Your All Time Favorite TV Series?

[Tig]

In the vast wasteland of TV, there are certain stand out series that were/are miles above the rest. Some are mini-series, others held on for many regular seasons. Currently, I'm enjoying Fringe, even if Fox tends to mess with the writing too much.

HBO and a few British made series tend to be the best IMO, with a dash of M*A*S*H* (early seasons) thrown in. HBO's Band of Brothers and The Pacific were incredible, and The Sopranos and Boardwalk Empire were/are entertaining for the mafia movie fans.

However, my all time favorite series will be the Sherlock Holmes series from Granada Television between 1984 and 1994. 42 episodes featuring the arguably best, most authentic Sherlock Holmes of all time, Jeremy Brett.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX6a--uu6QM

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_I9QpEJdkgHI/S0N8ApJpKaI/AAAAAAAAId8/JHVNZaZKdjY/s400/holmes-adventures1985bl.jpghttp://www.curragh-labs.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/holmes-brett-and-burke.jpg

[stingx]

Taxi was my favorite TV series of all time. I have enjoyed a lot of cable series of late, such as The Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, and most recently Spartacus.

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[MAXIFUNK]

Beverly Hillbillies, Andy Griffith show, Sanford and Son, Soul Train, Chiller (local Saturday night horror show in Pittsburgh, Pa), The Ghoul (Saturday night Horror show from Parma, Ohio shown on channel 20 in Detroit. MI), 3 Stooges, Dexter, Spartacus on Starz.

[Beerman]

Friends, Star Trek TNG, Lost, Fringe. Lots of others too but how many favs can you really have?

[bcdon]

Doctor Who
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Six Million Dollar Man
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Mission Impossible
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[marnold]

Monty Python's Flying Circus: all other T.V. shows are trying (and failing) to live up to its awesome wonderfulness.

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[vroomery]

I watch a ton of tv. Probably way too much, but I love being sucked into a show and hanging on the suspense.

Dexter is easily my favorite show with the highlight being Michael C. Hall (Dexter) playing off of John Lithgow (Trinity) in the 4th season. It's definitely a graphic series (the plot centers around a protagonist serial killer who kills serial killers), but it really is incredible.

Lost is another one. So epic right down to the end.

There are so many others, but it would take a while to list them.

[Tig]

I forgot Doctor Who! While I'll always enjoy Tom Baker sine he was the first I watched, my favorite of the many Doctors is David Tennant.
http://www.doctor-who-toys.com/images-files/doctors.jpg

[sunvalleylaw]

That is tough. There have been many favorites. All Time Fav:


For scripted television, I am going to go with:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yc52NckGLs

For unscripted TV, Monty Python's Flying Circus (see Marnold's post above), or maybe the Carol Burnett show.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spxziIkos_I&feature=related

[R_of_G]

^^ Flying Circus was scripted. Granted there's room for improvisation in sketch comedy, but still, much of what we saw was scripted material. Still hilarious though. :)

As for mine...

Favorite animated series: The Simpsons (seasons 1-9), Futurama, Archer

Favorite non-animated series: The Wire, Northern Exposure, Freaks & Geeks

[Eric]

Hmm. Arrested Development, Star Trek: The Next Generation, The New Yankee Workshop.

[guitarhack]

Andy Griffith, Maverick, Star Trek, Taxi, and current favorite The Marty Stuart Show.

[Tig]

Thanks to my much wiser brother, I was exposed to the Python boys when PBS was first airing Flying Circus, and even saw M P & The Holy Grail on opening night (USA).
I've been a twisted lad since.
http://gnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/the-life-of-python20-greatest-monty-python-sketches-545x355.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vjred97hEDs/TWWCONDVM6I/AAAAAAAAAOg/jLF2uYF8e4k/s1600/monty-python-silly-walks-5001144.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00788/history-monty-pytho_788465c.jpg

[oldguy]

I guess a little kid w/ a Shetland pony and a one gallon hat would naturally want to be a cowboy......so I liked westerns.

Gunsmoke.

Probably my favorite, it was top notch writing at the time (hey, it premiered in, like '55, so even the reruns were new to me).
The sets were good, the banter between Doc and Chester (and later, Festus) was subtle but hilarious, the storylines were almost always good.

