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

OK, I'll give you a pass on Deadwood, and I'll try to get Al Swearengen to calm down and get over it...

...but Andy Sipowicz is miffed. He called you "that computer hump, probably jerking off to some porno, those computer guys are big on that."

lol....i appreciated NYPD Blue but never loved it....

I've never watched a single episode of any one of those shows

I am named after Michael Landon, though, so I do have Bonanza to thank for my goofy ass name.

Did fat, bolding, middle aged guys ever have a bigger hero? I used to love that show.

Oh screw you and your stupid The Shield spoilers when I'm in the middle of season 5 right now blaah.

Though I wouldn't rank it best show ever, nice on the WW nomination. I also would have given The Practice a double win by ranking it as the best Law show as well.

And of course you're missing The Wire (as you mentioned) which should be number 1 in almost every category.

Hillstreet, Miami Vice and Twinpeaks are great picks, but I just couldent watch Westwing.
The pompous way they talk kills it for me.
Another big favorite is Seinfeld, funniest show ever made.

no Oz? no Dexter? wtf? try again Dom

You had me right up 'til 'West Wing', blech.

Great list, though.

My mom used to send her fifth-graders to recess with "Let's be careful out there."

Andy Sipowicz is a clone of Norman Buntz from Hill St. anyway, so I think you have him covered.

My favorite moment from Hill St. was when Belker was booking a guy in the opening teaser of an episode.

"Name?"
"Curtis."
(growls the dog growl)"Your last name."
"Interruptus."

It's OK - you're forgiven for being made genetically inferior and thereby incapable of picking truly excellent TV shows.

But seriously though - why do you think only females like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

EDIT: I can't even post a Buffy clip because all of the ones on youtube are set to stupid music...WTF???

These are my (two) favorite Soprano moments: (guess before you look)

Favorite #1

Favorite #2

Oh - your Battlestar Galactica blurb made me realize a crucial element missing from the show: WHERE ARE THE HOT MALE CYLONS???? HUH? WHERE ARE THEY? GIRLS NEED EYE CANDY TOO!!

Oh, and it'd be cool if you warned us about the spoilers. Some of us didn't catch these shows the first time around and were planning on getting the DVDs.

<- me when I read the Soprano's spoiler

Aren't you the one posting the Apollo beefcake pic?

IMO, some things are just zeitgeist, not spoilers. They're part of the cultural fabric and unavoidable.

It's like not wanting to be told Lincoln got shot.

Wow yeah, I completely forgor about Oz, first few seassons of that was just great.
Dexter is good too, im all for creative ways of renewing old genres, and Dexter is definitely a fresh way of doing a crime show.
I just hated most of season 2, where there were like 10 episodes in a row where nothing happened, because of the lame love interest side plot.
Now that he finally got around to killing her, mayby the show picks up in season 3?

Yes, but he's NOT a Cylon. You get hot Cylons (Number 6, Sharon, XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS) AND hot humans (Starbuck according to Dom and Dee).

WHERE ARE MY HOT MALE CYLONS? Are they in Season 3 (I haven't watched that one yet....tell me yes. Something to really look forward to )

Here is the Twilight Zone that still has me freaked out (and it conveniently incorporates another of your categories):

Unbearably Freaky Twilight Zone

One of the things about Dom's list I like was the fact that they were all (with one exception) network shows, as opposed to cable productions. The Sopranos, Oz, and the like were good shows, but had, what, 12-15 shows per "season"? More like elongated miniseries, at least to my archaic opinion.

I realize that TV has evolved, and that is a part of it, but the fact is that the shows listed had 23-26 shows a season (or more), and all these shows had very little filler. For a show like West Wing to maintain such quality over such a period of time gives it the nod over some of those cable favorites. The Sopranos, for instance, could barely pound out thirteen shows a season. I'm not advocating a strict "quantity over quality" aesthetic, here, but if we're winnowing, that should be considered.

