As another fall television season gears up, we furrow our brows and shake our fist-clenched remotes at the latest batch of comedies that won't be getting a Season Pass anytime soon (Sorry, Last Man Standing). There are several exceptions -- including standouts like 30 Rock, Community, Modern Family and Parks & Recreation -- but overall, comedy isn't the dominant force in TV that it once was.

But looking at the history of television, there are plenty of classic programs that have cracked us up through the years. And with that in mind, we were inspired to go back through our TV Guides and DVD collections to assemble a list of the Top 25 Funniest TV Shows of All Time.

Our list spans almost 60 years of television, and our criteria includes legacy factor, impact on the genre, re-run factor (does the comedy still work today?), and that 'ol chestnut Editor's Choice. We should also note that as much as we love series like Parks & Rec and Community, we feel like they are on their way to potential Top 25 status but aren't quite there yet. But let's see what happens if and when we revisit this list one day!

Behold another list of things all of you will agree with absolutely! For those against-the-grain folk out there, drop your personal Top 25 lists in the comments section below.

Spaced


A show crafted by geeks, for geeks, Spaced launched the careers of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost while at the same time introducing the world to the joy of the slo-mo finger gun-fight. Written by Pegg and co-star Jessica Hines, proceedings kick off in typical sitcom fashion with strangers Tim and Daisy pretending to be a couple for the sake of their apartment lease.

That plot-point becomes an irrelevance when we are introduced to their friends and neighbors, however, with the likes of horny landlady Marsha, unhinged artist Brian, and gun-obsessed simpleton Mike taking the plot in deeply weird places. But while the characters are great, it's the countless cultural references -- from Star Wars to Resident Evil to Night of the Living Dead -- that makes the show so special. Combined with Wright's inspired, kinetic direction, Spaced is visually stunning, consistently hilarious, and actually improves with repeat views.

Family Guy


In 1999, Seth MacFarlane struck gold when he created another animated FOX sitcom that centered on an odd overweight husband, his suspiciously attractive wife and their "normal" family. Fueled by a ton of funny pop culture references and a wonderfully sadistic baby named Stewie, Family Guy caught on with audiences who were so loyal, they succeeded in helping get the show resurrected in 2005 after it had been cancelled.

Since then, Stewie has become as popular a mascot as Bart Simpson for FOX, while other characters like Quagmire have also broken out, thanks to Family Guy's anything goes, "yes we're going there" sense of humor. The show may be formulaic, but that doesn't detour its fanbase, as long as the laughs keep coming.

The State


After airing old episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus from '87 to '89, MTV tried its own hand at sketch comedy with The Idiot Box and the prototype version of The Ben Stiller Show. But the network didn't strike true gold -- and a series that went more than one season -- until a bunch of mid-'90s NYU scamps came along and made every shoe-gazer in flannel shirts and ripped jeans howl with laughter. The vast talent pool in The State caused a ripple effect that can still be seen today in movies and shows like Wet Hot American Summer, Role Models, Reno 911! and Childrens Hospital. After 15 years, most of this crew still works together and creates some of the best comedy around.

But not only was The State totes hilar, they managed to carve out their own slice of zeitgeist when they decided to honor/skewer SNL's overuse of recurring characters by creating "Louie" -- a dimwit who carried two golf balls so that he could walk into situations (house parties, last suppers with Jesus, etc.) and repeat his catchphrase ("I wanna dip my balls in it!") over and over again.

Taxi


Writer James L. Brooks and his unique brand of situational comedy found further success with Taxi, which ran from 1978 to 1982 on ABC, and then from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The show, centered around the lives of those working for the fictional Sunshine Cab Company in NYC, delicately juggled farcical comedy and dramatic plots in a way the then-TV landscape hadn't seen before. The show also gave us then-breakout star Christopher Lloyd in the terrific role of eccentric cabbie Jim 'Iggy' Ignatowski, an arguable predecessor to Seinfeld's Kramer.

Taxi also launched Judd Hirsch and Tony Danza while providing audiences with a new "in" into the workplace comedy, one that would inspire future shows like Cheers to follow in its footsteps. All that, plus the producers dared to put someone as brilliantly unpredictable -- not to mention hysterical -- as Andy Kaufman in a sitcom!

The Muppet Show


The Muppet Show proved that puppet-heavy television isn't just for children. Jim Henson and his iconic workshop crafted a large cast of memorable characters, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo and many others. Each week, the Muppets performed an eclectic variety show, with copious amounts of singing, dancing, backstage antics and bizarre satire. Much likeSaturday Night Live, hosting the show became a badge of honor, and everyone from Mark Hamill to Elton John had their turn.

Unless you're a Statler and Waldorf-type, it's impossible not to have a blast with The Muppets. Thankfully, the franchise is making a cinematic comeback later this year. 


The Ben Stiller Show


Yes, kids, there was a time when Ben Stiller wasn't a Focker. Or spending his Nights in Museums. On the heels of the earlier MTV incarnation of this show, Stiller, along with a brash crew of comics that included Janeane Garofalo, Andy Dick and Bob Odenkirk, devoted their sketch comedy to skewering movies and TV shows in a way that was truly ahead of its time -- where the key to the comedy was capturing the exact look and feel of what was being parodied. The show was canceled criminally early during its run (though it still won an Emmy for its writing), but not before it gave us such must-YouTube funny as "Amish COPS" and "Die Hard 12: Die Hungry," the latter of which had McClane action hero-ing it up in a grocery store.

Now don't you wish you and all your middle school friends watched this show when it originally aired?

Futurama


When you think of Matt Groening and animated sitcoms, you probably think of The Simpsons. For a loyal, rabid fanbase, however, Futurama may surpass Matt Groening's popular money maker with its intelligent brand of sci-fi humor.

Sure, maybe you have to be a metaphysicist to understand the multitude of in-gags and Easter Eggs, but on the surface the show takes the simple "man out of time" premise and turns it on its head. Philip J. Fry acts as our inept 21st century voice in the demented 30th century. Along with his delivery crew of aliens and mutants, Fry continues to be just as enduring as he was when he first appeared on our screens in 1999.

Much like Family Guy, Futurama and its fans deserve kudos for bringing their show back from cancellation. Unlike Family Guy, which found its way back to FOX, Futurama made its way to another network, and is currently prospering on Comedy Central.

Frasier


Arguably the most creatively and critically successful spinoff in TV history, Frasier took Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) out of the Cheers bar and into Seattle, where the shrink hosted a talk-radio show. It introduced his brother, Niles (David Hyde Pierce) and therefore one of the best prime-time comedic duos in recent memory.

Even the biggest fans of the series will admit that the show got a bit long in the tooth and ran out of story once characters started dating and re-dating each other. But when Frasier was in its prime, backed by its many Best Comedy Series Emmy wins, there wasn't a funnier, smarter sitcom on the air in this mold. And we may never get another.

Chapelle's Show


Even when funny people are involved, sketch comedy misses more times than hits on TV (see MAD TV, The Dana Carvey Show and several seasons of SNL). Chappelle's Show was that rare sketch comedy series whose funny either hit the bullseye or came pretty close to it almost all the time. The show ran for two complete seasons, with a third released as "The Lost Episodes" after star Dave Chappelle decided to call it quits.

Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories ("I'm Rick James, bitch!"), Tyrone Biggums, Prince playing basketball and Wayne Brady gone all Training Day are a sampling of some of the bits that became instantly quotable. We used to think it was a crime that this show went off the air when it did. Now, we're glad it left on a high note.

