OT: Top TV shows all time
Stole this from the BCS thread below and want to hear more opinions. I separate dramas and comedies.
Dramas:
1. The Wire
1a. Breaking Bad
1b. The Sopranos
4. Game of Thrones
Honorable Mention: Better Call Saul, Sons of Anarchy, Dexter.
Comedies:
1. Seinfeld
2. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
3. Curb your enthusiasm
4. The Office.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:48 AM ^
I like the cut of your jib. I would also include The Wire, Dexter (although that ending...), and The Sopranos in my top 5. LOST is my favorite show of all-time. I also really enjoyed Broadchurch. Boardwalk Empire was good as well, but I'm not sure it makes a top-5 list.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
Boardwalk Empire and Lost would probably both be in my top 10 so just outside of that group.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:43 PM ^
I, too, really enjoy Lost.
August 10th, 2022 at 5:40 PM ^
Me too, my son wanted to watch Lost and I hadn’t seen it since it aired. Man, the rewatch was so good. Really appreciated the show on the second watch. I loved the first 4 seasons of Dexter, then it fell apart completely.
a show that I loved that is incredibly slept on is Person of Interest. The 1st season is very procedural but the show kept getting better and better until an awesome climax.
Game of Thrones was so good for 6 seasons. Then the 7th was average and the 8th was atrocious starting with the Nights Watch episode. It ended so poorly that I have zero interest in this new show coming out soon
August 10th, 2022 at 6:20 PM ^
i agree about GoT. I've never seen a show go from IT to no one even talks about it except to say the last season sucked.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
Dexter had a lot of issues after the writers' strike culminating in that shit ending.
Broadchurch was soooooooo good I loved that show.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:16 AM ^
First 2 seasons of Broadchurch were excellent. I thought the 3rd season dropped off quite a bit.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:57 AM ^
1. Band of Brothers
2. Game of Thrones
3. Sons of Anarchy
4 Ted Lasso
5. Sopranos
6. Haunting of Hill House
7. Boardwalk Empire.
8. Saved by the Bell...(As a Kid)
9. College Gameday
10. Spartacus
11. Cobra Kai
Honorable Mention....Expedition Unknown.
August 10th, 2022 at 9:57 PM ^
Some of the best shows I’ve ever seen:
Breaking Bad
Life
Animal Kingdom
Rescue Me
Cheers
Mash
Jack Ryan
Yellowstone, 1883, Mayor of Kingstown (Taylor Sheridan shows)
August 10th, 2022 at 10:28 PM ^
+ 1 for Band of Brothers
August 10th, 2022 at 9:46 PM ^
Michigan v ohio state 11/27/2021
August 11th, 2022 at 2:50 AM ^
How did that one end?
August 11th, 2022 at 8:23 AM ^
It’s like the writers ran out of ideas and it became insanely predictable. They kept repeating this one storyline where Hassan Haskins scored a touchdown. Like on every drive.
August 11th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
Winter is coming episode!
August 10th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
All in the Family
August 10th, 2022 at 1:13 PM ^
You're definitely old. Me too.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:54 AM ^
Comedy - The Phil Silvers' Show (the original Sgt. Bilko). The one where he and his men go to Detroit to pick up new vehicles and end up hanging out poolside in Grosse Pointe is hysterical. You have to watch this show on YouTube.
Addition to Comedy - I have to add Fernwood Tonight which was broadcast weeknights from July 1977 to September 1977 (while I was in Law School). Martin Mull and Fred Willard were brilliant as the show host and sidekick, respectively! Again, I think you can only watch it on YouTube.
Drama - I really liked Queen's Gambit, if only to show that I don't always live in the past.
August 10th, 2022 at 3:51 PM ^
It went off the air before I was born, but I'll confirm that Fernwood Tonight still claps. Fred Willard is so subtle. His characters in Best in Show and Mighty Wind are legendary, A-1 Steaksauce funny.
August 10th, 2022 at 4:08 PM ^
If we're talking Fernwood Tonight we should also hat tip Larry Sanders. Garry Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, Rip Torn...great cast.
August 10th, 2022 at 4:33 PM ^
don't forget it's antecedent - Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - this is what spun off Fernwood Tonight and Forever Fernwood as well. MHMH was a daily soap opera story of a small town housewife slowly going off the deep end from all the weirdness around her. Louise Lasser, plus Mary Kay Place, Dody Goodman, Debralee Scott - a pantheon of 70's tv greats
August 10th, 2022 at 10:32 PM ^
Phil Silvers was a comic genus!
August 10th, 2022 at 10:56 AM ^
Married with Children is the greatest TV show to ever air.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:41 AM ^
The last few seasons were just OK. Still funnier than anything on this list.
