My 100 Favorite TV Shows

[Bruce]

My 100 Favorite TV Shows

1 - The Honeymooners
2 - The Sopranos
3 - Curb Your Enthusiasm
4 - Dallas
5 - Sgt. Bilko
6 - The Odd Couple
7 - Little House On The Prairie
8 - Hogan's Heroes
9 - Married With Children
10 - Mission Impossible
11 - M*A*S*H
12 - The Tonight Show (Starring Johnny Carson)
13 - All In The Family
14 - Taxi
15 - Sanford And Son
16 - House M.D.
17 - Get Smart
18 - The Andy Griffith Show
19 - Crime Story
20 - I Love Lucy
21 - Cheers
22 - The Mary Tyler Moore Show
23 - Boardwalk Empire
24 - Beverly Hills 90210
25 - Columbo
26 - Pawn Stars
27 - Seinfeld
28 - The Wild, Wild West
29 - Green Acres
30 - Wise Guy
31 - Happy Days
32 - The Rockford Files
33 - Amos And Andy
34 - The Cosby Show
35 - White Collar
36 - Treme
37 - Fernwood 2-Night
38 - The Waltons
39 - The White Shadow
40 - Real Time With Bill Maher
41 - In Living Color
42 - 60 Minutes
43 - The Partridge Family
44 - The Wonder Years
45 - It Takes A Thief
46 - Magnum P.I.
47 - Kojak
48 - Barney Miller
49 - You Bet Your Life
50 - The Bob Newhart Show
51 - The Dick Van Dyke Show
52 - The Golden Girls
53 - The Bugs Bunny Show
54 - Mister Ed
55 - The Addams Family
56 - Banacek
57 - The Twilight Zone
58 - Star Trek
59 - Sex And The City
60 - Suits
61 - Soundstage
62 - Leverage
63 - Blue Bloods
64 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents
65 - The Outer Limits
66 - Major Crimes
67 - In Plain Sight
68 - Rizzoli & Isles
69 - Criminal Minds
70 - Law And Order: Special Victims Unit
71 - Jeopardy
72 - Judge Judy
73 - CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
74 - The Equalizer
75 - The Avengers
76 - The Fugitive
77 - The Jack Benny Program
78 - F Troop
79 - The Bevery Hillbillies
80 - Petticoat Junction
81 - Buffalo Bill
82 - Sons And Daughters
83 - Everybody Hates Chris
84 - Top Cat
85 - McHale's Navy
86 - The Flip Wilson Show
87 - This Week in Baseball
88 - NCIS
89 - Naked And Afraid
90 - Superman
91 - Good Times
92 - The Munsters
93 - The A Team
94 - Law And Order
95 - Hardball with Chris Mathews
96 - Hell's Kitchen
97 - Oz
98 - Harry-O
99 - Without A Trace
100 - Law And Order: Criminal Intent

[whuntva]

Good list, even if I've heard of more than I've actually seen.

I wonder if we could make this a poll.

[Jirin]

I'm not sure I could get to 100 and still only be listing shows I consider good. I suppose maybe if I heap in all the random game shows I ever enjoyed. Be back in about an hour.

[Jirin]

Went up to 40 because that's the point where I start dipping into 'Shows I sort of like' category.

1. Twilight Zone
2. Twin Peaks
3. Breaking Bad
4. Game of Thrones
5. The Simpsons
6. Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister
7. The Daily Show
8. Monty Python's Flying Circus
9. Battlestar Galactica (2005 version)
10. Lost
11. The Prisoner
12. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
13. Star Trek: The Next Generation
14. Sopranos
15. Seinfeld
16. The Colbert Report
17. Community
18. Columbo
19. South Park
20. Orange Is The New Black
21. Parks and Recreation
22. True Detective
23. House
24. Saturday Night Live
25. Star Trek
26. Fargo
27. Louie
28. The Office (U.S.)
29. Key and Peele
30. Six Feet Under
31. American Ninja Warrior/Sasuke
32. Stargate: SG1
33. Monk
34. Silicon Valley
35. 30 Rock
36. Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
37. Survivor
38. Sherlock (Current BBC series)
39. The Amazing Race
40. 24

[Jirin]

Wait, I totally didn't think about Riget and Berlin Alexanderplatz as options, mostly cause I think of them as movies. Those will have to slide in somewhere. (As the only non-english language TV shows on my lists. I guess there are also a few animes I didn't think about I might consider adding). And if those qualify I suppose Histories du Cinema and Scenes From A Marriage would also qualify.

