In no particular order:
Breaking Bad
The Wire
Mad Men
The West Wing
The Sopranos
Better Call Saul
Fargo
The Americans
Louie
Futurama
Honorable mention to South Park, SCTV, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Arrested Development, Community, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boardwalk Empire, Six Feet Under
Others like Homeland, Game of Thrones and True Detective had some great seasons but likely more misses than hits.
Lifetime achievement awards to The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live due to longevity and cultural impact.
Can't believe that I forgot to put The Muppet Show on my list! Classic characters, great guests and humour delivered on multiple levels, all delivered by Jim Henson.
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1.Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
This is maybe the greatest story ever told. Captures the imagination, builds a
beautiful world, breaks your heart a thousand times, makes allegories about the
real world without being heavy handed.
2. One Piece
I am not even finished with this, but it might be my favorite show before I am
done. I love that every character has clear and meaningful motivations that they
stay true to. The community is great for letting spoilers stay spoilers so you get
the full impact.
3. Jeopardy!
What else can be said but this is so much fun to play along with at home, and to cheer for players to risk it all with a daily double.
4.Futurama
Always clever and always funny, and ahead of its time ( haha)
5. Monday Night Raw
Yeah yeah, lots of objectively bad TV in there, but when it is good, it is the most entertaining thing on TV. 1630 episodes weekly, and live.
6. Dark
Everything you want from a scifi story. a complete and self fulfilling story with next to no filler. Just the perfect amount of episdoes.
7. Avatar: The Last Airbender
Some of the best character development in TV. A little childish, but excellent world building and conclusion.
8. Seinfeld
What can I say, It's a show... about nothing.
9.Chopped
The best cooking challenge game there is. Lots of fun to play along at home, teaches you a great deal about how to cook.
10. Big Brother
Let's get one thing straight. Social media has ruined this show forever.
No less, in its prime big brother was the best reality TV going.
The entire concept is crazy strangers locked in a house voting each other off one by one. Watching the The game theory and meta game evolve and then change was lots of fun.
Shout out to the first 5 seasons of GoT, the first season of True Detective, the first season of Jessica Jones and the first 10 or so seasons of Survivor.
Edit: HM Trailer Park Boys, damn can't believe I forgot that beauty of a show.
Last edited by TheIronMaiden; 08-01-2024 at 03:37 PM.
If I look at it as "what were my favourites back when they were on" as opposed to what I think is "best" looking back, my list would probably be pretty similar to some of the earlier posts.
As a kid it was Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights, the one time we were allowed to watch TV with dinner, and the Muppet Show. In my early teens after school it was (ineligible show) and WKRP in Cincinnati.
I remember being hooked on the original Battlestar Galactica (even if it doesn't really hold up) and V.
Later, in addition to (ineligible show TNG) I was really into the X-Files, despite being uneven and going off the rails in later seasons (not even going to talk about the ill-advised revival). Sliders started well but declined, Space Above and Beyond was cancelled way too soon. Also Babylon 5, I didn't get hooked at first but got drawn in later on, and then Stargate SG-1.
I actually struggle to remember what I watched between then and more recent times and shows like Game of Thrones, I think lots of shows that were quickly cancelled or didn't leave a huge impression.
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Barney Miller Nature
Nova
Cosmos
30 Rock
SNL
Jeopardy
Parks and Rec
The White Shadow
The Bear
Taxi
Seinfeld has not aged well for me.
I love nature and science documentaries. Most anything narrated by David Attenborough is great. The old National Geographic specials with this intro was must-see TV from my childhood
I don’t think there’s been a better written season, and out of its entire run, you could argue that season 3 while still great took a dip because the writers strike cut it in half. What made this series special is because in the background of a small Texas Town, and a high school football team, the plot lines and problems that people faced were realistic. From the starting QB breaking his neck. To the accidental murder of a rapist, to the death of a parent in Afghanistan it was all there. It also covered the obsession that Texas small towns have with football from recruiting violations, to crooked boosters. This was a supremely good cast lead by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, and I realized when I recently did a rewatch. Its still relevant and it ages really well.
Best Episodes
Pilot (S1E1)
State (S1E22)
The Confession (S2E9)
Hello, Goodbye (S3E4)
Underdogs (S3E12)
The Son (S4E5)
Laboring (S4E12)
Always (S5E13)
2) The Sopranos (1999-1997)
This show rates so very highly for me because it was unique from any other show on TV and was and still remains as a pioneering show. This was a show that was purely about the antihero, and it turned TV on its head because of it. None of the characters were hero’s or good people. This was a show about a crime family, period. While it was also a show about some deeply dark and disturbed individual. The Sopranos was so different and complexly genre defining. A show with an exceptional cast led by the late and great James Gandolfini, you had to work very hard to feel sympathy for a group of characters that could generously be called sociopaths. We watched the show for not only the unapologetic violence and betrayals but because it was like watching a car accident in slow motion. The main characters destroyed each others lives, and we loved it. You couldn’t look away and it kept drawing you back on a weekly basis. One of the biggest criticisms of the show was its murky ending. Did the Sopranos get wacked, did they have a nice dinner of cannoli? It doesn’t matter much.
