The Best All-Time TV Show [vote for up to 10]

Star Trek franchise (mostly TOS & later seasons TNG)

Doctor Who (original & redo)

The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show

Life on Mars (BBC)

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Night Stalker (1972)

X-Files

Nova (PBS - any topic)

The Star Hustler (Star Gazer)

The Carol Burnett Show

(not in order, as that would change depending on mood)

We share tastes on these. I never saw any of your others.

Once they cancelled TOS I lost interest in Star Trek.

I rank(ed) NOVA in my Top Ten earlier in the thread. They rarely fail to deliver quality shows on subjects I find fascinating and important to know.

What’s been puzzling in the course of these TV show threads has been the failure to mention the James Burke Connections shows. His Day the Universe Changed (may not be the exact title) was mentioned but got left behind due to lack of mention support. Burke and Sagan were the main men back in the 80’s for science topics and amazing presentations of them.

Poll closes in less than 24 hours. Only six voters need to break 300 votes!

Loved Sagan and Burke. Don’t forget Timothy Ferris. From the late 80s thru the 90s and into the 00s as a science explainer for the interested masses. One of the best, imho.

Last call for votes. Two needed to top 300. You have less than half an hour to get in on the action.

Am a bit surprised that the Simpsons won. I guess its competition either has lost some luster over the passage of time (M.A.S.H.), has/had limited appeal (Buffy), or suffered a bad lapse in quality before the end (X-Files). Tho the Simpsons have been coasting on their (its?) reputation for 10 years or so now.

Not just won! Slaughtered.

Whatever follow-up polling may be done it will be to determine second best or second most popular or second most something.

Should The Simpsons be excluded from the next voting?

Should votes be limited (as much as an “honor system” allows) to five or less? One only?

Out of the 51 shows in this poll how many should go on to some Final Vote process?

How long should the other two polls stay open?

Here are the sorted results:



The Simpsons                    133 44.63% 
M*A*S*H                          79 26.51% 
Seinfeld                         76 25.50% 
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart  74 24.83% 
Monty Python's Flying Circus     71 23.83% 

Firefly                          69 23.15% 
The Twilight Zone                68 22.82%
The Wire                         63 21.14% 
The Sopranos                     63 21.14% 
Arrested Development             58 19.46% 

Cheers                           54 18.12% 
All In The Family                52 17.45% 
Fawlty Towers                    50 16.78% 
Buffy                            49 16.44%
Futurama                         48 16.11%

The West Wing                    47 15.77% 
Star Trek: TOS                   46 15.44% 
Doctor Who                       46 15.44% 
Star Trek: TNG                   44 14.77% 
NOVA                             43 14.43% 

Dick Van Dyke Show               41 13.76% 
WKRP In Cincinnati               39 13.09% 
Battlestar Galactica             38 12.75% 
Northern Exposure                37 12.42% 
Deadwood                         34 11.41% 

Lost                             33 11.07% 
Barney Miller                    33 11.07% 
Band of Brothers                 31 10.40% 
House                            31 10.40% 
The Bob Newhart Show             30 10.07% 

The Office (Original -- UK)      30 10.07% 
Six Feet Under                   29 9.73% 
Freaks & Geeks                   27 9.06%
Rome                             26 8.72% 
News Radio                       25 8.39% 

Whose Line Is It Anyway?         24 8.05% 
Breaking Bad                     23 7.72% 
Family Guy                       22 7.38% 
Good Eats                        22 7.38% 
Twin Peaks                       20 6.71% 

Angel                            19 6.38% 
The Shield                       19 6.38% 
Mad Men                          18 6.04% 
The Golden Girls                 17 5.70% 
ER                               15 5.03% 

I Claudius                       15 5.03% 
NCIS                             13 4.36% 
The Avengers                     11 3.69%  
My Name Is Earl                  11 3.69% 
Gilligan's Island                 9 3.02% 

Carnivale                         6 2.01% 

Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 298. This poll is closed 


*** BUMP ***

This thread is going on a year old and I’m curious how much tastes may have changed in that time and how many of the more recent shows may have moved up in people’s Top Ten since they voted last year.

I’m bumping this thread instead of starting a new one with links to all the support threads that went into this one in hopes that somebody else – with a different idea on how to construct it – might want to make a new poll, or collect data for a new poll or something along those lines.

Maybe just a little discussion on whether such a thing is worth the hassle.

By all means, have a new poll. I would’ve voted for:

The Simpsons
Seinfeld
ST:TNG
Monty Python
The West Wing
Twin Peaks
My Name is Earl
Whose Line is It Anyway?
ST:TOS
The Bob Newhart Show

And would’ve added:

Roseanne
Friends
ST: DS9
Reaper

Please excuse this “zombie reply” but I was reading over this old thread and spotted this. After 3+ years you get your wish, AuntiePam, and perhaps others may wish to see how much preliminary chatter there was to get to the latest version of this concept.