And I'm not really a David Kelly fan, but Picket Fences may be the most underrated drama of all time. It is not an exaggeration to call it "amazing".

I would have added:

Perry Mason-Encyclopedia Brown for grown ups. He did, in fact, lose one case. But he won the appeal.

Police Story-All those cop shows mentioned owe a debt to this Joseph Wambaugh creation. Wambaugh, a former LA cop who followed Hemingway's dictum that he write what he knows, is one of the finest modern "pulp" stylists, and brought as much of that realism to this program as was possible at the time.

Have Gun, Will Travel-The best TV western, period. Paladin (Richard Boone) was a sophisticated, educated gun for hire. Not afraid to or incapable of mixing it up if he had to, his genius lay in his resourcefulness and ability to solve problems without violence. Kind of a philosophical MacGyver in a cowboy hat. James Bond can only aspire to the smoothness of Paladin.

The Fugitive-Inspired by the Sam Shepard murder case, this series, about a wrongly accused man on the run and trying to find his wife's killer, had a claustrophobic feel that really brought home the man's plight. Kind of a stylistic predecessor to 24. It's a shame that references to "a one-armed man" don't have the same cultural resonance they used to.

You're missing 'Best Comedy Show with the Funniest Scene ever'

Taxi


You know the scene. Slow Down if you don't.

EDIT: DOH! Dramas =/= comedies.

oh and best Boo Show is either Outer Limits or Night Gallery, not Twilight Zone.

Dominic, good list. I haven't seen a lot of this list(only 25), but a bunch of them are on my list of shows that I need to see. Hill Street Blues is one of my all time favorites shows and I'm annoyed that only the first two seasons are on DVD.

I never could get in too ER, though, and Picket Fences was too tame for my tastes(although I only watched 4 episodes). How much of Buffy have you seen? It isn't just for teenage girls, Judging by your tastes in other shows, I would think you would enjoy it. Oh, and of course, watch The Wire.

Oh yeah, and the first season of Dexter is absolutely brilliant.

Hobby, there will be at least one hot male Cylon and actually some of my female friends are very fond of Leoben in terms of hotness, but maybe Leoben is like Starbuck in that it attracts some and not all (I am not attracted to Starbuck).

Dom, I take offense to saying that only girls like Buffy. The love Buffy receives comes from guys too. If you think Buffy is too girly, give Angel a try, it is really good (I like it more than Buffy) and there's also Firefly and in the Fall there will be a new Joss Whedon show called "Dollhouse" which looks very cool.

Homicide: Life on the Street

The show that followed the book that followed the newspaper career that introduced David Simon.

Andre Braugher, Kyle Secor, Jon Polito, Daniel Baldwin, Melissa Leo, Yaphet Kotto, Ned Beatty, Richard Belzer, Clark Johnson, et, al - perhaps the epitome of network televsion ensemble acting.

Red ink. Black ink.

The telephones.

Red balls.

The box.

He What?

Thanks a lot, Chip. I've only read up to Gettysburg.

On your list Dom I think Hill St. Blues was really a groundbreaker for television.
It was truly an original. It allowed there to be really complex story lines and complex characters and acting to come to the screen.

Because Hill St. Blues was a success we were able to get several other good series like L.A. Law and NYPD Blue. I think a case could be made that Hill St. Blues's success also made ER, The Sopranos and Lost possible.

Complex characters, continuing story lines (soap operatic in nature) in particular niche settings: courtrooms, hospitals, police departments, etc.

Another funny thing is I think tv series writing went up a notch. Shows like The Sopranos won so much kudos that suddenly you see serious film stars like Kyra Sedgwick, Rob Lowe, Kiefer Sutherland, Holly Hunter shifting over to tv series. But that's also probably from the fact that shows are now so big budget there are fewer films to work in. I don't think the number of movies being released has jumped much over the past decade or so but I might be wrong on that.

The Wire is the best drama of all time.