Best television show of all time?
It’s so Friday, so why not. Tell us, what is the best television show off all time?
It’s so Friday, so why not?
Tell us, what is the best television show off all time?
-
Recommend this
on Facebook -
Report an error
-
Subscribe to our
Weekly Digest
Valerie Catrow
Valerie Catrow is editor of RVAFamily, mother to a mop-topped first grader, and always really excited to go to bed.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
Dog The Bounty Hunter
Doctor Who. Only series I know from the 1960s that’s still going.
Arrested Development and Batman the Animated Series.
Top Gear on the BBC. It’s brilliant. Amazing cinematography, often side-splittingly funny, sometimes poignant (the moped trip through Vietnam or the trek to the North Pole), occasionally usefully educational (there was a segment that included a history of Britain’s road signs that sounded dull as dry toast but turned out fascinating), and the relationship of the three hosts is the most genuine and true of probably any TV show hosts, ever. The first episode after Richard Hammond’s nearly fatal accident is really touching. The truth is, there’s never been a show that pulls all of the elements together the way that Top Gear does, and it’s easily the best TV show of all time.
I agree with Tess 100%.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer! I felt a little part of me die when the series ended.
Also, Top Gear is pretty darn good.
I have to pick just ONE?
I do love Buffy, but I’m going to have to say The West Wing. Fast, witty dialogue, real character bonding, and the inside workings of the White House. Also, it’s still eerie how I’ll watch old episodes and realize that so much was foreshadowing future real life.
Tess is spot on, as is Jeb.
But if I had to go the rest of my life with only one tv series on DVD, I would have to choose Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
It would have to be Star Trek or Freaks and Geeks for me.
The Price is Right
Depends what you’re looking for, I guess.
When it comes to drama, I have to go with “The Wire.” Even the second season (the weakest of the five) was better than most dramas on network television.
For comedy, Arrested Development was all kinds of brilliant.
And there are numerous stand outs – South Park, half of Adult Swim, everything but the last 60 minutes of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, Lost, the Sopranos, Californication, Breaking Bad, the 1967 version of the Prisoner.
While television tends to be overrun by really bad television shows produced for lowest common denominator audiences, the modern shift towards heavily serialized dramas and multiple concurrent lengthy plot arcs has really put us in a golden age of television, one that actually rewards the audience for watching and really pushes the medium forward in regards to storytelling.
Sandford and Son. Hands down.
battlestar galactica!
In terms of pure mature fiction, entertainment, and artistry, I am going to have to put a bid in for LOST.
When the pilot was first advertised, I invited a bunch of friends to watch it with me and stated that this was either going to be one of the best shows ever or a colossal laghingstock. At the time it first came on, there was tons of reality dreck being spewed all over television. Although most of my friends gave up early (“invisible dinosaur?, my butt!”) and then later (‘I can’t keep up with the plot twists and characters’), and then caught up again with the DVD releases and digital downloads…
The show has surpassed my expectations by quite a bit. I mean, sure, the cast and set are predictably and stereotypically easy on the eyes, but who would expect it be stretched to six seasons, with so many questions answered and unanswered. I am enthralled with the characterizations, the different sides of the story, and the philosophical and literary references. So, yeah, many of you are rolling your eyes right now, but just wait…
When the show finale (called THE END) airs, I will still look forward to the official and unofficial edits and re-edits that will enable you to watch the full storyline in reverse, in the show’s chronological order, from different character’s viewpoints, etc. These will put the ‘flashforwards’, the ‘flashsieways’, and the profiles in all sorts of new perspectives. The fan fiction and fan-created spin-offs (which are increasing in quality and quantity for all tv shows and movies with inexpensive digital production) will also be incredible.
Maybe I am overgeeking here, but I expect LOST will be regarded as one of those watershed shows that bridged the analog broadcast and digital microcast worlds.
Veronica Mars! Or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or Battlestar Galactica. Or Flight of the Conchords. But probably Veronica Mars.
The answer is simple – West Wing.
The Wire blows pretty much everything else out of the park. Breaking Bad is good, too.
Or maybe it knocks everything else out of the park, and blows everything else out of the water. Or maybe it does both, because that’s how awesome it is.
M*A*S*H, Northern Exposure, Scrubs, or Lost. Lean toward the former three but Lost sure was fun.
Six Feet Under
survivor, celebrity apprentice, the bachelor/bachelorette, celebrity rehab/sober house…its the golden age of reality tv
The Wire.
I’m gonna go on a limb and throw in Twin Peaks. I really enjoy practically everything already mentioned (especially The Wire and Arrested Development), but Twin Peaks is still incredible after all these years.
of course its the X-files.
Rome on HBO was pretty good. I didn’t start watching the Wire until the last 2 season. No one said Dexter??
Rome, Dexter, Six Feet Under, The Tudors, Friday Night LIghts