Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
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Let’s follow up last week’s Medium Cool with a discussion of your top 5 TV series of all time. I’m using the phrase “TV series” loosely –TV series, streaming, “limited series”, they all count.
Please tell us the WHY, which is every bit as important as the name of the show.
SpaceUnit
Well, it wasn’t your typical series, but my favorite tv show was Mythbusters on The Discovery Channel.
Fun, smart, and sooo engaging. It wasn’t a passive watch. You could really lean into it. Also it was a great mashup of different personalities. Damn I miss that show.
ETA: Also, frist!
Baud
@SpaceUnit:
RIP Grant
West of the Rockies
Star Trek OS because I was about 8 when I first saw it in afternoon syndication, and it made the universe possible.
Fringe… Peter, Olivia, Walter, and Astrid (Aphid, Aspirin, Astro…). It was about sacrifice and love and so much more.
Eureka was pure fun.
MASH. Imperfect but so human.
Fruits Basket (an anime) because I so enjoyed watching it with my kid.
Special mentions to Farscape and Warehouse 13.
SpaceUnit
@Baud:
Amen.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Who or what was Grant?
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: It’s complicated because things have changed so much. I LOVED the fugitive, but I’m not sure how to rate that against other shows that are more current.
Omnes Omnibus
Cheers: Good memories from college and a friend’s parents used to tape them and send them to us to watch in Germany)
The Avengers (Mrs Peel seasons only): Emma Peel and the Lotus Elan
Babylon Berlin: Fantastic portrait of Weimar Berlin. Some echoes that resonate today. Well acted. I really want Lotte to not live through coming storm and not become a Nazi.
Peaky Blinders: Duh.
Adwentures of Moose and Squirrel: Aside from the obvious, I used to watch this with my dad on Saturday mornings.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus: The blend of intellectual and silly.
Yeah, that was six.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Imahara
Mathguy
Dadadadadadada
1) Firefly, because it blew my mind so damn hard when I first watched it several years after it was canceled
2) Arrested Development, for very similar reasons.
I’ve revisited both in the last couple years, and I must say AD held up a whole lot better.
Honorable mentions to Star Trek TNG, Watchmen (2019), and, if I had to name a 5th one, Jeopardy!
I’m really not much of a TV watcher.
(I wrote about much of the above at much greater length at reddit.com/r/lookbackinanger on the off chance anyone is interested in hearing more.)
Mathguy
@West of the Rockies: Fringe would have been my #6 for all the reasons you state.
funlady75
I loved mini=series.
The Thorn Birds with Richard Chamberlain – Rachel Ward
Shogun, of course.
CSI with William Peterson.
why? The stores were interesting & so were the male & female actors..
BellaPea
Top 5:
SpaceUnit
@Mathguy:
Avatar was hella good.
Aimai
Fringe
battlestar galactica
The wire
sopranos
the Americans
leverage
when I was a kid
star trek
the avengers
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s Balloon Juice! Since the Medium Cool “rules” are just suggestions, I figured people might go up to 10!
Another Scott
Good topic!
James Burke’s “Connections” and “The Day the Universe Changed”.
Why? Because they were surprising and fascinating and totally different. Teach me stuff without talking down to me!
The 1970s series from Italy “The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci”. It brought him to life and filled in all kinds of trivia about his life in an interesting way. Filmed on location, also too.
“The Tracey Ullman Show”. So inventive and funny. She’s a genius. Introduced the world to The Simpsons, also too.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Inventive, irreverent, silly, and made one use different parts of their brain.
I’d probably have a different list next week.
Cheers,
Scott.
dr. bloor
M*A*S*H*–gateway show for adolescent me toward comedy as social criticism.
SNL (Orig Cast)–easy to forget how completely sideways the show was during the first few seasons as compared to almost everything else on teevee.
Star Trek: TNG
Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes Series–I love the stories, and Brett was born for the role.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy w/Alec Guinness. See above. And everything–including opening and closing credits, incidental music–everything is vintage BBC circa 70’s/80’s.
Honorable Mention: Dr. Who, St. Elsewhere, Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Brachiator
Top 5 TV shows
Frank’s Place (1987-1988). Absolutely charming
The Defenders (1961-1965). I sat on my mother’s lap watching this and was still wowed by the level of acting and liberal sensibility. I was later able to watch episodes on the Web and other venues. Classic early television.
Lonesome Dove (1989). I rented this series on laser disc one Memorial Day weekend and binge watch the entire series. Great acting, including sensitive and complex women characters.
Star Trek
Homicide: Life on the Street
Route 66. (1960-1964). Watched many episodes later. I was struck by how this series included lower income and ethnic communities in America.
Craig
No order
The Wire. Top notch writing, casting and acting. It draws a clear picture of the scenario it’s describing, and show that there are no simple solutions, and nobody is a true perfect person. Hell, the best person on the show is a career criminal.
Inside the NBA. Constantly innovative show about basketball by an amazing cast led by the best producer in sports broadcasting. Totally free form inside actual hard stops-commercial breaks. If you like basketball it’ll make you appreciate it more. If you don’t like basketball they will teach you. Ernie Johnson is the best broadcaster working, and the show is so entertaining.
Barney Miller. Small, smart, funny show about some good cops.
WKRP. So hilarious. So inventive. Still holds up. How an ensemble cast is supposed to be.
Queen’s Gambit. Great across the board. Same with Inside the NBA, if you love chess it’s cool. If you don’t know chess it’s still great.
Ted Lasso. Just watch the damned show, it’s beautiful.
Amy!
Hmmm. To pick five, I’ve got kind of a mixed bag:
1. Doctor Who. Because it’s timeless. If you don’t like it, wait a few decades, there’ll be a doctor you like better. And it can be very good (all of my picks can also be very bad).
2. Xena Warrior Princess. Sucked me back into serial video story telling, and had themes (and especially subtext) that were incredibly powerful/empowering.
3. Band of Brothers. Even with its sometimes tooth-gnashing historical fails, it kinda told a story of fighting the fascists together in a way that left a lasting impression.
4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I came to it late (and entirely on DVD), and it’s more wildly uneven than much of the rest of this (especially in light of things learned about the show runners since then). But, yeah, into every generation ….
5. Wired. Because, to quote a memorable scene: “Fuuck!”
SiubhanDuinne
In no particular order, and only the first five that spring to mind — not necessarily the top five:
The West Wing — not a bad actor in the lot, and still a nice aspirational goal for American politics and government
Cagney and Lacey — an early “female cops” buddy procedural series, wonderfully acted by Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly
Corner Gas — the epitome, the quintessence, the distillation, the Platonic ideal of Canadian humour
Monk — OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Detective) — I was already half in love with Tony Shaloub, but this series did it for me
Monarch of the Glen — magnificent Scottish scenery, quirky Scottish fallen-on-hard-times nobility, and the always beautiful Susan Hampshire
dmsilev
Interesting topic. Let me think. Here’s a few.
Craig
@SpaceUnit: when I was a kid I used to work with Adam and Jamie. Their old pre show shop was across the street from the stage I worked at and they’d come over to test stuff. I was surprised the show took off, but it was good. They were just like the guys on the show.
RSA
Given the caveat that I mostly stopped watching TV a decade or so ago:
Whimsical Pickles
The Americans – reliving my ’80s childhood except with spies, incredible tension all throughout, best ending
The Leftovers – an agnostic show about religion is the last thing I ever expected to love but there you go.
BoJack Horseman – Mad Men with anthropomorphic animals, what’s not to love?
30 Rock – just really, really funny
Bob’s Burgers – funny but also kind of sweet.
gwangung
Star Trek:ALL of them, even the mediocre ones, because exploring the final frontier is and has always been cool.
Leverage because they’re not only nicely constructed competence porn, but the show runner John Rogers (he of the 27% factor) ran a blog that was a masterclass in literary and script composition.
Rocky and Bullwinkle because, like Bugs Bunny, you could have a show that was funny on the kid AND adult level, while also absorbing a lot of history.
Hill Street Blues, an early entry in copaganda, but saved by the human beats they introduced, and they pioneered attempts to go deeper into the stories on the street and in the precinct.
Barney Miller, the opposite side of the coin to Hill Street, focussing more on the every day weirdness the non-warrior cops get into.
Craig
@Mathguy: totally agree about Bebop. Awesome. I love that marching bands play Tank, the opening.
Math Guy
Frasier. We have the entire series on dvd and watch it about once a year: an episode or two in the evening to wind down from a busy day.
Dman
@SiubhanDuinne: I grew up with Hank Yarbo from Corner Gas (Fred Ewanuick) as a close friend in school, He was exactly that character through and through. He got typecast and hasn’t done much since.
Scout211
The Mary Tyler Moore Show because it was everyone’s favorite at that time in my life. Funny, poignant and great supporting cast.
Scrubs because it was so relevant to issues of the time, poignant and funny. Great cast who could make you laugh and make you cry. It was a special for my daughter and me.
The Bob Newhart Show for the same reasons that we all loved The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Saturday Night Live (especially the first decade) because it was amazing, funny and great parody of the times we were all living in at the time.
