Parents Television Council Announces Top 10 Best & Worst Shows For Family viewing

Each year, the Parents Television Council rates the best and the worst shows on primetime television on the seven major broadcast networks. The PTC Best and Worst list does not examine artistic quality. But it measures series' appropriateness for family audiences from a content perspective. The seven broadcast networks included in this listing are ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PAX, UPN and the WB. Primetime refers to 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. (ET/PT), when the largest television audience is available.

#1. Joan of Arcadia - CBS 8 p.m. ET/PT Friday – first season. Not only the best new series of the 2003-2004 season, Joan of Arcadia may be one of television's most pro-family shows. Joan Girardi has an unusual relationship with God, who appears to her in many different forms to give her guidance and instruction, thus enabling her to help those around her. Joan is not rewarded for her faith and obedience, but she is allowed to see how her actions touch the lives of those around her.

#2. Doc - PAX 8 p.m. Sunday – #2 last season. Doc is a fish-out-of-water story about a country doctor who moves to New York City and gets a job at a busy HMO. Dr. Clint Cassidy's homespun values and friendly disposition provide a striking contrast to the jaded and impersonal city environment, but he refuses to let the harsh world in which he lives harden him, or make him forget the values of kindness and compassion that were instilled in him as a child. Doc consistently reinforces family-friendly themes such as honesty, compassion, hope, and reconciliation.

#3. Sue Thomas F. B. Eye - PAX 9 p.m. Sunday – #3 last season. This series, from the creators of Doc, tells the inspiring true story of Sue Thomas, a deaf woman originally hired to work in fingerprint analysis at the FBI but soon tapped for work in surveillance because of her talent for reading lips. It is action-filled and suspenseful but never contains graphic or gratuitous violence, inappropriate sexual content, or foul language. Sue Thomas skillfully illustrates, without being mawkish or overly simplistic, the challenges faced by deaf persons working in the hearing world.

#4. Reba - WB 9 p.m. Friday – #7 last season. Country singer Reba McEntire stars as divorced mother Reba Hart. Her marriage ended when her husband Brock got his assistant, Barbara Jean, pregnant and her oldest daughter got pregnant while still in high school. Nevertheless, Reba contains pro-family themes. It is never suggested that Reba and Brock's divorce was easy on the family, and the consequences of the breakup of Reba's marriage and her daughter's unplanned pregnancy are still playing themselves out, but Reba manages to handle these issues responsibly, without resorting to cheap innuendo or foul language.

#5. 7th Heaven - WB 8 p.m. Monday – #4 last season. 7th Heaven has ranked on the Top 10 Best Shows for Families every year since it began in 1996. It also has also been one of the highest-rated shows on the WB network. The series contains no violence or foul language, and sexual content is dealt with very responsibly. That doesn't mean that 7th Heaven steers clear of tough issues. One episode from this season centered on a sister and brother who had been sexually abused by their father. The subject matter was handled sensitively without delving into graphic details of the abuse.

#6. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - ABC 8 p.m. Sunday – first season. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition shows the heights to which reality TV can aspire. This uplifting and inspiring program showcases charity and selflessness. Each week, carpenter Ty Pennington and a crew of designers, contractors, and workmen completely renovate the home of a deserving family.

#7. Everybody Loves Raymond - CBS 9 p.m. Monday –not ranked last season. Ray Barone tries desperately to keep everyone happy. But beneath all the quarrels and arguments, deep-seated love holds the family together. The family isn't always in perfect harmony, but their love for each other is obvious and the laughs abundant in this family sitcom.

#8. American Idol - Fox (air dates and times vary) – not ranked last season. In American Idol: The Search for a Superstar, hundreds of young men and women compete for the opportunity to become America's next singing sensation. A handful of young hopefuls make it to the final stages of the contest where judges Simon Cowell; ‘80s pop star and choreographer Paula Abdul; and music industry veteran Randy Jackson judge their performances and viewers at home decide who will advance and who will be eliminated. American Idol is an entertaining show that the entire family can enjoy because it focuses only on the surprisingly good performances turned in by talented young singers.

