Kirk is douchy

Curious to know what you thought of this show. It would seem to be right up your alley.

If I had to go top 10:

1. King of the Hill - the Edgar Martinez of television shows: often overlooked, unfairly compared to more celebrated contemporaries (Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy), consistently exceptional and ended its run before it had a chance to embarrass itself (albeit because Fox foolishly canceled it).
2. Good Eats
3. Twilight Zone - It’s amazing how well this show still holds up.
4. Top Gear
5. House
5. NCIS - I blame my wife for getting me hooked on this show.
6. M*A*S*H
7.Squidbillies
8. Eureka
9. Destination Truth/Ghost Hunters
10. That Mitchell and Webb Look

1. Monty Pythons Flying Circus - The IFC multi-part documentary is well worth Netflixing. Most stunning revelation: had Terry Jones not bought the tapes himself, BBC was close to recycling (taping over) the tapes of the entire series, which was part of their normal cost-cutting at the time. Can’t imagine how comedy would be different had Jones not saved the tapes.

2. Homicide: Life on the Streets - Andre Braugher, Melissa Leo, and Yaphet Kotto with the best writing in televison, at least in the early-to-mid years. Good to see Braugher back in another high-quality show “Men of a Certain Age.”

3 Second City Television - both in it’s 30-minute import version, then the later longer show (on NBC?). The perfect show for a college kid.

4. The Larry Sanders Show - Larry Sanders, Jeffrey Tambor and Rip Torn work together to comic perfection. Best narcissistic line of all time: “Does this hat make my ass look fat?”

5. The Office (British Version) - I haven’t watched the U.S. version, as I can’t picture anyone but Ricky Gervais in the lead role and I can’t look at Ricky Gervais in anything else without thinking of David Brent.

6. Rocky and Bullwinkle, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Fractured Fairy Tales - Oh, adult satire for kids. My Saturday morning diet.

7. Seinfeld - Easily my biggest water cooler show, because the ratings were huge and the quality was high. My family loved it too, so it was the go-to topic changer for awkward pauses at holiday time.

8. Lost - At times, the best television ever (my favorite episode of any show ever is “Through the Looking Glass”, the season-3 finale). At other times, I wonder what the heck were the writers thinking.

Other shows that struggled to maintain consistent high-quality but had their moments: St. Elsewhere, Twin Peaks, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues, Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

John, do you plan on giving that a shot? The pilot was pretty good.

Am I the only one that thinks the Wonder Years was amazing?

1) West Wing - Best dialogue television has ever seen. The first four years are TV at its best.
2) Big Bang Theory - Sheldon is my all time favorite TV character
3) The early years of the original CSI - it has sparked an entire genre of TV shows that are some of the most watched on TV.
4) Gilmore Girls - This one is embarassing, but it has amazing dialogue and hilarious auxiliary characters. Plus I always had a thing for Alexis Bledel
5) Ed - A kookie Drama/Comedy that I loved. Can’t figure out why it is not out on DVD yet.

Is absolutely my number 1.

Seinfeld, Six Feet Under, and Curb Your Enthusiasm among my favorites of all time.

Currently I am into Lost, Lie to Me, Heroes and Fringe.

Netflix and DVR have allowed me to watch too much television again.

the office (us version)
LOST
Family Guy
2 1/2 men
the sopranos
24
law and order (svu)
csi (miami)

no particular order

Hill Street Blues
ST Elsewhere
Battlestar Galactica (reboot)
Early SNL (last ten years suck)
Sopranos
24
Rome
Mash
That Was The Week That Was (anyone old enough to remember this one?)

that Arrested Development was insanely overrated. Will Arnett and David Cross are funny, but everything else sort of falls flat for me. And the CONSTANT narration telling you absolutely everything going on in the scene comes off as really condescending. Like, oh, this is on Fox, so the people watching must be too stupid to follow a plot line.

But otherwise;

Futurama
King of the Hill (so smart and subtle and underappreciated)
The Wire
seasons 1-9 or so of the Simpsons
The Venture Brothers (probably the most thematically complex show I know of)
30 Rock
Seinfeld
Breaking Bad
Home Movies
No Reservations
Bored to Death

I mainly stick to to comedy.

The L Word …. hot chicks, lesbian sex, pretty good but I’m not sure if it had a plot since I never paid attention!