St. Elsewhere because it was a great cast, wonderful stories and characters who you could laugh and cry with.
SpaceUnit
@Craig:
That’s really cool. I’m jealous.
The Mythbusters fanbase was like a cult.
ETA: Also, I thought it was really cool when Obama came out as a Mythbuster groupie / nerd.
bbleh
Firefly and The Wire because duh.
Star Trek cuz you really can’t argue.
Definitely should throw in a cartoon like Looney Tunes or Rocky & Bullwinkle.
And there have been some good ones recently, like Travelers.
Timill
Not a lot of regular TV-watching here, so:
1. Thunderbirds
2. Monty Python
3. New Yankee Workshop
4. Iron Chef (Japan)
5, Great British Baking Show
Scout211
I loved Lonesome Dove and I also loved the book. The miniseries was just as good as the book, which is rare.
Central Planning
@Craig: I sent an email to Adam once about cell phones and blowing up at gas stations. He responded and was very nice.
Martin
@Mathguy: I think Twin Peaks deserves the credit for originating the modern streaming single-story arc format, much as I Love Lucy invented the sitcom format. Bonus points for the surrealism.
I’d throw in Twilight Zone for stories that challenged the audience. The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is an episode more people today need to be reminded of.
I’ll add yet another voice for Star Trek/TNG for giving us aspirational futures.
And Sesame Street because I grew up on it and unlike every other kids TV show that was centered on pastoral rural life, it was set in a city, like where I lived. Together with Mr Rogers, they did what Star Trek did but for little kids.
Craig
@SpaceUnit: Tory was at our shop making models for a stop motion show. Fun times.
West of the Rockies
@Amy!:
Oh, how did I forget Dr. Who?!
Ah, but which doctor? My first was Eccleston, but David is probably my fav.
kalakal
The Avengers
Monty Python
Jeeves & Wooster (The Fry and Laurie version)
Doctor Who
Hill Street Blues
Special shout out to the Gerry Anderson shows, Thunderbirds, Stingray , Captain Scarlett etc
ETA forgot Edge of Darkness
Paulgottlieb
I love that someone mentioned the original (1960’s) The Defenders. It took at least 20 years before something that mature and intelligent was on television again
BellyCat
White Collar is witty and smart, with a slow build toward complex human emotions, motivations and behaviors. A felon con artist teams up with the FBI to solve crimes? Fun premise. The leads are all lovable in various ways (and Mozzie is ridiculously entertaining as a counter-culture paranoiac). Maybe not top 5, but strangely addictive as a 6th.
Craig
Omnes Omnibus
@BellyCat: Mozzie made that show.
SpaceUnit
@Craig:
I had a bit of a crush on Kari back in the day. Doubt I was alone in that.
zhena gogolia
Impossible to pick top 5. Monty Python was really important when I was in college. As a kid, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Now: Hacks, and Northern Exposure which (unlike Mary Tyler Moore, I’m sorry to say) really holds up.
Pride and Prejudice (1995) is the greatest television show ever produced.
ETA: Oops, how could I forget Inspector Morse?
bbleh
Oh and cuz I still have one more, Deadwood. Brilliant.
kalakal
No love for Fawlty Towers?
Aargh how could I forget the funniest programs ever made?
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
kmeyerthelurker
Deadwood. Shoulda gone 5 seasons. Writing, directing, acting, set design, all just through the roof.
Mad Men. Same, for the same reasons I suppose. Roger Sterling is one of my all time favorite characters ever.
Star Trek TNG. I was at the perfect age. I rewatch it every few years (minus that god-awful first season, of course).
30 Rock. Needed a comedy in here, and I can’t think of a funnier one.
Taskmaster (British version, really the only version). The only non-scripted show I would vouch for. I’ve never laughed so hard at a TV show as I have at this one.
BellyCat
Another that hasn’t gotten love yet here is Dexter. Justice taken in the hands of a “mild mannered” crime scene analyst is worth a watch if your tolerance for psychological deviance and physical gore will permit.
Josie
1. The Wire – The writing was so great and the characters so real.
2. NCIS – Loved the stories and the characters
3. Barney Miller – There seems to be a pattern here.
ETA: Forgot about Deadwood. I’m a sucker for westerns.
Rachel Bakes
MASH- I was young but adored the repartee. Rewatched 18 years ago while trapped under a nursing baby and it still held up.
mission:Impossible. Back before Tom Cruise for his mitts on it. Competence and cleverness.
west Wing: never watched it during its run but watching that from 2016-2020 on Netflix got me through TFG’s train wreck of a term. Competence and decency porn
dick Van Dyke show: still funny. Every one
Ted Lasso: I resisted this-not sure why-but then loved it.
BellyCat
@Omnes Omnibus: Truly…
Gotta love how he does that little “rapid scurry” with tiny little steps when he’s rushing. And the up-tilted head with distant gaze when socializing? Cracks me up beyond measure.
Mr. Bemused Senior
BBC’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Great acting and all you need to know about intelligence work. Also, not a wasted moment, blink and you’ll miss an important detail.
Life [Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi]. Seems to be overlooked here on BJ, only 2 seasons but a great story and a good ending.
Elementary. Holmes brought up to date yet true to the character’s spirit.
Going along with others, Star Trek, Doctor Who [for me it will always be Tom Baker], SNL, Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Oh, how could I forget Get Smart.
dexwood
I liked many shows as a kid, but as an adult I mostly see tv as a vehicle that’s dedicated to commercials, to selling us stuff using stories that are secondary. Don’t misunderstand, there have been good shows and stories along the way I’ve appreciated, but at 73, I find my interest in tv to be approaching zero. Books and music dominate. One of my favorite shows as a kid was Beany and Cecil. Why? It was irreverent, silly, interesting. Mostly, though, because I watched it every week with the favorite uncle who lived with us and who filled me in with references and jokes over my head.
Omnes Omnibus
@kalakal: Que?
Chet Murthy
The Good Place — a comedy that manages to make jokes without ever Being unkind. It’s just kind hearted all around. And it managed to actually seriously address moral philosophy, which is nothing short of incredible.
Warren Senders
The Good Place
Red Dwarf
Fawlty Towers
Percysowner
Babylon 5 – first last and always. Great storytelling, great characters, one of the first shows to have an over arching arc. The moral questions still hold up, in some ways it is freaky and sad how well they hold up.
Doctor Who – there is a reason this show is still on after 60 years
Untamed – one I don’t expect will be recognized by many. A Chinese Wuxia/Xanxia drama. 50 hours of battles, unforgettable characters, surprising pot twists. Subtitled only OTOH, it has over 1 Billion streaming views, so it did something right
Cold Case – Yes, it is a bit of copagenda, but with the basic premise being that the cops screwed up in the first case, it is less pro-cop than your average cop show. It is the one show that focuses less on our brave police finding the answer than on the victims and the lives they led. There are so many episodes that make me cry at the end every time I watch them. The superb use of music ups the emotions. The music is why it has been hard to find, because clearing the rights has been hard. Things have been cleared up, so it can be found on the Roku channel and HBO Max
Barney Miller for all the reasons others have given
wrog
I, Claudius – because more people need to know about Rome and the period when it was the last billionaires left standing fighting it out to the death. and because Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Patrick Stewart, Sian Phillips, etc… all in top form. and because Brian Blessed is the only actor that can play Caesar Augustus with exactly the right amount of scenery consumption: “IS THERE ANYONE IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER????”
Craig
@zhena gogolia: Hacks is so good. Little 30 minute gems that are brilliant points on a great arc. There was an episode a few weeks ago that incorporated a bar trivia contest and a tertiary character was bragging about his skills and name checked his teams, Quiz Khalifa was so good that the bar banned them, so now he’s with O’trivia Newton John. I spit out my drink like Danny Thomas.
piratedan
MST3K – bad movies, snarky commentary
Outer Limits – We control the horizontal, we control the vertical…
MPFC – one of the first shows that allowed me to question authority and it still sticks to this day
Silver Spoon (anime) – a show about a young kid that cracked under academic pressure so he chose a AG college in Hokkaido thinking he could skate. Finds more than he bargains for, love, how much science there is in ag, embracing new concepts in animal husbandry and farming.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo – relatable characters, treats autism concerns with a reality I’ve not seen before, while adorable at times, also not every challenge has a tidy ending.
Shout outs to others that mentioned Connections and How The Universe Changed, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Farscape, Firefly, The Wire, Resident Alien.. also really fond of Brokenwood Mysteries, MI-5, Hometown-cha-cha-cha and Mysterious Girlfriend X (anime) and the aforementioned Cowboy BeBeop.
Percysowner
@wrog:
“Well, we didn’t sleep!” Yep, I Claudius is great.
lollipopguild
@Rachel Bakes: Mission Impossible the TV show was about the TEAM. Everybody was important. Tom c turned it into a one man band.
Scout211
Loved Cold Case. It was so well done (blending the past with the present) and beautifully filmed, plus awesome music.
scav
For the kid? Emergency was mandatory. So in it goes.
Will agree with the Connections mention above.
Um, Dr Who, old and New, New-New.
