WGA's Top 101 television shows all time

[gblews]

Great list though it maybe should be titled 101 Top American T.V. shows. NBC has 10 of the top 25. They really used to know how to pick 'em. Sopranos was a no brainer at no. 1. Seinfeld was a mild surprise at no. 2 (I thought it would be "T-Zone"), but there is a reason that show has such great rewatchability.

TOS, TNG, and BSG, rightfuly get some love.

IMO, writers know what they're talking about. From latimes.com, today..

1. "The Sopranos"
2. "Seinfeld"
3. "The Twilight Zone"
4. "All in the Family"
5. "MASH"
6. "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"
7. "Mad Men"
8. "Cheers"
9. "The Wire"
10. "The West Wing"
11. "The Simpsons"
12. "I Love Lucy"
13. "Breaking Bad"
14. "The Dick Van Dyke Show"
15. "Hill Street Blues"
16. "Arrested Development"
17. "The Daily Show"
18. "Six Feet Under"
19. "Taxi"
20. "The Larry Sanders Show"
21. "30 Rock"
22. "Friday Night Lights"
23. "Frasier"
24. "Friends"
25. "Saturday Night Live"
26. "The X-Files"
27. "Lost"
28. "ER"
29. "The Cosby Show"
30. "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
31. "The Honeymooners"
32. "Deadwood"
33. "Star Trek"
34. "Modern Family"
35. "Twin Peaks"
36. "NYPD Blue"
37. "The Carol Burnett Show"
38. "Battlestar Galactica"
39. "Sex and the City"
40. "Game of Thrones"
41. "The Bob Newhart Show"
42. "Your Show of Shows"
43. "Downton Abbey"
44. "Law & Order"
45. "Thirtysomething"
46. "St. Elsewhere"
47. "Homicide: Life on the Street"
48. "Homeland"
49. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"
50. "The Good Wife"
51. "The Colbert Report"
52. "The Office" (British version)
53. "Northern Exposure"
54. "The Wonder Years"
55. "L.A. Law"
56. "Sesame Street"
57. "Columbo"
58. "The Rockford Files"
59. "Fawlty Towers"
60. "Moonlighting"
61. "Freaks and Geeks"
62. "Roots"
63. "Everybody Loves Raymond"
64. "South Park"
65. "Playhouse 90"
66. "The Office" (U.S. version)
67. "Dexter"
68. "My So-Called Life"
69. "Golden Girls"
70. "The Andy Griffith Show"
71. "The Shield"
72. "Roseanne"
73. "24"
74. "Murphy Brown"
75. "House"
76. "Barney Miller"
77. "I, Claudius"
78. "The Odd Couple"
79. "Star Trek: The Next Generation"
80. "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"
81. "Upstairs Downstairs"
82. "Monty Python's Flying Circus"
83. "Get Smart"
84. "Gunsmoke"
85. "The Defenders"
86. "Sergeant Bilko"
87. "Justified"
88. "Band of Brothers"
89. "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In"
90. "The Prisoner"
91. "The Muppet Show"
92. "Absolutely Fabulous"
93. "Boardwalk Empire"
94. "Will and Grace"
95. "Family Ties"
96. "Lonesome Dove"
97. "Soap"
98. "The Fugitive"
99. "Louie"
100. "Late Night With David Letterman"
101. "Oz"

 

[Miss Chicken]

Yes, I was going to comment that "American" should be put in the title but then I saw Monty Python Flying Circus and Upstairs, Downstairs, Fawlty Towers, The Prisoner etc are included so at least there are some British Show but a whole heap of British shows that deserve to be included are omitted.

 

[J.T.B.]

A pretty good list, fairly recent-biased as lists usually are, and a few I'd rank higher or lower, but pretty good. A few shows I was looking for didn't make it. I think SCTV should be on there, that was as inventive and influential a comedy as there's ever been, it's hard to imagine The Simpsons or Larry Sanders or any number of shows without it. And one of the best character comedies of the last 20 years that never got the credit it deserved: King of the Hill. Also Lou Grant, a really great and thoughtful show that paved the way for a lot of dramas to come.

