Television as an Artform: Greatest television masterpiece of all time

[ChoralScholar]

In keeping with my other Television Anthropology thread, I'd like to know what shows you consider to be seminal to the television art form. I.e., what shows could you consider a "masterpiece" of television?

[Mojambo]

1. Arrested Development. The Wire. Monty Python.

I have personal favs that meet or exceed these shows, but these three I consider the pinnacle in comedy, drama and sketch/variety.

[ChoralScholar]

5. I don't know anything about 'The Wire'...

I'll look it up...

[name not needed]

78. king 6300 dollar suit. Come on!

[nytemare]

2. The Twilight Zone

Carl Sagan's Cosmos. I also agree with the previous poster on Monty Python.

[rurallib]

13. When shows were live a case could be made for Sid Caesar

for a single show probably "Requiem for a Heavyweight" written by Rod Serling.

[XemaSab]

3. I'll say it: LOST

:hide:

[ChoralScholar]

4. Was LOST really canceled? Didn't it just .... end? Kinda like ER?

[XemaSab]

7. This isn't a thread about cancelled shows

LOST ended when it was time for it to end. :D

[ChoralScholar]

10. Sorry - I made two threads - one for great shows and one for cancelled ones

I thought I was in the other thread - my bad.

[XemaSab]

12. It's all good

:D

[Kat45]

6. All in the Family.

That's my favorite all time show, and it was certainly groundbreaking.

[MilesColtrane]

8. The Wire

[kwassa]

31. The Wire is the greatest series ever made, bar none.

David Simon's other shows have all been disappointing by comparison.

[CBR]

88. +1 The best ever!!!!! nt

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

11. Sopranos, Picket Fences, Rockford Files

[Tikki]

16. I am a Rockford Files fanatic....

Watch it now-a-days....it still stands up so well. Same with Colombo.




Tikki

[Tuesday Afternoon]

14. I Love Lucy ...groundbreaking.

I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951 to May 6, 1957 on CBS. When the original series ended, the show continued on for three more seasons with 13 one-hour specials, running from 1957 to 1960, known first as The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show and later in reruns as The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
I Love Lucy was the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings (an accomplishment later matched by The Andy Griffith Show and Seinfeld). I Love Lucy is still syndicated in dozens of languages across the world.
The show, the first to be shot on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, won five Emmy Awards and received numerous nominations. In 2002, it ranked second on TV Guide's list of television's greatest shows, behind Seinfeld and ahead of The Honeymooners<1>. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME."<2>

At the time, most television shows were broadcast live from New York City, and a low-quality 35mm or 16mm kinescope print was made of the show to broadcast it in other time zones. Because Ball was pregnant, she and Arnaz insisted on filming the show in Hollywood. The duo, along with co-creator Jess Oppenheimer, then decided to shoot the show on 35 mm film in front of a studio audience, with three cameras, a technique now standard for most present-day sitcoms. The result was a much sharper image than other shows of the time, and the audience reactions were far more authentic than the "canned laughter" used on most filmed sitcoms of the time. The technique was not completely new; another CBS comedy series, Amos 'n' Andy, which debuted four months earlier, was already being filmed at Hal Roach Studios with three 35mm cameras to save time and money. Hal Roach Studios was also used for filming at least two other TV comedies as early as 1950, both airing on ABC, namely Stu Erwin's The Trouble with Father, and the TV version of Beulah; the original 1949/50 Jackie Gleason TV version of The Life of Riley on NBC was also done on film, not live. There were also some dramatic TV shows pre-dating I Love Lucy which were also filmed, not live. But I Love Lucy was the first show to use this film technique in front of a studio audience

more at link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Love_Lucy

[woo me with science]

17. And just as funny now as then.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were both brilliant.

[rucky]

25. Yep!

[Moondog]

15. The Honeymooners.

[Joe Fields]

18. Just about any Twilight Zone. Rod Serling was just simply awesome.

[RandomThoughts]

20. He postulated more doctrines for existence then any other individual

I can think of.