Sherlock. And the Jeremy Brett one. So there’s 5.
I’ve clearly had a very eccentric viewing history. Oh, and throw in MASH as it was the only thing I watched for a few months in hospital.
WaterGirl
@Paulgottlieb: Now that I approved your first comment manually, your future comments will shop up for everyone right away. Welcome!
(Unless you’re not new and you used a new nym or email address or a new device. In which case, welcome back!)
Mr. Bemused Senior
I am hoping for the Broken Earth.
AliceBlue
All my faves have been listed except for The Carol Burnett Show. Carol, Vicki, Harvey, Lyle, Tim–all were pitch perfect. I’ve watched a lot of the skits on YouTube and I still laugh so hard I almost fall out of my chair. Not to mention all of the great guest stars.
WaterGirl
@BellyCat: I am re-watching White Collar – just finished season 2, episode 1. Great show!
I really love all the main characters. Mozzie was great, and I cried when that actor died.
Barbara
Cold Case — a police procedural that often makes you cry is really rare.
Numbers — goofy but fun
Law and Order, CI — I can never get tired of watching Vincent Donofrio (and the other cast members are pretty good too)
For sitcoms, I don’t think many can touch the absurdity of Seinfeld. I don’t really love anything I grew up with.
bbleh
@WaterGirl: so you gonna compile a top, say 20, of the top 5s?
Yeah more work I know. But you started it. :)
ron
star trek original series – it started it all and was groundbreaking and smart
the simpsons – so many great bits, jokes, and takes on modern society
twin peaks – another series that started it all
digging for britain – I love the history of britain and archaeology
nova – not every episode is great, but the on the whole the greatest science show the US has ever had.
Rachel Bakes
@lollipopguild: exactly. Watched the first movie excited. Horrified. A f Irene told us that 2 was closer to source material. Ummmm, you aren’t thinking the same source that I am. Every episode of the show holds together and showcases everyone’s strengths.
Old School
@kalakal:
Plenty of love for Fawlty Towers!
There have been plenty of shows I’ve loved, but I was thinking that there have been only a handful of shows that I’ve purposely re-watched (rather than seeing re-runs like M*A*S*H).
I was debating whether Fawlty Towers should count since it’s so short.
Other shows in this category:
Monty Python
Blackadder
Arrested Development
Twin Peaks.
Barbara
@Percysowner: My sister and I compared our favorite episodes. Mine was The Gun, and hers was the one with the wayward teenager who was kidnapped as a boy and placed in foster care after his mother was killed.
I also forgot to mention Happy Valley. I binge watched it twice as I recuperated from surgery.
The bad guy was played by the same actor who was Sidney on Grantchester. Talk about dramatic range.
Mai Naem mobile
Top 5 of all time is hard. I don’t think I could even do top 20 that easy. MASH( watched it in reruns because I thought it was going to be depressing because of the theme song), Monk,Leverage, Bob Newhart Show,Quantum Leap. There’s a lot of Brit tv shows I love. Yes Prime Minister, Black Adder, An old aussie show Mother and Son. I also forgot I’ll Fly Away, The Good Wife and The Gary Shandling Show.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rachel Bakes: Ah, but the first movie had both Emmanuelle Béart and Kristen Scott Thomas.
Cec65
Okay, here are my takes on the best series of all times
Melancholy Jaques
I’ve been around since the shows were all in black & white and we liked it that way! It’s almost impossible to pick ten, let alone five, but here are five that I would still watch. I narrowed it to broadcast TV series to make it easier for me. I cannot rank them.
Barney Miller – Not just about cops, but about the workplace and the colleagues therein. I’ve read that police said it was the most like their real jobs, but I bet anyone can think about their workplace and name a Harris, a Fish, a Wojo, and we all hope to have a boss like Barney. (Full disclosure – I have usually been a Dietrich.) Finally, must about any show that Noam Pitlik touched is a good one. This was his best.
Twin Peaks – I have re-watched it countless times it still amazes me that this show was ever on broadcast TV. This is The Velvet Underground of TV shows. Few watched, but multiple generations were influenced.
Newhart – Both Bob Newhart’s shows were great, this one slightly better because of Tom Poston, comic genius. Definitely a Top Five Finale.
Taxi – Another show about the workplace and colleagues and much much more. Another Noam Pitlik connection (directed 11 episodes). Incredible cast, indelible characters. I’d put the episode where Jim burns Louie’s apartment up against any half hour episode of TV sitcom ever.
Get Smart – The show ran from my age 10 to 15. My introduction to comedy. My pre-adolescent crush on Barbara Feldon. 60 years later I still quote the show with cone of silence, missed it by that much, that’s the second biggest . . ., etc.
Honorable mention – The Honeymooners – First insight into the sadness that often gives comedy its depth and resonance.
Steve Holmes
The Wire
The X-Files
WKRP In Cincinnati
Game Of Thrones
Twin Peaks
Currently Running Series top 5:
Abbott Elementary
Slow Horses
Poker Face
The Bear
What We Do In Shadows
Omnes Omnibus
A lot of SciFi here.
Barbara
@Mai Naem mobile: I genuinely liked As Time Goes By with Judi Dench. I thought Chef was hilarious and my husband liked it too. But I wouldn’t say they are all time favorites.
Czar Chasm
Breaking Bad
Animaniacs
Black Mirror
Star Trek TNG
Seinfeld
Kristine
Didn’t see NBC’s “Hannibal” mentioned. Every week, another chance to mutter “I can’t believe they’re showing this on NBC.” The scenes in which guests are in Lecter’s kitchen chopping veggies etc and then they show the meal and none of them have any idea. And poor Will Graham. The devolution of a broken mind.
I liked “Agents of Shield” for most of its run. Clark Gregg and Ming-Na Wen.
I, Claudius for all the reasons mentioned.
The Guinness “Tinker, Tailor” and “Smiley’s People.” Counting as 1
Dr Who. I enjoyed Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor and really wish matters had worked out so he could’ve played a few more seasons.
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: I absolutely loved Chef.
zhena gogolia
@kmeyerthelurker: Yes, how could I forget Mad Men? Watched it straight through this year and was never bored.
zhena gogolia
@dexwood: The No Bikini Atoll?
ReadWrite
I guess I’ll have to be the first one to nominate “The Prisoner” with Patrick McGoohan (c. 1967). Puzzles within puzzles. I still find it fascinating. I don’t think it could be made today.
Kristine
@Steve Holmes: Slow Horses is incredible.
Barbara
@Omnes Omnibus: The wife, Janice, and the Jamaican sous-chef take it to another level.
TBone
Not my favorite but TIL that The Learning Channel has a show called MILF Manor. The. Learning. Channel.
We still watch M.A.S.H. because it’s weirdly comforting (despite the lecherous joking). Seeing ordinary people being heroic and hanging on through the chaos, I guess. Liberal values shining through the muck.
Also Grace & Frankie on Netflix because of the variety of characters and the treatment of the indignities of aging and general weirdness of real life. Made me laugh through really tough times.
zhena gogolia
@Craig: I thought that was hilarious too!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@ReadWrite: someone in a meeting mutters “where am I” and my immediate response is “in the Village.”
Steve Finlay
Red Dwarf, for the moments of genius, such as the judgment droid that forced each character to be judged by himself.
Unforgotten: The somewhat complex formula worked very well thanks to intelligent writing, and the characters were superb. Not many shows can kill off the lead and then continue.
Wallander, the Swedish version with Krister Henriksson. I don’t care how immortal Kenneth Branagh is; an actor who attempts Wallander after Henriksson has done it is out of touch with his craft.
Mythbusters: I agree with everyone else.
Star Trek DS9: The best Star Trek series, although they wrote themselves into messes that they could not handle by the end.
Honorable mention to Sanford and Son. Redd Foxx could deliver a line that was not funny in any way, and still make you ROFL.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara: JAMES NORTON
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: I LOVE NOAM PITLIK
geg6
I’m not going to rank them but here’s mine:
And last but not least…
zhena gogolia
@Melancholy Jaques: On the first floor of my building, we have these little desks with acoustic shields where you can do a Zoom call. Every morning when my husband and I go through from the parking lot, he says, “the Cone of Silence” and cracks up.
japa21
Mrs. Japa and I were going through the shows listed, and most of ours were included.
However, there are a couple that we enjoyed.
The Golden Girls, independent women who were able to have full lives. And gave friendship a real meaning.
Psych. A little off beat but tremendously watchable.
Gunsmoke. One of the first westerns to treat with indigenous people in a respectful way.
Maverick. Pure fun
kalakal
@Barbara:
I’m very fond of that show, I thought Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer were superb together
Mr. Bemused Senior
I first encountered Nicola Walker in River. I wouldn’t say it’s in my top 5 but great nonetheless.
Barbara
@zhena gogolia: Yep. I am in awe of how much complexity he brought to the role of Tommie Lee Royce in Happy Valley.
Central Planning
Too many choices, so two top 5 lists:
Looney Toons – specifically the Bugs and Road Runner ones
The Tick – an invincible yet simple big, blue superhero?