Best Episodes
Pilot (S1E1)
Full Leather Jacket (S2E8)
The Knight in White Satin Armor (S2E12)
Funhouse (S2E13)
Pine Barrens (S3E11)
Whitecaps (S3E13)
Long Term Parking (S5E12)
Made in America (S6E12)
1) Babylon 5
One of the most incredible science fictions shows that’s been made. Even though the first season was more about character development, once they moved into the Shadow War and the the Earth Civil war, the show moved with an unrelenting pace. Once of the rare shows that from start to end seemed to stay extremely loyal to its lore and story line, and it had an incredibly deep lore. Even with the replacement of the original Commander Sinclair with the excellent Bruce Boxlietner as John Sheridan the show didn’t lose its way. But in terms of the cast, it was the supporting actors that made this show special. From the frenemies Mollari and G’Kar, to Jerry Doyle chewing up the scenery in the background, this show offered up something different that served every different kind of stand. The show was unique in that in terms of enemies there either wasn’t a big bad, as the shadows and the Vorlon’s didn’t have a main enemy. And we never really got to see the evil President of the Earth Alliance making plans. Because of that the enemies always lived in the shadows, moving and plotting and that made them all the more frightening.
Best Episodes
Points of Departure (S2E1)
The Coming of Shadows (S2E9)
In the shadow of Zha’dun (S2E15)
The long, Twilight Struggle (S2E20)
The fall of Night (S2E22)
Path of no Return (S3E9)
Severed Dreams (S3E10)
War without end (SeE16E17)
Zha’dun (S3E22)
Into the Fire (S4E6)
Endgame (S4E20)
The Corps is Mother, the Corpse is Father (S5E13)
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No mention of The X-Files yet? For shame! That show was arguably the best thing on TV from '93 until about 1998 when they did the first movie. It was pretty spotty after Duchovny left, but even then I thought Robert Patrick had some fantastic episodes in the later seasons.
Other favourites of mine in no particular order:
Seinfeld (easily the best comedy series of all time)
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Cheers
Kids in the Hall
Battlestar Galactica (2004 reboot)
True Detective (Season 1)
Breaking Bad
Better Call Saul
Dexter
Firefly
Miami Vice
The Fall Guy
Band of Brothers
Chernobyl
The Wire
The Shield
The Americans
Magnum P.I. (original series)
Quantum Leap
Amazing Stories
V
The Twilight Zone
Stranger Things
Young and the Restless. Watched it with roommates 30 years ago in college. Seeing it now, some of the main characters are still around and haven’t aged much.
Young and the Restless. Watched it with roommates 30 years ago in college. Seeing it now, some of the main characters are still around and haven’t aged much.
I had the same experience with Days of our Lives in college and shortly thereafter. Weird how that was kind of a thing at the time.
Marlena and Roman and John Black. Bo and Hope.
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Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
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Quote:
Long before Jerry Seinfeld wondered about airline peanuts, before Tim Allen grunted his first "Arrr arrr arrr!", before Roseanne Barr became a Domestic Goddess, there was Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan, one of the very first stand-up comedians to successfully turn his stage routine into a hit TV sitcom. Welcome Back, Kotter, which ran on ABC from 1975–79, was based upon Kaplan's own high school experiences with remedial education, and his memories of one teacher who cared dearly for her students.
The premise: Gabe Kotter returns to Brooklyn's James Buchanan High School as a teacher and is assigned to the remedial class of "Sweathogs" to which he himself once belonged. Mr. Kotter is an involved and caring teacher, which one would have to be in dealing with a certain four students in his class, who wind up in trouble on a regular basis: ladies' man Vinnie Barbarino (breakout star John Travolta), the always cool Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), the tough Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein (Robert Hegyes), and the sheepish Arnold Dingfelder Horshack (Ron Palillo). Meanwhile, Kotter frequently finds himself butting heads with cantankerous vice principal Michael Woodman (John Sylvester White), who dismisses the Sweathogs as a lost cause, and tries his best to juggle his teaching with his home life with his patient wife Julie (Marcia Strassman).
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10. Game of Thrones seasons 1-4
9. Seinfeld
8. The Americans
7. Buffy
6. Mad Men
5. Arrested Development
4. Breaking Bad
3. Better Call Saul. Better writing than Breaking Bad, not as spectacular cinematography.
2. The Sopranos. Just an amazing show in every way.
1. The Wire. I highly doubt it will ever be beaten.
I didn't put any miniseries on there. Both Band of Brothers and Chernobyl would be top-10.
My top-4 are clearly above the rest for me - just another level of writing and show altogether from the rest.
Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica are both spectacular series that lost the plot badly eventually. I still cringe when I think how far GoT fell in later seasons.
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I had the same experience with Days of our Lives in college and shortly thereafter. Weird how that was kind of a thing at the time.
Marlena and Roman and John Black. Bo and Hope.
Stefano was a great villain!
I was attending Lethbridge College in the early/mid 90s. The student lounge was called "The Cave" and there was a TV area there. It was always on NBC or whatever channel was going to air Days of Our Lives soon. If Days was on the TV area was packed. I got hooked for a couple of years due to that. Then when Marlena became possessed I lost all interest. Every now and then I'd see it on TV and it was always the same characters in the same story arch all the time.
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