Interference's 50 Greatest TV Shows

[BigMacPhisto]

Since the Breaking Bad thread has had some interesting discussion about where that series ranks among the other all-time greats. I figured we'd open up a thread to have some back-and-forth about what constitutes great television and just what shows are the cream of the crop of the last sixty-plus years.

As far as lists go, you can post up to 50 ranked titles of any genre. Mini-series/movies are not allowed though. 50 points to 1st, 49 to 2nd and so forth. A minimum of 20 shows are necessary for your list to be counted.

Eventually, they'll get tallied up and people will whine that one poster's refusal to watch The Sopranos ended up making it finish at #4. Of course, that won't become a discussion point until after somebody get flamed for three pages after ranking The Simpsons below Family Guy.

Also, Survivor is undeniably awesome and lumping it in with the dregs of reality television will not be tolerated.

List away!

[Canadiens1131]

M*A*S*H

That is all.

[BigMacPhisto]

K, now give me the next 19.

I'll assume you have AfterMASH ranked at #2.

18 more, pls.

[cobl04]

I love The Simpsons, How I Met Your Mother, Community, Seinfeld, Friends, The Office, Parks and Recreation, House, Breaking Bad and some others but I'm way out of my depth in this conversation!

But please, give 50 points to HIMYM from me

[PhilsFan]

I am not sure if I have seen twenty shows.

[mikal]

Twin Peaks

[u2popmofo]

Keeping Up With the Kardashians

[Lila64]

Cheers

[bonocomet]

Not exactly in ranked order for now as I'm just going to start listing to get 20 I think are worthy of a list... (The first 5 are ranked though, with the rest roughly ranked. )

1. LOST
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. Dexter
4. Breaking Bad
5. The X-Files
6. Star Trek (TOS)
7. 24
8. Six Feet Under
9. The Twilight Zone
10. I Dream of Jeannie
11. Seinfeld
12. Arrested Development
13. Futurama
14. Angel
15. Sons of Anarchy
16. Star Trek (TNG)
17. Farscape
18. Kings
19. Batman (Adam West)
20. Forever Knight
21. Life On Mars (Original UK version)

Ok that was way harder than I thought it would be, mostly because there are shows I would have liked to include because they had brilliant starts but turned so crap later I couldn't justify them being included. (Like Heroes) A few on the list probably should have been off the list for going downhill (sadly like 24) but I think still must be there. Anyway, I was still grasping for the last 5 or so.

[GirlsAloudFan]

1. Gilmore Girls
2. Seinfeld
3. LOST
4. Mad Men

[deep]

I know we did this at least once before

and I kind of agree with Woody Allen, he said something like, Awards Shows are stupid, how do you quantify art?

of the shows offered, I see some extremely outstanding shows listed
and some very insignificant ones included

at most, this can serve as some sort of a sim engine, if someone lists 8 shows and 6 are on your list you may want to check out the other two.


I think the best and worst albums thread will have more agreement, very few of the best albums were crap, most were the best or next to best.

this thread has already had some stuff included that I will call marginal (instead of crap)

[corianderstem]

All I can do is list my favorite TV shows; I'm not interested in saying what I think are "the greatest." I don't know that I can even come up with 20. But hey, I feel like a good listing, so here's my list:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2. The X-Files
3. Arrested Development
4. Mad Men
5. Breaking Bad
6. The Wire
7. Twin Peaks
8. Freaks and Geeks
9. The Simpsons
10. Sex and the City
11. Extras
12. My So-Called Life

[bonocomet]

Yeah that's what I did of course too: my favorites. What else can you do? I can't include shows I haven't got around to watching yet. And it was pretty tough to stretch to 20 and call those the best ever!!! Because seriously a few of those are shows I just really enjoyed as a kid. But I like my list.

[deep]

God bless you Buffy plans, I missed that the first time around, I had a few girls I knew back then ask me if I ever watched it. I was not dating of them so I did not bother.

However, last weekend a cable channel aired Joss Whedon's top ten episodes in countdown order. They were not chronological. I gave up my whole Saturday to watch them. Well, they were ok. Sorry not blown away. My favorite episode was The Body, the one where her mother dies. A lot of skill displayed, very well done.
I can understand the popularity of the show and I am sure I would have enjoyed much more if I had watched it as it aired. And if my friend, Heather, had been my gf back then.

[bonocomet]

Yeah The Body is probably one of the greatest single episodes in TV ever. (In mine and many opinions) The lack of any soundtrack whatsoever for the entire episode is unsettling, and spot on great.

[deep]

Originally Posted by bonocomet

Yeah that's what I did of course too: my favorites. What else can you do?

fair enough

If I listed some of my favorites, I may have to accuse myself of including crap on a 'best' lists. Some of my 'favorites' are odd. (I know, what a surprise)

[LuckyNumber7]

1. Monk
2. Futurama

That concludes my list.

[corianderstem]

(edited, because why do I give a shit whether or not deep was "blown away" by the random Buffy episodes he saw?)

When I first heard about the show, I thought it sounded stupid. It wasn't until FX was going to air it in syndication that I decided to watch it, after hanging around online with people who raved and raved about it.

So I started watching the marathon on FX, and was about ready to quit after the (thankfully short) first season, I'm glad I stuck with it, as it clicked with me only a few episodes into the second season.

[u2popmofo]

Deadwood has not been mentioned yet.

[KhanadaRhodes]

1. community
2. arrested development

anything i could list beyond that i would probably be laughed at and don't like nearly as much as these two anyway, so there you go.