Archer, but some of the middle seasons are weak
CyberChase – watched lots of them with my kids
Penguins of Madagascar – again, watched a ton with my kids
Futurama
And sci-fi/science:
Nova – all sorts of interesting topics
All the Star Treks
Connections – How things tie together amazes me
MythBusters – verifying/busting things thought to be true with humor and science/technology.
Doctor Who – Similar reason as Star Trek
Modern Marvels – They aren’t deep dives, but they show lots of things you normally wouldn’t see.
ETA – I would watch all of these again. That’s pretty much my criteria for being on the list.
scav
Oh, and though I’ve never watched it on an actual TV: Time Team. Archaeology and teamwork. Geophysics and a guy wandering around just looking at the landscape while thinking.
Just another programmer
Ster Trek
All in the Family
Saturday Night Live (mid-to-late 70s). My Navy pals and I would often give up a night of Saturday night carousing to gather and watch it (probably smoking a little weed to enhance, so I might be chemically influenced in this choice).
The Rockford Files
The Sopranos
Extend the list, and I’ll include MASH, Mad Men, and The Wire, The Twilight Zone, The Midnight Special, and the some of the 70’s variety shows. Don’t watch much TV these days (or for the last 40 years), so I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot.
zhena gogolia
I never watched a lot of Absolutely Fabulous, but a few episodes I did catch were hilarious.
Walker
The one I see missing from all these lists is Person of Interest. That show was way ahead of its time on the modern surveillance state.
Barbara
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I have watched each Unforgotten series multiple times.
kalakal
A couple of old Brit ones
Steptoe and Son Just brilliant, remade here as Sanford and Son
Porridge A prison comedy with the great Ronnie Barker
Anything with Leonard Rossiter but espescially The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Dave T
The Simpsons – I grew up watching them! My brother and I could identify which episode was being rerun by the first 10 seconds. And those first 10-12 seasons actually hold up really well. I can ignore the rest – how many shows have had 10 all-time great years? How many have even lasted 10 years?
Community – the funniest show NBC ever aired. So, so smart.
Peaky Blinders – my wife and I joke about “dramatic purposeful walking set to badass music”, but it really is excellent.
Gundam – I’m cheating and including everything under the Gundam umbrella here. I got into it through Wing, but I (really weirdly) like the original movie trilogy even with its awful dubbing. Zeta and ZZ are both really good, 00 has one really good season (out of two), IBO is brutal but excellent. X was my favorite but I haven’t watched it in a long time, so I don’t know if it holds up or if I’m seeing it through rose-colored glasses. I really want to watch Turn A sometime.
Finally, this is a really recent one for me: Game Changer. I love everything about the Name That Bird contest. The current season has been absolutely on fire with episodes like Second Place, Deja Vu, Beat the Buzzer, and the latest iteration of Sam Says.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal: square hoops. They don’t roll.
Of course there’s a page full of “I didn’t get where I am today…”
geg6
@WaterGirl:
No fair! Or I would have added Star Trek: TNG and Sex in the City and The Amazing Race and Barney Miller and Roots.
kalakal
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I didn’t get where I am today
cmorenc
The three epic WW2 series, “Band of Brothers”, “The Pacific”, and “Masters of the Air” that vividly captured the grunt-level experience of the generation of 19 to 30 year old young men who willingly exposed themselves to horrific danger and discomfort for the greater good of saving the US and the world. Through these three series, I understand my father’s generation vastly better.
At the same time, this understanding deepens my shame and disgust at the greedy IGMFU lack of sense of community or common purpose of far too many contemporary Americans, looking at you Captain BoneSpur, who seemingly sympathetically embrace an oppressive expansionist Russian regime who would like to succeed today where Germany failed in WW2.
ReadWrite
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Ah, so you are Number One.
Dangerman
Hill Street Blues.
Cheers.
House, MD.
Scrubs. The musical was iconic.
Mary Tyler Moore. RIP Chuckles.
narya
The Good Place
Hill Street Blues
Northern Exposure
Schitt’s Creek
Ted Lasso
MASH
BellyCat
@WaterGirl: DAMN! Did not know that Mozzie (IRL) died. Lots of dust in here all of a sudden… RIP (Rest In Profundity)!
RevRick
@bbleh: Ah, at least one of us owns up to Looney Tunes. I was about to call shenanigans on all those nominations of classy, award winning shows.
I spent Saturday mornings watching westerns with my grandfather, who was a frustrated cowboy. So I have to nominate The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, Roy Rogers. It was the bonding experience that mattered. Of course, Looney Tunes was also on my must see agenda.
For sheer silliness, I loved Topper and The People’s Choice.
For heart-tugging, it was the original Lassie and I Remember Mama.
Brett
Are You Being Served?
Mai Naem mobile
@Barbara: i thought A Fine Romance and Butterflies were better than As Time Goes By. I think Doc Martin is really good. Also I loved the original All Creatures Great and Small. Apart from Yes Prime Minister, the comedies are really good shows but not great.
columbusqueen
@Math Guy: Frasier is my all-time favorite TV comedy; actually got to see two episodes filmed, so my laughter is now immortalized.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Rumpole of the Bailey. Which leads me to lots of Peter Bowles… to the Manor Born, the Irish R.M….
Mai Naem mobile
This might sound stupid but I really liked Leave it to Beaver because the kids acted like kids. Made stupid mistakes like kids do. From what i’ve seen in kids in modern sitcoms, they act smarter than normal kids do.
Craig
I just watched Sugar on Apple+. A very unique run at LA detective films. Full of Chinatown vibes, so many Noir classics fast cut into scenes. It’s a show about a guy who lovesMovies, by people that love Movies for people that love Movies. Colin Farrell, Amy Ryan, James Cromwell and more. Interesting.
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: I so wish there were “restored/HD” versions of Connections and TDTUC. And the original Cosmos too.
If someone can take the time to digitally restore 1970’s p*rn movies (they have…trust me), why can’t we get someone to do the same for these amazing series? I’d love to watch them again but the YT versions are unwatchably Low Def.
zhena gogolia
@BellyCat: He was also the friend on SATC
zhena gogolia
@Mai Naem mobile: Not stupid at all. An underrated show.
Just look at that parking lot
1-Adam 12, 1-Adam 12… Precede to intersection of Delusional St & Psychotic Blvd. Citizen complaint . Man with orange hair babbling to himself. 1-Adam 12 Handle Code 2.
Mai Naem mobile
@Mr. Bemused Senior: they’ve been replaying To the Manor Born on my local PBS. I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t think it held up that well.
Michael Palin’s around the world series was really good and at that time was appointment TV for me.
Quiltingfool
My favs
In Plain Sight (US Marshal Service WitSec – main characters are great)
Grimm
Blacklist – the criminal (Red Reddington) is very likable, lol
Babylon 5 (I would record the shows on a VCR! I’m old!)
Warehouse 13 and Eureka
The Closer and Major Crimes (great cast)
Claws (love the cast)
Bones
Mr. Bemused Senior
There were some episodes that Bemused Senior refused to watch (Ruby, for example) but we loved the Closer. Serving the King is my favorite. I thought it went a little too far in season 7.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
This was one of my mother’s favorite TV shows. I would watch it over her shoulder. I’ve watched episodes later and also watched video interviews with the show’s creators and producers.
A couple of things stand out. Richard Kimble was a doctor, an upper class man who often had to hide in the working class universe. And typically he was rescued by a woman or a teenager. So the series often made a female character the emotional center of an episode. And typically chose women guest stars with great actin chops. And The Fugitive had a sizable female viewership.
Matt McIrvin
Most of the shows I’d name have been mentioned by others already, so here are a few that haven’t been mentioned:
prostratedragon
In no special order, Twin Peaks, The Wire, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, I, Claudius, and The Prisoner. I guess a second group might be Columbo, Peter Gunn, Perry Mason, Star Trek NG, Poirot (especially the longer, later episodes), Twilight Zone, and moving up fast, Vera. Clearly, I like mysteries. Agree that the comedy of I Love Lucy remains quite relatable.
kalakal
Going a long way back
Quatermass and the Pit The tv series not the film ( which was ok) scary stuff
oldster
The Wire, because it had no minor characters. Every walk-on, every extra was a fully realized character.
The Good Place, as Chet Murthy said, because of its deep sweetness and humanity, combined with some diabolical plot twists. And no multi-season show has done a better job wrapping up the entire series in the final episode.
Get Smart. Vaudeville’s greatest second act. The scenes with Siegfried are incandescent.
Arrested Development. At first you think Buster is a creep, Tobias is a nut, and Michael is the only normal one. Over time, you realize that Buster is the most decent person on the show, Tobias is doing the best he can, and Michael is kind of a jerk. Fabulous writing, jokes within jokes, and Jessica Walter was a genius.
W1A — a little BBC comedy, not for all tastes, but with some very funny bits.
eta: The Prisoner was truly visionary. Watch at least the first and last episodes.
Spanish Moss
I am not much of a TV watcher. Here are some favorites from yesteryear:
M*A*S*H – I actually started watching this when I was living in Korea when my father was a visiting professor there. I was 12, and I loved the irreverent humor.
