Monty Pythons Flying Circus

Are these TV shows? I've only heard of the fourth one! Btw, welcome to the Lounge, Nolitor. Hope to see you posting more often.

This brings up something I wanted to discuss. Should the rankings take into account the average quality of a show's episodes, or just the heights the show achieved, or something else? For example, the second season of The West Wing is nearly perfect, imo, but the show was not always that good, and I don't know if the addition of the last few seasons should reduce the ranking of the whole thing, when season 2 is still as good as it always was.

I say overall consistency, originality and rewatchability. Say only one season was phenomenal but the rest were just average then the show would not qualify, imo.

Katy,

The first three are classics and well worth including on this list.

You're showing your youth, baby!!

Yeah, they're all legitimate TV shows, though the first four date from the late fifties through the early sixties. The last one listed, "One Foot in the Grave," is British and from the 1990s and is easily the funniest, most laugh-out-loud TV show I've ever seen. It deals with the travails of a sixtyish male -- Victor Meldrew -- whose company has recently downsized, leaving him homebound and more than slightly befuddled as to how to properly supervise his wife in the running of their affairs.

BTW, katyseagull, thanks for the welcome.

The Simpsons, Seasons 2-8 were the high watermark of TV sitcoms
The Sopranos, The first season blew me away has rarely disappointed since
The Singing Detective. Dennis potter was a true visionary his mini series has all the scope and ambition of a feature film while using the medium of television to its fullest.
Blackadder, hugely rewatchable side splittingly funny any at the end genuinely touching.
ER, I think people forget just how good this was for a few years. A constant mix of tension moral dilemmas and human interaction between characters you come know and care for.

[censored] it. I'm going with 10. In no particular order:

Buffy
The Sopranos
Red Dwarf
Arrested Development
The Simpsons
Twin Peaks
Seinfeld
Fawlty Towers
Star Trek (both original and TNG)
X-Files

I can't bring myself to rank the shows, much less cut down the list to only 5 entries. Looking at my list, I see there are very few recent shows included. In a few years, my list might very well include shows like Deadwood, Rome and Lost - they just need a little more time to mature. I especially have a soft spot for Rome - love the reference to Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" in the way the two main characters are obviously based on Antonius Blok (the noble, principled knight seeking wisdom) and Jons (the drinking, womanizing, light-hearted squire). Not to mention the production values, the acting, the interesting time period, etc. etc. Great show.

I said 5 to intentionally make it difficult.
I had to cut Homicide, The Simpsons, and St Elsewhere.....



I would definitely say that 1 awesome season isn't enough to make my list, but maybe someone else can watch that same awesome season 20 times without getting bored.


Not sure how much crappy later season should detract from the overall rating. If it just goes to hell and betrays everything it stood for, then I guess it drags everything down. If it just kinda goes limp, then not so much.


All for you to decide.
They're your rankings.

Freaks and Geeks - only show I made sure not to miss when it was on TV during college. I don't feel like thinking of 4 others because they would just ruin this as to me it was a pretty flawless show though it only lasted a season.