Another Year, Another “100 Best Television Shows” List

 

It seems like everyone enjoys making lists as the end of a year approaches – top ten news stories, predictions for 2024, etc. Perhaps that’s why Variety chose this month to publish its list of the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, though the piece could  just as easily have run in July.

 

I have no will power when it comes to “Best of” and “Worst of” selections, even though I know I’m always going to be frustrated by the results. And any list that ranks RuPaul’s Drag Race as one of television’s best achievements doesn’t deserve the attention it’s getting here. But I can’t help myself.

 

 

Of the 100 shows cited, 36 originate from the Comfort TV era. However, that includes those from genres usually not considered on lists like this: news magazines (60 Minutes), soaps (General Hospital), talk shows (The Oprah Winfrey Show) and children’s series (Sesame Street). So if we only add up the prime time scripted series that remain from the 1950s through the 1980s, we’re left with 25 shows – or one-quarter of the full list.

 

Are we good with that? To me, time and enduring eminence and popularity should be among the criteria when judging the best of all time. If a series continues to impress viewers 50 years (or even 20 years) after it debuted, it has earned its spot. We cannot say for certain whether shows like Fleabag and Watchmen and The Good Place will merit that

 

 

I’m aware that the further away we get from the first era of television, the lesser it will be represented when the medium is assessed across its entire history. And with the multitude of new shows that now emerge from hundreds of potential sources, the competition for open spots will only become more contentious. Also, if the reassessment of vintage shows as less diverse and enlightened continues, the number of those still considered worthy may drop to single digits.

 

I am likewise resigned to the likelihood that many of the series that have brought me to the most joy over the course of my life, that have lifted my spirits and offered positive examples of venerable societal conduct, lack one or more qualities now deemed essential to “important” television. And when a show like Sex and the City, featuring the four most annoying women on television until the arrival of The View, ranks at #6, it was not an encouraging sign.

 

Still, the Variety list did contain some pleasant surprises, not the least of which was ranking I Love Lucy in the #1 spot. It felt like they meant it, and were not just trying to assuage rapidly aging Boomers who had never heard of half the other picks.  

 

And with top 100 lists it’s really the top 20 that are singled as the greatest of the greats, and almost half – nine shows – are of classic TV vintage.

 

All in The Family is there, of course (#16), along with The Twilight Zone (#14) and The Golden Girls (#18), a show whose stock seems to rise with each passing year. 

 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show ranking #9 was well deserved – but The Dick Van Dyke Show placing all the way down at #45 was ludicrous. There have not been five better sitcoms in the history of the medium than that one.

 

Playhouse 90 at #19 was an admirable choice – I confess I know the series best by reputation, but the half-dozen or so presentations I’ve watched were all outstanding. Cheers at #11? Not sure it should rank that high, but I’ll allow it. I’m less certain about Roots at #10 – not because it isn’t deserving of the accolades it has received over the decades, but whether a show with just eight episodes aired over eight nights should qualify as a television series. If a miniseries is fair game, however, then there should also have been room on the list for Centennial, which was arguably  the best miniseries ever made. 

 

 

Both Seinfeld (#8) and The Simpsons (#4) debuted in 1989, so I included them among classic contenders, but both shows are more representative of the post Comfort TV era.

 

What else would you expect to see here? M*A*S*H? It’s there at #24. Hill Street Blues? It’s there. What about Gunsmoke and Perry Mason, two of television’s longest-running prime time hits, and shows that defined their genres for many viewers? Sorry, not this time. The Defenders was overlooked as well – but The Good Fight made it for courtroom drama fans, as did The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. It’s hard for me to believe that many people really wanted to relive that ugly chapter in American jurisprudence, but there you go. Those ten episodes from 2016 were deemed superior to 271 episodes of Perry Mason, featuring a character that inspired more people to become lawyers than Marcia Clark ever would. 

 

 

As for westerns, Deadwood (#74) was the only one to make the cut.  Sigh.

 

I nodded in agreement with the selections of Columbo (#85), St. Elsewhere (#92), The Bob Newhart Show (#66), and The Wonder Years (#72). Taxi (#75), Happy Days (#87), Thirtysomething (#81), and The Jeffersons (#64) would have been borderline calls for me. Variety also chose Roseanne (#69) and The Cosby Show (#90), while stressing their admiration was only for the shows and not the deportment of their respective stars. 

 

 

Stat Trek: The Next Generation made the list at #44, but the original Star Trek did not. Explain that one.

 

I scanned through the list a second time expecting to find The Fugitive, The Andy Griffith Show and Mission: Impossible, but none were there. Granted, M:I lost some of its quality in its later seasons, but so did Dallas, and that one made the list (#87).

 

I could do this all day, but you get the idea. “Best of” lists will always be fun, and frustrating. Maybe one day I’ll give you my top 100 list here, and we’ll kick that around for a while – as long as you don’t kick the author too hard.