The Bob Newhart Show. His deadpan delivery cracks me up every time.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show – Funny, moving, outstanding cast
And a couple of more recent ones:
Big Little Lies – Great plot, great cast, great music, and one of the best endings I have ever seen for a series. We stumbled on it because we heard the theme music when surfing through channels, and ended up watching all of episode 3 as our first one. We watched weekly until the end, then had to watch the whole thing over from the beginning.
Blue Eye Samurai – Another one we discovered when surfing, we were captivated by the beautiful artwork and then were hooked by the unusual protagonist/plot and the occasional offbeat humor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin:
Do you remember ZOOM?
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal: I’m waiting for you to call up Q. I’ve only seen the Dalek at home but that was classic.
SamInWa
@dmsilev: Babylon 5. Agree 100%.
UncleEbeneezer
Assuming you mean series, as in, series with multiple seasons:
Mad Men– Maybe the coolest, most stylish series ever made.
Game of Thrones– I get that some people can’t get past the violence and diabolical awfulness of almost every character, but bruh, if you do…it’s a HELLUVA ride. So many scenes that just gut-punch you when you least expect it. Amazing acting. Epic story. Incredible cinematography. Like Battlestar Galactica, there’s a reason for all the hype.
Deadwood– By far the best Western series. Though I actually think Godless (mini-series) is just as good, maybe better.
Battlestar Galactica– Started the whole binging thing, for good reason.
Narcos Mexico– Best of all the drug cartel series’.
trollhattan
Cripes, five? That’s too many decades to have just one per. My first five, before the “crap, I forgots” start popping.
Twilight Zone. Tantalized my young mind, intermittently scaring the utter crap out of it. Bill Shatner, everybody!
The Avengers. Steed and Peel folks. Especially Peel. Never got over my Diana Rigg crush, nor did I feel the need. Honestly, they’re a little silly on rewatch but very good artifacts of the swinging sixties.
Will just skip past the ’70s.
Cheers. Sitcom perfection. Feeling at all skeevy having invested time in Cosby? Must flee TV. Meanwhile, a heartfelt honorable mention tor Peewee’s Playhouse, which broke as much ground as Twin Peaks, which I should probably also spend a vote on. Must move on.
What’ve I got left, two? Shit.
Leapfrogging vast swathes of teevee, some excellent, to award Deadwood and Derry Girls my final two. Deadwood is the best historical drama and ensemble cast and writing all tied in one cocksucking bow. And Derry Girls gave me my best laughs of the last two decades, at a minimum. Cannot love that show too much.
The end. No, wait!
trollhattan
@UncleEbeneezer: Have the companion book to one of those (somewhere) because I too found it deeply fascinating and educational. You know, like not-school.
kalakal
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Spike Milligan was brilliant and also very weird. When he got it right he was hilarious
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: Eddie and Patsy are unashamedly horrible and we love them dearly for it. Poor Saff, but you know, somebody has to keep them in check.
The all-champagne glass-door fridge after the fire? {chef’s kiss}
Weekend Editor
Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel
The Prisoner
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Leverage
Connections / The Day the Universe Changed
Travelers
Twilight Zone
Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch)
The Good Place
Ok, that’s more than 5. But some are pretty old. Come to think of it, so am I.
Mike E
I’m glad people remember the classics like the original Star Trek, MASH, The Rockford Files and WKRP in Cincinnati as these were essential watching for me growing up in the ’70s…more recent fare I liked were Absolutely Fabulous, Murphy Brown, Red Dwarf and Michael Moore’s TV Nation. My Mt Rushmore:
The Prisoner, I, Claudius, The Expanse, Station Eleven and Good Eats
Honorable Mention: SCTV
Pink Tie
There are many more than 5 for me, but here are 5 in no particular order:
1. Rome – I took Latin for years, and love the historical detail that gives a better sense of what Roman society must have been like than anything else I’ve seen or read. Ray Stevenson’s performance is reminiscent of Dominic West in The Wire in such a great way, and Polly Walker as Atia is hilarious. Ciaran Hinds, Kevin McKidd, Kerry Condon… so many awesome performances.
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm – just so hilarious and Larry David’s ability to attract an amazing array of guest stars is dazzling. It’s so sad that the show had to end because the cast was aging/ailing/starting to die. I also find it interesting that Larry started out as a total heel and halfway though, became the viewer’s avatar. Leon and Susie are two of the funniest TV characters ever.
3. Better Call Saul – Bob Odenkirk! Also it was funny while somehow managing to convey an almost sickening air of menace and doom. Full of incredible performances from leads to minor characters.
4. The Simpsons – (not the most recent seasons or the first season, when they figured out the show was about Homer, not Bart). Great writing and a top 5 just for cultural relevance alone. Our family quotes The Simpsons to each other on probably a daily basis. (“My cat’s breath smells like cat food!”)
5. Arrested Development – so off-the-wall like nothing else. Nearly every character seems so unhinged that I would love to watch a live feed of that writers’ room. RIP Jessica Walter.
Also: Fleabag, Orange is the New Black, Hacks, the original The Office, Last Week Tonight, Shogun (latest), The Last of Us….. so many! Not even mentioning the older campy stuff like Land of the Lost, Incredible Hulk, Wonder Woman, etc.
Craig
@Omnes Omnibus: I do. We’re gonna Zoom Zoom a Zoom. Fun.
Craig
@Pink Tie: oh yeah, Fleabag is genius.
Percysowner
@Barbara: My favorite episode is either Best Friends or Fireflies. Although choosing a favorite is hard because I love so many of them.
Matt McIrvin
More:
Abnormal Hiker
Singing Detective and Pennies from Heaven by Dennis Potter
West of the Rockies
@ron:
Have you watched the YouTube episodes about “mudlarking”? The host pokes the muck on the banks of The Thames and finds all sorts of intriguing historical bits.
Pittsburgh Mike
The Wire
30 Rock — Great chemistry between Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey.
Derry Girls — Just watch it.
Severance — great mystery.
Dead to Me
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: Of course! With its viewer-produced content, it was kind of a harbinger of the Internet. It taught the world WGBH’s zip code.
Barbara
@Pittsburgh Mike: The first episode of 30 Rock is the funniest 30 minutes of TV I’ve ever seen. Kenneth collapsing into the stairwell to get an ambulance was especially inspired.
Pittsburgh Mike
The Affair
Outnumbered (UK)
Cold Feet (UK)
Gin & Tonic
@Matt McIrvin: I first watched The Prisoner in its first US run (on CBS IIRC) with my father. I was about 14 or so, had already read some Kafka. It was surreal, and has stayed that way on every re-viewing.
West of the Rockies
Oh, can I add Survivor Man? Les Stroud is an engaging host (unlike Bear Grylls).
Mike E
@BellyCat: I put Burn Notice up there with White Collar… both were USA network series, that was an era!
I second the rec for Survivor Man, you’ll never appreciate your icebox more than after watching Stroud scrounge for food.
p.a.
No specific order
Star Trek DS9. (Star Trek Space Mall) Best characters in the franchise.
Monk/Original Colombo. Undecided.
Frasier
Any Bourdain Travel/Food show
Jerry McKinnis’ The Fishin’ Hole. “Just throw a white grub…”
Melancholy Jaques
Thinking back to my childhood in the 60s, it seemed like half the shows in prime time were some kind of western. Among them Bonanza, Big Valley, High Chaparral, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Gunsmoke, Wild Wild West, F Troop. And at the same time, Saturday and Sunday mornings there were re-runs of older shows like Paladin, Maverick, Sugarfoot, Cheyenne, The Rebel, Roy Rogers. Strange how dominant that format was.
bluefoot
It would not have occurred to me to say the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner Hour that was on on Saturday mornings when I was a kid, but it is absolutely one of my all-time favorite shows. I was so disappointed when the classic cartoons disappeared from the various streaming services.
Barney Miller – My brother and I still crack up saying lines or recalling scenes from this show.
Star Trek (TOS) – This show started me on my subsequent love of science fiction and imagining what was possible for the future. For a positive future.
The Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes series. So many things about it that I loved. Like most, my favorite thing about it was Jeremy Brett. He *was* Holmes to me. I read the stories when my dad gifted me The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes when I was eleven years old. Brett even had the facial tics I had imagined.
The X-Files – This was must-watch tv for me and my friends when it was on. So much in one show – humor, mystery, science fiction, plus the interaction between the characters. And Gillian Anderson was the hottest scientist to ever grace the screen. This was also the show that made me decide that all series should have a maximum of six seasons, maybe fewer, before they get stale or cliches of themselves.
I have a weakness for procedurals – Shetland is one the more recent shows (though it’s been around for quite a few years now) in that genre for me.
West of the Rockies
@p.a.:
Oh, Anthony Bourdain was sooo good.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: The best Looney Tunes shorts were originally theatrical cartoons, so I’m hesitant to even count that as a TV show, but they were ubiquitous on TV in the 1970s–shown right alongside vastly inferior new content produced for TV. As an uncritical kid I ate it all up, but it was hard not to notice how much better the old Warner Brothers content was.
dlw32b
@West of the Rockies: I was going to mention Fringe… it’s the characters and the actors.
mrmoshpotato
@SpaceUnit: Well put. It was a great show.
