What is your all-time favourite TV show?

[PartyPooper]

Mine is Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone". To me, nothing even comes close to this classic b/w, scifi, cutting-edge, dramatic series.

I started watching this program when I was 12 years old. 40+ years later, I am still awe-struck by this fantastic show!

What's your favourite?

:-)

[blackcat77]

1. Twin Peaks

HBO's "Carnivale" is a close second.

[mlawson]

73. Ohhh, the "Dwarf Dream" sequence.....

Salaam, David Lynch, salaaaaam.... The GREATEST!!!!!!

[SlavesandBulldozers]

2. COPs

I'm like a deer in headlights when this show comes on. I like making fun of the mustaches and the mullets, mostly. I think watching COPs for so long has made me vigilant against the police state, and has sharpened my awareness of the importance of civil liberties and the plight of the poor/working class - and how society treats them.

[jobycom]

3. Hill Street Blues.nt.

[lpbk2713]

32. Yes, Hill Street Blues

I've seen all the re-runs so many times that I know all the dialogue by now.

[One Taste]

4. Has to be..

Seinfeld. :)

[magnolia]

63. Me too...Seinfeld.

I'd rather watch a rerun that I've seen twenty times than anything that's on TV now.

Second would be "Northern Exposure". If only there were reruns...I'd be so happy! I'd trade them for all that CSI/crime solving/Law and Order crap!

[DoctorMyEyes]

5. The Shield!

I'm waiting impatiently for the next season to start.

[Rowdyboy]

6. What did I draw the most pleasure from? Barney and Otis and Aunt Bea

My best guess would be the Andy Griffith Show. It is as superb today as it was 40 years ago.

[Must_B_Free]

8. I was going to say that one too

Andy Griffith Show

[PartyPooper]

10. I had an English teacher in High School just like Aunt Bea!

It was my Junior year (1965). And, we used to go over to her house (when we were lucky). It was just like you'd expect! "Apple pie, anyone?"

:-)

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

7. Not telling...you'll all laugh at me.

I'm serious. I'm not gonna tell.

[Sandpiper]

9. Being a Gen X'er

It's a tie between The Simpsons and The Muppet Show.

[Punkingal]

11. Thirtysomething..

I loved it, and still do.

[Raine]

18. Yeah me too,

that is still one of my all time favorites. :bounce:

[Susang]

12. Fawlty Towers

Hands down, the funniest sitcom in ever.

Followed by Monty Python's Flying Circus, Twilight Zone, Blackadder, Absolutely Fabulous, Monk, and Twin Peaks.

Guilty pleasure? The Law and Order franchise.

[Zuni]

42. Python was better than Fawlty!

Eric Idle and michael palin weren't on fawlty Towers! (they were my favorite pythons)

[chiburb]

59. Agreed: Fawlty Towers for funniest of ALL time...

The Prisoner for drama...

[CanuckAmok]

13. The Simpsons.

If they could only preserve one series as a record of our time, for future generations, that would be the one. Consistantly hilarious and satirical for fifteen years and counting.

[Zuni]

39. agreed

The Simpsons is a real treasure on the otherwise vapid TV

[tigerbeat]

53. it's a tie....

.....The Simpsons and Monty Python's Flying Circus. the two best television satires ever created.

[catzies]

64. Another vote for The Simpsons.

Matt Groening on my Eternal Heroes list. It's a small list too.

[The Zanti Regent]

14. The original OUTER LIMITS

Oh that scared me to death as a kid

[BrotherBuzz]

15. Well, I think it had three names...

The Phil Silvers Show, You'll Never Get Rich, or Sergeant Bilko. Who could resist the charm of Private Duane Doberman (far right)?

[Lindsey]

16. Seinfeld

I just haven't had a show that made me laugh as much. I also love Curb Your Enthusiam and Six Feet Under (for current shows).

[Raine]

17. Homefront

setting was in middle America at the end of WWII, I still miss that show :cry: though it was only on two seasons.

[VOX]

19. The Prisoner -- only 17 episodes; strange, prescient, holds up well...

It just grabbed me like no other show. Ever.

[terrya]

27. I liked "The Prisoner" also, One question please about the last episode..

And I ask this respectfully...

What the hell was the last episode about, anyway? Was Number 6 actually Number 1?? I've tried to make some sense of that final episode, but I still don't get it.

Terry

[mac56]

37. Many theories have been floated about that last episode.

And indeed about the entire series. If you're mystified about the meaning of the last episode, you're in good company.

It was speculated that Number Six's stint in The Village was something he set up for himself, to test his own resolve. The last episode would certainly lend credence to that. As does the opening sequence for most of the episodes, if you listen to it a certain way.

"Who are you?"
"The new Number Two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six."

