Impossible to really compare a sitcom to an hourlong drama to a news show parody to a…
Having said that, I posed the question to myself as “If there had only ever been one TV show I ever saw in my life, which would I choose?” and I went with The Simpsons.
I’m always torn between The Sopranos and The Wire when I think about best ever. I lean toward The Sopranos. I just think it’s a little more cohesive and accessible.
Those two have some close competition from Deadwood and Breaking Bad in my book (I might have gone with Deadwood as best ever if they’d gotten a chance to get a couple more seasons).
If I see the words Breaking Bad together in a sentence one more time I will kill myself. Yeah I’m sure it’s a great show. I can’t watch it. Eff you and have a nice life. By the way it’s almost over. Ding dong the witch is dead.
I have to go with *Twilight Zone *(original). I know many of them seem like predictable clichés, but when they first aired (I’m old enough to remember) the series was groundbreaking for most tv viewers.
I am tempted to call your bluff, but because I’m a generally decent and moral human being, I’ll just call the show Bromine Barium. Of course, people will still be talking about Bromine Barium after it’s done, so you’ll be spending the rest of your life at risk of sudden Bromine Barium-induced suicide. You may be reduced to sticking your fingers in your ears and going “LALALALALALALALA” any time anyone starts to say, for example, “breakfast.” Which is probably a good call, since if they’re talking about breakfast, RJ Mitte’s amazing performance of renowned breakfast-eater Walter White, Jr. in Bromine Barium may be mentioned soon after.
Me, going for just “which was my favorite”–I picked Firefly. If I’d looked at this yesterday, or tomorrow, or a few hours for now, I might’ve picked Rome or The Wire or Deadwood or yes, maybe even Brea…, er, Bromine Barium. Picking one is just too hard.
View Poll Results: What is the Best TV Show of All Time?
This poll will close on 11-18-2013 at 12:06 PM
The Simpsons 5 10.00%
The Wire 5 10.00%
Doctor Who 5 10.00%
Breaking Bad 5 10.00%
Star Trek: TOS 4 8.00%
M*A*S*H 3 6.00%
The Sopranos 3 6.00%
Buffy 3 6.00%
Firefly 2 4.00%
Mad Men 2 4.00%
Seinfeld 1 2.00%
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 1 2.00%
The Twilight Zone 1 2.00%
All In The Family 1 2.00%
Fawlty Towers 1 2.00%
Futurama 1 2.00%
The West Wing 1 2.00%
Dick Van Dyke Show 1 2.00%
Deadwood 1 2.00%
Lost 1 2.00%
I Claudius 1 2.00%
My Name Is Earl 1 2.00%
OTHER -- Post and explain 1 2.00%
Voters: 50
I was waiting for 60 voters to appear but that’s slow to come.
So here’s how things are changing (1 vote and 0 votes omitted):
View Poll Results: What is the Best TV Show of All Time?
The Simpsons 5 10.00%
The Wire 5 10.00%
Doctor Who 5 10.00%
Breaking Bad 5 10.00%
Star Trek: TOS 4 8.00%
M*A*S*H 3 6.00%
The Sopranos 3 6.00%
Buffy 3 6.00%
Firefly 2 4.00%
Mad Men 2 4.00%
Voters: 50
===============================
Breaking Bad 7 11.86%
The Wire 6 10.17%
The Simpsons 5 8.47%
Doctor Who 5 8.47%
M*A*S*H 4 6.78%
The Sopranos 4 6.78%
Star Trek: TOS 4 6.78%
Buffy 3 5.08%
Seinfeld 2 3.39%
Firefly 2 3.39%
Dick Van Dyke Show 2 3.39%
Mad Men 2 3.39%
Voters: 59
It’s weird because I have the same thought, and I’m honestly not a huge crime show fan…just incidentally my two favorite shows of all time are based in the criminal world. I recently rewatched both The Wire and The Sopranos, I’ve seen The Wire 2-3 times all the way through but hadn’t watched The Sopranos since its original run. In that intervening time I had come to view The Wire as the best show ever made.
However, watching them both essentially back to back made me come out feeling the Sopranos was a better show overall. It told a more cohesive story, production values were better, acting was significantly better and even the characters were better fleshed out. The Wire by direct comparison, has a handful of really strong interesting characters but to a degree I think they suffer because Simon was trying to create archetypes of people he had known in real life Baltimore and because of that his characters come off seeming like a caricatures to a degree.
That being said, that’s only a criticism of The Wire versus The Sopranos. The Wire is still my second favorite show ever, and compared to most other shows it is extremely strong in everything I just criticized.
For awhile I considered Breaking Bad in the same category as The Wire and the Sopranos, but after rewatching those two I now feel I have to put Breaking Bad in a lower category. Still very, very good–and probably the most “intense” thing ever shown on television, but Breaking Bad is almost a cartoon (in a fun, enjoyable way) at several points which kind of undermine it a little bit.
It’s surprising how the same 25 shows (counting OTHER) out of 51 are the only ones getting votes. As long as there was a choice for picking more than one, some of these 0-vote shows did okay. But now that it’s just ONE vote, the cream is rising to the top.
View Poll Results: What is the Best TV Show of All Time?
This poll will close on 11-18-2013 at 12:06 PM
The Simpsons 9 12.50%
M*A*S*H 7 9.72%
Breaking Bad 7 9.72%
The Wire 6 8.33%
Doctor Who 6 8.33% 35
The Sopranos 5 6.94%
Star Trek: TOS 4 5.56%
Seinfeld 3 4.17%
Dick Van Dyke Show 3 4.17%
Buffy 3 4.17% 18
Firefly 2 2.78%
All In The Family 2 2.78%
Northern Exposure 2 2.78%
Mad Men 2 2.78%
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 1 1.39% 9
The Twilight Zone 1 1.39%
Fawlty Towers 1 1.39%
Futurama 1 1.39%
The West Wing 1 1.39%
Deadwood 1 1.39% 5
Lost 1 1.39%
Band of Brothers 1 1.39%
I Claudius 1 1.39%
My Name Is Earl 1 1.39% 4
OTHER -- Post and explain 1 1.39%
Voters: 72
No other show impacted me like The Wire. The Sopranos is a close second, but it loses points for its stupid non-ending. I’ve also had no desire to watch The Sopranos again, while I feel like I could watch The Wire over and over.