There was also Palladin, Bonanza, Andy Griffith, The Beverly Hillbillies, All In The Family, Sanford and Son, Green Acres, Gomer Pyle, Peter Gunn, and the early days of Saturday Night Live.
I really enjoyed the old shows where you could laugh, or become engrossed in the story, and there was no profanity or nudity.

[Bloozcat]

Uh, take a wild guess...:poke

<---

[sunvalleylaw]

^^ Flying Circus was scripted. Granted there's room for improvisation in sketch comedy, but still, much of what we saw was scripted material. Still hilarious though. :)

As for mine...

Favorite animated series: The Simpsons (seasons 1-9), Futurama, Archer

Favorite non-animated series: The Wire, Northern Exposure, Freaks & Geeks


True, the sketches were scripted. But I guess I meant more to say a full episode scripted as one piece, rather than a collection of skits or sketches.

I love me some Star Trek too. Both series, but I enjoyed the campiness of the first series, and how they posed issues of the day in alien worlds. And the green ladies.

For animated, The Simpsons was amazing. I would submit that the original Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show was great too. And I wanted to list the original Peanuts shows, when Guaraldi was still alive and before Hallmark really changed Peanuts in the 70s. Those old shows were good stuff.

[R_of_G]

True, the sketches were scripted. But I guess I meant more to say a full episode scripted as one piece, rather than a collection of skits or sketches.

Again though, I'd contend most of the classic episodes of Flying Circus meet that standard as well. The Pythons were able to craft shows where the bits would flow into the next, sometimes as a result of a running joke, sometimes a thematic link to the whole episode, etc. It stood in contrast to shows like SNL which were more the collection of skits you describe. I didn't see another sketch show that did that until Mr. Show (a must-see for David Cross fans.)


I would submit that the original Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show was great too.

The music in those Looney Tunes classics is fantastic as well, much of it the work of the great Carl Stalling. Stalling was a huge influece on John Zorn's Naked City project, one of my favorite bands.

Also, Eric, good call on Arrested Development. That show was able to achieve new frontiers with the running joke concept, one of the many things about Archer which make me think of Arrested Development.

Two more of my favorites, Curb Your Enthusiasm and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Both are done an injustice by just calling them funny.

[Jimi75]

T h e S o p r a n o s

[wingsdad]

OG, you're so right about that 'golden age' of late 50's - 60's - early 70's TV... the land before cable, when you only had 3 major networks to choose from, and then 1 or 2 local market stations. The dial went to 13, and you were lucky if you had as many as 6 stations to sort thru...but that era's spirit and tradition did survive the eventual commercial holocaust...

Taxi was my favorite TV series of all time.
Exactly my first thought, and that very episode at that. Great ensemble cast, launching pad to stardom for Christopher Lloyd. Second would be this, similiar type ensemble cast in a simliar 'gathering place' base setting. The supporting cast evolved over the years and introduced a number of talents that would claim fame on their own, but this 8 minute opening from the 4th season captures most of the show's 'stock & trade' with the regulars in the first few minutes, then the great pop theme song...and 5 minutes in we meet 'Woody Boyd'...who eerily resembles the persona of the dearly departed 'Coach' he replaces...and like Lloyd's, another career takes off with Harrelson's...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpcWtujp9PE

[Bloozcat]

OK, other than my obvious Star Trek obsession - TOS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise (every incarnation except Deep Space 9), my other favorites are:

The Twighlight Zone
Outer Limits
Wild Wild West
Combat!
The Man From Uncle


Comedies
Taxi
Cheers
M*A*S*H
Seinfeld
Two And A Half Men (although the show and the whole Charlie Sheen thing is wearing a bit thin).

I'm sure I'll think of others, but these come to mind quickly.

[Eric]

Also, Eric, good call on Arrested Development. That show was able to achieve new frontiers with the running joke concept, one of the many things about Archer which make me think of Arrested Development.
I love the Ann jokes in Arrested Development.

"It's as ann as the nose on Plain's face!"

[tunghaichuan]

Good call on Arrested Development, great show. I never missed an episode.

I also really liked The X Files and Millennium.

Bugs Bunny is my all-time favorite animated character.

In terms of new shows, I've been catching up on Star Wars: Clone Wars. The new CGI animated series. The first two seasons are out on DVD now and the third season is now currently showing on the Cartoon Network, IIRC. The acting is way less wooden than the first three of the new Star Wars movies. :rollover

[R_of_G]

I love the Ann jokes in Arrested Development.

