Posted on 06/03/2013 2:52:47 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Still reeling from last night's episode of Game of Thrones? Need to take a break and watch a different, but also well-written, TV show? Then the Writers Guild of America's list of the 101 best-written television series arrives just in the nick of time. Here's the top 10:
1.The Sopranos
2.Seinfeld
3.The Twilight Zone
4.All in the Family
5.M*A*S*H
6.The Mary Tyler Moore Show
7.Mad Men
8.Cheers
9.The Wire
10.The West Wing
Click for the complete list. (Game of Thrones doesn't show up until spot No. 40.)
The Sopranos, Twilight Zone (ORIGINAL SERIES ONLY) and Mad Men are good top tenners.
The rest are/were too political (MASHed, Gall in Family, Worst Wing) or too one-noted (Cheers, MTM, Seinfeld). Never saw the Wire, can’t comment.
I did not watch any of them either.
I’d put the early scripts of Gunsmoke up there against all comers, especially those by Kathleen Hite.
Date of Birth
17 June 1917, Wichita, Kansas, USA
Date of Death
18 February 1989
Mini Biography
Kathleen Hite began her long and successful career in radio and television following her graduation from the University of Wichita in 1938; she worked at Wichita radio station KANS from 1943-1950. She then moved to California and was hired as a secretary at CBS. She was eventually hired as the network’s first female staff writer. She won several awards in her career, including the 1964 Women in Communications Headliner Award; the 1969 Heritage Cowboy Hall of Fame Award; and a Humanitas Award.
IMDb Mini Biography By: rtvf
Trivia
In 1964, she received the Headliner Award from the National Professional Journalism Society.
In 1965, she became was a charter member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, OK.
She was made an honorary member of the Choctaw Tribe in 1965.
As I understand the Klinger character, he dressed and acted the way (Insane) he did, to get cashiered, but the colonel was on to his game and refused to send him home.
My family likes the first couple seasons best, because we don’t like his “new” assistant nearly as well as the original. But it’s a fantastic show, and very clean.
Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico is my favorite.
“Big Bang Theory”
Loved that Freaks and Geeks was mentioned. Married w/ Children should have been mentioned - even though the last half of the series (like Mash) was crap.
In my army, he would have had one hour to get back in uniform, or I'd have the MPs arrest him. And, no, he'd never get to go back to the States for a long, long time.
jupiter’s cock!
No Spartacus!
No Rome!
How about The Waltons? Still watch that show.
And Hill Street Blues should be a lot higher,
You mean Carl Reiner who played Allan Brady. Reiner was/is Rob Reiner’s father.
Just noticed Absolutely Fabulous was on the list. That was a show (like MWC) where I started laughing at the opening credits. Eddie and Patsy...and poor Saffron.
The longest running science fiction show in the history of American television, Stargate SG-1.
For the continuity alone.
I think that was Carl Reiner, Meathead’s father. I liked it when he hits his food then growls into the phone.
Where is “Little house on the prairie”? As corny and somewhat milquetoast the stories were, there was a strong moral base in every episode. This was a show that was not shy revere God.
I think The Shield should be top 10.
I would include The MTM Show.
Mad Men is a tedious bore that lost its edge after season one.
Twilight Zone has some great writers and belongs on the list (Richard Matheson’s contributions alone elevate the whole series on the strength of his penned episodes), but Rod Serling’s direct contributions are underwhelming. He’s very heavy handed and literal. His dialogue hurts - people talking at each other rather than a discourse. It’s probably in the top 50, but in spite of Serling, nor because of him.
The original Outer Limits was the superior show, and better written.
Second!!
1) Battlestar Galactica ("newer" series)
2) WKRP
3) Band of Brothers
4) The Simpsons
5) Jericho (didn't make the list)
6) Lock n' Load with R. Lee Ermey
7) Lonesome Dove
8) Gunsmoke
9) King of the Hill
10) The Muppet Show
Anyone even slightly associated with any Aaron Sorkin, Stephen Bochco or Norman Lear (except for Sanford and Son) production should be forced to go on national TV and apologize for the (usually Leftist) drivel they helped spew forth on the American public. Anyone refusing to apologize should then be loaded into a very leaky boat, along with Jack Black, Wil Farrell and Tom Green, given a chum bath, then set adrift in the Straits of Florida during shark migration. JMNSHO.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Yes, one in the same.
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