Best TV series of all time, ranked

Cafe Society
41

Murder One (first season, of course) *
ST:TNG
West Wing / Babylon 5 / CSI **

  • Mr ReadMore says that in our 20+ years together, this is the only show during which he knew not to try to converse with me. (Wow…*that * sounded stilted. Sorry.) He’d get a blank stare and a “Uhmm. I’m watching Murder One.”

** I travel a lot and just this year am catching up on all three of these.

42

Non-comedy list:

Deadwood
Firefly
The Sopranos
Star Trek (just because of the cultural change it spawned)
24
Band of Brothers
Adding in Comedies:

  1. The Simpsons
  2. MAS*H
  3. The Sopranos
  4. Firefly
  5. Deadwood
  6. Star Trek
  7. 24
  8. Band of Brothers
  9. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  10. The Bob Newhart Show

I can’t help but feel that many older shows are getting short shrift here just because they’ve fallen out of our public consciousness. So let’s not forget:

The Honeymooners
I Love Lucy

Bonanza
The Waltons
WKRP in Cincinnatti
Barney Miller
All in the Family

Then there are the variety shows:

The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
Saturday Night Live
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Carol Burnett Show
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Late Night with Conan O’Brien
Late Night with David Letterman
The Tonight Show with Jack Paar

All of these shows have pretty much achieved iconic status.