I like how in our entire lists, the only shows we have in common are Sopranos, House, Columbo, Seinfeld, Star Trek and Twilight Zone. It's true you have a couple decades wider a span to look at, but also I think I just can't connect with episodic formula-based shows as well.

[Stephan]

1. The Wire
2. Band of Brothers
3. Firefly
4. The Sopranos
5. Angel
6. Six Feet Under
7. Friends
8. The Shield
9. Breaking Bad
10. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
11. Top Gear (2002)
12. It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
13. Arrested Development
14. Justified
15. Game of Thrones
16. Fawlty Towers
17. Oz
18. The Office (UK)
19. Generation Kill
20. Community
21. The Pacific
22. Sons Of Anarchy
23. How I Met Your Mother
24. Seinfeld
25. Battlestar Galactica (2005)
26. South Park
27. Chuck
28. 24
29. Homeland
30. Family Guy
31. Die Zweite Heimat
32. Curb Your Entusiasm
33. Freaks and Geeks
34. Louie
35. Archer (2009)
36. The Decalogue
37. Veronica Mars
38. Eastbound & Down
39. Twin Peaks
40. House M.D.
41. Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
42. Extras
43. The Corner
44. The Big Bang Theory
45. Le Comte De Monte Cristo
46. Mad Men
47. Planet Earth
48. Spaced
49. I'm Alan Partridge
50. Cidade dos Homens

[Henrik]

I'm amazed by how many TV series you have seen. I can only make a top 10 that I'm comfortable with.

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Twin Peaks
3. The Wire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Glappet (Swedish)
6. Seinfeld
7. The Office (UK)
8. Orange Is The New Black
9. Dexter
10. 24

There are several Swedish TV series for kids/family, that I would probably rank just as high as these, but they feel a bit out of place here ("Pippi Långstrump", "Trazan & Banarne", "Kalles klätterträd", "Lilla spöket Laban", "Bamse", etc.).

[Stephan]

I used to have a lot of free time.

I have not included many new series from the last two years because I can barely manage keeping up with the ones I was already watching. For example, I imagine Enlightened, True Detective and Orange Is The New Black would make the top 50, but I just can't find the time.

[whuntva]

Prolly should have put mine.

Be it known I am a HUGE nerd, so I will have several genre shows/anime on the list.

1. Primeval
2. Firefly
3. Avatar: The Last Airbender
4. Twilight Zone
5. Breaking Bad
6. Band of Brothers
7. Star Trek: The Original Series
8. Doctor Who
9. Planet Earth
10. Game of Thrones
11. The Decalogue (saw it listed, I guess it counts)
12. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
14. Star Trek: The Next Generation
15. The Sopranos
16. Monty Python's Flying Circus
17. Malcolm in the Middle
18. Falling Skies
19. Sherlock Holmes (1984)
20. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003)
21. Walking with Dinosaurs
22. Seinfeld
23. Battlestar Galactica (2004)
24. Trigun
25. Sherlock (2010)
26. Community
27. Justice League
28. Middlemarch (1994)
29. Mystery Science Theater 3000
30. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
31. Animaniacs
32. Little Dorritt (2008)
33. Playmakers
34. Mythbusters
35. Clannad
36. Samurai Jack
37. Cowboy Bebop
38. The Big Bang Theory
39. Farscape
40. Hannibal

[Live in Phoenix]

Normally the lists I make skew ridiculously toward the '80s/early '90s; so I was surprised, almost distressed, to find that most of my favorites are new shows, i.e. this century, and a lot of them are cartoons/anime.

1. Naruto: Shippuden (2007- )
2. The Simpsons (1989- )
3. Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994)
4. Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
5. Naruto (2002–2007)
6. Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2001- )
7. 24 (2001-2010, 2014)
8. Star Trek (1966-1969)
9. The Wire (2002–2008)
10. Adventure Time (2010- )
11. Seinfeld (1989–1998)
12. The Sopranos (1999–2007)
13. Reno 911! (2003–2009)
14. Sherlock (2010- )
15. The Transformers (1984–1987)

[Jirin]

Decalogue, that's another one I think of as a movie I will have to add in.

