What are your top 5 favorite franchises? (I put the thread in this forum because I imagine that the vast majority of people's selections will be in that category. But they don't have to be all SF/F. Law & Order just barely missed the cut for me.)
My picks:
1. Doctor Who. This is actually one of the newest additions to the list but it has climbed its way up to the top over the last 16 years or so. It's just amazing how long this franchise has lasted, how many different styles it evokes just based on how many different decades it's come from. Thanks to the constantly changing cast, the show always stays fresh while maintaining the same basic format throughout. And it's just so unlike anything else. It's not copying anything else and, even after it became popular, nothing else has really tried to copy it. It's just a singular thing and people who haven't seen it really have no idea just how deep the rabbit hole can go if you're willing to follow.
2. Star Trek. Perhaps unsurprising for the TrekBBS. I've drifted away from the franchise quite a bit since 2002. But it's impossible for me to overstate how much this franchise shaped me and my geeky tendencies. Every other fandom I look at, I look at it through the prism of logic & storytelling that Star Trek taught me. Every show that I watch, I'm always chasing that orgasmic high that I felt when I watched the DS9 finale for the first time. I've got a Star Trek trivia board game but I can't get my friends to play with me because I'm blurting out the answers before they're halfway through the questions. Show me any random 30 second clip from TOS, TNG, DS9, or most of Voyager and I will probably be able to name the episode for you. It's so deeply worn into my brain that I sometimes forget that there are still people out there that don't know what the Borg are and can't quote The Wrath of Khan word for word.
3. Buffy/Angel. I didn't think that this would be a thing that I would be able to get into. But I absolutely unexpectedly fell in love after watching a random Angel episode make jokes about how old Angel is (not only old enough to remember the days of tavern wenches but also old enough to be the only one in the room to understand Bonanza references
). Joss Whedon's superbly literate pop culture humor was the honey that first attracted me. Then I started getting into the lore & the vampire mythology. And before you know it, he sucker punched me in the heart over and over again. Whether it's an agonizing character death or Buffy rejecting Xander as a prom date, it's all equally heartbreaking. It's a show that would leave me with terrible depression if it weren't so damn funny the rest of the time. As they say on the t-shirts, "Don't fall in love or Joss Whedon will kill you."
4. Back to the Future. Much like Star Trek, this one really defined my childhood. Most of the stuff I was really into as a kid had an accompanying toy line to keep us engaged, whether it was Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Power Rangers, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Back to the Future really didn't have that level of merchandising. But that strange tale of a flying silver car that can travel through time really captured my imagination. I remember my best friend & I constantly running from one end of the yard to the other, being chased by Biff or the Libyans. He was always Marty. I was always Doc. We'd try to get girls in the neighborhood to be Jennifer or Clara. (He was always able to attract a fair number of Jennifers. I usually struggled to find a Clara.) And what's even more shocking is that, watching the movies as an adult, they hold up even better than I would have expected. Every time I rewatch them, there's always another joke or another bit of background business that I pick up on. And while it's a touch heartbreaking that there weren't more movies, it's probably a good lesson in leaving us wanting more. Very few trilogies manage to stick the landing as well as this one did.
5. Mystery Science Theater 3000/Rifftrax/Cinematic Titanic/The Film Crew. Get a bunch of funny people together and make jokes about bad movies. In retrospect, it seems so obvious that you wonder why no one thought of it before. I suppose, in a way, this was the precursor to our cynical modern age where all pop culture has to devour itself eventually. It takes the worst cinematic detritus and makes it watchable by virtue of everyone suffering through it together. It may not be my most devoted fandom. But I keep it around a lot because it's nice to have on in the background, even if it's just there to lull me to sleep. Also: "You know you want me, baby!"
Honorable mentions:
Star Wars. I'm more of a Star Wars dilettante. I know more about it than your average normie but I'm nowhere near as elbow deep in it as a lot of fans are.
Red Dwarf. It's so gratifying to love something so obscure. I love explaining the premise of this show to people who've never heard of it. Also, this has gotta be one of the most talented casts in TV history.
Marvel cinematic universe. I enjoy the movies a lot and I love that there are so many of them and so interconnected. But I think that they work better as surface-level experiences. There's not a lot to really reward a deep dive into them like there is some other stuff.
Batman. I was going to list this one until I realized that Batman is a really broad franchise and I really only like a small sliver of it. Is it really a top-tier franchise if I'm only sticking around for a handful of movies?
Ghostbusters. As a kid, this was easily top 5 material. As an adult, I'm not sure it holds up as a franchise. The first movie is a masterpiece. The 2nd movie is a really good but unnecessary copy of the original. From the couple episodes I've seen as an adult, the cartoon doesn't really hold up. The 2016 remake is too mediocre to justify the controversy around it. And I have little hope for the new movie. It could be good but it's clearly trying to evoke a different kind of energy from what made the first 2 movies so great.
