*Carol Burnett Show
Daily Show
Dick Van Dyke
Frazier
House
Jeopardy!
Monk
Outer Limits
Star Trek: TNG
Twilight Zone
*
Combat and Tour of Duty were terrific shows.
Red Dwarf
At this point 33 individual posters have helped to build a list of 135 unique shows.
When this thread goes to the next page, I’m going to ask that this thread be closed. As soon as that’s been done I will set up as many polls as it will take for all entries to be voted on in 20-25 item subpolls. The top 5-10 results in each of the subpolls will be combined into a final poll for the sake of determining the Top Show as voted by Dopers.
The polls will be open to all Dopers, even if they didn’t contribute names to be considered. But only the shows in this thread will be used for the voting.
Only shows contributed by posters who haven’t already posted will be added to the list, so if you see that a favorite show of yours hasn’t already been mentioned, and you haven’t already posted to this thread, go ahead and list it (or them) between now and the next page.
Thanks!
My personal top 5 (in no particular order):
The Wire
West Wing
Gilmore Girls
Friday Night Lights
and maybe
Lost (depending on the ending of the show)
After some more thought on the issues, here’s my current thinking.
The 136 shows that have been mentioned so far break down into these groups:
88 mentioned only once
22 mentioned twice
26 mentioned three or more times
I’m proposing to break the 88 into four groups of 22 each with each group getting its own preliminary poll thread.
The top five from each of those polls will go with the other 48 (2 and up) shows to make a total of 68 finalists.
Those 68 will be split into two polls of 34 each.
The final 10 in those two will go together to make a Top 20 shows poll.
The results of that Final Poll will stand as the
Straight Dope Top TV Shows of All Time.
Each poll will run one week until the final poll, which will run a month.
Feedback?
Fawlty Towers
The Games
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Ripping Yarns
涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
The Outer Limits (the original)
MASH*
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
WKRP in Cincinnati
Firefly
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Get Smart
Hill Street Blues
Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
Late Night & The Late Show with David Letterman
Guilty Pleasures:
Gilligan’s Island
Lost in Space
I have decided against the involved preliminary polls to determine the Top Show.
I will continue to monitor this thread for a while longer – depending on its interest – and to maintain a list of shows that have more than a few votes for Best Show or Favorite Show or whatever.
If and when the list is convincingly down to a Top X-number of shows, when a poll might really detemine something this thread wouldn’t, I’ll reconsider the poll idea.
If discussion would help, let’s do it here.
The Bob Newhart Show
MASH
Cheers
The Simpsons
Numb3rs
Good Eats
America’s Test Kitchen
Arrested Development
Howdy Doody
Captain Midnight
77 Sunset Strip
Maverick
The Rogues
Jonny Quest
Ghoulardi
All in the Family
Barnie Miller
MNF with Meredith and Cosell
Cheers (Diane, not Rebecca)
I, Claudius (I guess that’s actually Masterpiece Theater, but this stands out)
Doctor Who (the old ones)
Good Neighbors
Monty Python
Seinfeld
Buffy
NCIS
Bones
Also:
Avengers
Dick Van Dyke
And Zorro. (Disney)
Have I killed this thread dead enough yet.
X-files
Sopranos
Buffy
Arrested Development
Battlestar Galactica (the second one, of course)
Seinfeld
…and first mention I think for Venture Brothers. Surely I am not the only one watching?
Okay, I deliberately have not peeked at earlier responses:
- The Professionals
- As Time Goes By
3.Callan - The Avengers
- The Sweeney
- Jungle Jim
- Gilligans Island
- F Troop
- McKenzies Raiders
10.Father Dear Father
These are in no order. I tried to remember the shows I liked as a child despite artistic merit.
Criminal Minds
NCIS
Bones
Family Guy
NYPD Blue
Cold Case Files
My Name Is EARL
Forensic Files
Flip This House
Masterpiece Theatre
Vicar Of Dibley
A&E Literary Classics
Unsolved Mysteries
The Golden Girls
3’s Company
Gilligan’s Island
Hogans Heroes
The Big Valley
Archie Bunker
Good Times
Sanford And Son
Perry Mason
Welcome Back Kotter
Not looking but they’re probably all picked already:
Top 5 Dramas:
- The Wire
- Rome
- Battlestar Galactica (remake)
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- House
Top 5 Comedies:
- The Simpsons
- Spongebob Squarepants
- Scrubs
- Family Guy
- All In The Family
If anybody wants to take the data from this thread and build a poll from it, I don’t have a problem with it.
As a summary of those shows mentioned at least twice we have:
=================================
As of Post #57
All In the Family (4)
Angel (3)
Arrested Development (5)
The Avengers (4)
Band of Brothers (2)
Barney Miller (3)
Battlestar Galactica (4)
The Bob Newhart Show (2)
Bones (2)
Breaking Bad (3)
Buffy (8)
Carnivale (3)
Cheers (3)
Cosmos (2)
Coupling (2)
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart (2)
Deadwood (10)
Dick Van Dyke Show (3)
Doctor Who (3)
ER (3)
Family Guy (3)
Fawlty Towers (4)
Firefly (4)
Freaks & Geeks (2)
Futurama (2)
Get Smart (2)
Gilligan’s Island (3)
Gilmore Girls (2)
The Golden Girls (2)
Good Eats (2)
House (4)
I Claudius (2)
Jeopardy! (2)
Late Night With David Letterman (2)
Lost (4)
Mad Men (5)
MAS*H (4)
Monday Night Football (2)
Monk (2)
Monty Python’s Flying Circus (4)
My Name is Earl (3)
NCIS (3)
News Radio (2)
Northern Exposure (4)
Nova (4)
NYPD Blue (2)
The Office (original) (UK) (3)
Outer Limits (2)
Rome (5)
Sanford and Son (2)
Seinfeld (7)
The Simpsons (9)
Six Feet Under (3)
The Sopranos (5)
Star Trek (original) (6)
Star Trek: TNG (6)
Taxi (2)
3rd Rock from the Sun (2)
30 Rock (2)
The Twilight Zone (3)
Twin Peaks (3)
The West Wing (4)
The Wire (9)
WKRP in Cincinnati (3)
The X-Files (2)
In order:
Deadwood – The only flawless television I’ve ever seen. Nothing comes close.
The Sopranos
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
QI
Band Of Brothers
Family Guy
The Shield
Firefly
Good Eats
I’ve grouped mine as best as I can, but can’t rank them further so I’ve opted for alphabetically within each group.
Top 1-5
Band of Brothers
Homicide Life on the Street
The Shield
The Sopranos
The Wire
Top 6-10
In Treatment
Louis Theroux’s documentaries
Mad Men
Rome
Sons of Anarchy
Top 11-15
Breaking Bad
Generation Kill
Six Feet Under
Spooks
Weeds
Top 16-20
Brotherhood
Dexter
Freaks & Geeks
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Top Gear