If there’s one thing that’s truly annoying, it’s seeing lists of the best something-or-other of all time and seeing that nearly everyhthing on the list has happened in the last five or 10 years.
I never knew that “Breaking Bad” and “Game of Thrones” were the two greatest dramas in 70 years of television or that such a high percentage of the best movies ever were released since 2000.
I will give “Rolling Stone” some credit. In the fall of 2016, they did a piece on the 100 greatest TV shows of all time. I read it at the time, so today I just cut to the chase and looked at the top 10. There were a couple there that I never watched and two others that weren’t my cup of tea, but I give them credit for three shows that began no later than 1975.
And calling “The Sopranos” the best show ever isn’t outrageous. I really do need to check out No. 2, “The Wire,” since my good friend from high school Michael Willis was in 15 episodes of it.
At any rate, I’m not going to count down from 10-1 on shows I love, but I will do a dozen shows that I can watch over and over without ever getting tired of them. There are other shows I really liked when they were fresh, but I can hardly watch them now because the production values are so much worse.
Still, the first show I mention was from that era.
“THE TWILIGHT ZONE” came on the air nearly 65 years ago, and it might be the best anthology series ever done. Creator Rod Serling tackled all sorts of subjects that Eisenhower-era TV just didn’t do. And seeing so many wonderful actors and actresses who later became big stars is always fun.
If you’re wondering how good it was, all you have to do is look at how many times they have tried to make new versions of the show.
Just remember:
“My name is Talky Tina and I’m going to kill you.”
“MOONLIGHTING” was one of the defining shows of the late ’80s, and it was the show that made Bruce Willis a star. It was maybe the funniest hour-long detective show ever, and it was witty, not corny. There were all sorts of different theme shows, from slapstick comedy to film noir to Shakespeare.
In its final seasons, the show suffered from creator Glenn Gordon Caron’s personal problems, but it was still a wonderful show.
“Birds gotta fly, bees gotta be.”
“THE WEST WING” might have been the most surprising show to last seven full seasons. It was a political show about the process of governing, and it was about a liberal president. Originally the show was just supposed to be about the staff, but Martin Sheen was so impressive that creator Aaron Sorkin changed the focus of the show.
Sorkin was even fair to Republicans, with John Goodman getting nice play as acting president when a kidnapping made Sheen’s character step down briefly. And not a bad career-defining role for Stockard Channing as the First Lady.
“What’s next?”
“SMALLVILLE” probably isn’t going to make many lists of great shows, but I enjoyed all 10 seasons of it and I think Erica Durance might have been the best of all the Lois Lanes, at least pre-Amy Adams. Lots of good people in the supporting cast, and oh, I think Amy Adams might have actually been a one-time character in an early season.
The creators said “no flights, no tights,” but they actually did have Tom Welling fly as Superman in the final episode. Of all the superhero shows in recent years, this was the one I liked the most.
Even better than the Adam West-Burt Ward “Batman” of the 1960s.
“I didn’t dive in after Lex’s car! It hit me at 60 miles an hour! Does that sound normal to you? I’d give anything to be normal.”
“CHEERS” could actually be considered two different shows, one with Shelley Long and Nicholas Colasanto and the second with Kirstie Alley and Woody Harrelson. The second. show wasn’t bad, but it didn’t compare to the first. The chemistry between Long and star Ted Danson was wonderful, and Colasanto as Coach Ernie Pantuso was as funny as any supporting character on TV.
An amazing supporting cast of bar patrons and employees and a show that begat another wonderful comedy, “Frasier,” that was almost equally wonderful.
“If you can’t say anything nice, say it about Diane.”
“LA LAW” almost doesn’t make this list because it declined pretty badly the last year or two, but when it came on in the Fall of 1986 it was an amazing show. Seeing the trunk slam shut and the vanity plate say “LA LAW” was truly cool, and one of my great disappointments when I finally made it to California in 1990 was that those particular license plates were no longer available.
So many great characters, from Arnie Becker to Michael Kuzak to Stuart Markowitz and the Venus Butterfly, and great stories too.
“I’m more like my father than I thought. I wanted to be the lawyer he was, the man he was. Turns out we both just like to cheat on our wives.”
“BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER” probably should have ended after five seasons, with Buffy making the ultimate sacrifice to save the world one more time. The inside joke was who was the Big Bad each season, and Season Five had the best Big Bad with Glory, the insane god from an evil dimension. But it wasn’t as if the last two seasons weren’t good too, and the supporting cast was truly strong from beginning to end.
There were a few really extraordinary shows, like the one in Season Six that was done as a musical — “Once More With Feeling.” A really great show.
“Cordelia. Your mouth is open, sound is coming from it. This is never good.”
“THE SOPRANOS” has been called the best television drama ever, and while anyone is free to disagree, it’s got to at least be in the discussion. It’s a Mafia show that’s less idealized than Coppola’s “Godfather” movies, with James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano more down and dirty than Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone.
A great supporting cast and some terrific set pieces, it’s a show that will stand the test of time. Despite an ambiguous ending that left viewers shaking their heads.
“All due respect, you got no fuckin’ idea what it’s like to be Number One. Every decision you make affects every facet of every other fuckin’ thing. It’s too much to deal with almost. And in the end you’re completely alone with it all.”
“HILL STREET BLUES” was the show that changed cop shows forever, about as different from “Dragnet” as Earth is from Mars. It had a new level of interlocking stories and a much higher level of realism than earlier shows. And no one who watched the show can ever forget Michael Conrad’s classic line:
“Let’s be careful out there.”
“THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW” was probably the best situation comedy in an era of great situation comedies. An amazing number of great characters resulted in spinoffs such as “Rhoda,” “Phyllis” and “Lou Grant,” but the heart of the show was always Mary, a new type of TV woman for the late 1970s.
And has there ever been as poignant and funny an episode as the funeral of Chuckles the Clown?
“A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.”
“BOSCH” is one of the best examples of the new type of show, done by Amazon in 8-10 episode seasons and all released at once. Based on Michael Connelly’s wonderful novels about LAPD detective Hieronymous “Harry” Bosch, with each season telling the story of one novel.
“Golf is not a great sport. If you can smoke and drink while doing it, it’s not a sport.”
“STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP” is the only show on this list that can’t be considered a success. It was Aaron Sorkin’s first post-West Wing effort, and it came out the same year as “30 Rock.” One was an hour-long drama, the other a 30-minute sitcom, both about a “Saturday Night Live”-type show. The comedy was the hit, but the drama was a show of outstanding quality that should have managed to make it too.
There were only 22 episodes, but I’ve watched the show from start to finish more than once and will certainly watch it again at some point.
“Look, I hate Los Angeles just like everybody else, but I have to work here because in any other part of the country I’m unemployable.”
I know I said a dozen shows, but let’s make it a baker’s dozen. There’s one more show that lasted 5 1/2 seasons and would be pretty close to the top of the list of my favorite shows.
“MADAM SECRETARY” was a wonderful show starring Tea Leoni as a secretary of state who in the final season becomes the first female president. A top-flight supporting cast, from Tim Daly as her husband to Keith Carradine as the president who put her in his cabinet.
Like “West Wing,” another show about government as the way it ought to be, with the good guys always eventually winning out over the bad guys.
An amazing climax to the show:
“SHE’S MY PRESIDENT! SHE’S MY PRESIDENT!”