30 Rock


30 Rock wasn't expected to last very long. When it originally aired on NBC, the other show set behind the scenes of an SNL-type show, Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60, was favored to be top dog.

That was 2006. Now, Studio 60 is a noble misfire that lasted a year and 30 Rock is going strong, with three Best Comedy Emmys on its mantle. Series creator and star Tina Fey's insanely sharp wit, coupled with one of the funniest supporting casts in the history of ever, continues to make 30 Rock a laugh-out-loud show, despite some of its humor purposefully intended to go over the heads of most couch potatoes.

Giving 30 Rock a slot on our Top 25 list is the least we can do for a show that gave us "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" and reminded us that a man's hair is his head suit. 


The Larry Sanders Show


Before Curb Your Enthusiasm or Entourage got all meta with their shows about Hollywood life, Garry Shandling was doing just that for HBO -- and hilariously so. Shandling played the title character, a (slightly?) skewed version of himself who hosts a late-night talk show. Teamed with witless sidekick Hank (Jeffrey Tambor) and his roughly hewn producer Artie (Rip Torn), Sanders navigates the world of late-night, celebrity and his own inflated ego.

Scores of famous peeps stopped by throughout the show's six seasons -- playing themselves, of course -- but perhaps our favorite was David Duchovny. Or rather, a love struck version of Duchovny who only had eyes for Sanders. He even did the Sharon Stone/Basic Instinct leg-cross at one point -- aimed right at Larry. Hey now!

The Daily Show


Watching the news these days can be a depressing experience. It's all "fear monger" this and "hidden agenda" that. In times like this, you have to turn to the comedians to tell it to you straight.

That's what Jon Stewart and the gang at The Daily Show have been doing for years. This program delivers the news with a highly comical edge, often lampooning others in the media in the process. But it isn't all about the laughs. The series is highly educational and informative without being partisan. Stewart is both funny and intelligent enough to make a generation of disenfranchised viewers care about the evening news again.

I Love Lucy


Back in the '50s, you'd be hard-pressed to find a sitcom more popular than I Love Lucy. Even today, most studios would kill for those kinds of ratings. This comedy saw real-life couple Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz take on the roles of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Most episodes centered around Lucy's unparalleled ability to create chaos and disorder out of everyday events. Whether it's the Vitameatavegamin incident or the chocolate conveyer belt, life never had a dull moment with Lucy around. Even 50 years later, the show, thanks to Nick at Nite, gets airplay and has audiences laughing.

Curb Your Enthusiasm


As the co-creator of Seinfeld, Larry David had already made his mark on television and pop culture history. But David had another gem to deliver with this series which has him in front of the camera as the amazing TV character, "Larry David." The Larry of Curb Your Enthusiasm is a man with no filter, who mirrors the frustrations we all have in life, but amped up to the nth degree, and with the inability to stop himself from explaining exactly why something is so annoying or off-putting -- ultimately making things much worse for himself and those around him in the process.

The use of other real life celebrities as themselves adds to the hysterical world David has created, without ever feeling too "inside." The comedic situations on Curb are brilliantly constructed, often building to an amazing, "Holy crap!" crescendo few series can mimic. Check out an episode like the legendary "The Doll" and learn why this show makes us feel pretty, pretty good.

Cheers


Sam and Diane. Cliff and Norm. Woody and Carla. For 11 seasons, Cheers introduced us to some of the genre's most likable and welcoming characters ever. Cheers, along with The Cosby Show, were part of NBC's Golden Age of sitcoms, with Cheers' success hinged to the trials and tribulations of Sam Malone, ex-ballplayer-turned-bar owner. His clientele included a know-it-all mailman, a barfly with a wife, Vera, whom we never saw and the aforementioned Dr. Frasier Crane.

As strong as the Diane era was, the show really hit its stride when Kirstie Alley's Rebecca Howe took over once Shelly Long left the series. Several of Cheers' best and funniest arcs – the Gary's Tavern rivalry and the introduction of Robin Colcord – occurred here, helping the series earn its much-deserved place in TV history. 



Friends


Proof that the 1990s could do something right, NBC's Friends was that rare sitcom that became part of the zeitgeist relatively early in its 10-season run. While most of us may now hide our devotion to this show about friends living in impossibly nice NYC digs (right across the hall from each other!), we more than happily worshiped the ground it walked on back in the day.

Fat Monica. "How you doin'?" Chandler-speak. Smelly Cat. Ross and Rachel. It may have outlasted its welcome, but with a ton of memorable and truly hysterical episodes and bits, Friends just worked, and still works today. A modern classic? We'll allow it.

Fawlty Towers


Over the years, many have argued over which "Python" they felt was the funniest of the bunch. And while we won't exactly weigh-in on that debate with a definitive answer, we will say that John Cleese, in his post-Monty Python years, wrote and starred in one of the most hilariously pure sitcoms of all time.

In only 12 fantastically great episodes, Cleese (who played misanthropic Bed & Breakfast owner Basil Fawlty) was able to elevate the genre while still using time-honored gags, slapstick and miscommunications that one would see on a series like Three's Company. Master of the dry insult and doomed to fail, Cleese's Fawlty influenced future TV characters from Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder to Ed O' Neill's Al Bundy.

All in the Family


These days it's difficult to imagine any sitcom qualifying as groundbreaking, but that's exactly what All in the Family was when it appeared in the early '70s. This comedy tackled thorny issues like racism, homosexuality, abortion and the Vietnam War, alongside the usual sitcom family fare -- and yet still managed to be funny! It all hinged on lead character Archie Bunker, a war vet known for his cranky personality and constant yearning for the good old days.

Archie and his wife, Edith, struck a chord with audiences who craved more realistic couples on TV. The show lasted over a decade in one form or another, and remains one of the greatest sitcoms to ever hit the air.

Saturday Night Live


For over 35 years, the copious crew from 30 Rockefeller Plaza has not only been a pop-culture institution but many of them have gone on to become big blockbuster film stars complete with their own brand. Doing for American sketch comedy what the Python's did for the UK, Saturday Night Live took the format and juiced it up with cutting edge stand-up comedians, musical acts and an exciting live atmosphere. This approach instantly made stars out of Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin. But here's the kicker. This show, like most Yank shows that ape British series, has taken the original genius and then kept it going forever. This show has been on the air for close to four decades! So there's a lot of it that's, well, not that funny. And with every new season comes a bunch of new detractors who say "this show hasn't been funny in years." So we admit that this is almost a "legacy" vote.

But for every dreaded "Charles Rocket"-era '80-'84 cast, there's a Will Ferrell, an Adam Sandler, a Mike Myers, a Chris Rock, a Phil Hartman and an Eddie Murphy to make up for it. And look, even from SNL's dead zone, performers like Robert Downey Jr. and Gilbert Gottfried were still able to move on and turn lemons into millionaire lemonade. So if there's really one thing we can honestly credit this series with, it's Lorne Michaels' eye for young, fresh comedic talent. I mean, the man's been able to capture "lightning in a bottle" more than a dozen times. On top of that, just when you might be ready to dismiss SNL, a new sketch or digital short will come along that is undeniably a new comedy classic.

Make sure you check out IGN's Top 25 SNL Sketches of All Time.

The Office (UK)


We love the American version of The Office, too, but the UK original edges it out for a spot on this list for the simple brilliance of its 12 episodes (plus two Christmas specials). The show that launched Ricky Gervais onto an unsuspecting world took a while to capture the imagination of audiences, but is now one of the most successful sitcom franchises in the world, with the likes of France, Germany, Chile and Israel shooting their own versions.