Surprising to see so little love for DS9 from people who give so much love to Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. I would think the demographics for those shows would have more overlap, since all three constitute the same sort of 'Rebuttal to Gene Roddenberry'.

[Romain]

I only put here the shows I found very very great.

1) Twilight Zone
2) Breaking Bad
3) Twin Peaks
4) Game Of Thrones
5) Lost
6) Six Feet Under
7) E.R.
8) X-Files
9) The Prisoner
10) Monty Python's Flying Circus
11) Sherlock (the new one)
12 ) The Shield
13) Mad Men
14) Dr. House

[Jirin]

1) Twilight Zone
2) Breaking Bad
3) Twin Peaks
4) Game Of Thrones

1. Twilight Zone
2. Twin Peaks
3. Breaking Bad
4. Game of Thrones

[bonnielaurel]

1. Blackadder
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Columbo
4. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
5. Tales of the Unexpected
6. Lou Grant
7. Cheers
8. Dallas
9. Yes Minister
10. Monty Python's Flying Circus
11. Derrick
12. Not the Nine O'Clock News
13. The Cosby Show
14. Diagnosis Murder
15. The Avengers
16. Secret Army
17. Zorro (1957)
18. Poirot
19. Borgen
20. Diff'rent Strokes
21. Taxi
22. Not Going Out
23. Married with Children
24. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984)
25. Murder, She Wrote
26. The Simpsons
27. Charlie's Angels
28. Ally McBeal
29. The Muppet Show
30. Only Fools and Horses...
31. You Rang, M'Lord?
32. Mr. Bean
33. All Creatures Great and Small
34. 'Allo 'Allo
35. Miss Marple
36. Beverly Hills, 90210
37. Escrava Isaura
38. Smack the Pony
39. Matlock
40. Jonathan Creek
41. The Sketch Show
42. Gata salvaje
43. The Persuaders!
44. Bergerac
45. Ein Fall für Zwei
46. Coupling
47. Melrose Place
48. Magnum, P.I.
49. The Wonder Years
50. Porridge

[Romain]

1) Twilight Zone
2) Breaking Bad
3) Twin Peaks
4) Game Of Thrones

1. Twilight Zone
2. Twin Peaks
3. Breaking Bad
4. Game of Thrones

Oh ! Quasi perfect match . And, with honesty, the first three are totally exchangeable in my list. Chef-d'oeuvre of my childhood (rebroadcast in a famous show "Temps X"), chef-d'oeuvre of my teenage years and current chef-d'oeuvre.

[Bruce]

I'm amazed by how many TV series you have seen. I can only make a top 10 that I'm comfortable with.

I'm a lot older than you.

[Bruce]

8. Dallas
23. Married with Children
36. Beverly Hills, 90210

Glad to see there's someone else around here with good taste.

[PlasticRam]

1. Friends
2. The Simpsons (90s)
3. The Sopranos
4. Breaking Bad
5. Everybody Loves Raymond
6. Survivor (strategy can be very complex)
7. South Park
8. Mr. Bean
9. The Office (U.K.)
10. The Office (U.S.)
11. Seinfeld
12. Kummeli (Finnish TV Show)
13. Band of Brothers
14. Six Feet Under
15. The Adventures of Paddington Bear
16. The Busy World of Richard Scarry
17. Pokemon (Season 1)
18. Malcolm in the Middle
19. SNL (some seasons totally suck though)
20. Columbo
21. Bob the Builder (was like two years too old to enjoy fully)
22. Frasier
23. All in the Family
24. Alf
25. Taxi
26. Law & Order: Criminal Intent
27. Criminal Minds
28. The Amazing Race

I hope I remembered everything I really like. I would have ranked Homeland high if the Brody character had killed himself in the end of season 1. Also Dexter would have been great with fewer seasons. Lost too.

Edit: To jirin's post, I know fully well that The Simpsons and Seinfeld have better writing, but Friends just makes me laugh more. I guess it's partially cos I was just in the right age, and also maybe cos they developed such great characters that they could do so many jokes of their traits. Joey for example. There was prolly about 400 jokes made about how stupid he is, but it was never the identical joke, so I would just laugh over and over again. So yeah I know that Seinfeld and The Simpsons are objectively better shows, but I just have my own stupid taste.