Neal
Leave it to Beaver and Monty Python.
Sorry but not sorry that other then the aforementioned LITB I simply cannot stand anything with a laugh track…and yes I was born old and grumpy.
Noskilz
The first James Burke’s Connections series – tracing the history and interconnections of various technologies was kind of a big deal at the time, at it remains a very interesting look at technology and its impacts.
Babylon 5: although it’s planned 5 year story arc got a little rumpled by the collapse of the network it started on and the demands of the network it moved to, it is a very solid show that was very different from its contemporaries. For a start, the planned arc thing. Both Star Trek and Babylon 5 are intrinsically rather optimistic shows, but Babylon 5 played around in flawed universe of often flawed people doing their damnedest with developments that had narrative payoffs; while in TNG the humans of Federation often seemed much stranger the alien of the week and TNG and DS9 both had a bad habit of storylines being sold as major developments, but which seemed to have no particular impact (probably mostly due to the way Paramount handled scripts – it was happy to let people write scripts for its shows, but much less excited about anything that might involve having to give them more money or recognition later.)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy – a classic adaption of Douglas Adam’s book with a great cast and animations of the guide entries.
The Venture Brothers: a very affectionate love-letter to and satire of comics and pop-culture in the form of a show about a former boy adventurer whose life has taken a few turns. The show’s creators really understand and have a great deal of affection for the genres they are playing with and have built a world of engaging characters and stories out of components that in other hands would have probably fallen flat. It’s an incredibly entertaining show with a throughline that maybe things really, really didn’t go as planned, but maybe they can still turn out okayish.
Dr Who. Definitely a show with its highs and lows – my impression has been the writing has been on the ropy side for awhile, but that it has persisted this long says its got something going for it. My favorite era was the Tom Baker years – it seemed to have the right mix of silliness, self-awareness, and commitment to the bit. However, there is so much of it that it seems likely that various audiences at various will have something to latch onto, and its ongoing appeal and seeming willingness to adapt make likely to stick around.
Just five is quite a constraint – but what must be, must be.
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal:
Yes, yes, this was fantastic–such a slow burn with a gradually gathering sense of apocalyptic dread. You can see the influence on early Doctor Who, particularly the Jon Pertwee era.
Craig
@Matt McIrvin: yeah, SCTV!!! Also Kids in the Hall.
geg6
@West of the Rockies:
Yes! Miss him so much! Never saw that one coming. I think MAX has a doc about him streaming right now. Saw it months ago on CNN and it’s excellent.
Pink Tie
Here come the “I forgots”… Jeopardy!, Mindhunter, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, In Living Color, White Lotus, the Little Rascals and the old B&W Popeye cartoons.
Another Scott
@Pink Tie: Your list reminded me of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret. I only managed to see a few episodes, but OMG!!
You keep thinking, yeah things look pretty bad but there’s no way they can get worse… OMG!!
[ rofl ]
I don’t know if it’s one of the greatest shows of all time, but it’s a very well done black comedy.
Cheers,
Scott.
charon
Revolutionary Girl Utena – very imaginative and deeply philosophical Japanese anime
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Wire
The Sopranos
Breaking Bad
Battlestar Galactica
Game of Thrones
Cowboy Bebop
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: Oh, God, I completely neglected Mr. Show with Bob and David. Not a day goes by that something doesn’t remind me of things that show was making fun of back in the 1990s.
It’s absolutely bizarre that one of their cast members ended up involved in the January 6th insurrection, given the amount of time they spent basically snarking on those people decades in advance.
Sure Lurkalot
Not sure if these are my favorites but favorite enough to have bought the DVDs, all have been mentioned except the last…
Star Trek TNG, Fawlty Towers, Outer Limits and (ta-dum) Soap. Soap was my favorite show for years and I might just have to see if my blu-ray player is still connected and working to go through again.
Another show I didn’t see mentioned was Six Feet Under.
Eyeroller
I do not watch TV–I don’t think I have turned it on for over two years–but when my husband was alive we especially liked:
Monty Python
The Bob Newhart Show
Yes Minister/Prime Minister
M*A*S*H
Star Trek TOS
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Scooby Doo
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Yogi Bear
Snagglepuss
The Avengers (Diana Rigg years)
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
I am reminded of an amusing description of Bill Bixby’s “The Incredible Hulk” series: “Basically, it’s The Fugitive, but he’s green.”
My picks (in no particular order):
JoyceH
Some completed series I’ve seen more than once and could easily watch through again: The West Wing, Buffy and Angel, The Good Place, and Counterpart.
Some shows I’ve started watching in streaming and will continue to watch the new episodes: Station 19, The Rookie, The Good Doctor.
dimmsdale
Kind of surprised no one has yet mentioned “Justified”–incredibly faithful onscreen rendering of the Elmore Leonard ethos, and managed to create an entire believable world that I for one never suspected existed, and was glad to inhabit. And Walton Goggins–whew! A deep salaam in his direction.
Likewise, I’ve been watching Patrick McGoohan’s first series, “Danger Man,” and god, the guy was magnetic. The plots hold up nicely, particularly as “Spy who came in from the cold”-era artifacts, although at about a half-hour it feels like “Preliminary notes for The Prisoner”–not all the episodes ended with the kind of finality you look for.
I’ll echo “The Defenders,” with E.G. Marshall and Robert Reed; man, that opening establishing shot of the courthouse on Foley Square, plus the trumpet fanfare, really telegraphs the lofty intentions of the show–it’s a kind of PSA for what the rule of law OUGHT to be, and features tons of first-rate NY character actors of the time. (I hear that fanfare every time I report for jury duty and climb those steps to the courthouse.)
Surprised also that no one mentioned “Columbo,” But I’d like to spotlight instead “The Trials of O’Brien,” Peter Falk’s first series–there are a handful of episodes on YT, and it’s definitely a period piece (the period being the early 60s), but Falk is always perfect, the writing is (mostly) geared to display his comic timing (definitely a precursor to his Columbo character), and the delectable Joanna Barnes is a delight. (As is ’60s New York City.)
I’d like to thank everyone on this thread for sending me down rabbit holes galore. I never read threads like this without having a tab open for the NY Public Library, so I can search out some of y’all’s recommendations.
Craig
@dimmsdale: oh damn. Columbo. Definitely some of the best TV ever. Uh, just one more thing…
Matt McIrvin
…and if I’m going to invoke Adventure Time I also need to give a nod to Gravity Falls, one of the funniest and cleverest cartoons ever to come out of the Disney machine, probably because they gave a lot of leeway to a creator with a strong auteur’s vision and he stuck to ending the story when it was over, much like Babylon 5.
dimmsdale
@dimmsdale: ETA: almost forgot The Detectorists, a charming British comedy about a couple of amateur metal detector hobbyists (MacKenzie Crook and Toby Jones); as with “Ted Lasso,” I always feel substantially more benevolent toward the human race after watching an episode, AND seasons 2 and 3 feature Dame Diana Ring, in her last recurring appearance in a series. Gorgeous English countryside, a human pace, some quietly brilliant comic writing. Also, “Foyle’s War”–fer Pete sakes, the definitive (AFAIK) WWII British home-front series, impeccably plotted and acted.
piratedan
@Noskilz: Thank you for calling out The Venture Brothers, what started out as a riff of Jonny Quest turned into so much more, such fun with Dr. Girlfriend and Henchman 24.
so many memorable shows to choose from, do you pick stuff that helped shape you, caused you to laugh out loud or just left a mark because…
want to also give a shout out to Sex Education, Speed Racer, Space 1999, The Lone Gunmen (X-Files spinoff), and Night Court.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: I need to watch more of Poker Face, which often gets compared to Columbo (since we know who dun it, the protagonist rapidly figures it out too, and the problem is how she can prove it and somehow bring justice to bear–Natasha Lyonne even has a sort of Peter Falk-like demeanor)… but in format, the show is really more The Incredible Hulk—The Fugitive but with a protagonist with a special gimmick.
kalakal
@Matt McIrvin: Jon Pertwee was my favourite Dr Who, people’s favourite Doctor often seems to be the one they first got into the series with
Doug R
@Dadadadadadada: Watchmen took a great concept that had been made into a decent movie and ran with it and made a sublime TV show that went way deeper.
Highlighting the Tulsa Massacre, showing us the true origin of the masks, and their casting choice for Ozymandias was perfection.
Matt McIrvin
@kalakal: I’m weird in that regard: I kind of got into Doctor Who through my wife’s fandom during the period when the show was off the air, so there’s no Doctor who’s really “my Doctor”. Unless it’s Christopher Eccleston, who starred in the first episodes I got to see when they were new. I do like him.
