form - causing others to copy them. If so, they shouldn't have left ER, Doctor Who, and Donahue off the list. If it weren't for Donahue - we wouldn't have Oprah. Donahue changed the talk show. Also - what about Columbo? The first detective show to last a long time - without that there wouldn't be the procedurals. Law and Order? Which was the first procedural? See this is the problem with coming up with lists, you always leave stuff off and it is all is sooo subjective, rendering the whole biz of list making and reward giving rather silly and pointless in the final analysis. But we're competitive animals - we have to have them, I suppose.

Shows I've seen many episodes of are underlined. Shows seen every, bolded.
Shows I've seen at least one episode of are italicized.


1. 24
2. 60 Minutes
3. The Abbott and Costello Show
4. ABC's Wide World of Sports
5. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
6. All in the Family
7. An American Family
8. American Idol
9. Arrested Development
10. Battlestar Galactica - assuming the mean the new one. Because if it's the old one that would just be too funny.
11. The Beavis and Butt-Head Show
12. The Bob Newhart Show
13. Brideshead Revisited
14. Buffalo Bill
15. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
16. The Carol Burnett Show
17. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
18. A Charlie Brown Christmas
19. Cheers
20. The Cosby Show
21. The Daily Show
22. Dallas
23. The Day After - Filmed in KC, while I was there, knew people who got roles as extras in it!!!
24. Deadwood
25. The Dick Van Dyke Show
26. Dragnet
27. The Ed Sullivan Show
28. The Ernie Kovacs Show
29. Felicity
30. Freaks and Geeks
31. The French Chef
32. Friends
33. General Hospital
34. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
35. Gilmore Girls
36. Gunsmoke
37. Hill Street Blues
38. Homicide: Life on the Street
39. The Honeymooners
40. I, Claudius
41. I Love Lucy
42. King of the Hill
43. The Larry Sanders Show
44. Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)
45. Leave It to Beaver (sigh - for a while this was kidbro's favorite show, drove me bonkers - he watched it in reruns, we aren't that old!)
46. Lost
47. Married... With Children
48. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
49. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
50. M*A*S*H
51. The Monkees
52. Monty Python's Flying Circus
53. Moonlighting
54. MTV 1981-1992 - when MTV was actually interesting and did music videos as opposed to lame reality shows.
55. My So-Called Life
56. Mystery Science Theater 3000
57. The Odd Couple
58. The Office [American]
59. The Office [British]
60. The Oprah Winfrey Show
61. Pee Wee's Playhouse
62. Playhouse 90
63. The Price Is Right
64. Prime Suspect - assuming they are talking about the Brit version, since the American lasted one season.
65. The Prisoner
66. The Real World - example of the lame ass reality series that changed MTV and the tv landscape.
67. Rocky and His Friends
68. Roots
69. Roseanne
70. Sanford and Son
71. Saturday Night Live
72. Second City Television
73. See It Now
74. Seinfeld
75. Sesame Street
76. Sex and the City
77. The Shield
78. The Simpsons
79. The Singing Detective
80. Six Feet Under
81. Soap
82. The Sopranos
83. South Park
84. SpongeBob SquarePants
85. SportsCenter - not to be confused with Sports Night which was a dramatization of SportsCenter
86. Star Trek
87. St. Elsewhere
88. The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
89. Survivor
90. Taxi
91. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
92. The Twilight Zone
93. Twin Peaks
94. The West Wing
95. What's My Line?
96. WKRP in Cincinnati
97. The Wire
98. Wiseguy - I'm not positive but I think David Greenwalt got the idea for Spike and Drusilla from the Wiseguy episode starring Kevin Spacey as Mel Profit - the psycho in love with his sister. Blond, hot, and crazily manipulative.
99. The X-Files
100. Your Show of Shows - again reruns.

Comments

Hee Hee

[thepackrat741.livejournal.com]

...just to let you know ....
... I NOW have the Columbo " theme song" going through my head ...complete with flashing red lights.
!!!
argh ~!

Re: Hee Hee

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Columbo had a theme song??

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Wasn't Dragnet the first procedural?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't know since I never saw it.

But I'm guessing it was VERY different from Law & Order which revised the format to include the legal side. L&O - was basically Dragnet meets Perry Mason, which I don't think has been done before. Speaking of which - where's Perry Mason???

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

All I remember of Dragnet was the fist and hammer thing at the beginning (I don't think my childish self was interested in watching it, and left at that point), but Perry Mason was a regular staple in our house. It was one of my Father's favorite shows (along with Maverick) and I watched it every week.

I'm sure you're right, I don't think any other show ever combined the police work and the court cases before Law & Order (my favorite part of that show was always the way the stories twist at that point... or used to, now days they seem boring and predictable).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. I take that with a hefty grain of salt.

But the Profits are *really* much closer in appearance and attitude. I saw a movie on the Sex Pistols and Spike/Dru act and look nothing like them. Spike - is more Billy Idol meets Mel Profit than Sid Vicious.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

I was pleased to see St. Elsewhere listed, surprised to see Felicity (not that it was a bad show, but how was it a great influence on TV land in an historical context?) and stunned, mind you, astonished to NOT see The Avengers!

Without Steed and Emma, there would have been no-- well, you fill in the blanks. It would be a lot of shows.