Documenting the day-to-day workings of the Wernham Hogg Paper Company, the show revolves around David Brent, general manager of the Slough branch who is less a boss, "more a chilled out entertainer." Much of the comedy derives from Brent's social awkwardness and politically incorrect gags, but the show's real genius came from its depiction of the blossoming relationship between salesman Tim and receptionist Dawn, a storyline that added pathos and drama to the mix and helped turn The Office into a genuine classic. 



Monty Python's Flying Circus


Now that we're down to the final five, one could easily make a case for any of these as being the funniest of the entire lot. First airing in 1969, Monty Python's Flying Circus successfully introduced the world to British lunacy as John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and the two Terrys were able to "rock star" popularize surreal sketch comedy and offbeat satire. And it was brilliant.

And we don't mean "brilliant" the way the Brits use it -- which is to say, for everything. These blokes were from Cambridge and Oxford and infused each and every one of their bits with an unsurpassed genius, whether it be the Pablo Picasso Cycling Tour, a football match featuring famous German and Greek philosophers or two men slapping each other in the face with fish. Yes, Cleese rode his "Ministry of Silly Walks" skit to stardom, but behind his oafish struts was a sketch that lampooned bureaucratic civil servants and government grants.

And much like a platinum-selling rock band, this crew bickered and argued with one another like the best of 'em causing rifts within the group. But for the sake of comedy and money, most differences were put aside long enough for the Pythons to make a few movies; one of which (Monty Python and the Holy Grail) became one of the most quotable movies of all time and another (Monty Python's Life of Brian) became one of the most controversial. But it was the show that started it all. And routines like the "Dead Parrot Sketch," "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam" will ensure that this series lives on for new generations.

South Park


Throughout most of the '90s, Bart Simpson was the undisputed bad boy of animated sitcoms. But eventually a new group of challengers emerged in South Park, Colorado, and television has never been the same since.

The four stars of South Park -- Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick -- are fourth graders who curse like drunken sailors and live in a town that seems to be a magnet for every sort of global and cosmic disaster imaginable. These four often serve as the voices of reason as the adults around them fall into chaos and despair, though the anti-Semitic, grotesquely obese, slyly manipulative Cartman is often guilty of instigating trouble on his own. Over the course of 15 seasons, the show has poked fun at just about every celebrity of note and many of the hot button issues of the day. The series has gained a supporting cast nearly as wide as that of The Simpsons, and just as memorable.

Thanks to the show's crude and simple animation style, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are often able to produce new installments in a matter of days, allowing them to spoof current events as they unfold. And while that sometimes means episodes aren't quite as funny six months down the road as they are when they debuted, it's always nice to see one show so consistently point out the absurdities of modern life.

Seinfeld


For a show about nothing, Seinfeld sure is something worth remembering. Amid a sea of cookie-cutter sitcoms, Seinfeld stood out during the '90s thanks to strong writing and a lovable cast of misanthropes. Whereas most sitcoms concerned themselves with familiar, family-friendly conflicts with touching, heartfelt endings, Seinfeld was surprisingly dark and almost nihilistic at times. Conflicts centered around the "nothings" of life -- smelly cars, long lines, surly restaurant owners and the like.

The fictionalized Jerry Seinfeld and his friends were painted as neurotic, self-obsessed and, in the case of Cosmo Kramer, downright bizarre. But their misadventures never failed to entertain. Few other shows have become so pervasive in the public lexicon. A person need only say "yadda, yadda, yadda" for everyone around them to be in on the joke.

The Simpsons


(*Insert Nelson's laugh here*) Bet you thought that The Simpsons would be number one on this list? So did we. In one of the hardest decisions we've ever made here at IGN, we're putting America's favorite family at #2.

Why, you ask? Well, the second best comedy of all time is an impressive title, which has it beating out some of the best shows ever put on television. The Simpsons deserves its high ranking on our list, since it started as a sketch on The Tracy Ullman Show and went on to become a show with nearly 500 episodes under its belt. Humble beginnings aside, The Simpsons may be one of the largest brands in the world, and that reputation has been earned every step of the way. However, we're going with number two for the sheer fact that the show just hasn't been the same for well over a decade now, though it still has its moments. But those early years? So many amazingly funny episodes...

Whether you think that it's just as good as it always has been, or needs to gracefully bow out, The Simpsons cannot be denied its place in the historical context of the medium of television. 


What Is Our Number One Pick?
Source:http://tv.ign.com/articles/118/1189799p5.html



The Guardian's top 50 television dramas of all time

Our TV critics have voted, debated and decided on a top 50 of classic TV drama series - the results might just surprise you
None of your favourites on our list? Join our TV Club and let us know
The Sopranos
Guardian TV critics voted The Sopranos the greatest TV drama ever made. Photograph: c.HBO/Everett / Rex Features
What do you ­imagine a TV critic's ­ultimate ­viewing pleasure to be? A five-season box-set ­marathon of The Wire, quite possibly? A drama that digs into the ­power games of Washington (The West Wing)? You'd be surprised. It seems, at the Guardian at least, they are far more likely to enjoy a beautiful, costumed saga about 1920s aristocrats or a gritty tale about growing up as a lesbian in mid-70s Lancashire.
To find out what the Guardian's TV writers really think is the best TV drama ever made, we asked Nancy Banks-Smith, Sam Wollaston, Lucy Mangan, Sarah Dempster, Mark ­Lawson, Grace Dent and Richard Vine to rate, and then debate, what they consider the greatest ever series.
The overall winner was The ­Sopranos, the compelling tale of New Jersey mobsters created by David Chase. They almost all raved about this show, praising it as an ­original, absorbing and affectionate study of complicated family values. But it only made the top spot by a ­fraction. Their second favourite was Brideshead Revisited, the 1981 ITV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel about religion, nobility and paisley dressing gowns. The Wire – HBO's widely praised series about Baltimore – attracted plenty of praise, but only ranked at No 14. Mad Men, the tale of 60s New York ad men, made the No 4 slot, just behind Our Friends in the North, an epic 1996 BBC2 ­series that traced the fates of four ­people across several decades.
Here's an interesting thing, though: ahead of some great US drama that has attracted such praise and attention in the last 10 years – The West Wing, Six Feet Under, Buffy the Vampire Slayer – comes a raft of British drama from the 1980s. A Very Peculiar Practice, Talking Heads, The Singing Detective, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Boys From the Blackstuff – these are among the "national treasure" series that have seared themselves into our critics' imaginations. "BBC4 and UK Gold should be repeating them but instead they're playing Coast 24 hours a day and bloody Silent Witness," complained Grace Dent.
To reach their verdict, the writers compiled a longlist. There was no period restriction, but the dramas had to be series (or serials) rather than one-offs. They marked the titles out of 20 and we averaged the scores, discounting any series that failed to attract at least four voters on the ­basis that these were the hobby horses of fanatics – not the greatest TV of all time. At this stage, A Very British Coup, Edge of Darkness and Tenko went by the wayside.
Of course there were disagreements. No one had a bad word to say about The Sopranos, but Richard Vine, TV editor of the Guide, still feels that The Wire was "richer". Mark Lawson thought The Sopranos "exceptionally well written" but considers both The Wire and The West Wing more radical and daring. Grace Dent however thought The Wire "a slog" in parts and said the acclaim had made it "socially ­painful" for people to admit they weren't wild fans. "It's incomprehensible to lots of people."
Sam Wollaston, meanwhile, was ­appalled with Brideshead's rating. "I can't believe it did so well. It is very slow and has really dated." He preferred The Jewel in the Crown (No 27).
Coronation Street, beloved of soap fans Banks-Smith and Dent, only made it to No 26, having received lukewarm assessments from the rest. "I'm not surprised – rather like Jonathan Ross, it has outlived its ­usefulness," said Banks-Smith. But she added: "Its saving grace is its humour – it preserves it like salt."
Dent was outraged by the decision to rank Grange Hill (No 50; Lawson's verdict: "pioneering") above Sex and the City (No 51), calling the sniffy response to New York's It-bag ladies "snobbery and sexism". She voted highly for The Sopranos, but said: "Just goes to show that you can twaddle on about the same old themes for six series and if you're a man it's profound and if you're a woman you're vacuous."
Wollaston thought the ­Hollywood playboy comedy Entourage ("fantastic fun") was underrated, while Dempster couldn't understand the lack of support for C4 trilogy Red Riding: "It felt immediately like a classic piece of TV and has one of the best ensemble casts of the last 10 years. It is absolutely magnificent."
Did they get it right? Charles ­Sturridge, Bafta-winning director of Brideshead Revisited, is "delighted" to be in "honourable company" with The Sopranos. Linking the top four dramas, he says: "They are confidently and powerfully drawn worlds made by groups of committed programme-makers. It doesn't have to be expensive – if something is crucial to people, they will watch it."
The list in full:
1. The Sopranos
2. Brideshead Revisited
3. Our Friends in the North
4. Mad Men
5. A Very Peculiar Practice
6. Talking Heads
7. The Singing Detective
8. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
9. State of Play
10. Boys From the Blackstuff

