Posted on 02/15/2008 2:39:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
With television writers – presumably the brains of the whole operation – going back to work after their four-month strike, it seemed like the perfect question to ask: What are the smartest TV series of all time? Star Trek? Hill St. Blues? Taxi? West Wing? Boy Meets World? Fancast posed the question to Jim Werdell, Chairman of MENSA International, the worldwide organization for “people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2 % of the population.” In addition to a soaring intellect, the 63-year-old retired Northern California government official enjoys his TV. Werdell keeps his set on as he tackles daily MENSA duties on his computer, estimating that time about 10 hours of background listening. “I’m actually watching and paying attention about five to six hours a day,” he says. Like his IQ, that’s still way more than the 170 minutes a day the average American spends watching TV. With those qualifications (MENSA member for 29 years, 12 years on the board of directors of MENSA America, and IQ of – well, “we don’t talk about that,” says Werdell), he seemed the perfect individual to ask for a list of the 10 Smartest TV Shows of All Time, a task he studiously and seriously took on. “It was difficult,” explains Werdell. “There were programs that were good in their time, but the way shows are made today has improved.”
Werdell says the smartest shows he currently watches include CSI: New York, Law & Order: SVU, House, Stargate SG-1, NCIS and Numb3rs. But for the ultimate list of Smartest All Time shows, he ventured beyond his personal viewing habits. As he says, “I was a Star Trek fan. It was on the original list. It was groundbreaking, no question. But the follow-up, Next Generation, were better programs than the original, in my opinion, and smarter.” “I had a number of shows in that situation,” he adds. His criteria?
“They weren’t pure comedy, mystery or action,” he says. “They tended to be shows that dealt with issues in the world, and from my perspective that’s considered smart. Some sitcoms reach a higher level of intellect than others, and you can say the same about some of the dramas. The stories may be cliché, but the characters and dialogue are smarter.”
Finally, continues Werdell, “after much thought – well, a bit of thought anyway – here are my selections for the top 10 Smartest TV Shows of All Time:” Top ten smartest shows of all time (in no particular order): 1. M*A*S*H – It had smart repartee and was so much more than a comedy. 2. Cosmos (with Carl Sagan) – Sagan was able to communicate something extremely complicated to the layman and do it well, and that’s unusual for a scientist at his level. 3. CSI -- The way they use science to solve their programs is intriguing to viewers. 4. House – Again, it’s high level type of show; it’s the personality that makes it a winner, plus it deals with science. 5. West Wing – you had to pay attention to stay up with it. The repartee was fast and furious and you needed a fairly high level intelligence to keep up with it. 6. Boston Legal – It’s primarily because of the characters. The story lines are okay, but the characters are incredible and the writers give them great dialogue. 7. All in the Family – The show dealt with social issues before its time and was on the forefront of trying to show people’s feelings, beliefs and the complexities of personality, in both a serious and comedic way. 8. Frasier – The repartee was sensational; the main characters were very good. Even though they portrayed people who were likely of high intelligence, they also showed their weaknesses. 9. Mad About You – It’s a personal favorite, I loved the characters and the back and forth. It was very smart. 10. Jeopardy – It’s about the only game show that really tries to test people’s intelligence. There’s very little luck involved, and there are few game shows like that. I don’t watch it all that much honestly, but from what I’ve seen it tests more than knowledge, it tests intelligence too.
Yup.
Cheers!
Green Acres, great show. Same guys who did The Beverly Hillbillys.
“What do you think?”
This guy may have a high IQ, but he obviously is a flaming liberal.
Different source and slightly different article, but thanks for keeping me on the straight & narrow.
Does MENSA pick its highest IQ member to be Chairman? No? Maybe some other basis such as nobody else wants the job.
I find the Law & Order shows to be incredibly dumb, cliche, and bad acting to boot.
However...hubby is a Mariska fan - so the SVU show gets regular play at our house.
“SpongeBob Squarepants.
......with the original Looney Tunes a close second.”
agreed.
The Prisoner.
Be seeing you.
I used to put SpongeBob in second place, until the time I saw the “Fine Dining” episode. The turning point was the line:
“You can’t fire me! We don’t even exist. We’re just a clever visual metaphor for the abstract concept of thought.”
That statement alone is by far funnier than anything ever spouted on a Norman Lear production or MASH and opens a door to metaphysical thinking that Carl Sagan’s doctrinaire “science” could never comprehend.
The MENSA Chair should be retitled “The MENSA Maroon.”
(Leans on a tree and chomps a carrot.)
LOL!
It’s been awhile since I’ve had a Spongebob fix. We had episodes on tape laying around that the kids seem to have temporarily misplaced.
Everytime I watched it I thought to myself...”whoever is coming up with this stuff is one of those highly intelligent folks on the brink of insanity”
My hubby is never happier than when Loony Toons is on -especially when the martian is on...
“I’m going to blow up the earth. It obstructs my view of Venus”
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