First use of pet doctrine, toy doctrine, had the original idea for poltergeist movie. And Shatner with both the interpreting of the fortune teller, and the gremlin on the wing was awesome. A few good temporal stories.

And the one about the guy that gets whatever he wants.

There are so many great episodes, granny on the phone.

And ofcoarse Obsolete man is one of my favorites, it even has a bit of show doctrine.



In my view when you get challenges in life, some other person had that exact same challenge. And it uses the same pattern. It is the same things tried against many people, and many of them are explained in shows like that. Could be for people to have a way to figure out of them, or in some cases shows like that could reinforce the idea. So that when you get hit by an idea, you suddenly see it everywhere, and it freaks some people. It could have always been there, but you never noticed until something tried to fool you with a bad doctrine of existence.

You can tell what doctrines different people believed if you overcame that doctrine, since you learned the tricks of that doctrine, and why it is flawed. There are lots of them, but people get hit with the same ones.

It is like a playbook for trying to get to a person. And shows like Twilight zone can warn you of many of those traps. Although some episodes can reinforce them, some also include the thoughts to get out of those traps.

To get out of the matrix doctrine trap, all you have to realize is people in the matrix have more say then the users, the users are restricted and have to convince people in the metaphoric matrix to do something. They can't just jump in like agents do, but people can be given ideas both good and bad, the concept of muse.

To get out of big brother trap, again you realize there is another level above that big brother is hiding from.

The secret trap all you have to know is that even if what is around you changes, don't let something make you think or claim you do any of that, that is part of the trap, then it can try to get you worried about even what you think.

Then there is the trap of paranoia, where something tries to make it seem everything you could have said or done will be used in its worst context against you. If you worry about that, its hard to have any conversations. So make sure you say some things offensive occasionally, then you don't have to worry about it. Although it is best to be nice.

Then there is the trap about you saying something then something similar happening, although is it because something put the idea into your head, or that the environment around you was modified and with a perception change something seems like it was close to what you said.

Basically, make some mistakes, then you don't have to worry about making mistakes.

One of the worst ones is where people are convinced the supernatural is like a buy and sell thing, where you are paid if you do certain things, that is making the heavens a market place, and is a key meaning to money for nothing in my view. If you start to think in money terms, you miss the whole point of grace, people don't earn grace in my view.





LOL Money For Nothing by Dire Staits was just changed LOL. That's funny. Ain't ain't a word LOL.

[Orsino]

19. BBC Pride And Prejudice (1995)

Best thing ever to hit the small screen.

[Wolf Frankula]

33. It's better with zombies

When is BBC going to do Pride and Predjudice and Zombies?

Wolf

[Liberal Veteran]

21. Six Feet Under

[jobycom]

22. Northern Exposure, Taxi, Frank's Place, Hill Street Blues.

Northern Exposure for its quirky style and its assumption that the audience could handle a little complexity of thought. Taxi for the lack of a central star, and it's nonsense plotting and jokes (Influenced shows like WKRP, Friends, Jerry Seinfeld). There were others like it (Welcome Back Kotter, Barney Miller, for instance), but Taxi seemed more off the wall than those.

Frank's Place, because it remodeled the whole genre of sitcoms. A single camera, no laugh track, no slapstick, only smart writing and true situational comedy, where the educated, northern Frank had to come to understand southern blue collar culture. It dealt with issues like racism and class, and the differences between northern and southern racism. It was heavy, funny, and more relevant than any other show I can think of, except maybe "All in the Family," and in some ways "The Cosby Show." Shame on the people who canceled it.

Hill Street Blues was the beginning of the more gritty police dramas that have become so standard now. Before that, there were shows like CHIPS and Hawaii Five Oh, with the stylized good guys and bad guys, and the moral certainty in every episode. Hill Street Blues showed cops as humans--confused, personally involved, with lives separate from their jobs but always affected by them. It changed the whole concept of TV drama.

Just my thoughts. Probably wrong, as always.