#9. American Dreams - NBC 8 p.m. Sunday – not ranked last season. American Dreams is a heartwarming, realistic portrayal of an American family living in 1960s Philadelphia. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the civil-rights movement, and American Bandstand, the Pryors find themselves directly affected by the turbulent times while struggling to cope with everyday life. As the characters experience love, loss, and an awakening to social injustice they learn, and in turn relay, some powerful lessons about life.

#10. Bernie Mac - Fox 8:30 p.m. Sunday – not ranked last season. Inspired by series star Bernie Mac's life, The Bernie Mac Show is a half-hour sitcom about a man with unique views on parenting. The Bernie Mac Show is different from many Fox shows in that it actually portrays strong family values. Although the series is occasionally marred by mild profanities and sexual innuendo, the overriding themes stress the importance of family.

#1. Everwood - WB 9 p.m. Monday – not ranked last season. Everwood gives every appearance of being a family drama, but it's nothing of the kind. What makes Everwood problematic is the careless and irresponsible treatment of sexual issues, especially when the teenaged characters are involved. Such content might be more excusable in a series that was intended for and marketed to adult audiences, but Everwood's reckless messages about sex without consequences are expressly targeted to impressionable teens.

#2. That ‘70s Show - Fox 8 p.m. Wednesday – not ranked last season. Set in a small Wisconsin town during the 1970s, That ‘70s Show follows a group of teens as they learn to deal with parents, sex, and drugs. Teen sex and drug use on this series are depicted as risk- and consequence-free. This season's storylines included Kelso getting a girl pregnant after a one-night stand and Donna walking in on Eric while he is masturbating in her bathroom.

#3. Fear Factor - NBC 8 p.m. Monday – #5 last season. Fear Factor continues to push the envelope with its disgusting and physically dangerous stunts. NBC touts Fear Factor as family-friendly, but it does not depict healthy competition; instead it depicts a new low in Americans' endless pursuit of money. Language continues to worsen, as does sexual innuendo, largely because more and more episodes center on scantily clad female contestants.

#4. Two and a Half Men - CBS 9:30 p.m. Monday – first season. Promiscuous jingle-writer Charlie's life is turned upside down when his divorced brother Alan and young nephew Jake move into his home. Charlie's overpowering libido, unfortunately, trumps any impulse to be a responsible role model to his young nephew. There are constant references to the steady stream of one-night stands parading in and out of Charlie's bedroom.

#5. C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation) - CBS 9 p.m. Thursday – #1 last season. C.S.I. takes distasteful story lines a step further by providing graphic depictions of decaying bodies, grisly crime scenes, dissections, flashbacks of brutal rapes and murders, and kinky and bizarre sexual fetishes. Such content would be bad enough at 10:00 p.m., but this series airs at 9:00 (8:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones), with reruns often airing during the Family Hour.

#6. The Surreal Life - WB 9 p.m. Thursday – not ranked last season. Six B-list celebrities share a house for a couple of weeks as cameras film their daily interactions. The executives at the WB made sure there would be plenty of salacious material by casting adult film star Ron Jeremy; former Baywatch babe Traci Bingham; and Real World party girl Trishelle Cannatella. Episodes featured blurred nudity and extreme language. Although The Surreal Life won't be returning to the WB next season, it isn't going away. VH1 picked-up the series.

#7. Girlfriends - UPN 9 p.m. Monday – #7 last season. No subject seems to be off-limits for Girlfriends. Script writers will mine any topic for a cheap laugh, no matter how tacky. One episode last season, for example, had Joan telling her boyfriend she had a yeast infection to get out of having sex with him. In another, Joan's friend Sharon recommends classes at “Mama Gina's School of Womanly Arts,” saying, “Oh Joan, those classes are wonderful. I highly recommend ‘Owning your Orgasm.' And it's a prerequisite for ‘Finding Your Vagina.'”

