Top 10 TV Shows of All Time

catalogs ^ | July 6, 2010

[JoeProBono]

"Any top ten list is bound to be subjective, but this one has criteria: to make this list, a show must have longevity (Sports Night was great, but didn’t last), staying power (Three’s Company was funny, but hopelessly dated), strong writing (hopefully self-explanatory) and memorable moments (there’s a good reason that the final episode of M.A.S.H. was until very recently the most watched show in television history). Here are my choices, and let the debate begin."

[The Cajun]

And just where in the heck is Chester Goode in that picture?
I can see him right now running through town hollering "Mr. Dillon, Mr. Dillon, JoeProBono left me out of the dang picture" ;^)

[gov_bean_ counter]

As a 12 year old, I found Batman particularly interesting every time Cat Woman was tied up...

[massmike]

[JoeProBono]

[death2tyrants]

[FlingWingFlyer]

There ya go!

Death Valley Days w/Ronald Reagan

High Chaparrel

26 Men

Wagon Train

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon

Judge Roy Bean

Captain Gallent

Jungle Jim

Adventures in Paradise

Whirlybirds

[Semper Mark]

The Beverly Hillbillies

"I cain't believe we didn't make the top 10"

[Responsibility2nd]

The Simpsons... 464 episodes and counting...

Gunsmoke..... 635 Episodes

(I would have thought The Simpsons had more by now....)

[gov_bean_ counter]

Dad - "Where's Little Joe?"

Hoss - "Gone to town to get his ass kicked again."

[BluesDuke]

Did you know:

* Cheers had an old-time radio grandfather---co-creator James Burrows is the son of Abe Burrows, eventually a Broadway writing legend but once the co-creator (with star Ed Gardner) and original co-writer (with Gardner) of Duffy's Tavern, perhaps the first situation comedy (of sorts) centered around a downtown bar, albeit one that made Cheers resemble the pub in the Waldorf-Astoria, and a show that blueprinted just about any fabled television bar, whether recurring sketches (Jackie Gleason's famous Joe the Bartender sketches were practically Duffy's Tavern derivatives, right down to Frank Fontaine's Crazy Guggenheim being an explicit cop of Duffy's deceptive nitwit Finnegan) or full shows (including All in the Family's offspring, Archie Bunker's Place).

* M*A*S*H also could be called a Duffy's offspring---M*A*S*H mastermind Larry Gelbart got his comedy start writing for Duffy's Tavern . . . as a precocious teenager.

[JoeProBono]

Ronald Reagan on the set of Death Valley days

[gov_bean_ counter]

And a one-ah and a two-ah...

[RegulatorCountry]

Harry Caray was on Lawrence Welk? Holy cow, who knew, lol.

[JoeProBono]

[InvisibleChurch]

Though I don’t know, I think the television season was much longer in days of yore. I liked watching the beginning of Combat! starring Vic Morrow. Just once I wanted the bomb blasts to cover the entire screen.

[LayoutGuru2]

[Sto Zvirat]

Best shows on now:

Dexter

Breaking Bad

The IT Crowd

Weeds

Californication

Nurse Jackie

Graham Norton

None on the major networks, how sad is that?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Combat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat

[BluesDuke]

I'm surprised The Twilight Zone didn't make the list myself. I'm glad, though, that Gunsmoke didn't---the original radio show was ten times as good as its television offspring and probably one of the three most intelligently-written and intelligently-acted Westerns of either medium.

The others? Frontier Gentleman, and a dead heat between Fort Laramie---absolutely no relation to the eventual television hit Laramie, and starring Raymond Burr pre-Perry Mason---and the too-short-lived but brilliant James Stewart vehicle, The Six Shooter.

Bonanza may have been entertaining but it doesn't belong in the aforesaid league. (Come to think of it, neither did The Lone Ranger.) As if much of anything really does.

[death2tyrants]