[InternalDialogue]

41. Taxi was brilliant.

I imagine what it could have been as a mid-20th-century screenplay. It would have lived with the classics. High-school kids would be doing the musical adaptations of the play for decades to come.

Imagine the song:

Jim: (sing-song) What does the yellow light mean?

Others: Slow down.

Jim: (sing-song, but lower) What does the yellow light mean?

[HERVEPA]

61. Great choices. I would add Picket Fences and Brisco County Jr.

[LanternWaste]

23. For the medium, I'd consider...

I'd consider To Serve Them All My Days, Band of Brothers, and Upstairs Downstairs as masterpieces equivalent to the medium.

[lazarus]

24. Deadwood

[kwassa]

32. a very good show. Ground-breaking.

[TheMightyFavog]

26. Why is The Prisoner not mentioned?

You are all unmutual.

[surrealAmerican]

27. Ernie Kovacs ...

... without a doubt.

[flvegan]

28. Top Gear (UK)

[sarge43]

29. Ernie Kovcas

Twilight Zone
MASH
Roots
The Day After
Hill Street Blues
Fawlty Towers
Dream On
The Wire

[Initech]

30. Season 4 of Dexter

[BlueJazz]

34. Madmen

[WinkyDink]

35. Steve Allen owns this thread. :-)

[Mendocino]

36. The Civil War by Ken Burns,

and The Making of a Continent (1983), and The Last Place on Earth (1985).

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

37. Peter Pan 1955 LIVE w/Mary Martin

[WinkyDink]

53. I posted before seeing this! THIS presentation, I kid you not, had a life-long effect on me. I WON'T

grow up!

[Flaxbee]

38. Homicide: Life on the Streets was excellent, at least for several seasons

precursor to "The Wire" which is also listed in this thread.

SOAP was great goofiness.

[Duer 157099]

39. The Wire, Mad Men, Breaking Bad

I could go on and on, there really are quite a few

[JCMach1]

40. Spartacus Blood and Sand

Some of the best fight scenes ever produced and completely over the top visually... ummmmm in all kinds of ways.

[NV Whino]

44. I'll second that

Great writing, great acting, great directing and visually stunning. Not to mention Jo LoDuca's music. All done on a sound stage. Best thing to come along ever.

And totally ignored by the Emmies. :shrug:

[JCMach1]

45. Seriously... and got better with each show...

[Paladin]

42. "The Jewel In The Crown" Back In The 70's When PBS Was Worth A Shit... (n/t)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

46. And Brideshead Revisited.

Loved both of those series.

[queenjane]

59. "Masterpiece Theatre" on PBS, in the 70s and 80s

Wonderful productions of classic novels, or original series set in interesting historical times. (Such as "Upstairs, Downstairs", "Lillie", "Sunset Song", "Testament of Youth", "The Golden Bowl", "Poldark", "The Flame Trees of Thika", "A Town Like Alice", et al.) God, I miss those programs. "Masterpiece Classics/Mystery/Modern"--whatever the hell--is horrid now, except for "Foyle's War", which was canceled, then brought back after actual fans went ballistic. There are a few of us old-school MT fans about.

Read an interview with whomever was running PBS about 10 years ago; the person said they could never broadcast a long-running series like "Upstairs, Downstairs" now, because attention spans are too short.

Sigh . . .

[hippywife]

90. PBS is still worth more than a shit.

As a matter of fact, it's the only channel on TV that is.

[JCMach1]

43. Cosmos...

Mind-blowing stuff with Carl Sagan...

[murielm99]

47. Alfred Hitchcock Presents

[KT2000]

48. Twilight Zone

[Yukari Yakumo]

49. Hmm...

Mobile Suit Gundam- Pretty much one of the most iconic series in history. Any Mecha/Giant Robot series (this also includes Battletech) owes its existance to this.
Sailor Moon- Defined the modern Magical Girl genre
Cowboy Bebop

[MrScorpio]

50. I, Claudius

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_18xktH6Eobk/SNWUX-ckxGI/AAAAAAAAEJY/WcAnQPClUgM/s400/I+Claudius.jpg

http://popclassicsjg.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-claudius-old-king-log.html

[Doc_Technical]

86. I agree with you MrScorpio.

Low budget but great acting.

