is a meme sheep.

[derien]

Empire Magazine has revealed its list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows ever.


1. Bold the programmes you watch/used to watch.
2. Italicize the programmes you've seen at least one episode of.
3. Underline the programmes you own on DVD (or VCR tape).
4. Post your answers.



50. Quantum Leap - This was my guilty pleasure - nobody thought this was a good show at the time.
49. Prison Break
48. Veronica Mars
47. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - This was truly good in the first few seasons.
46. Sex & The City
45. Farscape I think I saw it once? Maybe not even a whole ep. It didn't seem all that great.
44. Cracker (never heard of it)
43. Star Trek
42. Only Fools and Horses (never heard of it)
41. Band of Brothers
40. Life on Mars
39. Monty Python (liked it but never saw it on a regular basis)
38. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Star Trek: The Next Generation
36. Father Ted
35. Alias
34. Frasier
33. CSI Las Vegas
32. Babylon 5
31. Deadwood
30. Dexter
29. ER
28. Fawlty Towers
27. Six Feet Under
26. Red Dwarf
25. Futurama
24. Twin Peaks
23. The Office
22. The Shield
21. Angel
20. Blackadder
19. Scrubs
18. Arrested Development (tried to get into it, couldn't)
17. South Park
16. Doctor Who
15. Heroes
14. Firefly
13. Battlestar Galactica (I think we watched the original series fairly regularly when we were kids.)
12. Family Guy
11. Seinfeld
10. Spaced
09. The X-Files
08. The Wire
07. Friends
06. 24
05. Lost
04. The West Wing
03. The Sopranos
02. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
01. The Simpsons


Yeah, right, this was composed by some twenty-something. No I Love Lucy, which would definitely get included by an older person, no All In The Family, which did some major groundbreaking stuff and was very cutting edge for it's time. I think they were the first show to film in front of a live studio audience rather than using a laugh track, and they attacked racism and bigotry more than any other show of the time, bringing these things into public consciousness. M*A*S*H* is not included? No, this is really a pathetic list. It's nice that the sci-fi shows are weighing in heavily, but there's obviously bias, here.

Comments

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

Uh, yeah, sorry, but Buffy is not #2 on any 'Best TV' list. Family Guy shouldn't even be on the list.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I haven't even seen Family Guy so I don't know, but it does seem pretty popular. I'd have thought, though, that if we wanted to talk the animateds King of the Hill would be better.

Buffy, I don't know. I could never see how anyone could watch it, but maybe because I just don't get the camp thing so much. It's fine in spoofs, short sketch comedy bits and that sort of thing, but for a whole show, half hour after half hour, season after season? Why not just try to do a good show, wouldn't it take less effort?

[mizzmarvel.livejournal.com]

I think Buffy was a full hour.

[doublefourtime.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with your assessment. The two programmes you've never heard of are really British ones and Empires is a British-produced magazine (I believe it's distributed worldwide too. Maybe) which would account for that, heh. That's probably why I Love Lucy and All In The Family aren't on there. I would've expected M*A*S*H, though.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that's why the sci-fi shows do so much better on this list than I would have expected? I think any American magazine would not list any sci-fi shows on the general principle that the majority of the public discounts them all as being lousy without ever watching them. Although possibly that might be changing; I would love to be surprised.

[doublefourtime.livejournal.com]

Empire are pretty pro-sci-fi, if I remember correctly. I used to buy it back in the day when I was into Buffy and the X-Men films, and whenever a superhero film came out it's be front page/massive articles/hype and all that. Or maybe they just go with whatever's biggest/most enduring/fanatical in the film/television world, I'm not sure.

I don't think sci-fi's that big in the UK, either (I'm not really in the loop though, Buffy and Angel always got shifted to midnight or cut to shreds for a 6pm viewing), though maybe it's growing on both sides of the Atlantic now that Heroes and Lost are so widely acclaimed?

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Cracker was great. It was a really gritty drama about a criminologist played by Robbie Coltrane.

Oh god, you haven't wathced Father Ted or Firefly! I don't even like telly, but I love those.

[derien.livejournal.com]

I've heard people talk about them a lot, but no, I've never had the opportunity to see anything of them. I'd like to.