The League - everyone on this site should be watching this.
Modern Family - gay people really make me laugh sometimes
24 - Hasn’t been great in awhile but I still can’t stop watching
Lost - greatness. Can’t wait to see how it ends
The Office - Mkaes me want to own a beet farm.

Top 5 All Time:
Seinfeld - classic
Cheers - Woody rocks
Friends - debuted in my college years and was always a stop down show
South Park - College years again.
Who’s the Boss - That Samantha Misseli is one hot piece of ass.

Fringe
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The Office (though it’s reaching the end)
How I Met Your Mother (also reaching the end, getting too absurd if that’s possible)
Colbert Report (one of the best!)

Office (US) (as mentioned above Dwight K. Shrute is a legendary character)

Lost (had never seen a show until earlier this month when I got netflix, thus I downloaded the first 5 seasons and me and my fiancee are about midway through season 3 already….so be careful what you say)

King of Queens (who doesn’t like Kevin James?)

Curb Your Enthusiasm(poor Larry David always gets shammed)

Seinfeld (I think I was too young when it was still coming out but I enjoy it nowadays)
Freinds (don’t care too much for it nowadays but when it came out I guess I was the right age)

I can’t believe nobody else has mentioned this show. Dale Cooper is one of my favorite characters of all time.

The last post reminded me of another show I watch a bunch of…Man vs. Food.

Also, Jeopardy.

The Sopranos
The Wire
John From Cincinnati
Seinfeld
Arrested Development
Eastbound & Down
Venture Brothers
TV Funhouse (just like six episodes, but the funniest thing ever)
Space Ghost
Cheers

-Black Sheep
-Battlestar Galactica (oldschool)
-Sopranos (although a couple of seasons were out there..IE: dream episodes, about the worst ending to a series I have ever seen)
-Heroes (thought it would be a great show for me to watch with my sons….until the opening scene in the 1st episode where a hot blonde is doing webcam porn from her garage!)

- Men of a certain age….only a few episodes into the series, so too early to call it a favorite…. Shows that Ray Romano isnt a one trick poney (everybody loves Raymond)

no particular order:

Seasons 4-7, Star Trek TNG
Cheers (no Kirstie Allie, thanks!)
Perfect Strangers
Early Editiion
The Simpsons Seasons 1-6
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Seasons 1-3)
Star Trek: Ds9: season 4-7
Batman: Animated Series
tie between Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The A-Team
Mr. Bean

Honorable Mentions goes to:
Xena Warrior Princess,
Twilight Zone (original)
Family Ties,
Bill Cosby (Seasons 1-5, or before the addition of the extra kids)

I got

Two and A Half Men: hilarious. every night at 7pm…

Southpark: I think everyone knows…

Family Guy

a little bit of the Law and Orders

as you can tell, Im young….

I used to love King of the Hill. I can still watch re-runs over and over never getting tired of them.

- 24. I’m surprised no one has said this. Maybe it’s just because I like explosions with unnecessary plot twists.
- Fringe. My dad got me hooked on it and with me being an X-Files fan, it just made too much sense.
- The Big Break. Reality sports show with every other season having cute girls. Can’t complain there.
-Anthony Boudain: No Reservations. Really, I just like traveling food shows.
- The Wild Wild West. I fondly remember watching episodes on Saturday morning right before…
- Gilligan’s Island. How has no one said this yet?

There’s a ton more, but those are the ones I like the most right now.

has kind of kicked TV up to the next level, making it hard for mere network tv to compete. My list, in no particular order:

Rome
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Wire
Deadwood
The West Wing
Arrested Development

And, harkening back to my childhood,
The Wonder Years, and
Star Trek, TNG

how could I forget putting up

Monk,
MacGuyer?

there are a few more but Monk really should be mentioned!

But what about Extras? I thought that was just as good.

Others have mentioned The Wire, and I’ll agree that it’s phenomenal, or at least the first four seasons are. They clearly think about details that the other people making TV shows just don’t, and it gives the show an unmatched depth.

I’m also extremely fond of Sunrise: Earth on Discovery HD Theater, which seems to have been in some sort of production limbo for quite a while now, though they still show episodes twice a weekday. It’s the nature show equivalent of watching a baseball game without the damned announcers.

