morgan_dhu | Memage

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goodlookinout's journal:

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows" ever. Below is the list and here be the rules.

1. Bold the shows you've watched every episode of
2. Italicize the shows you've seen at least one episode of
3. Post your answers

Perusing the list, I would think that this was drawn up by people who have only seen the last 20-odd years of mostly American television. Even if we exclude all news, talk, sketch comedy and variety shows (The Ed Sullivan Show, The Carol Burnett Show, Laugh-In, That Was the Week That Was? - were these not great?) where is All in the Family? M*A*S*H? The Honeymooners? I Love Lucy? The Dick Van Dyke Show? The Twilight Zone? The Prisoner? The Fugitive? Have Gun Will Travel? Perry Mason? Hill Street Blues? Cheers? The Avengers? The Waltons? St. Elsewhere? Prime Suspect?

Anyway, here are my responses to this particular, and particularly flawed, list.

50. Quantum Leap
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
46. Sex & The City

45. Farscape
44. Cracker (This is, I assume, the British series)
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses
41. Band of Brothers

40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python's Flying Circus
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted

35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI: Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood

30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf

25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office UK
22. The Shield
21. Angel

20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who (Ok, I might have missed a couple of Patrick Troughton episodes on original airing that are now lost forever, but otherwise, yes I've seen them all)

15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica (same goes for both series)
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld

10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24

05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This list is too flawed to respond to. Any list that puts "Frasier" down and leaves "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" off has been forged in utter ignorance.

And I liked "Frasier."

Also "Angel" at #21? Higher than ALL the Star Trek shows? Higher than "Twin Peaks"? Again, I liked "Angel," but come on.

It is a very strange list.

You should watch the first episode of "The Sopranos." I resisted it for a long time because I'm not a fan of mob stories, but once I saw the first episode I was hooked. It really IS a great show.

Yeah, there were far too many really good shows left off - and that's just counting what has probably aired recently on American TV. There's a lot of great British TV that doesn't make it to the US, and of course, no one ever pays attention to Canadian or Australian TV.

Quite a few people have told me that "The Sopranos" is worth watching, and I do believe them. It's just that I find myself wanting to watch less and less TV as time goes by. And complex family drama - which, as I understand it, is the genre in which "The Sopranos" should be counted - really has to hit some very special buttons for me to want to watch it.

I'm not counting out the possibility that I'll look into it one day, but for now, I have enough TV shows to try and keep up with. Although with summer coming, I think Doctor Who will be the only one with new episodes, so who knows...

Memage

Ugh!

Re: Ugh!