"It's as ann as the nose on Plain's face!"

"Her?"

Those writers excelled at using the same punchline for different jokes.

[Tig]

I had to watch the rest of that episode!
Thx

[red]

Northern Exposure, The Thick of It, Yes Minister, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Beavis and Butt-Head, Lano and Woodley, Monty Python, 3rd Rock from the Sun

Some others I can't recall... :)

[Tig]

I finished watching the first year of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, and had a great time. I almost gave up on it during the first episode, but it got better. Sure, the graphics are a bit cheap and the blood is over done, but the story and acting make up for it.

I'm now watching the prequel 6 episode series. The second full season will be without the lead actor since he is still suffering from non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

[deeaa]

Galactica, Day of The Triffids, Dead Set, Sopranos, Sons of Anarchy...comedywise, Fawlty Towers, Secret Army, Yes Minister, King of The Hill...loads of good ones.

[street music]

Bay watch! , emergency, jump street

[Monkus]

i loved Serenity and both Stargates. My fav now though is fringe.

[Tig]

Dexter
I'm late to the party on this one, but loving this show. I'm through the first season and halfway into the second. Dark humor and excellent writing at its finest!

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/new-dexter-poster_556x417.jpg

[Robert]

Twin Peaks
Lost
Month Python and the Flying Circus
Fawlty Towers

(Not McGyver, although I laughed a lot at it ... ;) )

[tunghaichuan]

Dexter
I'm late to the party on this one, but loving this show. I'm through the first season and halfway into the second. Dark humor and excellent writing at its finest!

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/new-dexter-poster_556x417.jpg

OT:

I've been meaning to catch that show sometime. The books are fantastic.

There is another series of books I've been reading in the same vein, written by Dan Wells. The first one is called "I am Not a Serial Killer" followed by "Mr. Monster" and the newest one called "I Don't Want to Kill You." The deal with a 15-16 year old high school student, John Wayne Cleaver, who knows he is a sociopath, and actively takes steps to curb his desire to commit serial killings. He works for his mom at the local funeral home, which doesn't help. :rollover The books are alot like the Dexter series, although the Dan Wells' books deal more with the supernatural. :AOK

[sunvalleylaw]

I'll add a post of current shows I like. Austin City Limits of course, and several other PBS shows like "The American Experience", and Mythbusters.

For current network, I like Modern Family, and my guilty pleasure show, "Gray's Anatomy" which I like to watch with my wife as part of our Thursday night hangout. We DVR it and watch it after the kids are in bed. Used to do the same thing with ER, and for a few years, both. Funny, I don't like watching legal drama shows, and haven't since "LA Law" back when I was a law student.

[Robert]

I forgot some.

Mantracker - my favorite show!
Departures - great travel show
Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares

[Tig]

Departures - great travel show


In the US on PBS, Globe Trekker.
Great travel show.

[Commodore 64]

A-Team
Firefly
Deep Space 9
Babylon 5 (Except the last season)
PBR Bullriding

Those are some of my favorites.

[Katastrophe]

Here were my all time faves as a kid...

A-Team
Magnum, P.I.
The Fall Guy
Knight Rider
Airwolf
Miami Vice
StarTrek, TNG
Battlestar Galactica (the original series, with Lorne Greene as Adama)

[omegadot]

I guess the various Stargates are mine. I was sad to see Universe get canned, I was really enjoying it.

[Spudman]

http://images.cucirca.com/tvshows/Lost.jpg

http://www.mauricebroaddus.com/uploaded_images/star-trek-7-747458.jpg
and every version after

http://download-weeds-episodes.edogo.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/weeds1.jpg

http://alntv.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/dexter.jpg?w=300&h=347

[Tig]

http://www.mauricebroaddus.com/uploaded_images/star-trek-7-747458.jpg


Highly recommended read...
http://adaptiveblue.img.s3.amazonaws.com/books/i_am_spock/leonard_nimoy/small

[Spudman]

Thank you sir. I'll check it out...without any emotion of course.


Highly recommended read...
http://adaptiveblue.img.s3.amazonaws.com/books/i_am_spock/leonard_nimoy/small

[sunvalleylaw]

Thank you sir. I'll check it out...without any emotion of course.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu1qa8N2ID0

[R_of_G]

You can go ahead and add Treme to my list, right at the top just below The Wire.