I suspect with your SF background you’d really like Eureka. It’s sort of like a version of Star Trek that is aware of its own hilarity.

I like the new BSG. I wish I could say I liked it now as much as I did at the end of Season 2. But I adore Helo so much that I can put up with the complete trainwreck it became.

Other, older shows: DS9, Murder One season 1, MASH, Futurama, The Critic, The Job, Veronica Mars the times they remembered it was an ensemble show. There’s the occasional Simpsons episode that is freaking fantastic (“Last Exit to Springfield” for example) which keeps me watching. I guess The Maxx sort of counts as a TV series, though it didn’t make much sense that way - it’s much better watched as a movie.

Ones that have been said:
The Wire
Futurama
Simpsons
Arrested Development
The Office (US)
Seinfeld
Modern Family
Cheers
South Park

Ones I haven’t seen anyone else mention:

Freaks and Geeks
Wonder Years
Parks and Recreation
Everybody Loves Raymond
The Cosby Show
All in the Family
Married With Children
News Radio

Or, more succinctly, the Oh God, These People Have Issues and I Feel Wrong Watching Them Combo Platter.

Until they basically started moving away from plot.

I still watch if I have the time or feel like vegging out. I tend to watch more travel shows and food shows more than anything these days.

I agree, TNG is a lot better than the original ST mainly because I never liked Shatner. Shatner was as annoying then as he is today! (no offense to Shatner fans)… But Nemoy was awesome and so was the rest of the crew.

1. Extras
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm
3. Seinfeld
4. Larry Sanders Show
5. The Office (US)
6. Little Britain
7. Famlty Towers
8. The Office (UK)
9. SCTV
10. Get Smart

In no order. 24 is unquestionably my favorite show of all time though.

1 Curb Your Enthusiasm
2 24
3 King of the HIll
4 ER
5 NYPD Blue
6 Seinfeld
7 Chuck (so into this right now)
8 Deadwood
9 Loved the first 10 or so seasons of the Simpsons
10 South Park

1. Monday Night RAW - laugh if you will, but from ‘97-’01 this was the best show ever, and it was on EVERY SINGLE WEEK. It might be unwatchable now (for me atleast), but the attitude era was pro wrestling at its peak in my opinion.
2. Trailer Park Boys - No show makes me laugh more than this, and laughter is the main reason I watch television.
3. Seinfeld
4. Arrested Development
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. The Simpsons
7. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
8. Dexter
9. Malcolm in the Middle - HAL, best character on any tv show? perhaps
10. Red Dwarf

BSG (reboot)
Dead Like Me
Criminal Minds
The Office (U.S., although I plan to try the British version)
Nova
Friends
STTNG
M*A*S*H
That ’70’s Show
ER (mainly the first few years, although for some reason I kept watching even when I didn’t care for it much anymore)

I do occasionally enjoy watching the crappy shows I liked as a child, like the original BSG; Buck Rogers; the original Star Trek; the A-Team; and MacGyver. I miss Benson, that was a good show for a few years.

1. The Wire
2. The West Wing
3. The Office
4. St Elsewhere
5. Hill Street Blues
6. X Files
7. Twin Peaks
8. Cheers
9. Frontline
10. Soap

Special Mention: The Wonder Years, Parks and Rec, King of the Hill, Colbert Report, Jeopardy

Breaking Bad.

It’s a shame more people don’t watch this show. It might be one of my favorite shows ever.

I’m also tired of all the Lost haters. Just because most people don’t have the attention span to follow storylines that might be long and complicated, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

You’re not supposed to understand everything. You just have to sit back and watch. In the end, everything will be clear…hopefully.

It’s like reading a book and flipping to the last page to read the end.

nothing is even close. The deep complex story, wonderful writing and acting, gritty realism, it’s perfect in every way

My second favorite would have to be the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

I really liked the few episodes they had so far and hopefully it gets picked up for another season.

Survivorman is my big man show. Les Stroud could kick Bear Grylls’ ass any day

1. on my list is Seinfeld.

Others include Barney Miller, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Trackdown and Curb Your Enthusiasm. For a while, My Name is Earl was pretty good too. I always liked What’s My Line.

Of British imports, #1 to me is Fawlty Towers. Others include The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Keeping Up Appearances and As Time Goes By. I think I Claudius was also a British Import and among my favorites.