[MrCoffee]

51. "The Body" - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 5

Absolutely the finest hour of television ever produced. Utterly flawless in every respect.

[soleiri]

74. Yes

I cry every time I watch Buffy's 911 call and Anya's monologue.

[WinkyDink]

52. Some people here are too young! Here's another: Mary Martin's "Peter Pan"!

[JTG of the PRB]

54. Battlestar Galactica, The Wire, Arrested Development, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Four extremely excellent shows.

[Auggie]

55. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson

It refined late night talk, then redefined it, and stayed fresh for 30 years.

It could skew educational, or be moving at times, when it wasn't just plain whacky.

Miraculously, it made the 11:00 news seem not so bad.

It launched huge careers in show business.

And it starred one of the greatest television personalities of all time.

[applegrove]

56. Roots but I only saw part of the series. I wish you could get it on DvD. Roots was also a good book.

[RushIsRot]

89. Roots on DVD

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7390599

[Odin2005]

57. Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" Series.

I got it as a gift for my 8th birthday.

[dixiegrrrrl]

62. Along with that, "Connections, 1 and 2" with James Burke.

[Robeson]

58. The Execution of Private Slovik. The Missiles of October. Pueblo.

[dembotoz]

60. walter cronkite--when jfk was killed

had like 4 hrs on a vhs tape that was riviting
the @#$@$@$@#$ i am married to recorded over it
still angry

[dixiegrrrrl]

63. Back in the late 50's/early 60's

before color tv, wonderful serious plays were put on, one example being
Playhouse 90, an anthology series, telecast on CBS from 1956 to 196, presented 90 minute
dramas,not the usual 60 minute shows of its peers.
and these were done LIVE.
Directors included John Houseman
( the Paper chase), Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer.
It was where Requiem for a Heavyweight was shown, among other excellent plays.
Today some of the series can be found on dvd. I recommend them, they hold up well.

More currently, best of television needs to include Sesame Street, IMHO.

[masmdu]

64. TWIN (FREAKIN') PEAKS!!!!

Best ever no discussion allowed!

[MorningGlow]

65. I agree with a lot already posted; I'd add

Sitcom: WKRP in Cincinnati. Like Taxi and other sitcoms, at its best (season 2 especially) it hit the ideal live-studio-audience/beloved characters/goofy-jokes-that-last-a-lifetime groove.

Dramedy: Gilmore Girls. Amy Sherman-Palladino's writing was absolutely killer. Impeccable.

[styersc]

66. All In The Family. Started a real dialogue around kitchen tables.

Norman Lear was responsible for a lot of conversation.

[soleiri]

67. Small Wonder

End of discussion.

[ChoralScholar]

68. That was a good show... EOM

[Dr Morbius]

69. The West Wing

I'd stack up the first four seasons of TWW against any TV show, ever. Brilliant dialogue; amazing character interplay; riveting storylines.

Someone else mentioned The Prisoner, another really brilliant show. Too short a run, alas.

[ChoralScholar]

70. You are correct about the West Wing.

I was sad when Rob Lowe left. I wish he'd realized the show worked better when Sam WASN'T the center of attention, but a supporting member like Josh or Toby.

I love this scene: Sam gets to play lawyer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHNwAlR65RY

[name not needed]

77. This is still one of my favorite scenes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL8aKMaOewE

[name not needed]

76. Hell, it got us through the Bush years

I know I'm not the only one that just pretended that Martin Sheen was President.

[sarge43]

84. This scene

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaUPDYXQUtw

Small things made that series: Barlett refuses a raincoat, so Charlie takes off his. Brilliant.

[blue neen]

71. "Roots" was the first show that came to my mind, too.

It was an historic use of television as an art form.

[mia]

72. THE ARMY-McCARTHY HEARINGS

I remember my patents watching these hearings. I didn't realize the significance until much later.