11. The West Wing
12. Twin Peaks
13. Queer as Folk
14. The Wire
15. Six Feet Under
16. How Do You Want Me?
17. Smiley's People
18. House of Cards
19. Prime Suspect
20. Bodies

21. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
22. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
23. Cracker
24. Pennies From Heaven
25. Battlestar Galactica
26. Coronation Street
27. The Jewel in the Crown
28. The Monocled Mutineer
29. Clocking Off
30. Inspector Morse

31. This Life
32. Band of Brothers
33. Hill Street Blues
34. The Prisoner
35. St Elsewhere
36. The L Word
37. The Shield
38. Brookside
39. 24
40. The Twilight Zone

41. Pride and Prejudice
42. Red Riding
43. Oz
44. The Street
45. The X-Files
46. Bleak House
47. The Sweeney
48. EastEnders
49. Shameless
50. Grange Hill




The best TV series of the ’00s

The Office (UK)The Office (UK)
1. The Wire (HBO, 2002-08)The Wire (HBO, 2002-08)Taking full advantage of the generous breadth of the television format—and HBO’s commitment to ambitious, form-expanding programming—The Wire unfolded like a great American novel, trusting viewers to pick up on the intricate connections between seasons, characters, and myriad details. Starting as an impressively scrupulous, evenhanded depiction of the Baltimore drug trade, the show opened up into an ever-expanding portrait of a city, one weakened institution at a time, from the unions to the schools to the newspaper business. At every turn, Simon and his crack team of writers (including crime novelists George Pelacanos, Richard Price, and Dennis Lehane) revealed how the corrupt and often grossly incompetent acts of the powerful consistently preyed on the city’s most defenseless residents. Rooted in Greek tragedy, this grim series was mitigated by moments of profound redemption, a penchant for gallows humor, and an abiding respect for the quietly heroic men and women who try to make a difference.
Essential episodes: “Bad Dreams,” “Final Grades,” “Late Editions” 
2. The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007)The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007)The depiction of evil in storytelling has been complicated ever since Lucifer became the breakout character in Milton’s Paradise Lost. It would be a mistake to say all 86 episodes of The Sopranos are a commentary on the relationship between storytellers and their wicked characters, but that was definitely on the mind of show creator David Chase. Over the course of its six seasons, the series followed the misadventures of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a charismatic multiple murderer who uses psychotherapy to help him balance his relationships with his wife and children, and to deal with the stress of his position as a powerful figure in the New Jersey mafia. Chase and other writers used Tony’s dual life as means to examine consumerist culture, the lasting impact of violence, Italian-American identity, and dozens of other themes. With a strong cast anchored by Gandolfini’s brilliant leading turn, each season served up soap opera, mob intrigue, and surrealist digressions, all tied together by the main character’s quest for self-realization. The dark inevitability of that quest’s end will be forever debated by fans, but one lesson is clear: having sympathy for the Devil doesn’t make him any less monstrous, no matter how much we might wish otherwise.
Essential episodes: “Employee Of The Month,” “Whoever Did This,” “Made In America”
3. Arrested Development (Fox, 2003-06)Arrested Development (Fox, 2003-06)As Ron Howard explains at the beginning of everyArrested Development episode, “This is the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.” That’s a deceptively simple way of explaining Arrested Development, but the complexity of the show’s writing is what kept fans enamored. In short, AD not only makes viewers laugh, it makes them feel smart. What other TV comedy so richly rewarded a vigilant audience with inside jokes, subtle callbacks, and long-form farce? Of course the spoiled, obnoxious characters (especially those played by Jessica Walters, Will Arnett, and David Cross) are entertaining as they are, but the writing around them makes the show a classic.Arrested Development’s gags run the gamut from puns (Sunday brunch places named “Skip Church’s” and “Miss Temple’s”) to the sweet (George Michael’s homage to Charlie Brown) to the nearly profane (the word “cunt” is referenced a surprising number of times for a network TV show) to the ridiculous (“Bob Loblaw’s law blog”), yet it all ties together. The series demands attention and repays it with bits that don’t even register until the second, third, or even fourth viewing. And the telltale sign of Arrested Development’s greatness: it looks like it was fun as hell to make.
Essential episodes: “Pier Pressure,” “Mr. F,” “Righteous Brothers”
4. Freaks And Geeks (NBC, 1999-2000)
Freaks And Geeks (NBC, 1999-2000)
The Judd Apatow juggernaut—surely the most understated, genial media movement ever to deserve the title—began with the one-season-and-out teen drama Freaks And Geeks, produced by Apatow and created by Paul Feig. Following the varied outcasts of an early-’80s suburban Detroit high school, Freaks And Geeks features Linda Cardellini as a geek (a “mathlete,” to be precise) who migrates to the stoner crowd, and John Francis Daley as her nerdy younger brother, simultaneously worried about his sister’s future and fighting his own adolescent battles. The show not only captured in 18 scant episodes the miasma of heady freedom and sickening chaos that defines the high-school years, it also provided breakout roles for Sam Levine, Martin Starr, James Franco, Busy Phillips, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen. NBC didn’t necessarily know what to do with this critically acclaimed ratings disaster, but rarely has a canceled show's brilliance been so immediately evident. Before the final three aired episodes were burned off in the summer of 2000, the cast and crew received a scholarly fête at The Museum Of The Moving Image; then Apatow went on to the almost-as-good sitcom Undeclared, and a huge movie career.
Essential episodes: “We've Got Spirit,” “Looks And Books,” “Discos And Dragons”
5. Mad Men (AMC, 2007-present)Mad Men (AMC, 2007-present)TV period pieces rarely work. The production design usually pales in comparison to period films, the characters are often only empty vessels through which to experience major historical moments, and a modern sensibility ultimately prevails, in spite of the era-specific trappings. Mad Men has turned that last weakness into an advantage with its deliberately cool, distanced look at ’60s advertising executives, unaware of the tidal wave of change soon to sweep them away. Matthew Weiner’s series apes films of the period, offering shots held for ages, moments of supreme quiet, and a glacial pace, even as the characters roil with emotions they barely knew how to express. Mad Men is about hanging out in a meticulously recreated bygone world with the handsome rogue Don Draper (played by the great Jon Hamm) and company, but it’s also about using our knowledge against us, and making us realize that the people who lived in the mythical ’60s were real individuals, struggling to comprehend just how thoroughly the world could be upended.
Essential episodes: “The Wheel,” “The Jet Set,” “Seven Twenty Three”
6. Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-present)Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008-present)Few shows have proven as skillful as Breaking Bad at stringing together memorable scenes. In fact, the show’s first pre-credits sequence is a flash-forward to a thundering chase scene so jaw-dropping, it’s amazing that the hour of television which follows earns every moment. Creator Vince Gilligan begins with the tale of a high-school chemistry teacher who turns to meth-dealing to provide for his family when he’s diagnosed with terminal cancer, and stretches the story out so he can explore the quiet moments between its mind-blowing setpieces. Bryan Cranston perfectly inhabits the role of a man who chooses doomed action over helpless inaction, and he’s ably served by a terrific supporting cast, including Aaron Paul as his junkie partner, Anna Gunn as his suspicious wife, and—turning around a role that could have become mawkish—RJ Mitte as his cerebral-palsy-afflicted son. The actors help imbue the life and times of a dying man with the sort of powerful drama that keeps viewers rapt between big moments that can take a whole season to play out. But as Breaking Bad showed with its masterful second season, it’s always worth the wait.
