The Untouchables with Robert Stack really should have been on the list, too, along with Combat!, at least the first few seasons.
I can think of some others I might have included, mostly from the '60s (e.g.,*** The Avengers***, Wild, Wild West).
Danger: UXB was butt-clenchingly suspenseful, and I love Foyle’s War and A Touch of Frost, too.
Would Midsomer Murders be eligible for the list?
Will And Grace, but no Babylon 5??
I wouldn’t put Babylon 5 in my top N best written shows - too much of the dialogue just goes CLANK, and that’s not all on the actors. Best plotted, maybe.
When I heard about this list, I said to myself, “If *Buffy *isn’t there, it ain’t worth squat”. I see she’s at #48. I’d have put it higher, but OK.
No Futurama? Bah.
I figure that if you look at the # of television shows that have been made, taking the top 100 of those is a pretty small percentage overall and there probably isn’t a huge gap between these. Basically, you could probably do a random shuffle of most of these (like mix up the top ten or twenty, or #20-50, etc) and still end up with a fairly accurate list.
I’m not seeing Will and Grace at all. It was popular but it was really a typical sitcom. If Will and Grace deserves a place on a list of best written shows, so do a hundred other series that didn’t make that list.
And this will probably upset some people but House doesn’t belong on that list either. It was a good concept and it was brilliantly performed but the actual writing on the series was pretty formulaic. It was an actors’ series not a writers’ series.
The list seems to confuse ‘good’ with ‘good writing’. There are many shows on that list that I really like but would in no way think of the writing as being the best 100 ever.
I could see your point in a lot of contexts, but this being the Writers Guild of America my inclination is to give them the benefit of the doubt a bit. Can you give an example of how you would differentiate “good” and “good writing” that they didn’t?
Here, these represent shows I really liked to thinking they were just OK. But none of them stand out as ‘well written’. I guess they did well with creating interesting characters, and yes, that’s good writing, but the actual dialogue was uneven. To make a top 100, I expect really solid writing at all times. No low points, no gimmicks, no rehashing of the same joke (I’m looking at you, Golden Girls). The general idea of these shows are memorable. The actual dialogue… not so much. IMO.
thirtysomething
Northern Exposure
Columbo
Rockford Files
Golden Girls
Family Ties
Writing is a lot more than just dialogue though. It’s creating deep characters, interesting storylines, pacing, etc.
I couldn’t disagree with you more regarding Columbo, which I would have in the top 20. It’s first season, it was nominated for 2 writing Emmy’s, with the writing credit to one of them to Stephen Bochco, who created 3 other shows on the list; he received a second nomination in the second season.
Needs more UK stuff, specifically Blackadder.
…and “Yes Minister”.
It is a list compiled by the WGA though, so I think it’s generous of them to include any non-US titles and I’m pleased to see the ones they have included.
I think they would have been better off just doing a list of American series. Adding a handful of British series lampshades the number of great series they left out. And offhand, I don’t think there was even a single Canadian or Australian series.
I’m glad to see The Golden Girls on the list and was looking for it. It probably does deserve to be down in the bottom half though, as much as I love it, a lot of the writing was just recycled jokes again and again. Seinfeld easily is one of the best written shows ever so that definitely deserves to be in the top 5 and am glad to see it there. Unfortunately I haven’t really seen very many tv shows at all so I can’t comment on most of them. Seems like a pretty good list overall. Really a shame Babylon 5 isn’t on there. I think it is easily one of the best written shows ever.
Putting Barney Miller at 76 should be a felony.
And The Wire (9), Breaking Bad (13), and The Daily Show (17) would all be in my top five.
Oh yeah, Get Smart (at 83) is also disappointing.
mmm
I definitely agree that The Sopranos should be ranked #1. And Cheers should be in the top 10. Not sure about Friends, though.
I just finished watching the first season of The Sopranos. (Yeah, I know.) It’s a good show, certainly, but number one of all time? No way. Does it get that much better in later seasons? When does it hit its peak?
Lots of early shows were neglected, but Max Shulman’s writing on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was outstanding. The best mystery as mystery show was the 70s version of Ellery Queen. Better Off Ted had brilliant scripts, and though it had ridiculously few episodes it wasn’t shorter than some of the others listed.
I’d agree with many of others you’ve named, including Blackadder, News Radio and Community as shows whose writing made them special. And if any British shows get included, you have to add The Avengers. But if you’re going that route, how is Deadwood as low as it is? No drama has ever had writing like Deadwood’s. Right now I’d put it 50 places higher than The Sopranos.
How many shows do you think have been made?