ETA: Seinfeld at no. 2 is cool with me, that show was a precision machine.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Wow. A 'Best TV shows ever' list that actually includes the majority of the greatest shows ever. Every time I think "Hey they left out..." I then go "...Oh, there it is."

But I am a geek, and this is a list. I must criticize.

Umm...RIGET! Riget was left off the list! What's Riget? Why it's Lars Von Trier's Dutch miniseries from the mid 90s. And Yes Minister, that was left off!

Great list. Far better than you would normally expect from a list.

 

[gblews]

A pretty good list, fairly recent-biased as lists usually are,

The article on the list made mention of this also. But my take on it is this: I think the further back you go, the fewer well written T.V. shows there are (or were).

The reason is because there were fewer T.V. stations, fewer shows in general, and there just wasn't nearly as much competition. Now granted, there were probably a higher percentage of well written shows back then but that too is owing more to the fact that there were way fewer stations and way fewer shows.

As time has passed with the advent of cable and other media, the competition has forced more producers to think about the quality of the production. Back in the 50's and 60's, this often wasn't the case. Yes, there are bad shows now and there always will be, but my point is that there is, generally speaking, more high quality writing on T.V. today than there was back in the 50's and 60's.

 

[Kirby]

Good list. Although I've never seen The Wire, I think that's a very solid top 10. It's also nice to see The Bob Newhart Show on the list, one of my all time favorites.

 

[Harvey]

As time has passed with the advent of cable and other media, the competition has forced more producers to think about the quality of the production. Back in the 50's and 60's, this often wasn't the case. Yes, there are bad shows now and there always will be, but my point is that there is, generally speaking, more high quality writing on T.V. today than there was back in the 50's and 60's.

The most frequent critical opinion that I've read has suggested that the best writing in the 1950s occurred on anthology programs, which are barely represented on the list, outside of the most well-known (The Twilight Zone), the one with the most famous host (Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and Playhouse 90 (not a bad pick). Most of these shows aren't even available for viewing, let alone popularly recognizable, so it isn't a surprise to see them excluded.

 

[J.T.B.]

A pretty good list, fairly recent-biased as lists usually are,

The article on the list made mention of this also. But my take on it is this: I think the further back you go, the fewer well written T.V. shows there are (or were).

I agree with that, for the reasons you mention, plus the fact that the movie industry has changed such that quality dramatic writing has gravitated heavily to TV. My point is: The list was made by people voting recently, and I think that weights the list toward stuff that they've seen recently, have better recollection of, and that's been covered more in the media. I have to wonder how many voters were really conscious of how exquisitely crafted seasons of St. Elsewhere were, for instance, since the show has been all but unavailable to view for 25 years. Was Friends really that much better-written than The Bob Newhart Show or The Andy Griffith Show, or is it just better remembered?

But as I said, the list is a good one and I have no major problems with it.

 

[diankra]

It's a very Amercan list - which is understandable, but as a Brit with an interest in old telly who was getting rubbish camera copies of USTV sent over by a penpal back in TNG season 1, there's still 10 show there that I've never seen! * Maybe it should have been a US Top 100, plus a second list of 21 non-US shows?
Anyway... surely DS9 is better written than TNG, on average? Plus points for putting Cheers above Frasier. And within the British stuff, how did Downton Abbey make it into even the 100 best written ITV series????

* This is not a criticism of it being US-centric, I just mean that it'd have been better to have a wholly US 100, rather than dropping in five UK shows that happened to have been run in the States. A separate non-US list could have included UK shows that never made the states, and some non-UK stuff too, like the originals of the superb Danish or Israeli shows currently being remade for the US with varying results (Homeland, In Treatment, good. The Killing, less so).

 

[J.T.B.]

^ Well, considering it was a poll of a US writer's association about US television, one could say that shows of British origin (I count eight?) did pretty well in proportion to their actual viewership numbers in the states. I agree completely on "Downton."

