Please take note of my age and gender as to why I'm picking some of these shows and leaving out others. I am not a female of a certain age, so
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
My So-Called life did not make the cut, excellent shows though they were.
Also, even though it may sometimes seem like it, I have not watched every show ever created, so I'm sorry Deadwood and The Wire fans - I can't rank what I haven't seen!
So, without further ado, unranked but in a sorta ascending order nevertheless:
ER - Best Medical Drama
I have to admit I haven't seen this show since Anthony Andrews left. After his character's season-long illness and death, after the most devastating moment in television drama history (
Love's Labour Lost), I had had enough. I couldn't watch this show, be completely torn apartby 11:00 at night every Thursday, and be expected to go to bed like everything was alright. Uh uh. No more for me. Seriously though, some of the most brilliant writing on television. I'm amazed it's still going on.
Iconic moment: choosing between the entire episode of
Love's Labour Lost (don't see it if you don't want to be completely devastated) and Mark Greene's death is too hard; plus I just want to choose a moment that was HAPPY, dammit!
Doug and Carol reunited
The Twilight Zone - Best BOO!
"You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Twilight Zone!"
I loved loved loved this show when I was a kid. So scary, so thought-provoking, so eternally cool. Rod Serling was a genius, period.
Iconic moment:
"It's a cookbook!"
Flamingo Road - Best Prime Time Soap
I'm sure no one but me remembers this torrid, 80's-era prime time soap that took place deep in the heart of redneck - but rich! - Florida. It starred Mark Harmon, Morgan Fairchild, John Beck, Stella Stevens and the delectable Christina Raines:
Think all of the political machinations you might see on The Dukes of Hazzard - but taken seriously! This show made Tennessee Williams look tame and reserved by comparison! Hmmm....I wonder if it's available on DVD anywhere??
Iconic moment: none really...
so here's the opening credits!
L.A. Law - Best Legal Show
L.A. Law was about different legal cases, yes, but it also took just as much interest in the lawyers behind those cases. The characters were hilariously venal, shy, stupid and heroic, all at the same time! I especially loved Arnie Becker, the vain divorce lawyer. It also portrayedLos Angeles as a strangely attractive city to a fledgling, wannabe screenwriter.
Iconic moment: probably Rosiland Shay falling down the elevator shaft,
but I'd rather show prime-times first ever Lesbian kiss!!!
Northern Exposure - Best "Funny" Drama
OMG did I want to move to Sicily, Alaska when this show was on. I wanted to BE Dr. Joel, only...not so whiny. I had such a crush on Shelly, you wouldn't believe. I also dug the friendship between Maurice and Holling, and DJ Chris' radio ramblings and his goofy art. No TV show has ever done "whimsy" as well as it was done on Northern Exposure. Gotta love the moose, too.
Iconic moment:
The Northern Lights
The Practice - Best David E. Kelly Show
I love David E. Kelly's twisted little mind. How he keeps coming up with incredible legal cases show after show is beyond me. The Practice was very adult, very funny (at times) and very, very good. It had some of the very best villains to ever grace the TV screen. Like all of the shows on my list, it's best attribute was the shows' writers. Time and time again, they pulled the rug out from under me when I thought I knew which side of a case I would be on.
Iconic moment: The head in the bowling bag, ldo.
Twin Peaks - Best WTF?
David Lynch is a freak and an alien and probably on some kind of drug-induced mind-bender his whole life. thank god for that, or we'd never have seen this bizarre soap opera about a high school girl's murder, ladies who talk to logs, deputies who cry, and all of it presented in a deadly serious, over-the-top, perfectly ridiculous way. Bob lives!
Iconic moment:
what else?
Star Trek - Best Show with William Shatner
Star Trek proved that serious science fiction could work on TV, if only for three years. Sure, the SFX were cheesy, the red shirts always died, but Bones was cool, Uhura was a babe, and Kirk dipped his wick in every imaginable alien trim across the universe. See?
What's not to love?
Iconic moment:
"He's dead, Jim."
Picket Fences - Best WTF pt. 2
What a bizarre little show. The series follows the lives of the residents of the small town of Rome, Wisconsin, where weird things happen, including cows giving birth to human babies, transgender teachers, and a spate of people turning up dead in freezers. It was a drama, a comedy, a legal thriller, a science fiction show and a soap opera all wrapped up in one! I had such a crush on Lauren Holly, too. This is where David E. Kelly honed his legal story-writing, too. No one has come up with a better "gotcha" then the Picket Fences' storyline about a serial killer who, in a bravura surprise, turns into TWO Serial killers who complement each other. Probably one of the greatest reveals in television history.
Iconic Moment: see above.
