Top 25 Favorite TV Shows

[englishozzy]

Hayley's No. 24

USA High (1997-1999)

Premise: A show about 6 collage age students who go through collage trying to juggle everything, dating, working, studying and partying,

I enjoyed this show just because it is my kind of TV show. I just like this kind of humour.

[englishozzy]

Degrassi High - Seems a bit dated now, cant say i have seen it but the name rings a bell.

Pardon the Interruption - Laughed more at the video clips than what they were saying, didnt get most of it.

The munsters - Surprised that it was only on for a couple of years, used to watch this all the time as a kid.

Buffy - Cult classic and will appear on my own list, Joss Whedon has had some pretty shitty luck in terms of getting his TV Shows off the ground and hopefully this Avengers gig will get him recognised a lot more.

Red Dwarf - Loved this show, cant believe i forgot to add this to my list. Oh well at least it got recognised by someone else.

Cheers - Seen the odd epidsodes here and there, although i found them funny its neither here nor there whether i watch one again.

The Jeffersons - Never really seen this show but i do know about it.

Entourage - Never had the time to sit down and watch this program although i have always been intrigued.

Flight of the Conchords - Watched the first season and found it pretty funny, havent watched the second yet though.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

i was under the impression that he left after Season 3 due to last three seasons never being released over here. I remember watching a couple of episodes from Season 5 without him in it.

Well, he left during the Season 3 or 4 finale to move back to Philadelphia, and that was supposed to be the end of the show, but it was so popular they renewed it for another 3-4 seasons.

[W]

i was under the impression that he left after Season 3 due to last three seasons never being released over here. I remember watching a couple of episodes from Season 5 without him in it.

Well, he left during the Season 3 or 4 finale to move back to Philadelphia, and that was supposed to be the end of the show, but it was so popular they renewed it for another 3-4 seasons.

The also had to switch Aunt Vivs at one point.

[Chienfantome]

Wow, A LOT of stuff I've never even heard of !!
Cheers, I've heard of, and I think I've seen an episode a few years ago, maybe during a flight cause I don't think it ever aired in France. Or not for long. Entourag, I had seen the first 3 or 4 episodes, and it looked really fun, but I haven't seen the rest. ANd The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, I've watched it in my teen years, it was ok, sometimes quite funny, sometimes less.
Flight of the Conchords, I've seen bits here and there on the web, and it looks really great.
The rest... I haven't heard of !

[Leestu]

I've seen a couple of series of both Degrassi and Grange Hill but I don't remember much about them, just that they were entertaining enough at the time. Thankfully haven't heard of USA High.
Even the Australian version of PTI is crap, and thats from a sports fan.
I did enjoy The Munsters, but I was more of an Addams Family fan.
Buffy is great. I resisted for a while but eventually got caught into it.
Wow, what is it about Red Dwarf? I too forgot all about it but it should have been considered. Very funny, excellent show. Loved the Cat character and the idea of how came into being, The episode where he loses his "cool" is a favourite of mine.
Loved Flight of the Concords and didn't like Fresh Prince.
Haven't seen Jeffersons or Entourage.

[Ron Burgundy]

Burgundys No. 24 & 25


25.

The Mighty Boosh

Offbeat humour and some really strange ideas, but really funny sometimes. Finished all 3 seasons with season 2 being the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKF_9ZSC ... detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKF_9ZSCR3U

24.

Death Note

Crisp anime with a complex storyline, excellent programming. Im on the fence on the whole anime thing, some are brilliant while others are just average or even poor. But Death Note offers prime TV viewing, and the suspense is wound up to 11, for the first half anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhzikdFM ... detailpage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhzikdFMv7Y

[Ron Burgundy]

Entourage is ok, but it all seems a little too centre of the universe type stuff. Ive watched the first two seasons, is it worth watching the rest.

Flight of the Conchords' season 1 is one the best TV comedy single seasons ever. I really liked that show, and then came season 2, which had a whole different feel to it, and the songs weren't as good. 'Inner......inner city......inner city pressure'

Red Dwarf, great british TV. Great characters, great pick.

Buffy, hmmmm. I have watched my fair share, maybe about 20 odd episodes, and i used to like it. But if i watched it now i think i wouldnt really enjoy it that much, but i still rate Sarah Michelle Geller (cruel intentions, geller, HOT!)

