Wow, I am surprised how low Mad Men is. I am also kind of surprised that Roots isn’t on the list.
After 200 voters have expressed their opinions, with from 1 to 10 (perhaps even more) shows per vote, I suspect we have about as clear a picture as we are apt to see. For comparison’s sake here’s the way these 51 shows ranked after 113 voters had voted as compared with the current ranking:
Voters: 113 Voters: 200
The Simpsons 38 33.63% The Simpsons 84 42.00%
The Wire 27 23.89% M*A*S*H 53 26.50%
All In The Family 25 22.12% Seinfeld 51 25.50%
The Twilight Zone 24 21.24% Monty Python's Flying Circus 48 24.00%
M*A*S*H 24 21.24% The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 48 24.00%
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 24 21.24% The Wire 47 23.50%
Firefly 24 21.24% The Twilight Zone 45 22.50%
Cheers 23 20.35% Firefly 44 22.00%
Seinfeld 22 19.47% The Sopranos 42 21.00%
The Sopranos 22 19.47% Cheers 38 19.00%
Buffy 21 18.58% All In The Family 37 18.50%
Monty Python's Flying Circus 20 17.70% Buffy 34 17.00%
NOVA 17 15.04% The West Wing 34 17.00%
Dick Van Dyke Show 16 14.16% Fawlty Towers 34 17.00%
The West Wing 16 14.16% NOVA 34 17.00%
Arrested Development 15 13.27% Futurama 32 16.00%
Northern Exposure 15 13.27% Arrested Development 31 15.50%
WKRP In Cincinnati 14 12.39% Star Trek: TNG 30 15.00%
Star Trek: TNG 14 12.39% Star Trek: TOS 29 14.50%
Battlestar Galactica 14 12.39% Doctor Who 29 14.50%
Futurama 13 11.50% Battlestar Galactica 26 13.00%
Doctor Who 13 11.50% Dick Van Dyke Show 25 12.50%
Star Trek: TOS 13 11.50% Northern Exposure 25 12.50%
Six Feet Under 13 11.50% Six Feet Under 25 12.50%
Barney Miller 13 11.50% WKRP In Cincinnati 25 12.50%
The Bob Newhart Show 12 10.62% Lost 23 11.50%
Lost 12 10.62% Barney Miller 23 11.50%
Good Eats 12 10.62% Deadwood 22 11.00%
Fawlty Towers 11 9.73% Band of Brothers 22 11.00%
Whose Line Is It Anyway? 11 9.73% The Bob Newhart Show 22 11.00%
Band of Brothers 11 9.73% News Radio 18 9.00%
News Radio 11 9.73% Freaks & Geeks 16 8.00%
Deadwood 9 7.96% House 16 8.00%
House 9 7.96% Whose Line Is It Anyway? 16 8.00%
Freaks & Geeks 8 7.08% Breaking Bad 15 7.50%
Angel 8 7.08% The Office (Original -- UK) 15 7.50%
Twin Peaks 8 7.08% Rome 14 7.00%
The Shield 8 7.08% Family Guy 14 7.00%
The Golden Girls 8 7.08% Good Eats 14 7.00%
Breaking Bad 7 6.19% Twin Peaks 13 6.50%
The Office (Original -- UK) 6 5.31% ER 13 6.50%
Rome 6 5.31% Angel 12 6.00%
NCIS 6 5.31% The Shield 12 6.00%
Family Guy 5 4.42% Mad Men 11 5.50%
ER 5 4.42% The Golden Girls 9 4.50%
I Claudius 4 3.54% I Claudius 9 4.50%
The Avengers 3 2.65% NCIS 9 4.50%
Gilligan's Island 3 2.65% The Avengers 8 4.00%
Carnivale 3 2.65% My Name Is Earl 7 3.50%
Mad Men 2 1.77% Gilligan's Island 6 3.00%
My Name Is Earl 2 1.77% Carnivale 4 2.00%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 113 Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 200
If you’d like to see earlier postings of the snapshots I have taken you can see how things stood after 70, 113, 130, 140, 146, 164, and 181 votes.
To try to address the complaints of quite a few people who suggested that important shows weren’t included in the 51 on this poll, I have started Your Favorite All-Time TV Shows – Second Pass which has so far had 170 Views and 0 Replies.
I think my work here on this subject is done. Unless the poll draws another 100 voters, making it to 300, I won’t be posting any more summaries until the poll closes.
Many thanks to all who have participated along the way!
This will change the way the entire world (and some others) will think about TV from now on!
wink
A pox on the naysayers, I say (nayly). Z is trying to narrow down things from the previous thread.
“Favorite” and “Best” are two different things. I can recognize that artistically and stylistically “Mad Men” is quite an achievement, but after watching the first episode I had absolutely no interest in seeing more. Since no show in the history of television has ever appealed to everyone, I don’t think the fact that I didn’t like it is necessarily a flaw.
