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.

[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.

[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


Six Million Dollar Man


Mission Impossible

[marnold***]

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

[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.

[sunvalleylaw]

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


For scripted television, I am going to go with:



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

[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.

[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...

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[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...