Essential episodes: “Pilot,” “Cat’s In The Bag,” “ABQ”
7. The Office UK (BBC 2, 2001-03)The Office UK (BBC 2, 2001-03)When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant first conceived a mockumentary about a gloriously self-deluded boss who fancies himself a “friend first, an entertainer second, and a boss third,” they couldn’t have imagined they’d concoct an international pop-culture phenomenon that would spawn adaptations around the world, including the rightly revered American version starring Steve Carell. Gervais and Merchant’s groundbreaking, wildly influential hit garnered huge laughs from awkward silence, tension, and the everyday humiliations and defeats of life as a wage slave. Underneath the comedy lay an unblinking take on middle-class ennui and frustration that bordered on tragic.
Essential episodes: “Training,” “Motivation,” “Christmas Specials”
8. Lost (ABC, 2004-present)Lost (ABC, 2004-present)No series risked more over the past decade thanLost, which has asked its viewers to be patient as the show’s creators have withheld information, killed characters, divided the cast and—in the ultimate potential deal-breaker—toyed with time travel. To some extent, frustration with Lost has become part of the pleasure of watching the show, as fans gather to grumble about dangling plot threads and conflicts that could be easily resolved if characters ever used some of the time they’re spending cast away on a desert island to, y’know, have conversations. But Lost’s payoffs have been well worth its head-slappers. Showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have presided over a story that’s spanned continents and genres, all while crafting a dense mythology with a human core. Lost is a show about unexpected connections and the search for meaning in our shared cultural arcana. It’s also been a showcase for a sprawling cast of memorable characters, each learning the lesson that if they’re patient enough to wait out the changes, their tragic life stories just might have a happy ending.
Essential episodes: “Walkabout,” “Greatest Hits,” “The Constant”
9. Deadwood (HBO, 2004-06)Deadwood (HBO, 2004-06)The earliest TV-drama hits were Westerns, so when HBO unleashed David Milch’s Deadwood on the world in 2004, it seemed at first like the latest in the channel’s long series of TV genre-reclamation projects. Instead, the series quickly abandoned the Wild West archetypes of its first handful of episodes and turned into a show about how communities come to be, how civilization springs from blood and gold, and how chaos is imperfectly knit into order. Featuring grandly theatrical dialogue, at least five dozen major recurring characters, and an unforgettable lead performance from Ian McShane, Deadwood was the temperamental Milch’s love letter to such timeless virtues as common decency, free societies, and creatively deployed profanity. Though the series only lasted three seasons and never reached a natural endpoint, the seasons are so packed with Milch’s richly humanistic view of the world that they trump 10 seasons of more common shows.
Essential episodes: “A Lie Agreed Upon, Pts. 1 and 2,” “The Whores Can Come,” “Boy The Earth Talks To”
10. The Shield (FX, 2002-08)The Shield (FX, 2002-08)There’s never been a TV cop like Vic Mackey, who painted a blue uniform the most frustrating, vigorous, incredible shades of grey. In Shawn Ryan’s version of Los Angeles, the leader of an anti-gang unit—played expertly by Michael Chiklis—was a man to be admired, feared, loved, hated, and sometimes pitied. The Shield allowed viewers to cheer Mackey while he committed heinous acts in the pursuit of justice (and illegal cash for himself), but made us feel dirty by depicting the consequences, too. It didn’t hurt that Chiklis was surrounded by a cast whose stories got richer (and often more horrifying) as the series went on: His fellow Strike Teamers became the biggest part of the story in the series’ amazing, harrowing final seasons, when it seemed that in every episode, life truly was on the line. Walton Goggins, who at first seemed to be playing a stereotypical hick sidekick, proved himself an emotional lynchpin, and the side characters—other cops, plus terrific guest turns from Forest Whitaker and Glenn Close, among others—developed full personalities. And those stories: Like The WireThe Shield plays like a classic tragedy taken as a whole, a massive web of badness that made for incredible television.
Essential episodes: “Cherrypoppers,” “Postpartum,” “Family Meeting.” 
11. The Office US (NBC, 2005-present)The Office US (NBC, 2005-present)America may always be imitating our British forebears, but the U.S. version of Ricky Gervais' astounding comedy of cruelty managed to make the original’s single-camera mockumentary premise its own. Key to the translation’s success: a more sympathetic boss played by Steve Carell, a more confident (and competent) relationship between co-workers Jim and Pam, and a divergence from the plots provided by its predecessor. By the second episode, when Michael Scott assigns each employee with an ethnic identity to teach a lesson about diversity—but leaves out “Arab” because “It’s too soon”—it was abundantly clear that creator Greg Daniels was pointing the show in its own direction. As the seasons have piled up, the writers have innovated to delightful effect; witness last season’s Michael Scott Paper Company arc, which revealed new facets of the main characters without throwing any of the show’s ample investments away.
Essential episodes: “Casino Night,” “Dinner Party,” “Dream Team”
12. Battlestar Galactica (2004-09)Battlestar Galactica (2004-09)In traditional narratives, escape from disaster is about trying to return to the old life as quickly as possible. Once the worst has happened, rebuilding what was lost becomes the survivors’ main goal. That’s nominally the goal of the miserable remnants of humanity left in Battlestar Galactica, but one of the series’ most effectively subversive elements is how it questions just what it means to “rebuild.” In a more traditional show, humanity’s leaders (Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell) would’ve guided Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Katee Sackhoff and the rest to some haven where they could take cover and eventually defeat the Cylon race bent on exterminating them. Instead, creator Ronald Moore gave audiences the fumbling of two species bent on discovering grace, with all the confusion and terror that implies. The show’s often-tortured mythology doesn’t always work, especially in a final season that tried too hard to tie up threads that weren’t loose so much as irrelevant. But the end result is still a powerful meditation on grief, loss, and the responsibilities of consciousness.
Essential episodes: “Final Cut,” “Lay Down Your Burdens, Part 2,” “Unfinished Business”
13. 30 Rock (2006-present)30 Rock (2006-present)It’s hard to believe that back in 2006, a future three-time Emmy-winner for Best Comedy would be considered a likely flop, doomed to languish in the long shadow of Aaron Sorkin’s high-profile inside-TV drama Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip. Instead, Studio 60 proved drippy and self-important, while 30 Rock is in the middle of its fourth season as a reliable gag-generating machine. Tina Fey’s look behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live-like sketch-comedy series has almost nothing to do with what it’s actually like to throw together a TV show, and more to do with the ridiculousness that ensues when vain creative types and arrogant corporate lackeys try to collaborate. Mainly, 30 Rock is a sight-gag-and-punchline factory. When Fey and company are on a roll, the show generates more quotable lines and memorable moments per 22 minutes than any sitcom since Arrested Development.
Essential episodes: “The Rural Juror,” “Subway Hero,” “The One With The Cast Of Night Court