Havent seen much of the rest

[undeadmonkey]

Show #23




undeadmonkey

Looney Tunes (1930 - 1969, Syndicated)



I know this is slightly cheating, as they started off as theatrical shorts, but Looney Tunes has been such a force on tv, i think it should be counted as such too. This is my last animated show on my countdown so i obviously think it's the greatest, how can it not be ,with a host of classic characters, from bugs bunny to foghorn leghorn and speedy gonzales to peppe lepew. It's hilarious and you can always come back for more.



numbersix

South Park (1997 – present, Comedy Central)



Shown on terrestrial TV over here for the first 3 years, I was underwhelmed by a series that focused more on toilet humour than any long-lasting or intelligent humour. I stopped watching when it stopped being shown on Irish TV. Several years later (including after seeing the solid SP movie), I revisited South Park when it became free to watch online. The show had changed so much, matured so much. Of course it was still puerile, but Stone and Parker honed their talents and used the incredibly quick production time to essentially write and broadcast new episodes within a week of devising. This meant that the show could feel ultra-topical, more so than any scripted comedy outside of current affairs or chat shows.

So Stone and Parker pretty much took on every phenomenon, from Paris Hilton to World of Warcraft. Sometimes they missed the mark, but other times they were brilliant. One of my favourite moments was when Scientologist Isaac Hayes quit the show when they satirised his beliefs. As revenge they assembled previous sentences to make his character into a paedophile, before killing him off. Genius.



silverersurfer

Thundercats (1985-1990), BBC 1



While the 80s were full of some of the best animated series ever made (He-Man, Transformers, M.A.S.K etc) there is not a cartoon I watched more during my adolescence than Thundercats, and I still come back to the series even now. It crafted an unknown and mysterious world filled with weird and wonderful creatures and how it blended sci-fi and fantasy into something magical ensured it became essential viewing every Thursday evening after school. For it's time the animation was superb, the colours vibrant and characters iconic. The soundtrack, with it's pulsating beat was addictive, and the stories, well there were well thought out arcs, they were educational, and the were lavished with full throttled action and a touch of tongue in cheek comedy (which you 'get' as you mature). Without doubt the coolest cartoon ever made, who didn't love the moment, after the awe of seeing Mumm-Ra The Ever Living transform, Lion-O whipped out his sword and bellowed those unforgettable words....




postscript: i'm headed to colorado tomorrow for my grandparents 50th anniversary, and as far as i know i should have internet access there. but if for some stone age reason there isn't, then you guys know why you haven't heard from me, and we will resume in a week. also, I find it interesting we all have animated shows today.

[Leestu]

Show #23

Leestu

I’m Alan Partridge (1997 & 2002)

This British TV show doesn’t seem to be a very well known show but is highly regarded by those who have watched it. It has fewer than 3000 votes on IMDB but a ranking of 9.2. Like a lot of British comedies they didn’t make many episodes but they are all quality. It ran for 2 seasons of 6 episodes per season. Steve Coogan reprises his character from an earlier TV show “Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge” (which is also worth watching), an ignorant, childish, pathetic,TV talk show host who has had his show cancelled and now just has a radio show in Norfolk.

[NSpan]

Show #23
NSpan

Party Down (2009 - 2010, Starz)



You can learn a lot about someone's musical tastes simply by asking the age-old question, "Beatles or The Stones?" Well, I think there's a similar litmus test for television: "Seinfeld or Friends?" Friends certainly had some moments. But it was never SO funny as to counteract the fact that the show demanded that you actually care about the awful Will-They-Or-Won't-They storyline that overshadowed every other aspect. Seinfeld never took itself seriously enough to expect that from its audience. Episodes of Friends constantly ended on "dramatic" notes that I, frankly, just didn't give a shit about. My girlfriend loves Friends... but she's a girl. So she gets a pass. Seinfeld would never ask you to react in an emotional way to such a superficial show. I mean, it kinda defeats the purpose, right? At the end of the day, Seinfeld's commitment to HUMOR (at all costs) made it a great show. Meanwhile, Friends remains the mildly-watchable chick-flick of the television realm.