So which franchises make it into your top 5?
My picks:
1. Doctor Who. This is actually one of the newest additions to the list but it has climbed its way up to the top over the last 16 years or so. It's just amazing how long this franchise has lasted, how many different styles it evokes just based on how many different decades it's come from. Thanks to the constantly changing cast, the show always stays fresh while maintaining the same basic format throughout. And it's just so unlike anything else. It's not copying anything else and, even after it became popular, nothing else has really tried to copy it. It's just a singular thing and people who haven't seen it really have no idea just how deep the rabbit hole can go if you're willing to follow.
2. Star Trek. Perhaps unsurprising for the TrekBBS. I've drifted away from the franchise quite a bit since 2002. But it's impossible for me to overstate how much this franchise shaped me and my geeky tendencies. Every other fandom I look at, I look at it through the prism of logic & storytelling that Star Trek taught me. Every show that I watch, I'm always chasing that orgasmic high that I felt when I watched the DS9 finale for the first time. I've got a Star Trek trivia board game but I can't get my friends to play with me because I'm blurting out the answers before they're halfway through the questions. Show me any random 30 second clip from TOS, TNG, DS9, or most of Voyager and I will probably be able to name the episode for you. It's so deeply worn into my brain that I sometimes forget that there are still people out there that don't know what the Borg are and can't quote The Wrath of Khan word for word.
3. Buffy/Angel. I didn't think that this would be a thing that I would be able to get into. But I absolutely unexpectedly fell in love after watching a random Angel episode make jokes about how old Angel is (not only old enough to remember the days of tavern wenches but also old enough to be the only one in the room to understand Bonanza references
). Joss Whedon's superbly literate pop culture humor was the honey that first attracted me. Then I started getting into the lore & the vampire mythology. And before you know it, he sucker punched me in the heart over and over again. Whether it's an agonizing character death or Buffy rejecting Xander as a prom date, it's all equally heartbreaking. It's a show that would leave me with terrible depression if it weren't so damn funny the rest of the time. As they say on the t-shirts, "Don't fall in love or Joss Whedon will kill you."4. Back to the Future. Much like Star Trek, this one really defined my childhood. Most of the stuff I was really into as a kid had an accompanying toy line to keep us engaged, whether it was Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Power Rangers, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Back to the Future really didn't have that level of merchandising. But that strange tale of a flying silver car that can travel through time really captured my imagination. I remember my best friend & I constantly running from one end of the yard to the other, being chased by Biff or the Libyans. He was always Marty. I was always Doc. We'd try to get girls in the neighborhood to be Jennifer or Clara. (He was always able to attract a fair number of Jennifers. I usually struggled to find a Clara.) And what's even more shocking is that, watching the movies as an adult, they hold up even better than I would have expected. Every time I rewatch them, there's always another joke or another bit of background business that I pick up on. And while it's a touch heartbreaking that there weren't more movies, it's probably a good lesson in leaving us wanting more. Very few trilogies manage to stick the landing as well as this one did.
5. Mystery Science Theater 3000/Rifftrax/Cinematic Titanic/The Film Crew. Get a bunch of funny people together and make jokes about bad movies. In retrospect, it seems so obvious that you wonder why no one thought of it before. I suppose, in a way, this was the precursor to our cynical modern age where all pop culture has to devour itself eventually. It takes the worst cinematic detritus and makes it watchable by virtue of everyone suffering through it together. It may not be my most devoted fandom. But I keep it around a lot because it's nice to have on in the background, even if it's just there to lull me to sleep. Also: "You know you want me, baby!"
Honorable mentions:
Star Wars. I'm more of a Star Wars dilettante. I know more about it than your average normie but I'm nowhere near as elbow deep in it as a lot of fans are.
Red Dwarf. It's so gratifying to love something so obscure. I love explaining the premise of this show to people who've never heard of it. Also, this has gotta be one of the most talented casts in TV history.
Marvel cinematic universe. I enjoy the movies a lot and I love that there are so many of them and so interconnected. But I think that they work better as surface-level experiences. There's not a lot to really reward a deep dive into them like there is some other stuff.
Batman. I was going to list this one until I realized that Batman is a really broad franchise and I really only like a small sliver of it. Is it really a top-tier franchise if I'm only sticking around for a handful of movies?
Ghostbusters. As a kid, this was easily top 5 material. As an adult, I'm not sure it holds up as a franchise. The first movie is a masterpiece. The 2nd movie is a really good but unnecessary copy of the original. From the couple episodes I've seen as an adult, the cartoon doesn't really hold up. The 2016 remake is too mediocre to justify the controversy around it. And I have little hope for the new movie. It could be good but it's clearly trying to evoke a different kind of energy from what made the first 2 movies so great.
So which franchises make it into your top 5?