14. Futurama (Fox, 1999-2003)Futurama (Fox, 1999-2003)Science fiction teaches that the future will either resemble the rainy misery of Blade Runner or the upbeat togetherness of Star Trek, without many options between them, but what happens if tomorrow is pretty much like today? That’s one of the driving ideas behind Futurama¸ the brainchild of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. Futuramaposits a year 3000 in which the robots are surly, the suicide booths are plentiful, and the person with the clearest vision only has one eye. In its original run, the series walked the high wire of high-concept and slapstick humor, delivering gags based around Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle without ever talking down to its audience. That uncompromising standard led to an emotional depth that never took the easy road toward affecting an audience. It’s no surprise that this standard also led to a premature cancellation; it’s more surprising that the show lasted as long as it did. Thankfully, fan interest and DVD sales restored the series to life, but regardless of what the future brings, the original 72 episodes remain impeccable evidence that there’s no such thing as too smart for the room.
Essential episodes: “Roswell That Ends Well,” “Jurassic Bark,” “The Devil’s Hands Are Idle Playthings”
15. Veronica Mars (UPN/The CW, 2004-07)Veronica Mars (UPN/The CW, 2004-07)The first season of the Rob Thomas-createdVeronica Mars is one of the singular achievements of ‘00s television: a season-long murder mystery that doubles as an inquiry into the class divisions in and around a Southern California high school. The second season upped the ambition level, adding a denser plot that was often hard to follow, but which paid off brilliantly. And then the third season—set at college—aimed for shorter stories and a lighter tone, and suffered significantly from the creative compromise. But throughout, star Kristen Bell grounded the twisty stories and soapy romances in a real character: a formerly popular teenager who uses her ability to slip between cliques to help make her classmates’ adolescences less confusing and unfair.
Essential episodes: “You Think You Know Somebody,” “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough,” “The Bitch Is Back”
16. Friday Night Lights (NBC, 2006-present)Friday Night Lights (NBC, 2006-present)Proving that nepotism isn’t always a bad thing, Peter Berg parlayed a distant relation to H.G. Bissinger, author of the acclaimed non-fiction bookFriday Night Lights, into a film and television adaptation. And as good as its source material is, the TV series has became one of the most distinctive hours on broadcast or cable. FNL’s well-deserved acclaim led to an unusual release strategy starting in the third season, with original episodes airing first on DirecTV, then months later on NBC. Anchored by the monumental yet understated performance of Kyle Chandler as the coach of a Texas high-school football powerhouse, the show has explored a sports-saturated culture on and off the field. Its naturalistic style highlights the relationships between Dillon High’s jocks, their families and girlfriends, the team’s well-heeled boosters, and the football-mad community. Yet there’s a bleakness underlying Berg’s portrayal; when the spotlight fades, what’s left are struggling families, glass ceilings, and unclear priorities.
Essential episodes: “Best Laid Plans,” “May The Best Man Win,” “New York, New York”
17. Firefly (Fox, 2002-2003)
Firefly (Fox, 2002-2003)Like Joss Whedon’s other shows, Firefly sported some serious flaws. And like Whedon’s other shows, it fought to stay on the air long enough to address them. But unlike Whedon’s other shows,Firefly failed, and given how good it was apart from those flaws, it seems churlish now to focus on what could’ve been. Instead, let’s stick with what was: a clever, funny, exciting, original outer-space Western with an unforgettable cast of characters and a palpable sense of fun. Whedon assembled what may be his best-ever group of actors, created a compelling (albeit unfinished) fictional universe, and wore his heart on his sleeve in creating one of the best science-fiction shows in a decade crammed with them. Buffy achieved its own Peter Principle, and Dollhouse bought itself a second chance; mourn Firefly as the great Whedon that wasn’t.
Essential episodes: “Jaynestown,” “Out Of Gas,” “Objects In Space”
18. How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005-present)How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 2005-present)The traditional three-camera sitcom (with laugh track) may be considered a dead format—though they still rule the ratings, for the most part—but with How I Met Your Mother, creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas have expanded its limitations while keeping the gags a-coming. Where most sitcoms hit the reset button on the same basic dynamics week after week, season after season,HIMYM has the continuity of a more novelistic series, and loves to play around with time, paying off jokes with flashbacks, asides, and wildly inventive structural trickery. The immensely gifted cast helps: Neil Patrick Harris as an unrepentant skirt-chaser; Cobie Smulders as a woman whose conventional beauty is undermined by her gawky Canadian-ness; Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan as a teddy-bear-adorable couple; and Josh Radnor as the mildly douchey hero in search of the ever-elusive “mother” of the title. The show can do sitcom silliness like nobody’s business, but it has surprising emotional depth, too, and it rewards its fans for their close attention.
Essential episodes: “Slap Bet,” “Showdown,” “How I Met Everyone Else”
19. Big Love (HBO, 2006-present)Big Love (HBO, 2006-present)For a show that was originally marketed as a smirking, adults-only look inside a polygamist cult,Big Love has proved to be one of the most oddly clean-cut shows to air on HBO, and one of the most earnest studies of religion and morality ever to air on television. In extracting relatable drama and comedy from the problems of a successful businessman with cult associations, Big Love deals smartly with the troubles faced by people of faith who try to seize their part of the American dream without being sullied by the secular. It’s an impossible situation, illustrated well by this not-so-sexy show about a man with three wives.
Essential episodes: “The Baptism,” “Kingdom Come,” “Come, Ye Saints”
20. Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (Cartoon Network, 2007-present)Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! (Cartoon Network, 2007-present)It’s no exaggeration to claim that Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have invented a completely new kind of television show: Their Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!—from that title on down—filters the idea of sketch comedy through public-access TV, Dadaism, and poop jokes. One minute, it’s a commercial parody poking at consumerism, the next a rabid commercial for rentable child clowns, the next a story arc about a kidnapped public-access singer. But every single minute bears the stamp of two really smart minds, unafraid to examine the outermost bounds of acceptability. The surface begs to be scratched, and there’s real artistry to be found underneath. No wonder guest stars (John C. Reilly, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis, Jeff Goldblum, the list goes on) have lined up to join in.
Essential episodes: “Chunky,” “Missing,” “Forest”
21. Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, 2000-present)Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO, 2000-present)At first blush, it sounds like an easy show to get into: a comedy about the fabulously wealthy crotchety man who created Seinfeld. But what makes Curb Your Enthusiasm more than just an amusing sitcom is that it forces its audience to accept a reality not quite similar to our own. Curb Your Enthusiasm might be set in the real world with real people, but it isn’t a realistic show; its people are driven by their ids, saying what’s on their minds and feeling so constrained by social niceties that they rip them apart like petulant children. Via creator/star Larry David, we root for a guy we’d probably want to punch in real life.
Essential episodes: “Krazee Eyez Killa,” “Club Soda And Salt,” “Trick Or Treat”
22. Six Feet Under (HBO, 2001-05)Six Feet Under (HBO, 2001-05)It might be easy to magnify Six Feet Under’s occasional mid-run plot stumbles into worse flaws than they actually were, but the bumpy moments shouldn’t overshadow the real pathos that this five-season HBO drama delivered. Playing the unwilling heir to his family’s funeral home, Nate Fisher was often unlikeable, but the shitstorms that followed him around made him a hero just the same. Delicate performances from the many women in his life buoyed the show: Frances Conroy, Lauren Ambrose, Rachel Griffiths, and Lili Taylor offered some of TV’s most complex female characters. A nuanced gay couple (Dexter’s Michael C. Hall and Mathew St. Patrick) broadened the show, too. And though it could seem soapy at times, no other drama featured Six Feet Under’s depth of plot and talking dead people.