My #23 pick, Party Down, suffers from some of the exact same symptoms as Friends did. The will-they-or-won't-they storyline is at the center of attention in almost every episode. The difference here, though, is this: the humor is funny enough to allow it. The funny is so damn funny that, not only do I forgive such trespasses, I actually believe that the dynamic of the show required that overdone television cliche to really make it all come together. The show was so creative that it earned the right (in my opinion) to fall back on some tired TV tropes simply to keep the gags moving full-steam ahead.

Too bad so few people even knew this existed before it was canceled. I have faith, though. The talent involved has plenty of places to go (and most already have).

[W]

Rob and Big/Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory (2006-2008, 2009-present - MTV - Reality)

I'm counting them as one show since Fantasy Factory is basically the same thing with a different cast of secondary characters. Basically a skateboarder/mogul and his big black bodyguard/best friend (named Big Black) go on some sort of adventure in each episode whether it's buying a mini horse (aptly named Mini Horse) and putting it in a show, setting/breaking Guinness World Records (Big got 2 and Rob got something like 27 in one day), or writing an R&B single. It turns out to be fun.

Big leaves the show, it's renamed Fantasy Factory, and it now revolves around Rob's business ventures (he plays dumb, but he's really good at his niche businesses). He invents a skateboarding drift car, builds the world's largest working skateboard, gets into a grilled cheese cook-off, and works on his charity that provides urban youths places to skate in a few of the episodes. It's dumb fun.

Strange Dog Party Planners:

[Buscemi]

My third in the series of 25.

Cheers (1982-1993, NBC)

One of the best scripted and performed shows in television history. The second that you saw the Cheers sign followed by one of the actors mentioning the "filmed before a live studio audience" tag, you knew that you were in a great half-hour of television. Over the show's long airing period, the show managed to only get better and better and also had perhaps one of the best endings in television history. Its staying power also led to another long-running spinoff, Frasier (which ran from 1993-2004, also on NBC). My favorite characters were Norm, Cliff and Woody and those will probably be how George Wendt, John Ratzenberger and Woody Harrelson will be remembered fifty years from now.

[numbersix]

Looney Tunes: Personally I'd break them into character shows (e.g. Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, etc). I loved them as a kid, as they were always after the "boring" news. Don't think they're on TV anymore though.

Thundercats: I kinda watched this as a kid. Nostaliga isn't enough to make me rate it, though. It's only a matter of time until this become sthe next big movie franchise, right?

I'm Alan Partridge: Aha! Partridge was brilliant slimy, and Coogans best creation. What a sleeze.

Party Down: It's not that Seinfeld never took itself seriously to try emotion, it deliberately ignored it. "No hugging, no learning" was the motto of David and Seinfeld as they wrote each episode. As for Friends, your music anaology gives Friends too much credit. It's more like Billy Joel Vs The Stones. Never heard of Party Down. The clip didn't really impress me, but maybe there's far more to it than that.

Rob and Big/Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory: What an inane idea, but then again, it is MTV. Their reality shows are painfully bad.

Cheers: Again, a very good show but I don't think I ever got excited by it.

[Shrykespeare]

Love Looney Tunes, liked Cheers, Thundercats was a guilty pleasure of mine as a teenager. Haven't heard of the others.

SHRYKESPEARE'S #23

Sliders (Fox, 1995-1997; Sci-Fi, 1998-99)

When this show came on FOX in 1995, I bought it hook, line and sinker. Four people travelling between an infinite number of parallel universes kept me coming back, week after week. Imagine a world where the Soviet Union won the Cold War, or one where penicillin was never discovered, or one where women were the dominant sex. Jerry O'Connell was terrific as the brilliant but flaky Quinn Mallory, and Sabrina Lloyd was darling as his best friend Wade Welles. Along for the ride was Prof. Max Arturo (the always-terrific John Rhys Davies) and washed-up R&B singer Rembrandt "The Crying Man" Brown (Cleavant Derricks). A motley crew, to be sure, but somehow, the made it work. And then...

In 1998, the show migrated to the Sci-Fi Channel. The problem was, in the neighborhood where I was living at the time, there was only one Cable TV option, and the Sci-Fi channel was NOT included. To watch the show, I'd have had to have moved one mile away, which was out of the question. Ain't THAT a bitch?!

Anyway, by the time the channel WAS part of my cable package, the show had long been cancelled, so I missed out on the final two seasons (by which time all of the main characters (except Rembrandt) had been killed or replaced. Oh well. I would still watch these shows if they were on anywhere.