#8. Las Vegas - NBC 9 p.m. Monday – first season. What can you expect from a show about Sin City, but sex, sex, and more sex? Las Vegas, a new drama about the staff of an upscale casino, delivers just that along with plenty of foul language and a little violence thrown in for good measure. This series has used every cheap sexual gimmick imaginable in a desperate attempt to lure viewers. Strong sexual innuendo can be found in just about every episode.

#9. Will & Grace - NBC 9 p.m. Thursday – #8 last season. Will and Grace began as a sitcom about the friendship between a gay man and his best friend, a quirky straight woman. Over the last few seasons its focus has changed, opening the door for even higher levels of crude innuendo and graphic anatomical references, both hetero- and homosexual, all of which is especially inappropriate given that episodes of Will & Grace often air during the Family Hour. Infidelity remains a common storyline. This show continues to rely on indecency as a source of edginess.

#10. Cold Case - CBS 8p.m. Sunday – first season. Cold Case is a drama about a Philadelphia police detective who delves into old murder cases with a fresh eye. Stories are often told in flashback, recounting graphic murders and other violent crimes. Disturbing plots included a case in which a nun accidentally kills an orphan and buries him anonymously in a field; an adult man who has his son bring young teenaged girls to the house so the father can rape them; and teenaged boys at a military school who murder the coach who molested them.

Amen! When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's our next door neighbors never had a TV. The Dad, a decorated WWII Marine who was wounded on Iwo Jima as a teenager, examined the box and decided his family would be better off without it. That's leadership!

Your kids' contemporaries will probably end up working for them. Congrats!

#9. American Dreams

I like the show but the premise is now deeply flawed. The "American Bandstand" backdrop is now impossible by moving the show into the mid 1960's and having the Vietnam War backdrop. Bandstand left Philadelphia and moved to Los Angeles starting February 8, 1964. The show even depicts music acts that never aired on the Phili Bandstand. They need to choose which time-line they want.

I have an even better idea: Turn off the TV and read a book.

If you have to have the TV on, keep it on something like 'National Geographic's Explorer', Speed Channel, or maybe even Discovery when they're not showing something like 'Secret Dinnerware Of the Third Reich'.

but Joan of Arcadia is actually *gasp* spiritual. If Amber's a lefty, it doesn't come through the show.

Not only does it not come off as a left leaning show, Joan's dad is a law enforcement officer and definitely comes down hard on the bad guys, even when they reside in the mayor's office. Action at the police/sherif office is usually a part of every show.

American Dreams is also a good show, and maybe belongs higher on the list. A cut through the lives of the young baby boomers shows where the black movement went off course as well as touching the coming of age topic with realism and honesty.

"F/X and HBO have the best shows. Deadwood, The Shield and Rescue Me are probably my three favorite dramas."

Rescue Me blows me away!

The first show when Leary is having a bitch session with one of the guys and tells the dufus "That's not a box!" and the dufus never says a thing just turns around and heads back to look for the box had me in stitches (as well as having Jack Daniels burning the inside of my nose!)

The first three seasons of BtVS are truly excellent. But you're in for a surprise concerning later episodes (after the main characters graduate from high school). There's graphic and gratuitous homosexuality galore, and Buffy becomes the college mattress--without paying the dire consequences for promiscuity of previous episodes (which I won't go into, in case you haven't seen those episodes). The show changed networks, and everything went to blazes.
That being said, season five also has two of that show's best episodes--"Hush" and that one about Jonathan. Depends on one's tastes, I suppose.

My family watches Joan of Arcadia as one of our weekly "must sees." We find it inspires some good lines of conversation. I do note that the show never mentions Jesus or even makes any allusion to Him. As Christians,we make sure to include that in discussions with our daughter. I DO like the fact that God is not portrayed as a genie in a bottle to whom we appeal for wish fulfillment. Overall, a good show.