Essential episodes: “Pilot,” “The Last Time,” “Everyone’s Waiting”
23. Undeclared (Fox, 2001-02)Undeclared (Fox, 2001-02)Before Judd Apatow became the bountiful wellspring of Hollywood comedy hits he is today, he was the king of noble failures on television (see also Freaks And Geeks, above)—none more cursed than Undeclared, a half-hour campus comedy that Fox began airing two weeks after 9/11, when no one was in the mood to laugh. Sixteen episodes and repeated schedule changes and preemptions later,Undeclared was finally put out of its misery, but the DVD box set that followed makes a strong argument for a show that deftly balanced comic hijinks and pranks with a real affection for underclassmen trying to cope with the independence and uncertainty of being on their own for the first time. Jay Baruchel makes a winning nerd hero, Loudon Wainwright III steals scenes as his recently divorced and eager-to-party father, Carla Gallo and Monica Keena play wonderfully daffy objects of desire, Freaks And Geeks holdovers Seth Rogen and Jason Segel contribute big laughs, and it’s all delivered with the underlying sweetness that viewers have come to expect from Apatow.
Essential episodes: “Addicts,” “Truth Or Dare,” “The Perfect Date”
24. Dexter (2006-present)Dexter (2006-present)Though uneven, Showtime’s first genuine drama hit showed the dark flipside of the crime procedurals littering the TV landscape through most of the decade. Michael C. Hall’s riveting work as Dexter Morgan—a serial killer who kills other criminals—introduces queasy questions about just how far Americans are willing to go to feel safe, and just which crimes deserve which punishments. The series’ master plotting has rarely misstepped, especially in its first two seasons, which delved into Dexter’s backstory and the morality of his extracurricular activities. And always at the center is Hall, playing one of TV’s most fascinating characters: a bumbling everyman with a jack-o’-lantern smile that conceals more than anyone would ever want to know.
Essential episodes: “Morning Comes,” “Resistance Is Futile,” “There’s Something About Harry”
25. Buffy The Vampire Slayer (The WB/UPN, 1997-2003)Buffy The Vampire Slayer (The WB/UPN, 1997-2003)Heading into the decade in the middle of its fourth season, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was one of TV’s most acclaimed series, even after it left the high-school setting of its earlier seasons behind. In the first few years of the ’00s, though, Buffy and her friends wandered through dreamscapes, battled a god, lost people dear to them, and sang and danced. While more uneven in those seasons than it had been in high school, Joss Whedon’s series would still get at truths about the pain of growing up, the sheer struggle of mere living, and the formation of ad hoc families. And in its willingness to innovate stylistically, the series also proved itself a surprisingly adept chameleon: a ribald comedy one week, a musical the next, and a quiet art film the week after.
Essential episodes: “Restless,” “The Body,” “Once More With Feeling”
26. The Venture Bros. (Cartoon Network, 2003-present)The Venture Brothers (Cartoon Network, 2003- )If The Venture Bros. wasn’t the best show of the 2000s, it was at least the most unexpected: Debuting on a network best known for funny-but-dust-thin stoner comedy, it quickly evolved into one of the most emotionally involving shows on television, showing real character growth, genuine depth of feeling, and a hefty thematic obsession with failure and disappointment. Occupying territory alongside cheaply produced junk-store animation, Venture Bros. came through with gorgeous character design, a lovely array of color and movement, and some of the best original music on television. Even its humor transcended its origins; though still a source of immense geek-recognition laughter, the show goes beyond mere reference and invites viewers to contemplate what their nostalgia means, not just that it exists. Oh, and it’s also funny as hell.
Essential episodes: “Tag Sale—You’re It!”, “Powerless In The Face Of Death,” “The Family That Slays Together, Stays Together”
27. Flight Of The Conchords (HBO, 2007-2009)Flight Of The Conchords (HBO, 2007-2009)When HBO announced that it was building a sitcom around the New Zealand folk-comedy duo Flight Of The Conchords, many doubted whether what was essentially a musical act would translate well to filmed, scripted comedy. But the series has shown unique strengths: Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie are able to play low-key in front of a camera, toning down their stage personas to a pleasantly awkward degree. And by arranging for support from a wide range of alt-comedy stars (Kristen Schaal, Aziz Ansari, Eugene Mirman, Demetri Martin and others), they concocted plenty of situation for their comedy. Flight is also delightfully New York-y, with lots of charming location shots to augment the scenes shot in the duo’s cramped pad. The show went a bit too broad in its second season, but even when the comedy faltered, there was always a winning song just around the corner.
Essential episodes: “Bret Gives Up The Dream,” “Girlfriends,” “Unnatural Love”
28. Eastbound & Down (HBO, 2009-present)Eastbound & Down (HBO, 2009-present)HBO’s Eastbound & Down doesn’t entirely fit in with the “comedy of discomfort” scene epitomized by the British Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm, nor is it as broadly farcical as other projects featuring its star, Danny McBride. Instead, it finds a sweet spot between outlandish and authentic. McBride plays a washed-up baseball player, Kenny Powers, who has none of the fans he once did, yet retains all of his swagger. He’s a chauvinist pig and the ugliest of ugly Americans, and Eastbound at first invites viewers to laugh mostly at him, but the six-episode first season—half of which was directed by indie auteur David Gordon Green, tellingly—also allowed audiences to feel a little sympathy. Even though Kenny Powers says things like “I’ve been blessed with many things in this life: an arm like a damn rocket, a cock like a Burmese python, and the mind of a fucking scientist,” he’s hard not to love.
Essential episodes: “Chapter 3,” “Chapter 5,” “Chapter 6.”
29. Wonder Showzen (MTV2, 2005-06)Wonder Showzen (MTV2, 2005-06)John Lee and Vernon Chatman’s “kids show for adults” Wonder Showzen started off dark, then grew increasingly bleak, until it wasn’t contemplating the void so much as plunging audiences inside it. Part kid-show parody, part Dadaist provocation, Wonder Showzen took the convention of children’s shows—puppets, cartoons, busy graphics, children interviewers—into evisceratingly dark places. The second season in particular dared audiences to turn away, most notoriously in the series finale, “Clarence Special Report On Compelling Television,” which featured 30 minutes of a hand puppet ambushing people in the park and challenging them to create compelling television, right there on the spot. (At the end of the episode/series, the puppet kills himself by leaping from a helicopter.) The show amply lived up to an opening crawl promising “OFFENSIVE, DESPICABLE CONTENT THAT IS TOO CONTROVERSIAL AND TOO AWESOME FOR ACTUAL CHILDREN.”
Essential episodes: “Diversity,” “Patience,” “Cooperation”
30. The West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006)
The West Wing (NBC, 1999-2006)Aaron Sorkin’s mixture of starry-eyed idealism and wit seems so suited for the fictional White House ofThe West Wing that’s it hard to accept that the show lasted three seasons after he left. Even more surprising is that those seasons weren’t a complete wreck. Still, the first half of the show’s run is undeniably its best, pitching lofty goals against the government grind, and seeing which came out on top. The aspirations of the staff, led by president Martin Sheen, didn’t always lead to victory, but that was one of the series’ strengths: managing, at its finest, to maintain its optimism without completely disregarding the endless compromise of politics. That strength even endured in Sorkin’s absence, with a depiction of a presidential campaign that eerily predicted the realities of 2008. West Wing had the occasional misstep, but at its best, it suggested a world where smart people could do dumb things, but still find the right way in the end.
Essential episodes: “The Stackhouse Filibuster,” “The Two Cathedrals,” “Game On”

