TV Workplaces Feud (ends November 19th)

Thread Games
21
  1. ER
  2. LA Law
  3. Chicago PD
  4. Abbot Elementary
  5. Murphy Brown
  6. West Wing
  7. 24
  8. It Takes a Thief
  9. Gomer Pyle
  10. 30 Rock

Man, I’m looking at my answers, and I’m old.

22

You and me both.

23

I intentionally tried to lean towards more recent series, thinking they would be more popular answers. This was clearly the wrong direction to take. I should have approached this feud with the strategy of “What shows in this genre were popular forty years ago?”

24

A few notes on scoring.

It’s always a bit of a judgement call when scoring these things. I don’t insist on complete accuracy.

Some cases are pretty much indisputable. Somebody posting Abbot Elementary instead Abbott Elementary or Gray’s Anatomy instead of Grey’s Anatomy. Or dropping punctuation or articles like LA Law or MASH or West Wing.

In some cases, I let context guide me. Gomer Pyle was a character in the series Gomer Pyle – USMC. But he was originally a character in The Andy Griffith Show. But I feel the person who wrote Gomer Pyle meant Gomer Pyle – USMC because that series is about military people. And I assume the person who wrote Mary Tyler Moore meant The Mary Tyler Moore Show, where she played a character who worked in a news station and not The Mary Tyler Moore Hour, where she did not.

But in cases where things are more ambiguous, I lean towards the literal.

So did the person who wrote NYPD mean NYPD Blue? Maybe. But there was a series titled NYPD. So I’m going to assume that’s what they meant. And were the people who wrote Lois & Clark and Superman and The Adventures of Superman all talking about the same series? Maybe. But there are separate series titled Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and The New Adventures of Superman and Adventures of Superman and Superman and Superman: The Animated Series and Superman & Lois and My Adventures with Superman - and I don’t feel I should overlap all of these possibilities.

25

FWIW, I intended “NYPD Blue” in post #4, not knowing there was a series named NYPD. But score as you wish.

Side note: MASH with the proper asterisks is very difficult to write in discourse. I was looking forward to seeing the attempts!

26

It ran for two seasons back in the sixties. Of course, as several people have pointed out, we seem to be leaning towards older shows in this feud. There was a twenty-four year gap between NYPD and NYPD Blue which is not that much longer than the twenty year gap between NYPD Blue and now.

Speaking of old shows, here are the current leaders in each category:

ER (1994-2009)
L.A. Law (1986-1994)
Hill Street Blues (1981-1987)
Abbott Elementary (2021-present) How did this one slip through?
Lou Grant (1977-1982)
The West Wing (1999-2006)
Get Smart (1965-1970)
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
MASH (1972-1983) and Gomer Pyle – USMC (1964-1969) - tied
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-1977)

The demographics of this board are disturbing.