Bonanza - Best Horse ****
Growing up, I NEVER EVER EVER missed an episode of Bonanza. Or, as my sister would call it, "Bananas." There's a great comedy bit about Ben Cartwright having threes sons ten years younger than him by three different women. I can't recall who it's by though! Anyway, this Western ran for an astounding 14 seasons, and when it was canceled in 1973 I thought part of the World had Ended, since I had never been in a world that didn't have Bonanza in it. Hoss was my favorite, of course. He was everybody's favorite.
Iconic moment:
the theme song!
Hill Street Blues - Show that probably made me cry the most
This show kills me. Killlllls me. Bobby and Esterhaus dying, the desperate sadness of Frank Furillo, all the cases on the cold, hard streets of that unnamed city. It was the first "real" cop show that showed the police in all their glory - warts and all. So, so good.
Iconic moment:
"Let's be careful out there."
Miami Vice - Best Dressed Show
Legend has it Michael Mann pitched this to the network in two words: "MTV Cops." It sold immediately. People remember the pastels, the alligator, the bad actor who played Don Johnson's partner, and Sheena Easton dying, but I think most would be surprised at how consistently good the show was. Great stories, evil villains, and a perfect anti-hero in Sonny. Such a good show.
Iconic moment:
the opening credits, ldo!
The Waltons - Best Family Show
Every Thursday night my Mom and I would watch this great show together and bond. I don't think there has ever been a show on TV so entertaining in showing the good in people. Creator Earl Hamner never preached at us, he always showed us the light and the dark of every situation, but enveloped it all in a familial love that was as strong as it was un-corny. You know, I always hated that our house was too damn big to do The Walton's patented "good nights" to each other! The character of John Boy Walton was someone any little boy growing up strived to be like: honest, compassionate, and strong.
Iconic Moment:
goodnight!
St. Elsewhere - Best Hospital Show on Acid
For a hospital show, this one was all over the place: doctors getting raped or becoming rapists, dying and going to heaven but then coming back, getting AIDS or cancer, and finally all of it becoming nothing but a dream in an autistic
boy's head! Such a great, great cast of characters led by the incomparable Mark Craig.
Iconic moment: When David Morse's Boomer loses his wife in a car accident, and her heart is transplanted into another person. He goes and visits the heart recipient in recovery just so he can lean down and place his ear over her heart - to hear his dead wife's heartbeat.
Since I can't find that on Youtube,
here's Dr. Westphal's famous "kiss my ass" scene NSFW!!!
thirtysomething - Best Tearjerker
I was going through a few bum relationships during the run of this show, and it really touched me. Great writing, great acting, and some of the most adult television ever produced. Nancy's battle with cancer, her and Elliot's marital woes, Michael and Elliot's struggles at work, all of it was perfect. I think I actually cried when this show went off the air. Timothy Busfield is an amazing actor and he was never better than in this show.
Iconic moments:
Nancy's recovery and
Gary's death. Nancy's line after hearing of his death still stays with me: "But I got better."
Lost - Best WTF pt. 3
Easily the best show ever about a plane full of people who crash on an island that can apparently jump around in space and time. It's also got polar bears! Is there any love story in recent memory more touching that Desmond and Penny's? And who cares if half the questions it poses probably won't ever be satisfactorily answered? It's the journey that makes it so much fun!
iconic moment:
thar she blows!!!
The Shield - Best Cop Show
Wow, has there ever been a cop show so real and gritty? The first episode features our supposed hero gunning down another cop in cold blood! It's a nasty, brutal, riveting show, and has one of my favorite TV characters of all-time, Dutch.
The exploits and heroics of The Strike Force are almost operatic in scope, and it's only the talents of the cast and crew that raise it all way beyond the level of mere melodrama. Great show.
Iconic moment: Shane kills Lem. Man, that was hard to watch.
Battlestar Galactica - Best Hot Robot Chicks
Fantastic in ever possibly way. Take a an old joke-of-a-TV show and re imagine it as something deadly serious and you get Battlestar Galactica. The religious, spiritual, military, social and political themes this show takes on is simply astounding. It also has the best SFX of any show, ever. Edward James Olmos is perfect as Adama, isn't he? He's also the only actor to make my list two times!
Iconic moment: when the Four are revealed to be Cylons.
The Sopranos - Best Show With Naughty Words
The Sopranos hasn't been eclipsed in drama and pathos since, well, Shakespeare was in his prime. From the moment we found out Tony's own MOTHER was plotting with his Uncle to wack him, I was hooked. Possibly the best writing on any show, period. Plus, it has the extra added bonus of being about relatives of mine!
Iconic moment:
Adriana gets wacked.
The West Wing - Best Show Ever
The West Wing is my favorite show, ever. Probably for the simple reason that it's the way we wish our government actually worked, and how we wish our leaders actually behaved. Fantastic writing, an even better cast, and one of the few shows in TV history that always taught me something and made me think, while still being entertaining as hell. I was even thrilled with the last season, where Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda came aboard for a change in administrations. I wish it was still on.
Iconic moment:
The end of Bartlett For America