The first bit I ever saw was probably Pertwee: when I was a kid, I remember seeing Doctor Who on the TV listings and not having heard of that before, and when I tuned in, I saw a bit of what I think was probably “Spearhead from Space” and the Autons freaked me out enough that I didn’t watch it again for years. If it was that serial, then I had the experience of being frightened by basically the first Doctor Who serial ever to air in the US.
thruppence
@Abnormal Hiker: Potter’s The Singing Detective is absolutely surreal, harrowing and absolutely unavailable now, unless you spring for the DVD (I did). Makes you care for an absolutely unlikeable character. All due respect to Robert Downey Jr. but that remake is a pale shadow of a paper cutout of the original.
Leto
@Noskilz: IGNORE ME!!!
I’ll be there in 5!
mr perfect
@zhena gogolia: Nice to see you mention AbFab. It goes up there with Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers. Another British series I watched a lot of since CBC carried in Canada during the mid Eighties was Minder with Dennis Waterman and George Cole which was about a sleazy businessman and his bodyguard (minder) continually running afoul of the law and gangsters in London. Plenty of tongue in cheek and cockney slang.
For the one American series it has to be the first season of True Detective with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughy who was superb in his role. The creep factor was massive in the show.
billcinsd
I’m going with
Time Team
MASH
Leverage
The Prisoner
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle
dimmsdale
Apropos of absolutely nothing, since the 60s was my coming-of-age era as far as TV was concerned, I’m always a little curious about how some of those old hour-long (well, 57 minutes-long) shows register with younger viewers. Compared to later, shorter, more tightly paced “hour-long” shows, the writers had (often) WAYYY too much time to fill, which led to unnecessary subplots, sometimes plodding pacing, overlong self-consciously “weighty” monologues about the nature of existence (or whatever); and I want to insert this as an explanation for someone younger who, for example, takes a first look at an old “Route 66” and goes “Borrrrrrringggggg!” I want to say “Well, it is NOW, maybe, but….you should have been there THEN!” (which is of course useless.)
TooTallTom
West Wing
Band of Brothers
Stargate SG-1
Star Trek Voyager
Covert Affairs
Sandia Blanca
In addition to the many British comedies mentioned above, I recommend The Vicar of Dibley as one of the funniest. Dawn French is the vicar, and her cast of supporting characters are all wonderfully weird in their own ways.
Ditto to all the votes for SCTV–we watched it when it came on late at night, and it seemed like a secret show that no one else knew about, but it was so hilarious! It’s nice to see the actors receive recognition for it later in life.
I also loved the Tracey Ullman show and her many eccentric characters.
As a kid, my favorites include Get Smart and The Man from UNCLE. I also loved the original Hawaii 50 (Jack Lord’s hair!).
currawong
@Eyeroller:
I’m going to have to share 3 of your choices.
M*A*S*H – timeless comedy
Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister – really too close to the bone on the working of the UK government at the time. Trying to mirror today’s governemnt would be too over the top to be funny.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus – completely anarchic and different to anything on at the time. British TV was really staid and strait-laced up until then.
Shogun – I loved the 80s series but this was another level. Episode 9 is probably the best hour’s TV I’ve ever seen. I was quite shaken by it and I knew what was coming.
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads – 70s comedy of two friends entering adulthood. I’ll never forget the episode of them trying to avoid hearing the result of an England football match before the highlights were shown later as the result of a bet. I real window in time on the period.
Pete Downunder
I’m late to the party but have two groups – really old and just old. I stopped watching TV decades ago so have no views on the recent (21st century) shows:
Really old: Have Gun Will Travel (gun fighter with a moral compass)
The Avengers (teen age crush on Diana Rigg)
Maverick (but only the James Garner episodes)
The Defenders (probably caused me to become a lawyer)
Less old:
MASH
Hill Street Blues (great theme music)
Big Bang Theory (nerd humor – I can relate)
Cheers
stinger
Half-hour sitcoms: Frasier and the British show The Good Life (Marketed in the US as Good Neighbors). Frasier because so witty (“Just a little thing I learned at sauce camp”) and all 5 leads were superb. The Good Life because Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith, and Paul Eddington. I can quote almost every word.
Hour dramas: The West Wing (honorable decent government), The Good Wife (great plot twists), Madame Secretary (more decent government and a cute lead couple).
Foreign language: Astrid (French). The growing friendship between two women who are opposites in most ways but learn to think like each other. “You may have to consider the hypothesis that the evidence suggests you’re falling in love.”
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
It may have been being in the military during Vietnam that brings Mash to first place for me. Different war, different branch but so much rings true. Also I used to be a huge fan of watching TV but now I am far more selective and watch far less.
Mai Naem mobile
I haven’t seen Designing Women mentioned. That was a really well written show. Also Getting On was really good as well.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cheers just seemed to be about the corner bar, without a serious drunk.
Cathie from Canada
I defined my top five as the series I would love to be watching again for the first time — the series which, week to week, were almost always unpredictable yet disciplined, and fresh yet consistent.
Here’s my list
There are many others series I enjoyed, of course, and that I looked forward to every week. But these are the best of the best.
Ruckus
@BellaPea:
I wanted to be a doctor – many, many decades ago but life just didn’t work out that way. Life is often funny that way, that your goals sometimes change as you age.
1. Mash
2. St Elsewhere
3. Gray’s Anatomy
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
Sure. They both share a variation of Les Misérables themes. While the Hulk is the strong rage monster, Banner is being pursued by forces trying to capture and control him. Banner in the TV series is not as confident as the version we see in The Avengers movies.
El Muneco
“Flying Blind” from 1984 – what should have been Tea Leoni’s (“Madam Secretary”) introduction to stardom, but was canceled after 18 episodes due to the worst possible time slot for a Sorkinesque, sexy comedy.
“Coupling”, at least the first two seasons – Steven Moffatt (“Doctor Who” showrunner) at the height of his script-writing powers. The same 3 men / 3 women dynamic as the contemporary “Friends” but better in every single way.
“The X-Files”, at least through the first four or five seasons. Particularly the “Monster of the Week” episodes. There are at least a dozen episodes – Clyde Bruckman, the Lone Gunmen, the fungus that brainwashed people, … – that would go on my long list of “Best Hours of Television, All-Time Division”. Skip the main story arc, even the showrunner didn’t have it planned out to the extent he wants you to believe…
“Max Headroom” – 20 minutes into the future… More prescient than more critically praised science fiction. Cynical and sardonic, but less so than it turns out was warranted by actual events. An amazing combination of style and substance.
“Iron Chef” – the Japanese original. Pit two classically-trained chefs against each other in a timed competition to excel using a single ingredient in every course? And couple it with a baseball-broadcast team of announcers – a play-by-play guy, a color commentator, and a floor reporter? An amazing idea, but a classic since the whole cast – including the chefs – went all-in on the theme and made something never replicated even by its successors.
ericablair
ericablair
lgerard
Coupling was very good.
Sadly, Larry Sanders seems to be have been forgotten here
Steve Finlay
Thanks for reminding me of some greats that I forgot: Are You Being Served, and the unequalled and unique Singing Detective.
It looks like we all forgot Trailer Park Boys. To me, the best line ever was when Ricky had one of them brain – learnin’ things where ya suddenly know something ya didn’t know before.
Martin Schafer
Buffy and Angel — The Buffyverse is the only TV I’ve had a full parasocial relationship with. The humor, the characters, the script flipping. OTP Willow/Faith.
Firefly — The emotional connection between the characters.
Sense8 — Mind meld between people has always fascinated me. Scanners, Darkover etc. The diversity of the cast, the sex.
Nirvana in Fire — Insanely complicated plot in a beautiful fantasy version of ancient China.
The Wire — Fantastic writing, amazing characters, way it dealt with real issues fits my view of reality.
Anotherlurker
Rumpole of the Bailey, Dr Who, Upstart Crow, The Venture Brothers and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness. Rocky and Bullwinkle and Futurama.
Also, how could I forget The Twilight Zone?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Honorable mention:
Burn Notice
Rumpole of the Bailey
One Day at the Time
Late Night with David Letterman (original version)
Rockford Files
The Saint
Hogan’s Heroes
The Odd Couple
Sgt. Bilko
Quinerly
Very late to the party that is this thread.
I am a true product of the 60’s and 70’s.
Dark Shadows
Big Valley
The Wild, Wild West (Robert Conrad….tight pants)
M*A*S*H
Later years…Moonlighting (Bruce Willis/Cybil Shepherd…fantastic dialogue), The West Wing (even better dialogue), and Seinfeld (still watch old ones and lmao)
Why? All seems pretty obvious.
Quinerly
@Mai Naem mobile:
A favorite.
Dixie Carter made that show. A few years back, I was so disappointed to learn that she was a Republican. Hal Holbrook was not, though. What a couple!
Quinerly
@Eyeroller: oh….Bob Newhart….great show.
Quinerly
@Spanish Moss:
💚💙💛🧡
Quinerly
@narya:
Oh….Northern Exposure…..FANTASTIC.
glc
I will go along with the 9 mentions of Babylon 5 (if I counted that properly).
After that, I suppose Columbo (which got off to a late start in this thread).
Seinfeld. At this point even my children come out with “Must be nice!” in a sarcastic vein from time to time. My wife is partial to “Even so” in the manner of Elaine, unimpressed by George’s computers. And there are contexts where “The very pants I was returning!” makes an appearance, though that tends toward obscurity.
