Top 10 TV Series Of All Time

[LickTheStar]

I figured... hey, why not?

1. The Shield

My favorite series because (especially when watched in marathon mode) the consistency of the characters is painfully well done (not to mention crazy amounts of tension!). Great, great series.

2. Futurama
3. The Venture Brothers
4. Six Feet Under
5. The Simpsons
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm
7. Modern Family
8. Carnivale (ah, what might have been)
9. Seinfeld
10. Lost (this may change after the final season though)

Runners up include Family Guy, Sealab 2021, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast ( I mention them here because I'm still making my list and refuse to make half of it animation, as much as I love animated shows).

I also have never seen most "classic" shows (Twin Peaks? is that a porno?), and have never gone back to watch anything before the 90s, so mock my list if you must. I'll just cry into my chips...

 

[hoochmonkey9]

no order and more than 10:

The Honeymooners
WKRP in Cincinnati
Northern Exposure
Fawlty Towers
Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Office (UK)
Mad Men
Six Feet Under
The Avengers
The Prisoner
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld
SCTV
Taxi
All in the Family
M*A*S*H*
This Week in Baseball

and 30 Rock, unless something goes bad before the show goes off the air. but it'll have to be something really, really bad.

 

[chronic]

Like hooch said, in no particular order and more than ten:

Fawlty Towers
The Addams Family
Leave It To Beaver
The Outer Limits (Original... not the crappy later series)
The Twilight Zone
Deadwood
The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Frontline
Bill Moyer's Journal
In Concert
The Civil War
The Shield
All In The Family
Dancing With The Stars (kidding)
Carnivale
Nova
The Munsters
(The first two seasons of) Lost (after that it got all soap opera-ish)
Paul Winchell / Jerry Mahoney / Knucklehead Smiff Show (I think it was called Winchell Mahoney Time)
Sesame Street (wasn't around when I was a kid, but watching it with my kids when they were younger made me appreciate it)

 

[Bukfan]

In no particular order:

The Sopranos
Deadwood
The Simpsons
Fawlty Towers
The Sherlock Holmes series, with Jeremy Brett
Six Feet Under
Curb Your Enthusiasm (It's just started over here. I watched Season 1, episode 8 tonight on TV. We've had a Danish version of it for years though but it just is'nt as good as the original)
The Office (both UK and US version)
Family Guy
Futurama

 

[nervas]

also, not in order...

Three's Company
The Munsters
South Park
The Sopranos
Punky Brewster(no kidding, I was in love with Soleil Moon Frye!)
Hero's
The Adams Family(I want to name my first kid Wednesday, boy or girl!)
21 Jumpstreet
Lost
Saved By The Bell! (it was my developmental years)

 

[Ronzo]

M*A*S*H
My Three Sons
China Beach
Combat
The original Star Trek
Benny Hill
Laugh In
All in the Family
The Simpsons
Kung Fu

 

[Fatal Muse]

none

 

[james]

how pomo...



my list:

andy griffith
seinfeld
curb your enthusiasm
MASH
news radio
the office (both)

 

[hoochmonkey9]

news radio

fuck!

how did I forget News Radio?

so, add News Radio. heh.

 

[nervas]

none

Well, now, that really added to the thread.

 

[marina del rey]

1. Family Guy
2. The Simpsons
3. The Cosby Show
4. Entourage
5. Seinfeld
6. The Office
7. Saturday Night Live
8. Alf
9. Cheers
10. Family Ties

 

[number6horse]

I gave up on television last year when The Man required me to buy converter boxes and antennae and secret decoder rings and passwords just to fuckin watch TV </rant>

But I enjoyed a few that I wouldn't mind collecting on DVD someday...

(in no particular order)
The Twilight Zone
St. Elsewhere
Cheers
Frasier
The Simpsons

Special Mention to The West Wing episode "Two Cathedrals". If there is a television writer alive today who wants to try and top that, go right ahead.

 

[Erik]

1. The Wire

 

[bogdan]

Little Britain
Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Two And A Half Men
The King Of Queens
Everybody Loves Raymond
Married With Children
Family Guy
Futurama
Beavis & Butthead

 

[Stavrogin]

1. The Wire
2. Twin Peaks
3. Dexter
4. The Andy Griffith Show
5. Family Guy
6. Monty Python's Flying Circus
7. SNL (the good years):)
8. The Twilight Zone
9. Malcolm in the Middle
10. Breaking Bad

 

[LickTheStar]

Shit, I forgot Dexter! Great show, great show. And they made a really smart decision not to go along with the book series...

