Your Favorite Ten TV Shows of ALL Time (1 Viewer)

[Gary OS]

Well, I'll tell you this much. The killer was leaving The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet off the list. That's absolutely #11 for me and could easily move into my Top 10 at any given moment. What I'd remove from the list to squeeze that one in is anyone's guess though. To keep in sync with you, Howie, here are the next 15 for me (again, in no particular order after the Nelsons):

Ozzie & Harriet
The Flintstones
Big Valley
I Love Lucy
The Cosby Show
Route 66
The Munsters
The Wonder Years
Lassie
Hawaii Five-O
Quincy
Rifleman
Road to Avonlea
Little House on the Prairie
Dennis the Menace

I'll tell you what, it really does get harder after my first 11 because there are so many shows that I honestly could put in the #12-25 slot. I've got a slew more that even now I'm agonizing over not including in the list above. This list is far more volatile than the Top 10 one is. I'm leaving out classics like Naked City, The Lone Ranger, The Six Million Dollar Man, Combat, Twilight Zone, Wild Wild West, Wagon Train, and a boatload of others that I dearly love. Ugh.


Gary "better to stick with the Top 10 now that I think about it" O.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Classic:
WKRP IN CINCINNATI
THE AVENGERS (British)
MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS
THE FUGITIVE (original)
THE WILD, WILD WEST
THE OUTER LIMITS (original)
RAWHIDE
THE ADDAMS FAMILY (original)
THRILLER (Karloff)
THE TWILIGHT ZONE (original)
Modern:
DEXTER
DEADWOOD
BREAKING BAD
LOST
THE SIMPSONS (Seasons 1-8)
DEAD LIKE ME
PUSHING DAISIES
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000
BURN NOTICE
ROME

 

[TravisR]

THE SIMPSONS (Seasons 1-8)

I guess I should have made that distinction for The Simpsons too. Current episodes of The Simpsons are a pale imitation of what they used to be but that first decade or so was so good that even another decade's worth of episodes that range from average to terrible can't take the shine off the golden years of the series.

 

[Richard V]

In order
1. Twilight Zone (The original, natch)
2. Battlestar Galactica (remake, re-imagined)
3. The X Files
4. Star Trek TOS
5. I Love Lucy
6. Route 66
7. The Defenders
8. East Side/West Side
9. The Rifleman
10. Ben Casey
Came close: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Crime Story, Twin Peaks

 

[David Weicker]

OK, here I go
1) Doctor Who
2) Remington Steele
3) Rockford Files
Lost
24
Coupling
MASH
Soap
Barney Miller
Babylon 5
The top three are locked in. The rest just happen to be the next seven, but there are many, many more that I could swap out.
And I didn't even count the short lived, almost not a series, shows like I, Claudius, The Prisoner, Fawlty Towers, or Firefly
David

 

[PatrickGoodluck]

This is a mission impossible task so I'll cheat and keep in sync with Howie and Gary and list 15 instead - more to show as examples of favourites rather than a definitive fave list.
TWILIGHT ZONE (Original series)
OUTER LIMITS (Original series)
STAR TREK (Original series)
DR. KILDARE
LOST IN SPACE
MOD SQUAD
ONE STEP BEYOND
MR. NOVAK
ROUTE 66
SEARCH
DR. WHO (1960's -70's)
FLINTSTONES
ROOM 222
SPACE: 1999
ON THE BUSES

 

[Steve...O]

This is really difficult because tastes change over time but there are a handful of series that have been favorites since the first time I watched them years ago:

Perry Mason
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Adventures of Superman
The Lone Ranger (too bad a high quality, uncut complete series release probably won't ever happen)
Batman (although S3 doesn't hold up as well now since I can see how cheap this was)

The remaining slots have too many contenders to narrow down at the moment. The bulk of them are from the 60s/early 70s which, in my opinion, was the high water mark for television writing.

For modern shows, I really like NCIS (Mark Harmon). I admire the way it portrays our servicemen and women in a positive light and Jethro Gibbs is a hero with integrity and honor. Kudos also for featuring a age diverse cast; it's great to see almost 80 year old David McCallum steal almost every scene he's in while the much younger McGhee character has intelligence and a strong moral fiber that runs counter to what airs too often anymore. Even the goth-ish, tattooed Abby is portrayed as a devout church going Catholic and has a strong work ethic.

 

[ScottRichard]

Here are my favorites in chronological order:
Gunsmoke
I Love Lucy
Bewitched
I Dream of Jeannie
Dark Shadows
Star Trek (I really can't decide between TOS, TNG, and DS9!)
All In The Family
The Waltons
Dallas
Magnum P.I.
And now what I would call my future classics:
Northern Exposure
Will and Grace
Gilmore Girls
Firefly
Supernatural
Friday Night Lights
Brothers and Sisters
Mad Men
Justified
The Walking Dead

 

[BobO'Link]

This is a mission impossible task so I'll cheat and keep in sync with Howie and Gary and list 15 instead...

Ahhh... but we *cheated* and those lists of "15" are *additions* AKA the next 15 to make a top 25 list! Honestly, I did a quick look over my stuff before posting the next 15 and saw many series I'd want to include. Since I couldn't decide which to remove I just went with what I already had. I keep this list created for just such occasions and will typically go over it before posting in case I've changed my mind since its inception. So far I have not but there are a dozen more that could easily move if I gave it too much thought. If I had to make such a list from scratch it would be a bit different each time although most would still be there.

ON THE BUSES

I'm a *huge* fan of British comedy series and would have more in my top 25 but for the US series that I've loved for decades. I've often considered adding this one to my collection and have it in my "wish list" at several sites to keep an eye on the price. The problem is the "reviews" I've seen are somewhat mixed, it's only available as a full series set, and I've never seen it. That makes it a somewhat expensive blind buy. Convince me I should take the plunge!