Very impressed by The Wire, though satisfied with watching it once.
Quite recently I got around to watching Chernobyl, and was impressed with the clarity of the presentation, and with Jared Harris, both there and elsewhere. I caught only a few of his roles but they were all impressive, regardless of context.
And I don’t know what category I would put Monty Python in – I never really watched it in a form I would call “television” though the YouTube experience may count. It was certainly around, in some cases by word of mouth long before I saw particular episodes. I think there was a 40 year gap between the first time I heard the 4 Yorkshiremen routine from a friend, and watching it on Youtube. I suppose I should have put it in the #1 spot, really.
way2blue
Um. ‘Leave it to Beaver’. ?
NotMax
Lat, late, late to the thread. Sticking just to pre-1970, in no particular order,
The Honeymooners
Person to Person
Star Trek
The Defenders
Car 54, Where Are You?
Checkmate
You’ll Never Get Rich (Sgt. Bilko)
Captain Kangaroo
The Prisoner
Grindl
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Twentieth Century
Lunch with Soupy Sales
Hank
Time for Beany
I-Spy
Young People’s Concerts
The Jack Benny Program
.
prostratedragon
The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The b&w Andy Griffith Sow, which seems to find a strange echo the early Grantchester. And one I might actually buy on dvd Foyle’s War.
Nancy
@West of the Rockies:
I agree and second–Fringe and original Star Trek series. I’d add ST, the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. The space operas engaged viewers in debates about duty and free will. They considered what it means to be human. The various species of the universe were treated with respect by the writers as they grappled with these deep questions.
I loved Fringe. I could go on about the show but it’s way too early in the AM for rational thought (on my part).
As I pause to think, I’m reliving a Star Trek DS9 conversation between Garek and Quark:
The Federation is insidious. They’re so nice, like their sweet root beer which was also insidious.
Chris
Stargate SG-1.
It was the first TV show I really followed, which I’m sure doesn’t hurt. You never forget your first.
It was Star Wars type sci-fi, crossed with Indiana Jones type archeology adventure, crossed with modern U.S. military based technothriller, three genres I love. So it’s almost like it was grown in a lab to appeal to me.
It was right at that sweet spot between episodic and serialized television, one of those nineties/2000s shows that rewards continuous viewing but where the writers still know how to use an episode to tell a complete story rather than a 45 minute trailer for the next story, which is an art I’d like to see a lot more of.
What’s really surprising when looking back at it, though, is that without ever trying to be a grand political show like so many other sci-fi ones (Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica), it very often got politics completely right and more so that those others. The entire Jaffa rebellion is basically the plot of the original movie, run through someone who actually knows their political science – the people the ruling class need to fear the most aren’t the slaves at the bottom of the social order, it’s the people just below themselves (in a society like the Goa’uld, the warriors who keep everyone else down). The entire NID plot line is the best version of a Section 31 story I’ve seen, largely because it acknowledges what these people actually are in real life – they’re not noble demons or well intentioned extremists, they’re errand boys for the power structure who are usually incompetent as fuck when it comes to their claimed goal of defending the nation (think Dulles brothers, J. Edgar Hoover, or dare I say it, James Comey and the New York FBI office). The way the U.S. government and the other major powers are constantly trying to screw each other for advantage while never quite to the point of wrecking the Stargate program (because no one wants to be enslaved by aliens) is probably the most realistic way to portray real world politics while still getting a happy ending. And the show struck a really nice balance in never shying away from showing how corrupt, dysfunctional, and otherwise fucked up the U.S. national security state could be, while also never devolving into an adolescent greenwaldian “the U.S. national security state is the focus of evil in the modern world” worldview which was, frankly, refreshingly mature compared to a hell of a lot of television both then and now.
It had its warts, but yeah, it’s still my favorite all these years later.
Chris
Other than that? MacGyver, The A-Team, and Leverage will always be in my top 5, not far below SG-1. Not entirely sure what the fifth is, though.
MacGyver of course is liberal idealism personified on television, so I think I latched onto it in the same way a lot of other liberals latched onto Star Trek or X-Men. But I like the fact that it’s a lot closer to our world than these kinds of shows.
The A-Team I discovered via Hulu when I was recently graduated in the Great Recession economy and it just felt like the entire universe was run by crooks trying to screw those of us just trying to keep our heads above the water. There was a lot of catharsis in watching that sort of scum get what was coming from them every episode.
Leverage, which I discovered a year or two later, is basically those two shows combined – the basic premise of The A-Team (updated by a generation) run through the liberal politics and ripped-from-the-headlines approach of MacGyver.
ETtheLibrarian
Mash
Babylon 5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
AM in NC
@SpaceUnit: LOVED watching Mythbusters with my kids. We even went to one of their live shows, and my younger kid was called up on stage to participate in one of their experiments! They got to shake hands and talk with Adam and Jamie!
AM in NC
The Wire: Just groundbreaking in its complicating the traditional stories of good-guys and bad guys; it was surprisingly funny, while being tragic; fully realized characters who weren’t only white.
Deadwood: I dreamed in the language Milch created for the series when I binge-watched it, not knowing anything about it beforehand, except it was a “western”. Great themes, amazing characters, and the writing, my God. Just horrible they weren’t allowed to wrap up the series as a series.
Prime Suspect: I do love a well-done detective show, and Helen Mirren dealing with criminals and the sexism of the police force is maybe the best of the bunch.
Great Chefs (of New Orleans and beyond): Learned so much about cooking from watching real chefs prepare their dishes with none of the BS from most cooking shows. Just a narrator, a camera, and the chefs doing their things in a non-performative way.
Somewhat more contemporary shows that have made an impression: Fleabag – hilarious, touching, and a strong female character who doesn’t have to be perfect to be awesome. Call My Agent (Dix por cent) – just so funny and warm, and you really really come to care about the characters! ETA: The Repair Shop. Who knew watching expert craftspeople fixing up people’s personal treasures could be both so interesting and moving? Watched with my mom while she was dying of cancer, and it was a balm for us both. During COVID, when we needed some positivity, this show was lit. ETA: Borgen. First female Danish Prime Minister – worked as a political show and personal drama. Super cool to see how different the Danish political system is from our own, both structurally and ceremonially (nowhere near the fancy trappings of our Prez. Maybe because they also have a monarch?).
WaterGirl
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Miss Bianca
Way late to the thread, but what the hell –
for my adult viewing pleasure, I’m going to go with:
1.Deadwood – just brilliant writing and equally brilliant acting. Can’t be matched.
2. Slings and Arrows – kind of a workplace comedy for me, wonderful ensemble acting plus dishy Paul Gross, but just as good as the “backstage” components is how smart it was about acting Shakespeare. I use insights all the time that I gleaned from that show.
3. Firefly – for sheer damn quippiness and quotability and great ensemble cast work, plus the tantalizing “What could have been” quality, gets me every time.
4. The Wire – David Simon. Idris Elba. Plus everyone else and everything else.
5. Toss-up between Star Trek: TNG and Farscape on the sci-fi side and Xena: Warrior Princess on the fantasy side. TNG got me into the Star Trek ‘verse for good and all, Farscape for its amazing puppet/human interactions, and Xena because …well, Xena!
If I’m going back to my kid days, the top five would easily include my “3M’s”: Monty Python’s Flying Circus, which permanently warped my sense of humor; The Muppet Show/Sesame Street, ditto; and Meeting of Minds, in which Steve Allen takes a break from his usual gigs as musician and comedian to act as host to what could best be called a time-travel talk show.
Percysowner
@Quinerly: I love Dark Shadows.
StevEagle
The Leftovers – Just incredible direction and writing and acting; full of existential dread and ambiguity. Didn’t catch on I think because it’s SUCH a thorough bummer (but in a good way!)
Community – This ones got it all- comedy, pathos, great character work, wild convolutions; homages to Scorsese, Tarantino, and never forget “My Dinner with Andre Dinner with Abed”.
the Knick – The acting, music and cinematography; plus, some of the surgery scenes made me legit queasy! Incredible ending for Dr Thackeray; amazing for him to do something so stupid and yet so perfectly fitting for that character. Sadly only 2 seasons!
Star Trek TNG – Picard is still the model of masculinity and humanity. That one where he gets zapped by the probe and experiences an entire lifetime as a member of a civilization destroyed by supernova? Goddamn!
True Detective 1 – Say what you will about subsequent installments, the first series is the absolute peak of prestige TV; the old woman ranting about Carcosa still gives me chills
Bobs Burgers – 13 seasons and NO drop off in quality even The Simpsons couldn’t quite pull that off and Frasier only lasted 11 (?) seasons. Also, the rare show to mail the movie
Cowboy Bebop – just everything about this show. Also absolutely NAILED the movie. The live action version was t as bad as everyone acted like it was, but I kind of wish they’d just remade the animated episodes but just extended them/fleshed them out more. My only critique of the original is that there’s clearly a time crunch that make many episodes feel too rushed at times
Poker Face – ok, not yet, but if this show goes 5 or 6 seasons, it’s an all-timer.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
I can’t believe no one included “Baywatch”