On the other hand, “Doctor Who” has huge, glaring, gaping flaws, but I love it more than I’ve loved a TV show in years.
On second (actually third) glance, I see you did ask “which one[s] would you watch” somewhere upthread, so that’s what I’ll vote for, even though they aren’t necessarily what I’d call the best.
Aside from the semantics and the joy of determining how and why we like things, I was hoping the “best” and/or “favorite” terminology would convey the idea that picking the shows that you “value” as “above the rest” would help in the selection process.
However you choose to select the “good shows” is okay by me. I’m mostly curious about the popularity of shows and the way that individual tastes coincide here at SDMB. If you don’t watch shows that you don’t value as “worth your time” then whether they are “good” or not is beside the point. And if all you care to watch is “trash” then go with that.
Let’s go with your
criterion.
If it helps to say it directly: this whole exercise is for fun and not for college credit!
As of this post 237 votes have been made for the 51 shows in this poll. The poll closes June 7.
There are now two additional polls for “Preferred TV Shows” to combine the notions of “favorite” and “best” and to allow those shows mentioned in Your Favorite All-Time TV Shows – Second Pass to be voted on as well.
Your Preferred TV Shows (Section B) – Vote for up to 10 has the 33 shows that were mentioned at least three times in that thread.
Your Preferred TV Shows (Section C) – Vote for up to 10 has the 40 shows that were mentioned twice.
Shows mentioned only once have been ignored.
Due to my failure to catch the redundancy, at least
– The Price is Right
– The Young Ones
are in both B and C polls. I apologize for those errors.
This post is just to notify you that you may want to vote in those polls, too.
How we deal with the results of the three polls will be worked out by the end of June.
This poll will close Monday. The voter count has stayed at 249 for days now. It may come to the point of dropping the bottom half of these shows and replacing them with the top half or third of the other two polls in order to have a Final Poll of TV Show Preferences.
It may stop here.
Do you have an opinion on whether this issue has already been beaten to death or if it needs a bit more play?
I’ve even toyed with the idea of a discussion thread, but am slow to start it. The only thing puzzling is that the View counts have been climbing steadily in spite of stagnant Vote counts.
Idle curiosity, perhaps?
I pop in because I can’t remember which polls I’ve voted in. 
But yeah, maybe it’s time to gather the top vote-getters from all the threads and combine them into one final thread.
I mentally set a criteria that maybe should be in the OP: consider the series at its peak. So I picked the Simpsons, West Wing and Northern Exposure even though they went to crap at some point in their runs.
And no MST3K?
Section C. Had 10 votes last I checked.
Okay. I was hoping there would be at least that much interest in a follow-up. To give this poll full benefit of running its own course, I will post the latest counts here on Sunday so any last-minute voting for shows in this one will still count.
My current idea is to cut off the shows in this poll below some x-percent and to include the ones in the other two polls with more votes than that – after those two polls have run their own course. End of June.
I’m open to a better idea. Got one?
Nevermind, list wasn’t in alphabetical order.
People with interest in the topic most likely voted in the first couple of weeks. Every time you bump it you get people who’ve already voted opening it again to see what has changed.
That makes the most sense.
What do y’all think about zapping the follow-up polls after another week? That could give enough warning that the things were getting close to decision time. I don’t really expect a lot of new votes anyway.
FWIW, the View counts have been rising in spite of no (or little) change in Post counts. Now and then the same Post count will produce some new votes so that you have (I have) to look at the poll itself to see if others may have voted. That bumps the View count, and if more than I are checking in, that can explain how the numbers are moving (or not).
It’s worth noting that the votes in this poll have jumped today after the post above saying how they hadn’t changed!
I voted for (in the order they’re on the list, from top to bottom):
Deadwood
The Sopranos
Rome
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
All in the Family
Breaking Bad
Fawlty Towers
Freeks & Geeks
The Office
The Twilight Zone
(And, coincidentally, the first two listed are, in order, my top two favorite TV shows of all time.)