Note: This is not in any specific order.

1. The Simpsons
2. New York City Undercover
3. Lost
4. NYPD
5. Perfect Strangers -it wasn’t on long but it was f’n funny
6. Night Court - I think that’s the name of it; it’s been a long time
7. The Drew Carey Show
8. The Bernie Mac Show
9. Sopranos
10. 24

and dora the explorer are 1 and 2…

and i know these are tv shows… but hangover was GREAT

- MASH
- Mystery Science Theater 3000
- Simpsons (seasons one-ten)
- Arrested Development

 You people need to rewatch MST3K. Skip most of the early Joel episodes…the ones hosted by Mike are all fantastic.

In no partcular order:

The Sopranos
Hill Street Blues
LA Law
Star Trek: Next Generation
All in the Family
M*A*S*H
The Shield
Lost
24
NYPD Blue

In no particular order

ST The Next Generation (seasons 3-7 are the best, most of season 1 is borderline unwatchable for me)
ST: Deep Space Nine (seasons 4-7 are the best)
Battlestar Galactica (remake)
MASH
Mythbusters
Arrested Development
Scrubs (through season 8)
Doctor Who (new version)
The Simpsons (pre shark jumping, so through about season 8 or 9)
Quantum Leap
Jeopardy
Stargate SG-1
Firefly/Serenity
Babylon 5

from this list, I can mostly gather that i am a total sci-fi nerd, and that i love just about everything Ronald D Moore makes.

Ok, of shows that I currently never will miss, there are really three main ones:
Dexter
Burn Notice
Psych

Of shows, that I liked but have gone stale/cancelled are: 24, House, Lost, Six Feet Under (the ABSOLUTE BEST 10 minutes of television ever concluded the series), The Sopranos, Heroes, Seinfeld, the Simpsons.

Shows that I’ll watch and love but can miss episodes and not care: South Park, Daily Show, Colbert Report

1.) Aqua Teen Hunger Force

South Park
Simpsons
Arrested Development
Futurama
Invader Zim
Season 1 of Heroes
Select 24 seasons
Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Robot Chicken or Sealab 2021

A lot of animated shows, it seems.

The Wire - All the superlatives have been mentioned already but I’ll echo them, truly a great achievement in television.

The Simpsons - Probably my biggest tv influence, has been on for most of my life and I have been watching.

Futurama - Brilliant comedy and great characters, I imagine I will be quoting Zap Brannigan to my bewildered grandchildren someday. Still hoping for a return.

The Office (Both versions) - The British version had some great dry humor and David Brent was a classic while delivering a solid story arc. The American version continues to make me laugh with the interactions of the main characters while measuring out a brilliant gags from hilarious side characters.

The X-Files - Loved it when it was first on, I think Fox Mulder was one of my first tv character heroes.

Psych - Might not be quite as high in my esteem as the others but is moving up quickly as Sean and Gus is my favorite current dynamic duo.

Syndication Superstars:
Scrubs and King of the Hill - These are both shows I didn’t really get into at first but came to love them after watching them through syndication.

Special Mention Show That May Not Have Been That Great But I Want To List One That No One Has Said Yet:
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. - Show that blew me away as a kid, “A sci-fi western comedy? Brilliant.” And where I first noticed Bruce Campbell.

Night Court—the “judge show” with Harry Anderson was pretty funny.
I liked Joy of Painting too :).

In the spirit of John’s list—from my early formative years the things that shaped me and I can still remember—I don’t vouch for their quality, just their importance in my early years.
1) Sesame Street—I probably watched until I was much older than most.
2) Any Denver Broncos football game
3) Monday Night Football
4) Muppet Show
5) News/Walter Cronkite/Dan Rather
6) 60 Minutes—we watched every week as a family
7) Early SNL
8) NCAA basketball tourney
9) Spiderman
10) Greatest American hero
11) Wonder Woman—what can I say, I’d watch anything with a superhero (although oddly with the exception of the Hulk)

Later on—high school/college/grad school
1) Simpsons (early years)
2) Beavis and Butthead—definitely underrated comedic genius
3) Melrose Place—sort of a joke, but kind of a guilty pleasure. It was so terrible that a group of friends used to get together to watch it and crack jokes through the whole thing.
4) World Cup Soccer on spanish language TV (only place we could get the games)