Edit: Oh and about age once again, these last couple of years I have been getting into comedy, like just studied it kinda, and now when I watch Friends, I can see the setups better and it takes from it a little bit. So idk if it's age or my refined comedy taste that I enjoy it slightly less now. Maybe both. But still I want to rank it #1

Edit: And I mean when the subject is sitcoms, there were tons of them in the year 2000, and at least I've got to give credit to Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond for being on a higher level than the rest of them.

[Jirin]

I'd love to get good recommendations for shows that are 'Before my time', but I don't think they were making the kinds of shows I like until recently. I'm not a fan of the triteness and patness of sitcoms and it's hard for me to warm up to formula-driven procedurals unless they have REALLY good writing like Columbo or REALLY compelling leads like House.

The only show I've ever seen with a laugh track that was actually funny is Seinfeld. Most live audience sitcoms are super-cheesy, gimmick and quirk driven, superficial, predictable, unrelateable sentimental messes.

I prefer shows that are philosophical like Twilight Zone, satirically counter-culture like The Simpsons, or are heavily serialized adventure dramas with huge casts who murder reach other (And optionally have a lot of weird magic going on).

Edit:

@Bruce

Also, QQ. If you showed me 99 shows on your list and asked me to guess the 100th, I would guess without thinking 'Hill Street Blues'. It's not on my list because I've only seen 4 episodes. But it's widely considered one of the best TV shows ever. Why isn't it on your list?

[Bruce]

Hill Street Blues-Never watched it. For most of its run it was on at the same time as Knots Landing, which was a spinoff from Dallas. Since I was a huge Dallas fan I watched Knots Landing at the time.

[Henrik]

I'm amazed by how many TV series you have seen. I can only make a top 10 that I'm comfortable with.

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Twin Peaks
3. The Wire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Glappet (Swedish)
6. Seinfeld
7. The Office (UK)
8. Orange Is The New Black
9. Dexter
10. 24

There are several Swedish TV series for kids/family, that I would probably rank just as high as these, but they feel a bit out of place here ("Pippi Långstrump", "Trazan & Banarne", "Kalles klätterträd", "Lilla spöket Laban", "Bamse", etc.).

Edit: I forgot Little Britain, which aired in 2004-2005, when I happened to live in Britain. Hilarious!

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Twin Peaks
3. The Wire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Little Britain
6. Glappet (Swedish)
7. Seinfeld
8. The Office (UK)
9. Orange Is The New Black
10. Dexter
11. 24

[Jackson]

I started watching Twin Peaks and I'm midway through season 2. Bet you guys are jealous I'm experiencing the show for the first time (but not so jealous I'm stuck in the mediocre post-killer-reveal episodes. I think the pilot, first season finale, and episode 14 (the big reveal) are three of the best TV episodes of all time. I knew I'd like the show because of Lynch, but damn...can't believe a lot of this stuff aired on a popular, major-network show.

That being said, 24 will probably always be my number 1.

[Henrik]

I'm amazed by how many TV series you have seen. I can only make a top 10 that I'm comfortable with.

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Twin Peaks
3. The Wire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Glappet (Swedish)
6. Seinfeld
7. The Office (UK)
8. Orange Is The New Black
9. Dexter
10. 24

There are several Swedish TV series for kids/family, that I would probably rank just as high as these, but they feel a bit out of place here ("Pippi Långstrump", "Trazan & Banarne", "Kalles klätterträd", "Lilla spöket Laban", "Bamse", etc.).

Edit: I forgot Little Britain, which aired in 2004-2005, when I happened to live in Britain. Hilarious!

1. Fawlty Towers
2. Twin Peaks
3. The Wire
4. Breaking Bad
5. Little Britain
6. Glappet (Swedish)
7. Seinfeld
8. The Office (UK)
9. Orange Is The New Black
10. Dexter
11. 24

I wrote this after seeing the hilarious sketch below, but I take back the replacement. I've got series 1 on DVD and saw the first episode, and the characters were really hit and miss. I think it reached its peak in series 2.