Community was great too. Ranks up there with Married.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:30 PM ^
My best friend and I did the Troy and Abed loader and alien scene for Halloween one year and only 3 people got it, haha.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:44 PM ^
Having Al and Peg split caused me to split from the show. I assume that was a last ditch effort to get their fans to resume interest in the show.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:52 PM ^
I thought Seven was the last ditch. It was for me anyways.
August 10th, 2022 at 2:15 PM ^
What kind of c*cksucker doesn't list Deadwood? (Seasons 1 and 2 only)
August 10th, 2022 at 4:18 PM ^
"F**king goddam c*cksucker." To be precise.
If you consider yourself an expert on on Deadwood cursing, check out this 12 minute wonder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFDYAz5LFjc
And oh yes...Deadwood absolutely belongs on a Ten Best list.
August 10th, 2022 at 5:41 PM ^
Community and Parks and Rec and the Office were great Thursday night tv
August 10th, 2022 at 10:34 PM ^
Don't know if it was the greatest ever but it was great.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:57 AM ^
Sanford and Son
August 10th, 2022 at 10:36 PM ^
Like most good comedy it would not be allowed on the air today. (Actually, S&S would be pulled before it got half way though the first episode!)
August 10th, 2022 at 10:45 PM ^
That reminds me, Fawlty Towers was the most hilarious comedy ever. But it too wouldn't make it though a complete episode without being pulled. John Cleese said that comedy is mostly dead now.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:58 AM ^
Drama:
The Wire
West Wing
Deadwood
1883
Comedies:
Taxi
Cheers
August 10th, 2022 at 1:59 PM ^
And Deadwood makes an appearance. Top 10 worthy.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:37 PM ^
Thought 1883 was great but it seemed to tail off toward the end.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:39 PM ^
Liked Taxi and Cheers. I thought Barney Miller was one of the greats. (I read once where cops thought it was the most realist of all cop shows.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
Top 5:
1. Sopranos
2. Sopranos
3. Sopranos
4. Sopranos
5. Sopranos
August 10th, 2022 at 2:47 PM ^
how is trailer park boys not on here?
i'd like to see those red blue green c#cks&ckers build that. duct tapin it.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
Gotta have a separate category for unscripted shows:
- Penn and Teller: Fool Us is my favorite TV show ever, although I've never watched it on TV. Watching reruns and clips on YouTube kept me sane in the early days of the pandemic.
- Taskmaster.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^
- Penn and Teller: Fool Us is my favorite TV show ever, although I've never watched it on TV. Watching reruns and clips on YouTube kept me sane in the early days of the pandemic.
Get out of my head. I watched so many of those clips on YouTube throughout lockdown time. That and Hot Ones.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:03 AM ^
comedy:
August 10th, 2022 at 11:31 AM ^
"Soap" really is an example, in my opinion, of American television comedy at its height, and it has the distinction of being one of the few shows to be the subject of protest before an episode of it even aired. Somewhere, there is a list of things removed from the "show bible", and it is quite lengthy, and again, all that before it even aired.
It also sits in rare company by being one of the few shows to have a spinoff - "Benson" - outlast it. In the case of "Benson", by several seasons.
August 10th, 2022 at 11:43 AM ^
Benson was great, recently re-watched most of those. Another great comedy from back in the day was Barney Miller.
August 11th, 2022 at 12:04 PM ^
+1 for Barney Miller.
August 10th, 2022 at 10:47 PM ^
I just happed to see an episode of Soap this week. I had forgotten ow funny it was. It also really broke new ground.
August 10th, 2022 at 12:32 PM ^
As this comment, and others suggest, the original post has lots of good shows but ALSO lots of recency bias.
August 10th, 2022 at 1:49 PM ^
Sure, but older shows (particularly comedies) tend to have issues that make it difficult to put them in the highest of tiers.
For example, I am a big Barney Miller fan. During the height of the pandemic, I watched a couple dozen episodes and the acting is truly top-notch and its casting was very modern (incredibly diverse ensemble, not just racially and ethnically, but also viewpoint, e.g., a black fiscal conservative; a white, bleeding heart liberal, working class vet). However...
...almost every episode has something played for a laugh which is cringe-worthy or worse, e.g., a lot of "hey, wife...if you don't shut up, I'm going to give you a huge slap in the face" [Laugh track erupts] by the perps, or "addicted to heroin? walk it off!" [guffaw]
Again, it's a very good show that I enjoy watching, as I appreciate the skill and thoughtfulness & understand its flaws, but if a 20-year old tried to get into it, I would completely understand why they would be like, "What is this retrograde nonsense?"
August 10th, 2022 at 2:40 PM ^
Good point. Real good point.