Not having HBO, I had to wait until this past week's DVD release of Season 1 to finally see it but given the fact that it's much of the same production and writing staff from The Wire, I expected I'd be as addicted to it as I was to The Wire. I was right.

While there are many stories weaving in and out of one another in this show, the primary focus of the show is musicians, specifically New Orleans musicians.

I'll say this as simply as I can... if you consider yourself a musician and you can't dig this show, something's wrong with you.

[Tig]

I never heard of Treme until your post. I just finished watching the first episode and liked it quite a bit.
It has such a real feel to it, warts and all. Nawlins is such a unique place and this production has captured it well. I haven't been there since the year before Katrina, though.

[R_of_G]

I never heard of Treme until your post. I just finished watching the first episode and liked it quite a bit.
It has such a real feel to it, warts and all.

That's the David Simon trademark. I've joked with my wife that thanks to The Wire I can no longer watch any other cop shows because while I always knew they had unrealistic elements to them, once I've seen a show that took the time to do things correctly, those things in the other shows just seemed so glaringly off. He's mentioned on commentary tracks that he meets a lot of police who tell him that they love the show because it's the only tv cop show they've ever seen that accurately portrays the way law enforcement works from the office politics on down to the street policing.

Simon and his people just have a different approach to doing television, an approach that trusts the audience to not need its hand held.

FYI, here's an excellent interview with Simon about why he chose New Orleans as the subject of his current project and some of the things he hopes to accomplish with Treme. Even down to the depth of his answers to interview questions Simon comes across as radically different than pretty much any creator/writer of any other television show.

http://www.alternet.org/culture/150747/why_the_creator_of_%27the_wire%27_turned_the_camer a_to_new_orleans/

[Tig]

I'm watching episode 7 and have really enjoyed the story telling. You get an insider's view which allows you to appreciate the cultural nuances New Orleans has. Thanks for exposing us to this series, R_of_G.

//After Katrina, we were swamped with N.O. refugees. Many were good people, full of thanks, but a few gained the nickname, "Katricians", due to their destructive path. Trashing the apartments and hotels rooms that were provided for free, buying dope with aid money, murders, and all the fine activities that unfortunately give the rest of the people a bad name. It is nice to see an insider's view to understand the bigger picture.

Next week the Mississippi River will crest near N.O., and no one knows if the levies will hold this time.

[R_of_G]

I'm watching episode 7 and have really enjoyed the story telling. You get an insider's view which allows you to appreciate the cultural nuances New Orleans has.

After five seasons of The Wire I realized that the "star" of the show wasn't any of the actors, as spectacular as they were. The star was the city of Baltimore.

It seems Mr. Simon and crew are doing the same with New Orleans. If you create authentic characters and have them act in realistc ways, the culture of the setting has to influence that. That's why more than any other show, these characters feel like real people to me.

Too many other shows use their settings as nothing more than background for establishing shots but don't really portray the city/region that is home to the world of the show.

[Pickngrin]

off the top of my head...
Arrested Development
Six Feet Under
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Cheers (before it 'jumped the shark')

[Tig]

Treme season 3, episode 1 has finally aired. :AOK
It still has teeth enough to get you mad at times and enthralled during others.

[Glacies]

Seinfeld! I win!

Firefly and Stargate TV series franchise too. I wish they bring those back.

[R_of_G]

Treme season 3, episode 1 has finally aired. :AOK
It still has teeth enough to get you mad at times and enthralled during others.

Also announced this week that HBO has given David Simon a shortened fourth season which will be Treme's last. I'm curious to see if they jump forward a bit in time to cover the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

Oh and since the last time I replied to this thread, you can go ahead and add Breaking Bad to my list as well. There are very few shows as well done as that one.

[Tig]

My favorites that are currently on the air:



Game of Thrones (I'm currently reading the first book)
Sons of Anarchy
Grimm
Boardwalk Empire
The Walking Dead (a guilty pleasure)
Treme
History Detectives
Copper
Falling Skies (so-so, but entertaining)
Hell on Wheels
Touch (incredible writing)



I just started watching season 1 of Homeland, which might make the list.

