In no particular order
- Buffy
- Angel
- The West Wing
- The Bob Newhart Show
- Taxi
- Northern Exposure
- Murphy Brown
- Late Night With David Letterman
- The Daily Show With John Stewart
10 C-SPAN’s Booknotes with Brian Lamb
If we were to stop right now and let the shows with multiple mentions determine what went into a poll, we’d have this list:
Arrested Development (2)
Battlestar Galactica (2)
Buffy (4)
Carnivale (2)
Cosmos (2)
Coupling (2)
Deadwood (5)
Doctor Who (2)
ER (2)
Firefly (3)
Futurama (2)
House (2)
Mad Men (4)
M*A*S*H (2)
Monty Python's Flying Circus (2)
Northern Exposure (3)
Nova (3)
The Office (UK) (2)
Seinfeld (3)
The Simpsons (4)
Six Feet Under (2)
Star Trek (original) (4)
Star Trek: TNG (4)
Twin Peaks (3)
The West Wing (2)
The Wire (4)
I’m not suggesting that we stop here, but I am suggesting that those who post after this point look over shows already mentioned (not on this list) to see if your vote would elevate one to this list. If not, post away and I’ll keep collecting names into my summary file.
I suggest that those who have already posted not post again.
The objective, as hinted at in the OP, is to develop a list of likely candidates for a poll. I’d hope the poll would be 30 or fewer shows.
The Wire
Mad Men
Breaking Bad
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Deadwood
Rome
Carnivale
The Sopranos
The Office
Supernatural
My Name Is Earl
I’m counting this as the USA version. If you meant the UK version please let me know.
Buffy
Angel
Charmed
Simpsons
Family Guy
The Golden Girls
Simpsons
The Jeffersons
Sanford and Son
JON, not JOHN :smack:
Thanks. I didn’t catch it myself. Fixed it in the summary file.
Top five, in order:
Deadwood
The Sopranos
Rome
The Office(UK)
Freaks and Geeks
And I’ve never seen it, but I understand that a whole hell of a lot of people consider The Wire to be TV drama’s absolute finest hour. Needless to say, I’m quite excited to start watching it.
ETA: Some honorable mentions: Breaking Bad, Lost, All In the Family, 60 Minutes, Jeopardy!, Family Feud, Two Fat Ladies.
*** ATTENTION POSTERS ***
I have started a separate thread Some Issues with Cafe Society Polls where we can discuss methods for dealing with this large number of candidate shows in a poll or polls. Please contribute ideas if you have some – in that thread. Thanks.
Deadwood
Northern Exposure
NCIS
Keen Eddie
The West Wing
Older series:
The Twilight Zone
Alfred Hitchcock
The Avengers
Mission: Impossible
Star Trek
Have Gun, Will Travel
Wanted: Dead or Alive
Barney Miller
WKRP in Cincinatti
Taxi
Bob Newhart (the first one)
Fawlty Towers
Absolutely Fabulous
Newer series:
Deadwood
Six Feet Under
Rome
Band of Brothers (mini series, does that count?)
Seinfeld
The Planet
Nova
Antiques Roadshow
All time favourites
Fawlty Towers
The Good Life (the Brit one, not an awful American show with the same name)
3rd Rock From the Sun
I Claudius
Pride & Prejudice (the Colin Firth version, althugh I enjoyed an earlier version as well)
Can I give an honourable mention to NZ show Outrageous Fortune?
- The Wire
- Arrested Development
- The Sopranos
- Seinfeld
- The Shield
- NewsRadio
- Deadwood
- Breaking Bad
- Soap
- 30 Rock
- Lost
These 42 shows have been mentioned more than once. Lacking other guidance, I would make the poll on these if we were to stop now.
If you haven’t already posted, see if there are others already mentioned (not on this list) that you can endorse.
As of Post #34
Angel (3)
Arrested Development (3)
The Avengers (2)
Band of Brothers (2)
Barney Miller (2)
Battlestar Galactica (2)
Breaking Bad (3)
Buffy (6)
Carnivale (3)
Cosmos (2)
Coupling (2)
Deadwood (10)
Doctor Who (2)
ER (2)
Fawlty Towers (2)
Firefly (3)
Freaks & Geeks (2)
Futurama (2)
House (2)
Lost (3)
Mad Men (5)
M*A*S*H (2)
Monty Python's Flying Circus (2)
My Name is Earl (2)
News Radio (2)
Northern Exposure (4)
Nova (4)
The Office (original) (UK) (3)
Rome (4)
Seinfeld (5)
The Simpsons (6)
Six Feet Under (3)
The Sopranos (4)
Star Trek (original) (5)
Star Trek: TNG (4)
Taxi (2)
3rd Rock from the Sun (2)
30 Rock (2)
Twin Peaks (3)
The West Wing (3)
The Wire (7)
WKRP in Cincinnati (2)
Am I the only person with any love for Twilight Zone or Mission: Impossible? I’d also like to add The Man From UNCLE. Solo and Kuryakin rocked, man.
Gotcha covered, Bubba. I saw Illya in Coming Home (1997)lately. Boy’s shriveling up. Loved him in The Great Escape.
- Prisoner (known as Prisoner: Cell Block H outside Australia)
- Fawlty Towers
- The Simpsons
- *Dick Van Dyke Show *
- King Of Queens
(Note: if Big Bang Theory keeps up it’s quality, it’ll move into my personal 5th place)
Top 5? Wow, talk about limiting…
- The Fugitive
- The Twilight Zone
- The Prisoner
- Wojeck
- Combat!
And to round it out to ten, just because I want to:
6. Tour of Duty
7. Tales of the Gold Monkey (hey, I liked it!)
8. Hawaii Five-O
9. China Beach
10. ER
Chefguy, how could I forget TZ. It was my dad’s and I beloved half hour together, watching it in reruns my parents’ bedroom, while my mom and sisters and brother watched sitcoms in the living room. I miss my dad!