I got a head start on Saturday so here’s the tally from all three polls at this hour:
<<< Original 51 -- "Section A" >>>
The Simpsons 120 43.96%
M*A*S*H 73 26.74%
Seinfeld 70 25.64%
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart 67 24.54%
Monty Python's Flying Circus 66 24.18%
Firefly 63 23.08%
The Wire 61 22.34%
The Twilight Zone 61 22.34%
The Sopranos 59 21.61%
Cheers 51 18.68%
Arrested Development 50 18.32%
All In The Family 49 17.95%
Fawlty Towers 49 17.95%
Futurama 47 17.22%
Buffy 44 16.12%
The West Wing 44 16.12%
Doctor Who 44 16.12%
Star Trek: TNG 40 14.65%
Star Trek: TOS 40 14.65%
NOVA 40 14.65%
Dick Van Dyke Show 37 13.55%
Battlestar Galactica 36 13.19%
WKRP In Cincinnati 36 13.19%
Northern Exposure 34 12.45%
Lost 32 11.72%
<< Half
Deadwood 30 10.99%
Band of Brothers 30 10.99%
Six Feet Under 28 10.26%
Barney Miller 28 10.26%
The Bob Newhart Show 28 10.26%
The Office (Original -- UK) 25 9.16%
Freaks & Geeks 23 8.42%
House 23 8.42%
Rome 22 8.06%
News Radio 22 8.06%
Whose Line Is It Anyway? 21 7.69%
Breaking Bad 20 7.33%
Twin Peaks 19 6.96%
Good Eats 18 6.59%
Mad Men 17 6.23%
Family Guy 17 6.23%
Angel 17 6.23%
The Shield 17 6.23%
ER 15 5.49%
The Golden Girls 15 5.49%
I Claudius 13 4.76%
NCIS 11 4.03%
The Avengers 10 3.66%
My Name Is Earl 10 3.66%
Gilligan's Island 7 2.56%
Carnivale 6 2.20%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 273
<<< "Section B" >>>
Jeopardy! 18 43.90%
Frasier 16 39.02%
The Muppet Show 15 36.59%
Big Bang Theory 15 36.59%
South Park 13 31.71%
Star Trek Deep Space Nine 13 31.71%
Taxi 13 31.71%
Dexter 12 29.27%
Law and Order (Brisco/Green) 11 26.83%
Carol Burnett Show 10 24.39%
Get Smart 10 24.39%
Roseanne 10 24.39%
The X-Files 9 21.95%
3rd Rock from the Sun 9 21.95%
Red Dwarf 9 21.95%
30 Rock 8 19.51%
Bones 8 19.51% << Half
The Cosby Show 7 17.07%
Antiques Roadshow 7 17.07%
The Mary Tyler Moore Show 7 17.07%
The Price is Right 7 17.07% ***
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In 7 17.07%
NYPD Blue 6 14.63%
Psych 6 14.63%
Monday Night Football 5 12.20%
The Young Ones 5 12.20% ***
Gilmore Girls 4 9.76%
Law And Order: Special Victims 4 9.76%
Criminal Minds 3 7.32%
I Love Lucy 3 7.32%
QI 2 4.88%
Yes (Prime) Minister 1 2.44%
Sanford and Son 1 2.44%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 41
<<< "Section C" >>>
Mythbusters 23 47.92%
Mystery Science Theater 3000 16 33.33%
Night Court 14 29.17%
The Office (USA) 14 29.17%
Bob Newhart (the first one) 13 27.08%
Friends 13 27.08%
Cosmos 10 20.83%
Hill Street Blues 10 20.83%
Soap 10 20.83%
Venture Brothers 10 20.83%
King of the Hill 9 18.75%
Monk 9 18.75%
Outer Limits 9 18.75%
Top Gear 9 18.75%
Murphy Brown 8 16.67%
The Price is Right 8 16.67% ***
60 Minutes 8 16.67%
The Young Ones 8 16.67% ***
Homicide 7 14.58%
Late Night With David Letterman 7 14.58%
<< Half
Mission: Impossible 7 14.58%
Sports Night 7 14.58%
Supernatural 7 14.58%
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 7 14.58%
Batman 6 12.50%
Generation Kill 5 10.42%
Justice League 5 10.42%
Keen Eddie 5 10.42%
My So-Called Life 4 8.33%
Sons of Anarchy 4 8.33%
Spaced 3 6.25%
Tales of the Gold Monkey 3 6.25%
Vicar Of Dibley 3 6.25%
Coupling 2 4.17%
The Middleman 2 4.17%
The Good Life (UK) 1 2.08%
Good Neighbors 1 2.08%
In Treatment 1 2.08%
The Fugitive 0 0%
Ghoulardi 0 0%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 48
The “***” markings are to call attention to the oversight I made to let those shows in both the B and C groups. We’ll have to adjust for their votes somehow.
I’m open to ideas about cut-off points and shows to be dropped from the Final Poll, if it comes to that.
I’ll post the results of the two follow-up polls in their threads.
That ought to get all three threads near the top of the CS page.
Let’s use this thread for further discussion, please.
But, you missed MY fave!
Well, I certainly hope so. I hope I pissed off everybody who has even read these threads the past three months.
On the plus side of it all (joking aside) I am getting Netflix to bring me up to speed on The Wire.
I even watched a complete episode of The Simpsons last week.
I don’t know what it will take for me to see the first episode of some of the others.
I feel so all alone in my appreciation of Carnivale, though.
Just for shits and giggles, NCB, what are your favorite ten shows?
My suggestion would be to take 1/2 to 2/3 of the first group, about a dozen from the second group, and the top three or four from the third group (which, after all, is a list of shows that didn’t make it into the list of shows that didn’t make it into the first list of shows). Adjust so that the total comes out to a nice round number.
I like it.