U.S. Congressional Inquiry

Broadcast "gavel to gavel" on the ABC and DuMont networks from 22 April to 17 June 1954, the Army-McCarthy hearings were the first nationally televised congressional inquiry and a landmark in the emergent nexus between television and American politics. Though the Kefauver Crime Committee hearings of March 1951 can claim priority as a congressional TV show, and subsequent political spectacles (the Watergate hearings, The Iran Contra hearings, The Thomas-Hill hearings) would rivet the attention of later generations of televiewers, the Army-McCarthy hearings remain the genre prototype for sheer theatricality and narrative unity....

The afternoon of 9 June 1954 brought the emotional climax of the hearings, an exchange replayed in myriad Cold War documentaries. Ignoring a pre-hearing agreement between Welch and Cohn, McCarthy insinuated that one Fred Fischer, a young lawyer at Hale & Dorr, harbored communist sympathies. Welch responded with a righteous outburst that hit all the hot buttons: "Until this moment, senator, I think I never gauged your cruelty or recklessness....Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" When McCarthy tried to strike back, Welch cut him off and demanded the chairman "call the next witness." Pausing just a beat, the hushed gallery erupted in applause. The uncomprehending McCarthy, shot dead on live TV, turned to Cohn and stammered, "What happened?"

What happened was that television, whose coverage of McCarthy's news conferences and addresses to the nation had earlier lent him legitimacy and power, had now precipitated his downfall. Prolonged exposure to McCarthy's odious character and ill-mannered interruptions was a textbook demonstration of how a hot personality wilted under the glare of a cool medium. Toward the close of the hearings, Senator Stuart Symington (Democrat, Missouri) underscored the lesson in media politics during a sharp exchange with McCarthy: "The American people have had a look at you for six weeks. You are not fooling anyone."

The Army-McCarthy hearings were a television milestone not only because of the inherent significance of the event covered but because television coverage itself was crucial to the meaning, and unfolding, of events. Moreover, unlike many historic television moments from the 1950s, the hearings have remained alive in popular memory, mainly due to filmmaker Emile de Antonio, who in 1962 culled from extant kinescopes the landmark compilation film Point of Order!, the definitive documentary record of America's first great made-for-TV political spectacle.

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=army-mccarthy

[begin_within]

73. Best series in TV history.

Many of the episodes could vie for "best," but I would pick the one where
Edward returns from the war as the best episode of any TV series, period.

[NCarolinawoman]

79. Oh yes, they covered the gamet.....

the sinking of the Titanic, 1918 flue epidemic (poor Hazel), WW1 and Post Traumatic Stress, Women's Suffrage....
and all that wonderful romance woven throughout. ;)

[begin_within]

80. There is a new series of it being produced now.

Details are at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1297362/Upstairs-Downstairs-new-cast.html

I just hope they can maintain the quality level of the original series. Fortunately, Jean Marsh, who played Rose and was one of the 2 co-creators of the original series, is starring in the new production and I'm hoping her presence will be a guiding force for the new series, to keep the same level of quality they maintained in the original series. Sadly, many of the original cast members have passed away in the last 35 years, so the rest of the cast is entirely new. There is also a movie in development, but I have read almost nothing about it except that it is still in the development stages.

[NCarolinawoman]

81. Thank you for the information.

I had no idea! I will spread the word to some other people I know who were also fans.

:hi:

[Rowdyboy]

82. What a delightful piece of news....You've made my day

Thanks!

[handmade34]

75. not much of a TV watcher but...

and maybe not materpieces... but seminal

Nature of Things - David Suzuki
Sesame Street
SNL
Perry Mason
Hitchcock
Captain Kangaroo
Monty Python

[Redstone]

83. Ernie Kovacs.

Redstone

[Saboburns]

85. Foyle's War

BBC tellyvision at it'sfinest

[MadBadger]

87. The West Wing

[hippywife]

91. Omnibus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_%28U.S._TV_series%29

[Spider Jerusalem]

92. Fawlty Towers