 

[Stavrogin]

LickTheStar - I left off The Shield. Hooked on this series to the final. Really upset with......(spoiler and I'll PM you). Kind of ruined it for me. But it is perhaps what makes the series so brilliant that such a reaction was present to begin with. Funny you mention the marathon viewing - spent nearly 12 hours once downing an entire season of this show (with a bit of help from J.W. Dant, so what, I'm cheap) and was completely captivated.

 

[mjp]

1. Northern Exposure

Carnivale
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Deadwood
Dexter
In Concert
Kung Fu
Six Feet Under
The Honeymooners
The Office (UK)
The Simpsons
The Sopranos
Twin Peaks

I concur.

I would add:

30 Rock​

Alfred Hitchcock Presents​

Felicity (because I'm a fag)​

M*A*S*H​

My So-Called Life (see: fag)​

MythBusters​

Roseanne​

Sanford and Son (come on man, one of the funniest shows ever)​

Scrubs​

South Park​

Survivor​

The Carol Burnett Show​

The Mary Tyler Moore Show​

The Twilight Zone​

I seem to have gone beyond 10.

 

[Gerard K H Love]

Seinfeld
Malcolm in the Middle
Andy Griffith Show
The Bob Newhart Show (both)
News Radio
Breaking Bad
SNL
Nova
Mythbusters
60 Minutes
Late Show with David Letterman
Northern Exposure
I Love Lucy
Honeymooners
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Entourage

 

[LickTheStar]

I would also like to add Mythbusters and South Park. I would consider Scrubs if Seasons 4, 6, 7, and 8 weren't complete trainwrecks and\or rehashes of earlier seasons...

 

[Gerard K H Love]

You are right LTS Scrubs went too long.

 

[Cowboy]

Not in order from germany
Scrubs
Chapelle
King of Queens
Two and a half men
Six feet under
Simpsons
Nitro Circus
And three fom my daughter Lil`Lizzy
Life
Harpers Island
Orange Country Choppers

 

[hoochmonkey9]

I forgot:

Freaks and Geeks
Gilmore Girls
and the first 2 seasons of Happy Days.

and like dr. love, both versions of Bob Newhart's show.

I have not seen Deadwood or Carnivale or Dexter. I'll have to change that.

 

[mjp]

I have not seen Deadwood or Carnivale or Dexter. I'll have to change that.

You are in for a treat. But you should know that Deadwood and Carnivale had their plugs pulled before wrapping up their story lines. That is frustrating, but both are great, atmospheric trips. The language in Deadwood is particularly juicy. And no, not because every other word was cocksucker, but because of gems like this:

"Whatever lurks ahead of grievous abominations and disorder, you and me walk into it together like always."

"I see you have that big knife and hid somewhere on your person, you probably got some sort of pussified shootin' instrument, but I am good at first impressions and you are a fucking cunt, and I doubt you fought many men, maybe one."

"Not for us, apparently, the placid harbor, on which voyages near complete, to bob and rock, bob and rock, becalmed. For us, to the very end, the dizzying surges of the storm, and its crashing descents."

(Calamity Jane on General Custer) "He was no great fucking man. He was a long-haired cocksucker that could've saved many lives by more drinking, and stop being so fucking ambitious, and many still above-ground, and not scalped by the fucking heathens and their guts spread over the Plains."

"If we're going to be surprised by that, boys - government being government - will we next be shocked by the rivers running and the trees casting fucking shade?"

"The noise is terrible, isn't it Mr. Ellsworth. Like Fate."

They don't come around like that very often. Why HBO pulled the plug is a mystery and quite possibly a crime.

 

[chronic]

Why HBO pulled the plug is a mystery and quite possibly a crime.

I was told by a guy who worked on the show that David Milch decided he wanted to do something else... something even better than Deadwood. That's how we got the immortal classic John from Cincinnati.

 

[mjp]

Oh, that's right. I think you mentioned that here too.

Now, John from Cincinnati - there was a classic! Quite an achievement to produce a show with 30 or 40 characters and have not one of them be the least bit likable or sympathetic. What a mouldering puddle of stale puke that was. And to do it instead of finishing what could have been a classic just makes it that much more heinous.

 

[Erik]

2. The Singing Detective (BBC)

3. Pennies From Heaven (BBC)

 

[chronic]

Yes, had I thought of it, this would have made my list.

 

[justin grimbol]

roseanne
trailer park boys
oz
lucky louie
the twilight zone
the cosby show
arrested developement
that 70s show
jericho
twin peaks

 

[Purple Stickpin]

Family Guy
MPFC
Barney Miller
The Bob Newhart Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
All in the Family
M*A*S*H
Star Trek
Soap