The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that we are in a golden age of television shows. The past five years or so, there has been a great number of high quality shows. Several of them I definitely regard as the best ever. Just a few examples off the top of my head:
[ul]
[li]The Office, UK & US[/li][li]Extras[/li][li]Arrested Development[/li][li]Dexter[/li][li]The Wire[/li][li]Futurama[/li][li]Sopranos[/li][li]Angels in America[/li][li]Sex and the City[/li][li]Rome[/li][li]Desperate Housewives[/li][li]Freaks and Geeks[/li][li]Deadwood[/li][/ul]
I mean, certainly good shows it’s come around every now and then, but lately it’s been pretty intense.
[ul]
[li]Lost[/li][li]House MD[/li][li]Mythbusters[/li][/ul]
How old are you?
(I realize that I have not felt the need to watch a single episode of any of the shows mentioned.)
Young enough to be ridiculed for making a thread like this, for sure.
I would have to sit back and really look at it to decide, but I’m guessing that this isn’t really true. Just off the top of my head I can retort that the 90’s had Seinfeld, Friends, ER (when it was still great), Law & Order (ditto), X-Files, Simpsons, Fraiser, Oz, Sex and the City, NYPD Blue, Home Improvement, Newsradio, 90210, Twin Peaks and a bunch of other solid stuff. This was before cable channels really started producing their own stuff too, making the pool of choices somewhat narrower.
One fact to consider is that Reality TV has played a huge role in this. TV today is on balance just as bad as it ever was (maybe worse), it’s just that scripted TV shows have to be better to get on the air. They must command huge audiences to justify the cost and bad shows are probably less likely to get thrown onto TV just to fill a prized network timeslot.
Show for show, I wager that there are more good ones today just due to the more competitive environment with more networks in the game. But if you include all the crap that’s filling the exponentially growing air time it would bring the overall average WAY down.
That’s all the proof you need 
The 2000s brought us a massive influx of “reality” shows.
Horrible “reality” shows.
On that alone I consider the 2000s to be an abomination of television, though I did love Futurama 
That’s all the proof you need that he is wrong!
I’d say we are certainly living in a golden age of television drama, at any rate. TV shows with long, meaningful story arcs, particularly on premium cable, have reached IMHO a zenith. Of course there’s a ton of crap on TV, but isn’t there always?
I’m not convinced that **DrFidelius **was ridiculing you, but perhaps only asking as a way to compare his view to yours. The written medium makes it tough to judge inflection. (though I grant you that the question often has negative connotations.)
Although I like some of the shows you mentioned, I can’t say that this has been a great decade (IMO) so far.
I feel like a lot of it is due to non network channels, like HBO or Showtime. A lot of their episodes aren’t treated like just TV episodes, but rather like mini movies. Some of the shots, you could never get for just a plain sitcom. They’re really special in that regard.
That wasn’t my implication. Though since I am only 24, I haven’t actually experienced many ‘decades’ of tv shows. I have however seen some of the classics of yesterday and think that the modern range stands up very well.
If there is anything that today’s TV doesn’t deliver though, it’s good cartoons.
Just this morning I was commenting on how much better was the Saturday mornings of my 1980’s youth (what with their Smurfs and Snorks).
That same decade gave us, among others (ahem, Who’s The Boss):
Night Court
Cheers
The Cosby Show
Moonlighting
Benson
The A-Team
ALF (Fine, I admit it is a guilty pleasure)
Dallas
Family Ties
Barney Miller
I’m sure there are others, but that’s a good selection, IMHO
Depends on how you define a TV show. You listed a lot of mini-series, which are an entirely different breed (it’s not TV, it’s HBO). They typically run 30 minutes to an hour with no commercial breaks to consider. They also have finite, defined story arcs that are planned far in advance, and no one episode is self contained. Angels in America played on TV, but I wouldn’t call it a “TV show.”
Overall, I’d say the 00’s have been pretty crappy. With few exceptions, sitcoms have been dead for like 10 years. What did this decade bring us? The reality show? The xtreme gameshow? Talent competitions? Televised poker? Crap. Crap. Crap.
I’m in my mid-twenties for what it’s worth.
Add to that list:
- Doogie Houser, MD
- MacGyver
- Star Trek: TNG
- Married, With Children
- Perfect Strangers
- The Wonder Years
- Full House (shut up, I liked it as a kid)
- Family Matters (ditto)
I think the HBO line-up has produced some of the best television ever, with the absolute stand-out being The Wire, which is as good as anything I’ve ever seen or read. The best of television in earlier eras simply fall flat by comparison, although this only applies to the dramatic scripted sphere. Sitcoms and the like seem to be floating along like before (and I’ve personally seen no live-action sitcom top the 90’s Seinfeld). As for reality TV shows, I’ve never really been into them, so I can’t comment.
Urkel!
Okay, I’m 26 and I grew up watching old sitcoms.
So sure Family Matters and Full House are great sitcoms, but…
Every Saturday morning there would be some station playing old episodes of The Three Stooges, Lassie, or The Little Rascals.
I had a fantastic time watching those old rebroadcasts.
Good point.
There is so much unmitigated garbage on TV now, it isn’t even funny. Especially with the “every two-bit star from the past twenty years gets a reality show” and televised card games. If you’re watching that shit, go out and do some community service for penance.
Also, I think The Sopranos first aired in the 1990s, did it not?
I’d also like to know what metric earns Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City “best” honors… 
I haven’t seen too much of Desperate Housewives, actually. But I honestly do find Sex and the City to be memorable and have plenty of clever dialogue. It also broke a lot of ground when it was new.
Here are some conciderations for the 1980’s:
[ul]
[li]Black Adder[/li][li]The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes[/li][li]Yes, Minister[/li][li]Cheers[/li][li]Murder, she wrote[/li][li]Brideshead Revisited[/li][/ul]
Exactly.
Back when I was in my early-to-mid twenties, television had *great * shows on.
A couple of decades later, I have trouble finding anything on that isn’t pandering to kids under thirty. Very little on today worth a grown-up’s attention.