I don’t have a full list of ten- everyone else has pretty much covered the shows I would put on that list, anyway- but I do want to nominate one show in particular:
Chef!, but *only *the first two seasons. The third season is an abomination and must not be discussed further.
1: The Daily Show
2-10: The Colbert Report. Because he’s that awesome.
Without looking at others, so I’ve missed some
In no particular order:
Lost
Simpsons
South Park
Futurama
MASH
Cheers
Night Court
Seinfeld
Saturday Night Live
I realize that’s only 9. Obviously, my viewing habits are not very broad. But these represent shows that I pretty much consistently enjoy and which I think tend to be a cut above the rest of their genre for some reason or another.
I haven’t seen a lot of TV shows but I will throw X-Files out there.
Here’s the running tally on shows that have received 4 or more votes (I tried to be as accurate as possible but don’t sue me if I missed one):
The Simpsons (11)
The Sopranos (9)
Arrested Develpment (6)
Seinfeld (6)
All in the Family (5)
Lost (5)
MASH (5)
The Wire (5)
Babylon 5 (4)
Battlestar Galactica (4)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (4)
Cheers (4)
Frasier (4)
NYPD Blue (4)
Rome (4)
I Love Lucy [Needs no explanation]
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 [Also, needs no explanation.]
The Price is Right [Bob Barker and Rod Roddy era] We need a game show on the list. Price wins it.
Mythbusters We need some educational programing here and this show does it well, with humor.
Sesame Street - change of pace. Educational / A lot of jokes in the show Kids totally miss as well.
Masterpiece Theatre To complete the culture trifecta
Saturday Night Live - A Time capsule of current events, with humor.
Prison Break* [Seasons 1 and 2 only]
Beyond Belief**: Fact or Fiction
Law and Order***
** Strictly better than Twilight Zone, Outer limits, X-files, Fringe. The premise is similar, but has 5 stories per hour, and some of them are based on actual events. The end of the show asks you to judge, and then the answers are revealed.
*** Just slightly beats out Star Trek. Both shows offer up complex situations and a process to resolve them, just L&O has the bigger audience.
I would have liked to have picked a “News” type show, but I think the timing would fail if you had to pick a handful of episodes for archival purposes.
Veronica Mars
Freaks and Geeks
Undeclared
How I Met Your Mother
The Drew Carey Show
I Love Lucy
MythBusters
Firefly
The Office
Three’s Company
My list without perusing the thread first…
The West Wing (Far and away #1. Everything else is a distant second.)
Babylon 5 (Absolutely brilliant. I think I was 14 or 15 when B5 came on the air and it introduced me to long form storytelling on TV.)
Deadwood (I didn’t care for westerns until I gave this show a chance. Now I’ve seen almost every one Clint Eastwood’s been in a few others besides. I still hate that this show never had a real ending.)
Angel (I always preferred Angel to Buffy, but both shows were fantastic.)
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Batman: The Animated Series (As a children’s cartoon this show wasn’t ordered by ‘seasons’, but it had well over 100 episodes by the time it was finished so I’m including it. The only show from my childhood I can still watch today.)
Lost
24 (The only reason this makes the list is because of Kiefer Sutherland’s portrayal of Jack Bauer.)
Alias (Total guilty pleasure. And my favorite character on the show was Jack Bristow, portrayed by Victor Garber. Totally likable badass. )
The Simpsons
Honorable Mentions.
There are 3 shows that would have made the list if not for the 2 season restriction.
Firefly (Of course.)
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (Totally cheesy, but in the best way possible. Bruce was great in what was, in hindsight at least, an atypical role for him. And Julius Carry was great as his partner in bounty hunting. Also had quite possibly the best theme song in television history. 1 season, 25 episodes.)
Aeon Flux. (The original MTV animated show. Twisted, perverted, obtuse, pretentious… and completely awesome. The movie wasn’t bad but it didn’t do the show justice. Only had 13 episodes.)
Kung Fu
Dallas
All In The Famlly
Lost
SNL
Seinfeld
Twilight Zone
Star Trek
Operation Repo
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Also in no particular order:
The Simpsons
MST3K
MASH
Star Trek TOS
Star Trek Next Gen
Monty Python
Doctor Who
Late Night with David Letterman
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
Mythbusters
No Particular order
)Well some of my favourite shows (2 series Pride & Prejudice, I Claudius, Elizabeth R) won’t qualify as they were just 1 series. & I’m going to cheat & put Fawlty Towers at the top. It did last 2 series but this being renewed thing is more an American concept I think. From memory, they just realised they had run out of ideas & stopped. If only more shows would do the same
There will be a considerable gap to the rest & in no particular order
The Good Life (British not completely different American show)
Absolutely Fabulous
The Brittas Empire
3rd Rock From the Sun
The Amazing Race
Master Chef
Bugs Bunny
Beverly Hillbillies
A week of it/McPhail & Gadsby. Old NZ shows.
The Sopranos
The Wire
The West Wing
Seinfeld
South Park
Battlestar Galactica
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Shield
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Honorable mention: My So-Called Life and Firefly.
If we’re taloking American TV, I’d break it into comedy and drama categories:
Comedies:
Dramas:
Honorable mentions: Rome, 24, Lost, Cagney and Lacey, CSI (the original), NYPD Blue, Magnum PI, Star Trek: The Next Generation, MASH maybe, Kung Fu.
Highly subjective response