[Blaze]

OZ !! ...Mean ..wicked


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dllKFoLmtU4


Deadwood ... Astonishing


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfMSxf6P_AM

[R_of_G]

OZ !! ...Mean ..wicked

Oz was an excellent show. I re-watched the whole run of it last year, and it amazes me how many actors the show featured who were virtually unknown at the time that have gone on to appear in many many more things since then. I had to stop myself from playing "that guy was in the Wire... he was on the Sopranos... etc..." because if you did it for everyone on that show, you'd miss a whole episode by the time you were done.

[Tone2TheBone]

Since I finally have Xfinity High Speed Internet I've been streaming all the good ole programs mentioned plus some cool new ones. One of my favorites right now is "Breaking Bad". Filmed here in Albuquerque. It's fun for us to watch cause we recognize all the scenes and know where they are. We finished season 4 so we have to wait till next year to finish season 5 which is the last season. We have HS Internet but not AMC channel on purchased television.



"I am the one who knocks!" - Walter White aka Heisenberg
http://images.wikia.com/breakingbad/images/c/c0/WaltS5.jpg

[Photomike666]

I'm not a big tv watcher (if we didn't own one it wouldn't bother me), but there are a few shows I don't mind...

Friends - for the humor
Star Trek Voyager - 7 of 9 mmmmmm
Star gate SG1 - not the others
Warehouse 13 - it's just wacky
Top Gear & Mythbustets

As a kid I enjoyed
Dukes of Hazard
A-Team
The Fall Guy
Hardball

[deeaa]

All time? I'll skip when I was a kid...Galactica was a must back then. Once made my dad drive 60 miles to reach a TV when ours broke at the cottage...could not miss the episode. Which I still remember clear as day (it was the one where Starbuck gets stranded on a planet with a cylon who he repairs and befriends).

But as an adult...maybe Sopranos...also liked Frazier a lot. More recent ones, the 1st season of Walking Dead rocked. Sons of Anarchy was great too.

But, ultimately...I guess my favorite ones are Mythbusters, How it's Made and pretty much any well done documentary series on either some serious tech, science or nature stuff.
Anything with weird machines, technology, old weird things and such, underwater, wrecks, history to some extent...

I suppose as one grows older the less one gets excited by fictional stuff and gets more and more interested in science etc.

Not to say I don't enjoy fiction enormously too, just that I'd often rather watch a very well made program on the birth of the universe or secrets of the deep sea or understand more about psychology or economics, whatever.

[Barre Fly]

Oh and since the last time I replied to this thread, you can go ahead and add Breaking Bad to my list as well. There are very few shows as well done as that one.
Ahh Jayson, I knew you'd be digging BB :) We've kinda just recently got Netflix over here in the UK so I signed up for my free month and managed to watch all 4 seasons of Breaking Bad in that time. I've now seen the first 8 eps of season 5 and almost wish I hadn't because I'm going to go insane waiting until next year!! I sort of hope they wrap it up with season 5 whilst it's still so good, it becomes really awkward when a good show doesn't know when to stop.

Other than that I've been rewatching all my favourite UK comedies alot lately; Black Books, Spaced, Green Wing, Garth Marenghi's Dark Place and the like. I also got given boxsets of Carnivale and Deadwood late last year and early this year, which I'd not seen before - and they were both so immense. I also love my tv brain candy which is currently in the form of Supernatural, although I'm waiting for the next season of that now (it is slightly in danger of over playing itself a bit like Buffy did, but I get to stare at the Winchester brothers a while longer so, what the hell!)

[tomchang01]

a number of talents that would claim fame on their own, but this 8 minute opening from the 4th season

[Tig]

Treme, season 3, episode 7 should earn an Emmy nomination.
:applause

[R_of_G]

Treme, season 3, episode 7 should earn an Emmy nomination.
:applause

For the episode itself (a writing/directing Emmy) or for a specific acting performance? You know how I feel about the quality of the writing staff and there are at least half a dozen cast members who are worthy of awards for their work (not to mention an Oscar winner among them in Melissa Leo).

[Tig]

For the episode itself (a writing/directing Emmy) or for a specific acting performance? You know how I feel about the quality of the writing staff and there are at least half a dozen cast members who are worthy of awards for their work (not to mention an Oscar winner among them in Melissa Leo).

The episode was like a shining, best moments of the series kind of story. It focused on emotions and life changing directions of almost every character. Most series do that as a last episode of the season cliff hanger. It was longer than the usual 1 hour, too.