This medium has much to blame for the “dumbing down” of our culture, but there have been some great productions as well. What's your list? What might have you leave the "sweet spot" for an hour? (Make me mad that I forgot to include one or two.)
Top Ten TV Shows (Not in order.)
1. Rockford Files 2. Northern Exposure 3. Star Trek 4. Twin Peaks 5. Millennium 6. Andy Griffith Show (black & white) 7. Saturday Night Live (70’s) 8. Law and Order 9. McNeil Lehrer News Hour (PBS) 10. Twighlight Zone
M*A*S*H Star Trek: The Next Generation Babylon 5 Mission Impossible Twilight Zone Outer Limits Andy Griffith Show (B&W) NYPD Blue Saturday Nite Live (first 4 years) Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Dick Van Dyke Show Burke's Law M*A*S*H* Mission Impossible The original Lucile Ball Show Soundstage The Simpsons Monty Python's Flying Circus The Dick Cavett show Homicide
I just received a couple of negetive votes for my TV choices. It's kind of creepy when you think about it (you creepers out there). Anyway I would like to add "The Rockford Files" but can't think of one from my list to eliminate. I remember being completely lost while watching the series years ago and consider it great entertainment
Burkes Law.....!!!! Didn't even realize anyone else on the face of the earth remembered it. Bob Newhart. Maverick. MTM. 77 Sunset Strip....only for the "camp" 50's value. Outer Limits. Ed Sullivan.. Perhaps the #1...The Tonight Show..w/J.C. Wanted Dead or Alive....Steve McQueen Longstreet Wild, Wild West. Midnight Special. Original cast, SNL Dick Cavett anything on public TV about animals.... Playhouse 90 The Dean Martin Show. What's My Line Did I mention Sullivan...Beatles...DC5...etc. The Fugitive.....a Quinn Martin Production.... Walt Disney's shows the original few years of 60 Min....before they started making the show up.... Judd for the Defense.....Carl Betz at his best Arrest and Trial...see above..ie:CB I could go on....but Telivision before cable..is like movies before video's...... The connection between Broadway, the rest of "live stage", novels, and the written word was as good for T.V. as it was for films.
Gunsmoke, Ben Casey, Tonight Show (with Steve Allen), The Fugitive, 60 Minutes, Seinfeld, Cheers, Bob Newhart Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show (as Mary Richards), Captian Kangaroo.
My favorite tv show is Netflix as I fired Time Warner a few months ago for poor service and there is no broadcast tv to speak of here in the Delta Quadrant. I get a new movie in the mail every few days and especially like getting things I would have passed over at Blockbuster like Drowning Mona and Dogma.And when there is a sporting event I want to see, I go to a sports bar and actually sit with and interact with "other people". But back in the day there was Babylon 5, stupid but what great characters; Law and Order; the Fugitive; All in the Family, meathead; Milton Berle (yes, I'm that old);Man Fom Uncle;Smothers Brothers and Laugh-In get one spot, same show, different cast; absolutely early SNL and does anyone else remember weekly segment of muppets from hell "the great flahbash (spelling?), $64,000 dollar question; Naked City.
Forgot one... maybe even better than "Twin Peaks". "The Prisoner". Way ahead of it's time. Hell, it would be way ahead of its time today.
Like "Twin Peaks", this is a series that you can analyze forever. Also... I believe it was the only TV show to feature a Lotus Super Seven on each opening sequence!
Boston Public (Fox) has a GREAT intro theme, no? Gotta admit I'm addicted to West Wing...even got a "Bartlett for President" bumper sticker (before we got bush-wacked!).
speed-vision? speed-racer? mebbe if i got more than 2 channels - one pbs, the other the one w/jay leno... but, i doubt it. i usually watch yust for the 3 minutes or so a nite that it takes the wife to fall asleep, before turning in... we have only two tv's, one in the guest bedroom, one in the master bedroom... ;~)
1) the 1968 democratic national convention; 2) the oj trial; 3) the smothers brothers' comedy hour; 4) monty python's flying circus; 5) the ernie kovacs show; 6) this old house; 7) cooking with julia child; 8) the muppets; 9) laugh-in; 10) i love lucy.
Corn...you forgot our L.A. riots. My second riot in L.A. I held off on this, but... the best TV ever! I said it then, I'll say it now. Great TV! Better yet if you lived here. Had the wheels stolen from one of my cars (parked in the driveway while I was armed to the teeth -- gots to sleep sometime). Seems like the heat was in the south side of town -- smart criminals went where the police weren't and had a field day. Amazing time, great TV. Chicago in '68 is right up there in my book. Like HST says... "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro".
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