Okay then, what is the best show in TV History?

[daveT]

The Addam's Family. I don't know, just love the stuff. I don't understand why this isn't out on DVD yet. It something magical about a horror comedy, and it is the only show that did it correctly.

Comedy: I have to go to your side of the pond, Carter, and say it is a tie between AbFab and Chef. I guess Chef is more of an inside joke thing, but to Americans, it is funny to think that there is a) good food in England, or b) *******! Have'n worked in Kitchens before I thought it was great. Also, dibs goes to the Bob Newhart show, it is timeless. Of coarse, the Three Stooges.

Crime: 24, but I am not a TV junky, nor do I own a TV, so I am not an expert on this stuff. I just like the quirky cinematography.

Drama: Twin Peaks is excellent, and will always have an impact on all TV shows there-after.

I personally thought that Deep Space Nine was terrible. It was basically a soap opera. The original had fighting, bad acting, and a certain amount of that magic, that there were other planets, and hostile races out there. The Next Generation was better because it kept with the spirit of the original. And Q? That guy was an amazing character. I watched some of the DSN when it first came out and it was like WTF? I want to see #### get blown up and Klingons!

Of SNL ended in 1984 it would be the best comedy ever.

[Blarg]

Comedy: Fawlty Towers. Seriously in the running for best t.v. show of any kind. Screamingly funny, wonderful characters and writing, jokes that build rather than get tiresome, and a great sense of chaos and existential absurdity somehow crammed perfectly well into a half hour show.

Anthology: The Outer Limits. Tremendous, often very interesting and unusual stories that remain memorable. Except for the tiny budgets, as good as any horror or sci fi you could see on the big screen at the time and better than most of it. Though there was some drop off in quality, it didn't reach the bottom of the barrel the way so many anthology shows do. And it had heights you just couldn't find elsewhere.

[TheDudeAbides]

Comedy: I've got to go with Seinfeld here. Never in the history of TV has a show had such a profound impact on popular culture.

Drama: It's a tough one. I'm tempted to say The Sopranos, but I think that may be the fanboy in me talking. But I'm at a loss of what beats that in terms of writing, acting, and overall storyline.

Reality: Gotta go with The Amazing Race. High production values and all-around entertaining contestants. Very well cast.

Animated: The Simpsons (same reason as Seinfeld, to a lesser degree)

[hyde]

My strongest commitment was to the original Star Trek. Never felt the love for the sequels.

I loved M.A.S.H. at the time but no longer find it amusing.

Seinfeld was a guaranteed string of laughs. and stays strong in oft seen re-runs.

[swede123]

If you allow miniseries the answer is Band of Brothers, by quite a margin. Seriously, I can't think of any depiction of WW2 or any war for that matter done better.

If we're talking TV serials my pick would be Homicide: Life on the Street or Seinfeld.

Swede

[swede123]

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Genre-wise:

Cop show: Homicide. Excellent writing, acting, and shooting for a character-based genre show.

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i don't know where people put it genre-wise, b/c i haven't seen more than an episode or 2, but i know a lot of people would say The Wire >> Homicide

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I have never had subscriptions to HBO so I can't speak about The Wire (though I keep hearing great things about it, so I'll probably end up watching it on DVD one of these days) but any fan of the genre really ought to give Homicide more of a look; it holds up very well after all these years and when it was new it was amazingly groundbreaking, giving you the "documentary" feel long before it became common place on TV.

Swede

[pryor15]

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If you allow miniseries the answer is Band of Brothers, by quite a margin.

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unless, you know, it isn't just American television

[Peter666]

The Twilight Zone

[swede123]

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If you allow miniseries the answer is Band of Brothers, by quite a margin.

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unless, you know, it isn't just American television

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I assume you're trying to imply that I ignorantly praise BoB due to lack of exposure to non-American TV. That is not the case though, as I have spent quite a bit of time watching all kinds of foreign TV. I still find BoB pretty much perfect in every aspect (based, of course, on my humble preferences).

Swede

[JuntMonkey]

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Drama: It's a tough one. I'm tempted to say The Sopranos, but I think that may be the fanboy in me talking. But I'm at a loss of what beats that in terms of writing, acting, and overall storyline.

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That's not the fanboy in you talking. After the first season of Sopranos, critics went absolutely ape-s**t over it and called it the best thing ever. Respected New York Times film critic Stephen Holden wrote that the show is "so perfectly attuned to geographic details and cultural and social nuances that it just may be the greatest work of American popular culture of the last quarter century".

The early seasons are somewhat overlooked now and people stick Sopranos in the middle of 24 and the Shield in "whAt t.v. show shold i watch?" threads in OOT, which does Sopranos a great disservice. It would be like asking "what authors should I read?" and getting the answer:

King
Grisham
Shakespeare
Grafton

All may have their merits, but give me an effing break.

Another article written when Sopranos was still young said that the Singing Detective, I, Claudius, (both BBC mini-series) and Sopranos were essentially the Holy Trinity of television and that nothing comes close.

I have not seen the Wire yet (I will) or all of Twin Peaks, so I can't comment.

Anyway, I give the overall nod to Seinfeld for the same reason Stephen Holden praised the Sopranos. I even love when the show gets ridiculous in its later years where birthday wishes come true and large funerals are held for people who never existed and an old man's entire net worth can be "ruined" because of a faulty tip calculator.

TV Guide's list in 2002 was:

1. Seinfeld
2. I Love Lucy
3. The Honeymooners
4. All in the Family
5. The Sopranos
...
8. The Simpsons
...
37. The X-Files
38. The Larry Sanders Show
...
41. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
...
45. Twin Peaks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_Guide's_50_Greatest_TV_Shows_of_All_Time