 

[BobO'Link]

...I'll tell you what, it really does get harder after my first 11 because there are so many shows that I honestly could put in the #12-25 slot.  I've got a slew more that even now I'm agonizing over not including in the list above.  This list is far more volatile than the Top 10 one is.  I'm leaving out classics like Naked City, The Lone Ranger, The Six Million Dollar Man, Combat, Twilight Zone, Wild Wild West, Wagon Train, and a boatload of others that I dearly love.  Ugh.
Gary "better to stick with the Top 10 now that I think about it" O. 

I made the mistake of looking at my collection before I posted my "almost made it" list. I quickly saw a half dozen I'd love to include, some of which saw a DVD release after I originally created it, but just couldn't decide what to move down to make the room! I could easily open a few slots by removing shows that have not yet received a DVD release but the thread doesn't make that distinction/exclusion so they stay.
This is *always* a tough assignment!

 

[Gary OS]

I just flat out love TV, especially just about anything from the 50's and 60's (I know, that's a shock to absolutely no one here). I have strong likes from just about every genre imaginable too. That certainly gives me a wide and deep pool to draw from. Other than The Fugitive, which has been #1 ever since I saw it for the first time decades ago, everything else would be up for grabs in terms of where I'd specifically rank it.


Gary "still left out a lot of stuff I love doing those two lists" O.

 

[Roy Wall]

My next ten....
11. Deadwood
12. Foyle's War
13. M Squad
14. The Honeymooners
15. I Love Lucy
16. Columbo
17. The Outer Limits (original)
18. The Prisoner
19. Green Acres
20. The Avengers

 

[Rick Thompson]

1. Harry O
2. Law & Order (the mothership)
3. The Fugitive
and the rest in alphabetical order:
Hawaii Five-O (the original, not the new "Male Model Five-O" version)
Hill Street Blues
The Honeymooners
Magnum, P.I.
Mary Tyler Moore
Remington Steele
St. Elsewhere
Honorable Mentions:
The Great Adventure
NCIS
Slattery's People

 

[RickER]

Honestly, i like just about every show you guys have posted.
My favorite show...shocker...
Star Trek TOS
After that, the waters muddy a bit, just like you guys, and in no particular order. But i would have to say i LOVE...
The X Files (season 1-5 only)
Space: 1999
Doctor Who (Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and David Tennant only)
Farscape
Perry Mason
Cowboy Bebop
Adam-12
Star Trek- TNG
The Six Million Dollar Man
and # 11, Sherlock, all 6 episodes. Some great TV. If you guys love mysteries you HAVE to see this show.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

I keep changing orders and titles for these lists, can think of these pretty solid ones right now:
1. Harry O
2. Columbo
3. WKRP in Cincinnati
4. Thriller (UK)
5. The Time Tunnel
6. Have Gun Will Travel
7. Barnaby Jones
8. Blackadder
9. M.A.S.H.
10. The Waltons

 

[Kasey]

Maude
The Donna Reed Show
Bewitched
Charlie's Angels
Mama's Family
It's a Living
Designing Women
The Golden Girls
Roseanne
Family Affair

 

[David Weicker]

A problem I had, after the easy top three, was that I loaded my next seven with more current series.
That's not to say that older series were less of a favorite. I just worried that, since I hadn't seen them in so long, I wondered if they would hold up (some not seen since their original run decades ago).
What I liked as a child, or in my teens, or my twenties - would it still hold up as I reach my fifties. These were shows that were appointment TV, can't miss an episode, talk about the next week shows.
Ten was too high a number and too low a number. I have a few (for me, three) that are definitely, positively, always on my list. The I have the others. Is it 25, is it 50? Hard to limit.
David

 

[Mark Collins]

Haha I love your opening statement Roy!!
Dark Shadows
Petyon Place
The Time Tunnel
Voyage To the Bottom Of The Sea
Star Trek Deep Space Nine
The Wild Wild West
Battestar Galactica Orginial
I Love Lucy
Mannix
Dallas

 

[Regulus]

Where should I begin?
I'll divy it up into Categories, with two from each.
1. Science Fiction
Star Trek, TOS
The Twilight Zone
2. Animated
Hot Wheels
Skyhawks
3. Comidies
Get Smart
Batman
4. Action Adventure
Dragnet
The FBI
5. Family
Lassie
Little House on the Prairie

 

[TravisR]

The X Files (season 1-5 only)

Just out of curiosity, what is it about S6 that you don't like? It wraps up the conspiracy storyline (as much as the show ever wrapped things up), there's solid mythology and standalone episodes, the production values got even better with the move to Los Angeles and while leaving Vancouver changed the gloomy look of the show somewhat, I think the episodes are overall stronger than S5. Episodes like Drive, Triangle, How The Ghosts Stole Christmas, S.R. 819, Two Fathers, One Son, Monday, Milagro and The Unnatural range from excellent to very good. I guess what I'm saying is if you haven't seen S6 in a while, watch it again and you might be pleasantly surpised.
And while on the subject of The X-Files, I know people wrote off the seasons without Duchovny but S8 is one of the best years of the show. With S8, I think the writers knew that they had to up their game (especially after S7 which, in my opinion, is the weakest year of the entire series) because Duchovny was gone and they ended up with some really excellent monster-of-the-week shows and the mythology episodes focused on finding Mulder which was much more interesting than S7 or S9's mythology episodes where they were basically forced to shoehorn new elements into the conspiracy storyline in order to keep the mythology story going.