Could it instead be heard as:

"Who is Number One?"
"You are, Number Six."

Or maybe I have to get out more. Be seeing you -

[mlawson]

72. No, I think it was YOU are Number Six.

That was how I heard it, way before I saw the last episode. He was Number Six, not One.

But that last episode was indeed disappointing, I didn't understand it one bit. I saw it in 1969, when it might have been current. I didn't know he was going to get out, but all of a sudden a rocket launched and then he was walking in London. WTF????

I would like to see that episode again, as an adult; maybe I could figure it out now. It was really anticlimatic, though.

[CanuckAmok]

85. I took a course on the Prisoner...

I'm a huge fan. Been to The Village and everything.

The final episode (which is a two-parter), is explained thusly:

McGoohan was under increasing pressure from ITV to deliver a series much like his previous effort, "Danger Man" ("Secret Agent" in the US). He was given a certain amout of freedom with The Prisoner, but toward the end of the series, he was being pressured to make it more populist, and less cerebral. The models ITV were citing were Danger Man and the James Bond franchise, which was at the height of its popularity.

McGoohan wrote the graphic, conventional destruction of the Village in response to these instructions from ITV.

But...

The final message is that all we see is the illusion of freedom. He escaped the physical boundaries of the Village, but not the Village itself; to that end, he is still attended by Angelo Moscat (the Butler), who represented the Class structure, and the door to Number 6/1's flat opened automatically, a la the Village doors.

The Prisoner is the Middle Class, both the inmate and the guard, of our society.

And so forth...

[mlawson]

87. Gotcha. So, the Village is a metaphor for the modern world and society??

In that, we can't escape it??? When I saw that episode I was a teen, and tended to take most things literally.

But still, the final physical 'escape' could have been a bit more seamless; it made no sense back then. I remember standing in front of the TV, yelling, "Did he get out, or didn't he???????"

[VOX]

48. The story goes that Patrick McGoohan wrote the last episode in one night.

And when it ("Fall Out," episode 17) first aired in the UK in 1967, the network telephone switchboards were lit up with baffled callers demanding to know what the hell happened.

I always took it that 6 was 1, but it's something of a video ink-blot -- and a ton of different opinions have been voiced on the meaning of it all.

One of the joys of the series is that cool sense of "not knowing!"

On edit: typos

[mouse7]

35. I never got ANY of it.

I tried to get it. I really did. Never got it.

[chiburb]

60. Agreed. For some reason...

It grabbed me too. When our local PBS station started re-running it late Sunday nites, I bought my 1st vcr because of it.
Unbelievable, great show!

[Forkboy]

20. Hockey Night In Canada

:)

[corporatewhore]

21. twilght zone and Blackadder

I have a cunning plan

[Forkboy]

23. it's so cunning

you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.

BlackAdder rules!

[Whitacre D_WI]

22. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

with no real competition

[chefgirl]

24. Always the same answer for me

I Love Lucy!

To this day I can sit and laugh like an idiot watching her! She looked almost exactly like my Mom too. >sigh<

-chef-

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. Tie between the original Star Trek and the X Files (nt)

[arwalden]

26. Bewitched

[terrya]

28. Gotta go with "The Simpsons" 2nd place "Pee Wee's Playhouse"

Best show on television and one of the best ever. Still funny, smart, clever writing. You can get jokes you didn't notice before after repeated viewings.

I also liked "Pee Wee's Playhouse" on Saturday mornings. Just hilarious and sort of "adult" for a kids show!
Lawrence Fishburne (as Cowboy Carl) and Phil Harman was on "Playhouse"

[INTELBYTES]

29. Simpsons number 1!!

Followed by "Married with Children" and "Malcolm in the Middle".

[mac56]

46. I think Fishburne was "Cowboy Curtis"

and Hartman was "Cap'n Carl".

Carry on -

[terrya]

49. You're right!

Lawrence (or Larry Fishburne as he was known then) WAS Cowboy Curtis. Phil Hartman was Cap'n Carl.

I humbly stand (or in my case right now, sit) corrected!

Terry

[Beaker]

30. northern exposure?

[jobycom]

51. That would be a very close second for me. nt.

[skippysmom]

31. Seinfeld

I still laugh when I see the reruns, even though I know every joke.

Runners-up:
WKRP
The West Wing

[Loonman]

33. Blackadder

Blackadder the III series.

[picus9]

40. is that the one that spoofs king richard III

I loved that one.

[Loonman]

47. The first Blackadder series does

Blackadder the Third is with the Prince Regent(Mad King George's son).

Lampoons early Francophilia, Lord Wellington, Theater, William Pitt the younger(the PM not the DUer), Dr. Samuel Johnson.....