More recently…
1) The Wire—best I have ever seen.
2) The Office (US)—Long live Dwight (I also enjoyed the UK version, but didn’t resonate nearly as much).
3) Survivor—I don’t watch it any more, but I think we forget how interesting it seemed when it first came on. It really transformed TV.
4) Lost—I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I still enjoy it.
5) 30 Rock

Seinfeld, Mad Men, Office (US), 30 Rock, Curb, Jeopardy, Burn Notice, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, Weeds

I haven’t seen anybody mention Damages (new season starts tonight) or Rescue Me, which are two of my favorites still airing. Pushing Daisies is probably my favorite show no longer airing, got cut way too short. Chi McBride’s character on that show is probably the best character on any show I’ve ever seen. My favorite cartoon was Frisky Dingo, which was hysterical, but only ran two seasons on Adult Swim. The new FX cartoon Archer was created by the same guy, and that’s also good so far.

Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, Lost, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Battlestar Galactica, South Park, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Chuck, and probably a bunch of others I’m forgetting.

Favorites of many (no particular order)
1) the new BSG
2) ST: TNG (seasons 3-7)
3) ST: DS9
4) Lost (seasons 1,3,4 are really good)
5) Futurama
6) Fringe
7) Chuck

Cult favorites:
1) Invasion (only one season, stupid ABC execs)
2) Surface (cheesy, but intentionally so - I think)
3) Jericho
4) Firefly

Still waiting for time to watch
1) Arrested Development
2) The Office
3) The Wire

How can only 1 person have mentioned it

The Loop
Big Bang Theory
Futurama
How I Met Your Mother

If I was going to pick what I’d most want to watch for a top five, it would be

1. Firefly - words can’t describe how good this show is
2. Star Trek
3. DS9
4. Moonlighting
5. The Dead Zone - wildly overlooked

beyond that, making a list is tricky because the memory is weak so I’ll categorize them:

VERY good short-run shows that were canceled too soon:

Nowhere Man - a masterpiece
American Gothic - anything created by Shawn Cassidy
Harsh Relm
Legend - great cast
Drive
Peacemakers - Tom Beringer as a cowboy, what’s not to love?

(this group is very incomplete because the memory just won’t deliver)

Comedies (in rough order of age)-
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Hogan’s Heroes
The Carol Burnett Show - ageless
WKRP
The Muppet Show
Benson
Night Court
Evening Shade
NewsRadio - maybe the best of the lot
SportsNight
Everybody Hates Chris - discovered on Nick at Nite…a riot.

Action-Adventure:

Six Million Dollar Man
Greatest American Hero

Why am I having so much trouble remembering shows for this category? Did they all mostly suck?

Drama:
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits
The Rockford Files - anything with Jim Garner has a head start
Black Sheep Squadron
Wild Wild West
The Big Valley - I liked it then, haven’t tried to watch it in ages
The Night Stalker - the old version
Picket Fences
Norther Exposure
Due South
Highlander
Farscape
24 - despite the flaws
Lost - ditto
Heroes - ditto
Castle - Anything with Fillion…
NCIS

Surely forgetting many here…

Animated:

Justice league Unlimited - as good as it gets for animation of comics, if I were making a top 10 it would be in the list
Batman TAS
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Pinky and the Brain
Loony Tunes (not originally a TV series but still - also a top 10)
Courage the Cowardly Dog
Roughnecks (Based on Heinlien’s “Starship Troopers” - easily missed)
Full metal Alchemist (not an anime fan per se but an amazingly good show IMO)

Mission Impossible.

Recent (21st century) - Top 5
1. Extras — Ricky at his absolute best
2. Curb Your Enthusiasm — Seinfeld+
3. Seinfeld — The Classic
4. Mad Men — Absolutely brilliant
5. Little Britain — freakiing Hilarious

Yesteryear (20th century) - Top 5
1. Wonder Years — incredible writing
2. Andy Griffith Show — enjoy with my daughters, holds up
3. Larry Sanders Show — always made me laugh
4. Fawlty Towers — incredible Brit humour
5. SCTV — was cutting edge humour, launched careers

Kid
1.Andy Griffith
Now
 reruns-Andy Griffith,Seinfeld,Frasier,3rd Rock from the Sun
 new-Two and a Half Men,Big Bang Theory,Modern Family