Well, I can't watch too much television, perhaps five minutes a day, so I can only speak generally. Television is a reflection of the cosmology, which is relativist tending to anarchic. These two elements are not always obvious in television programming, but I get the whim whams no matter what I watch, and no matter what the writer's intentions.

"Nip Tuck"

hmmmm....last episode I believe was a 40 something woman having an affair with a teenage boy complete with scenes of the boy masterbating outside her window.

NICE...considering I have a 7 year old daughter....

bastards.

The black humor is great. It makes me think of the John LaRoquette show way back when. Leary is really in his element on that show. His ex-wife is pretty tasty, too.

I'm glad that there are more smart, adult-oriented shows on TV these days. I don't really watch regular sitcoms because most of them seem to be aimed at the soccer-mom/eunuch dad audience.

OK, here goes the "Stargate: SG-1" explanation. Notice the colon? [:] It is the reason. Just as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" has the colon to show that "The Next Generation" is a part of the "Star Trek" series, so too does the colon show that "SG-1" is part of the "Stargate" series.

SG-1 is the team that is focused on in "Stargate: SG-1", just as the team that is trapped in Atlantis is the focus of the new series "Stargate: Atlantis".

A bit presumptive on the part of the producers, but it was intended to be only the first in a series of "Stargate" shows.

That's the explanation, so maybe your GRG will allow you to check it out =)

hmmmm....last episode I believe was a 40 something woman having an affair with a teenage boy complete with scenes of the boy masterbating outside her window.

NICE...considering I have a 7 year old daughter....

It's a great show, but it certainly isn't something kids should watch. F/X certainly does not market it for kids, either.

Not everything needs to be kid-safe.

Apart from sports, the big nets have been entirely given over to women, so I just don’t watch them anymore. My TV is almost always on Speed channel of FNC.

Ok then, here’s my best
Deadwood – The most profane, gritty, funny thing ever to appear on TV.
The Shield – This season wasn’t so great, but it still worlds better than anything of the big nets.
Curb your enthusiasm – Funny, mean, brilliant
Enterprise – A lot of people “hate on” this show but I like it. Last season was a HUGE improvement and it had a fantastic cliffhanger ending.

Many of the poor, deluded souls think they have talent.

Like William Hung, perhaps? He has a pity album or two out now! LOL

The guy cannot sing and has very little (if any) musical sensitivity. He is absolutely terrible. Simon was right in slaying that guy because he has NO BUSINESS in the music business.

This story is just sad:

- A no-talent goes on a national talent search show

- The talent search show exploits the no-talent for the sake of laughs and attention.

- Everyone feels sorry for the no-talent.

- The no-talent gets a record deal.

- The no-talent's record is designed to inspire other no-talents to make fools out of themselves as well.

It's Star Search meets Jerry Springer. I just don't understand the obsession some people have with watching this kind of thing.

The first three seasons of BtVS are truly excellent. But you're in for a surprise concerning later episodes (after the main characters graduate from high school). There's graphic and gratuitous homosexuality galore, and Buffy becomes the college mattress--without paying the dire consequences for promiscuity of previous episodes (which I won't go into, in case you haven't seen those episodes). The show changed networks, and everything went to blazes. That being said, season five also has two of that show's best episodes--"Hush" and that one about Jonathan. Depends on one's tastes, I suppose.

We started with a 3pack of vhs which had 6 episodes from season 3 pertaining to Faith and the Mayor. We fell in love with Willow and most of the other characters. Then we went out and bought season 6 on dvd. My whole family almost passed out when we saw Willow and Tara kissing. We yelled and ranted though the whole season everytime they touched each other. Actually, Willow being a witch and a lesbo makes perfect sense but it's hard to deal with while we watch it. Now we are working our way through the seasons. We are in the early part of season 3. I can't wait to watch Hush it sounds great. There are a lot of fans on imdb.com and they can't say enough about the series.

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