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10 Best TV Shows of All Time

2006-04-03 11:17 - Opinion

First things first, a disclaimer: Any ten best list is of course opinion. And this is no exception. This is in fact my personal opinion, and is influenced heavily by my personal tastes, and by my age, effecting what I saw and when. So please, don't complain about the list if you differ. Of course you differ, this is just my opinion. Enjoy!

With that out of the way, here is my personal list of the ten best TV shows of all time:

The List

10. The Price is Right

    The Price is Right is my honorary game show. The best part about game shows is being able to play along at home, and PIR is wonderful for that. Unfortunately, I work, so I don't get to see it all that often. Many other game shows, especially Jeopardy, deserve to be on this list, but none can match PIR's excitement and entertainment.

9. Friends (DVD)
   

   It was hard to rank Friends. It's a good show, there's a lot of really great moments in there. Some of the acting is top notch. But then, some of the moments are quite vapid and some episodes just too simple. A funny show definetly, but towards the bottom of the "10 Top" list.

8. Sex and the City (DVD)
   

   This is a show that I didn't have the pleasure of seeing until it was on TBS for reruns. But it's great. I'm probably happier with the cleaned-up-for-broadcast version that I've seen that way than the original, to be honest. Foul language doesn't do it for me. The show gets the combination of embarrasing situations, real serious issues, sexuality for the fun of it, and comedy just right, and is a pleasure to watch.

7. Futurama (DVD)
   

   Futurama is one of the two animated series on my list. It might have gone quite a bit higher, were it not for it's short lived span, producing only four seasons. Futurama is zany and wacky, and the characters are fantastic. The only thing that I'd ask for to make Futurama better would be more seasons!

6. Monk (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4)
   

   Monk is a fun show for a number of reasons. First, it's got that twist of mystery for each episode. It's never too complicated, but exciting enough to watch unfold. The characters fit together very well, and Tony Shaloub does a great job playing the obsessive compulsive detective. I just wish Sharona hadn't disappeared.

5. Everybody Loves Raymond (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6)
   

   Another show that I never saw until reruns on TBS. Unlike HBO which I never got, CBS I just never watched. But boy was that a mistake! It's your standard dysfunctional family comedy, with some great acting and material. There was a trend for a while that gave TV shows to a lot of stand up comics that shouldn't have them, but Ray Ramano isn't one of them. There's just enough characters that there's always something unexpected around the corner, but few enough that the core always stays as a cohesive unit.

4. Frasier (DVD)
   

   I wanted to put Frasier higher, but I couldn't. A truly spectacular show for technically being a spinoff. Also amazingly complex for only having four main characters and a few regular supporting characters. The humor is witty and high brow, which is rare and very refreshing. Somehow every episode seems to be one or two people doing seemingly reasonable things, getting caught up in something they didn't intend, and then flailing about as they try to deal with the mess they created. There's a slight taste of repetition as this happens again and again, but each episode is almost without fail funny enough to overcome this slight failing.

3. Scientific American Frontiers

   Here is my honorary PBS show, up at number 3. A few other great PBS shows, notably Nova, deserve to be on this list as well but alas, 10 is so small a number. SAF is consistently very entertaining while remaining informative. It's a joy each time I catch an episode. I wish only that I could find it on more often.

2. Simpsons (Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6, Season 7)
   

   The Simpsons is truly a powerhouse show, nearly without equal. One serious caveat must be mentioned though: only the single-digit-seasons can truly be considered part of the "good" show. Season nine was already getting a bit iffy, and by 10 it had seriously jumped the shark. Some of the latest episodes are reclaiming a bit of the charm but the show as an entity has taken a serious blow.

   In the early seasons, though, there were endless things to recommend the show. Wonderful originality, often with a serious message that came through without ruining the entertainment, and vice versa. Edgy and off the wall at times, with a cast of characters that truly runs the gamut. Some of the really fun shows are the recreations, often Treehouse of Horror specials, where the characters all fit so well into the existing story that it's fun, in and of itself. Don't miss the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant fan archive.

1. Seinfeld (DVD, seasons 1-6)
   

   It's always hard to name a number one, but the show Seinfeld makes that trouble quite a bit easier to bear. Dare I say the most quotable sitcom ever? "Mulva!" "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" "Helloooooooo! La la la!" "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I see ..... a nipple." "Newman!" "No soup for you!" "I'm outta the contest." "Get out!" I could go on, but I'll spare you.

   This show always pushed the envelope, and obliterated the line without really quite crossing it. The writing was simply top notch, each word just oozing with comedy. It really feels fun watching the show, with a bunch of friends just enjoying themselves. The situations are always over-the-top without feeling that way, which adds to the comedy.

   There's actually two things to complain about. The consecutive episodes dealing with "the pilot" while still funny were a bit belabored. And of course, the series finale was disappointing. To their credit, of course, we all expected too much. The finale was entertaining, it simply would have been more exciting to see a more glitzy, hollywood-y, movie like production, and really have gone out with a bang.

Honorable Mentions:

A few shows weren't quite good enough to make it onto "the list" but I can't leave them out without feeling I've done something really bad.

• Iron Chef
  This show is entertaining from two angles. First, it's quite amazing to see such intricate and delicious (well, usually, my tastes aren't quite Japanese) dishes materialize in such a short time. Then, the nuances lost in translation are always a treat! (Oh, but please don't even mention Iron Chef "America".)
• Saturday Night Live
  Perhaps only for lasting so long, SNL couldn't be ignored. There were quite a few years that just plain stunk. Like the Simpsons, it's starting to come back in its most recent seasons, and the early ones were really the best. But it's always there, it's own unique corner of the TV dial.
• Junkard Wars
  The british "Scrapheap Challenge" made it to the US as "Junkyard Wars" on TLC. Another amazing show for the feats completed under time restrictions. The premise is two teams, pitted against each other compete to construct machines to complete a task from what they can scavenge from a (rather clean, sometimes seeded) junk yard, and whichever machine does it the fastest/best wins!
• Most Extreme Elimination Challenge
  Face it: watching people fall down is funny. And boy, do people fall down on MXC! What's even more hilarious than the crazy voice overs is the fact that this started out as a real game show in Japan. Oh, and people fall down!
• Star Trek: The Next Generation
  Sorry TOS fans, I grew up with TNG, and still think it's the best Star Trek. What more is there to say? Star Trek is just a classic. To me, TOS is just a bit too old. I can't really sit through an hour of those giant switches and knobs on a space ship control panel, or the wobbly shots of the ship flying. The Next Generation keeps a lot of the classic flavor, but its effects are recent enough to sate me.
• The Man Show
  It's had a checkered past, though unfortunately I haven't seen it in a long time so I hardly know that. But it's just plain funny. And it ends with girls jumping on trampolines!