TV Guide Magazine's 60 Best Series of All Time

TV Guide ^ | Dec 23, 2013 | Bruce Fretts and Matt Roush

[Leaning Right]

So many golden ages, so much brilliance from which to choose. In culling from the "60 Greatest" lists we've compiled during our 60th-anniversary year, we shook things up, blending drama, comedy and other genres to salute the shows with the biggest cultural impact and most enduring influence.

[DAC21]

Everyone Loves Raymond way down at No. 60, and Frasier not to be found. Joke of a list

[Yardstick]

Well, yeah, Ren could be abrasive. He was sort of an over the top Ricky Ricardo to Stimpy’s Lucy. But that was all part of the schtick and Ren almost always wound up being contrite. Plus Stimpy was shielded by his nearly invincible obtuseness.

[Albion Wilde]

I agree with Seinfeld, All in the Famliy and Twilight Zone, although not Seinfeld near the top. I really disagree with MASH, Breaking Bad and Mary Tyler Moore show, but the latter probably has a great many fans. Here are some that should have been on the list.

Frasier
Downton Abbey
Homicide: Life on the Streets
Hill Street Blues
Dallas (the original)
Andy Griffith Show
Lassie
ER
Golden Girls

[Albion Wilde]

Here's my favorite RuPaul image of all time: RuPaul as BOTH Barack and Michelle:

[Albion Wilde]

"Piece of garbage at number one. Knew it’d be a nonsense liberal list."

Not agreed. The Sopranos is best series I've ever seen. Also how is the Sopranos at number 1 liberal?

I think what we are dealing with here is the cultural revolution, how television went from entirely family-safe fare before 9 or 10 pm to blatant, in-your-face transgression 24/7, as it is today. If we were to do two lists, "Family" and "Adult" Themes, we'd see an entirely different outcome. Although these days, what people consider acceptable for children has also been politicized and forced downward into every dark corner.

I was transfixed by The Sopranos, but then I lived with the mob for 20 years and knew it to be very chillingly, soberingly realistic; and without a doubt it was extremely well done artistically. Was it good for society? Mainly as a number of horrifying examples of what not to do.

While Tony Soprano and his macho henchmen were old-school about possessing the women to whom they were unfaithful and their loathing of homosexuals unless they were relatives or friends, The Sopranos as a show was liberal in the sense that it 1) pushed the boundaries of acceptable television fare, and 2) depicted organized law-breaking and the placing of self-interest over any other consideration including the fate of the nation—things liberals whole-heartedly believe in. But liberals dress it up, perfume it, make it multicultural, and pass laws to they can get away with it.

[Albion Wilde]

I still remember the Episode where the Stripper Girlfriend was beat the death behind the Strip Club after she told gangster Boyfriend she was Pregnant. Slamming her head into the Guardrail was gruesome. That same Actress was shown having Sex with two guys, one a Policeman. That one Episode shocked me unlike any other they Filmed.

Apparently it shocked me so much I blocked out the sex with two guys part; although I saw it in syndication and maybe that had been edited out. But I certainly remember when Tony Soprano came over to that murderer's house and beat him to death in the kitchen.

[Albion Wilde]

I’m really aging myself here: Howdy Doody, Winky Dink and You, Super Circus, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Sky King, Captain Midnight, Fury, Andy’s Gang, Lassie...the original with Tommy Rettig, Buster Crabbe in Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, Topper, The Millionaire, My Little Margie, The Ann Sothern Show, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, The Cisco Kid, Your Show of Shows, Ed Sullivan, The Perry Como Show, Red Skeleton, The Ed Wynn Show, The Milton Berle Show, The Bob Cummings Show, Mr. Peepers, The Real McCoys, Our Miss Brooks...etc., etc., etc.

Our Miss Brooks, Cosmo, The Goldbergs, Mickey Mouse Club, American Bandstand, Loretta Young Show, Dinah Shore, Arthur Murray, Arthur Godfrey, Daniel Boone, [Tennessee Ernie] Ford Theatre... and how could they forget the Carol Burnett Show?

[Mears]

“and how could they forget the Carol Burnett Show? “
—

Because it was NOT a series,it was a variety show.

.

[mass55th]

Amazing huh? I guess the 50’s never existed with these people, yet it was the TV shows of the 50’s that were the pioneers for all future TV programming.

[M Kehoe]

Gun Smoke was on how many years?

5.56mm

[Drawsing]

It is so tempting to watch a lot of these shows that are well-written and funny and exciting etc...

But then so many of them, with a few good exceptions, contain the recurring theme that sex outside of marriage is harmless, funny and good with no real temporal or eternal consequences.

Generations of people now think it is strange and inadvisable to approach marriage as a virgin. I know I can’t blame it all on TV, but it doesn’t help the situation.