[picus9]

41. whoops, double - sorry.

I loved that one.

[mouse7]

34. M*A*S*H

I still catch the re-runs when I can.

[Cat Atomic]

36. Mystery Science Theater 3000

It makes me feel sane.

[Zuni]

44. I am an MST3K addict

I love that show

[mac56]

"The Dick Van Dyke Show".

It's how I wanted grown-up life to be.

[Zuni]

38. Simpsons/MST3K

Seinfeld is good too

[picus9]

43. Get a Life

w/ chris elliot - pure genious.

[mac56]

45. Theme song: "Stand" by R.E.M.

nm

[beawr]

50. The Great American Dream Machine

Early 70's PBS Show with vignettes regarding a certain subject each week. The show was great.

[Mrs. Venation]

52. The Carol Burnett Show

The West Wing
M*A*S*H
Hill Street Blues
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (yes, I'm old)

And when I was a child, Leave It To Beaver

[NightTrain]

54. Sorry, can't pick just one, so here's one of my requisite lists

Listed alphabetically:

All in the Family
The Bob Newhart Chow
Cheers
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
I Love Lucy
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Mary Tyler Moore
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Saturday Night Live (until Eddie Murphy left)
SCTV Comedy Network
Star Trek (1960s version)
Twilight Zone

[elfwitch]

55. Wow, that's tough...

I'll list the ones that I really like: (in no particular order)
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Firefly
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Sports Night
The West Wing
Xena Warrior Princess
Coupling (the British version)
South Park
Dead Like Me

There are a few more, but I can't remember them right now.

56. Smothers Brothers

Great show and helped change television. A lot of participants went on to shape culture. Steve Martin was a writer, for example.

"I didn't realize I was important until they made me shut up."
- Tommy Smothers


Rockford Files
the Simpsons

[ktranz]

57. four

Married with children
Seinfeld
Simpsons
Futurama

[Tracer]

58. This Old House

Hey! Don't laugh!

I've watched this show religiously for 25 years and it has taught me more usefull stuff than I learned in 4 years of college and 2 years of graduate school.

Second in line: Masterpiece Theater. A runner-up in the "watched-for-25-years" contest.

[grannylib]

62. I love TOH and just about any other DIY/decorating type program

I could happily watch the home and garden channel (HGTV) just about 24/7.
And I love the Brit "Changing Rooms"

[grannylib]

61. Python if I have to pick just one. Loved Mission Impossible too though...

[Insider]

65. Law & Order

the original

[jimbo fett]

76. Amen. Law & Order was (and is) the best TV show ever!!!

I wish I could get them on DVD.

[Richardo]

66. Get Smart

"Larrabee, confiscate that plant."
"I can't do that, Chief, I'm not a priest."

:D

[mlawson]

67. Route 66, Twin Peaks, The Prisoner, Fawtly Towers.

[LynneSin]

68. Sex and the City

And I'm really really sad to see it ending this year
:cry:

[RedEarth]

69. Cheers and Seinfeld

Such great characters in both of those shows. Still watch the reruns of Seinfeld...just can't get enough of it.

[spooky3]

70. Mary Tyler Moore, Married w Children, Mad TV

[ElsewheresDaughter]

71. M.A.S.H. and Taxi and All in the Family

[Kat45]

74. All In The Family

I absolutely loved that show then, and I still love it now. It really did a lot to change television shows; it had a lot of 'firsts'. I've seen those so many times, I know them backwards and forwards.

[Breezy du Nord]

75. Mine is Seinfeld

I can only watch it in syndication, however, because I was only nine or so when it went off the air, before I was old enough to appreciate it. the same goes for MST3K

[dflprincess]

77. St Elsewhere

All in the Family and M*A*S*H* would be runner ups.

[slackdude]

78. Freaks and Geeks

Best show ever! OK, maybe not the best show ever, but it was really good and I wish they would release it on DVD. Pretty much anything Judd Apatow has anything to do with is usually pretty good and always winds up getting cancelled before it has a chance. Ben Stiller Show, Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared.

[melonhawg]

79. "Wild Wild West"

With Robert Conrad. The REAL James West!

[AlFrankenFan]

80. CSI

:D

[PartyPooper]

81. A few forgotten favourites: "China Beach"; "Picket Fences";

Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca in the "Show of Shows"

Perry Mason

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Jack Benny Show

The Loretta Young Show

The Millionaire

The Red Skelton Show

Dobie Gillis

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman!

B-)

[nini]

82. St. Elsewhere..

..though the last episode was a dumb way to end the series.. IMHO

[mlawson]

83. Kick.

[renegade000]

84. macgyver

maybe not the best...but i miss that show (and i was a little kid when i watched it)

[Mikimouse]

86. ALF

n/t