 

[JirinPanthosa]

In much of the 50s and 60s television I've seen, cheese is a lot more tolerated than it is now. If anything I think some of the older shows that made the list such as I Love Lucy are being remembered based on their legend and not based on their actual content, which if you're actually watch it is formulaic and trite.

 

[gblews]

In much of the 50s and 60s television I've seen, cheese is a lot more tolerated than it is now. If anything I think some of the older shows that made the list such as I Love Lucy are being remembered based on their legend and not based on their actual content, which if you're actually watch it is formulaic and trite.

All of these shows (especially the sitcoms) should be viewed partially from the perspective of the times in which they were first run. What seems " formulaic and trite" by today's standards was something quite innovative, fresh, and yes, "edgy" back in the 50's (speaking of Lucy's pregnancy episodes here).

But despite what may appear to be trite to you, consider that after 65 years or so, "Lucy" is still running and is still being enjoyed today.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

But despite what may appear to be trite to you, consider that after 65 years or so, "Lucy" is still running and is still being enjoyed today.

So is Full House.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

No major disagreements with the list. If they were including Brittish shows then Fawlty, Python, and I, Claudius should have been much higher. Lost and Battlestar Galactica were both failed shows for me so I wouldn't have them that high. Even though I am only on Season 4 unless it ends horribly I would put Babylon 5 on there as an example of a show that did the complete story arc concept successfully. I always thought Larry Sanders was way overrated and too inside of a show. And although it was often funny a lot of the writing on the Cosby Show is just painful to watch today. Personal faves: No Family Guy, WKRP, and Odd Couple at 78!? Sacrilege!

 

[Pingfah]

Doctor Who is conspicuously missing from that list.

I mean, it's only the longest running sci-fi show in history, no big deal.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

WKRP

WKRP is an example of a show that I'd expect to be ranked very highly on the next part of the list from #102 to #202.

 

[gblews]

But despite what may appear to be trite to you, consider that after 65 years or so, "Lucy" is still running and is still being enjoyed today.

So is Full House.

You missed the "65 years", I guess. But you're right, I Love Lucy isn't on the writer's list just because of it's longevity.

And speaking of what you called, "formulaic" (so ironic that you should mention this) -- consider, there were no sitcom formulas back when Lucy was in production. In fact, I Love Lucy created many/most of the "formulas" (technical and script-wise) that you see in sitcoms today.

I'm not begrudging you your opinions af the show, afterall they are just opinions, I'm just trying to inject a little much needed perspective.

 

[gblews]

And although it was often funny a lot of the writing on the Cosby Show is just painful to watch today.

I disagree with you assessment of The Cosby Show today, but I was a bit surprised to see it on the list. I loved the show but always thought it's real appeal was in watching Cos and how he related to the family and situations. It never struck me as one of the best written sitcoms of all time -- though perhaps one of the best performed sitcoms ever.

I'd really like to know what the voters saw in the show's writing that caused it to end up on the list.

 

[tomalak301]

Was Farscape too obscure for this list? I remember it was universally lauded by critics (Didn't Matt Rousch say something like it was the best science fiction show written at that time?) so I was surprised it was not on here. If they left it to just American shows that's one thing, but Downton Abby is on this list.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Fair Enough. I know I Love Lucy was the first show of its sort and it does get credit for inventing the formula. When I called it 'Formulaic' I meant more along the lines of being repetitious than being derivative.

I personally wouldn't include Babylon 5 and Farscape on a 'Best written' list unless the list was exclusive to scifi. Those shows thrived more on concept than writing. Farscape was the sort of show like Stargate that usually just sort of did its thing with scifi tropes popularized by Star Trek, and it worked just because its thing was pretty awesome. And Babylon 5 has a great main arc but the writing in individual scenes was pretty middling. There's a better argument for Firefly or Futurama.

Can't comment on Dr Who cause all I've seen are a few episodes of the 9th Doctor.