Updated: Thu., May. 1, 2008, 11:18 AM

THE 35 BEST SHOWS ON TV--EVER

Last Updated:11:18 AM, May 1, 2008
Posted:12:00 AM, April 27, 2008
Our parents told us TV would melt our brains. While it's possible "Punky Brewster" and "A-Team" did just that, along the way we saw some genius art. Television can't play 90 minutes on the big screen and vanish into the bargain bin. And it lacks one author to take it from introduction to the final page. Yet within these boundaries, there are a small number of shows that capture our attention, our obsession, and create enduring stories. How many? 35. They're listed here. Don't see your favorite television show? That's probably because, while entertaining, it didn't rise above mere packaging for a car commercial.These programs, decided on by a group of obsessive New York Post writers who never listened to their parents, are something more. Popular and compelling, yes, but groundbreaking as well, each one changing what was possible - and what sometimes was allowed - on TV.This is television's most perfect network, playing on repeats in the TiVo of our minds.
1THE SOPRANOS
(1999-2007, HBO)
When "The Sopranos" drama was in great form, there was nothing else like it. Episodes such as "College," from season one were simultaneously funny, frightening and startling. Tony toured New England universities with his daughter Meadow and took some time out to murder an old enemy while at home, his wife Carmela almost seduced her favorite priest, Father Phil, while watching a movie. Viewers never knew what was going to happen next, a policy creator David Chase enforced to the very last scene. The show also introduced us to fantastic actors who would have never been cast had the show been produced in Los Angeles. It is impossible to imagine anyone else playing Tony and Carmela besides James Gandolfini and Edie Falco. Their portrayal of a sometimes ugly marriage had never been seen on television before.
2ALL IN THE FAMILY
(1971-79, CBS)
Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor) hated everybody who wasn't a white, middle-class American like himself. Regularly using such pejoratives as "fag," "spade," "wop" and "chink," he was so politically incorrect he wouldn't be allowed to set foot on a television show anymore. But in "All In The Family," creator Norman Lear found an anti-hero through which he could parody such serious subjects as intolerance in America. Based on the British series "Till Death Do Us Part," the comedy was a risky choice for CBS, but when it went to number one and stayed there for five years, the network spun off "Maude," "The Jeffersons" and "Good Times," among other series.
3THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW (1986-present, syndication) Phil Donahue gets the credit for ushering in this era of daytime talk, but no one has mastered the genre like Oprah Winfrey, who has turned TV into her temple. Winfrey is a goddess to American women, a humanitarian who never runs out of ways to make the world a better place and the most influential media personality in America. In one classic episode, Winfrey, who has been publicly battling her weight since we met her, walked on stage some 40 pounds lighter on Nov. 5, 1988, after spending three months on a liquid diet. In the show's highest episode ever, she pulled an equivalent amount of fat behind her in a wagon. Today, Winfrey is a multi-media, multi-billion dollar brand, and her syndicated talk show, where she addresses pressing social issues of special concern to women, runs a book club, and gives away prizes to her loyal audience, is just the start. "O, the Oprah Magazine," boasts a circulation of 16 million; "Oprah and Friends" airs each day on XM Satellite Radio; and in 2009, Winfrey is partnering with Discovery to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN. It truly is Oprah's world; we're all lucky to be living in it.
4AMERICAN IDOL (2002- present, FOX)
When the decade is over, "American Idol" will go down in history as its most-watched program. Monstrously successful, this talent show had the kind of numbers envious producers would sell their first-borns for. And at a time when the music industry saw CD sales plummet thanks to the Internet, "Idol" empowered the audience - mainly 13-year-old girls - to create the music it wanted to hear by voting for the singers it liked best. The concept was so simple, you wonder why the blowhards in Los Angeles didn't think of it first. The brainchild of British TV producer Simon Fuller, "Idol" made multi-platforming the wave of the future. The show shot to the top of the ratings, becoming the No. 1 for the season, even though it only ran from January through May. Then the winners - or even the runners-up - catapulted to the top of the charts, and in the case of Jennifer Hudson, to the winner's circle on Oscar night. Hate it or love it, "American Idol" was the one show broadcast TV producers spent ten years looking for and couldn't come up with: a phenomenon.
5THE WEST WING (1999-2006, NBC)
Who knew policy wonks could be sexy? "The West Wing," with its rapid-fire dialogue - and trademark walk-and-talks through the corridors of power - could make your ears hurt trying to keep up. But in the hands of Martin Sheen , Stockard Channing, Allison Janney, Rob Lowe, Richard Schiff and Bradley Whitford, even arguments about subjects as dry as the free trade agreement could catch fire.They said it would never work, that no one would be interested in the sausage-making of government. But creator Aaron Sorkin proved everyone wrong. Relying on Washington insiders, he built a world around the Democratic administration of President Josiah Bartlet (Sheen) that had the distinct whiff of authenticity. It went on to capture three Golden Globes and 26 Emmy Awards, tying "Hill Street Blues" for the most Emmys ever for a dramatic series.
6MARY TYLER MOORE (1970-77, CBS)
You have to look pretty hard these days to find a show or a movie that has several good roles for women. But in the long ago, there was a comedy built around Mary Tyler Moore that had three of them. There was Mary Richards, the warm and independent woman starting out in her career at a Minneapolis TV station. There was Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper), Mary's friend and neighbor, a windowdresser whose earthy candor made her the perfect foil. And then there was Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman), uptight landlady to both Mary and Rhoda, a woman who was so self-involved that she made everyone do double takes with her crazy remarks. One of the smartest sitcoms, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" had a gallery of well-drawn characters, three of whom - Rhoda, Phyllis and Mary's boss, Lou Grant - eventually got shows of their own.
7DALLAS (1978-91, CBS)
Without "Dallas," we never would've had to wait all summer to find out if Peter Petrelli exploded into smithereens on "Heroes," how Jack Bauer would survive imprisonment by the Chinese on "24," if Buffy would come back from the dead... Why not? Because "Dallas" and its season-two finale "A House Divided"(a k a "Who Shot J.R.?") ignited a frenzy for the jaw-dropping cliffhanger that continues to this day. It was the highest rated episode in U.S. history at the time, with numbers that were like those of "American Idol" and "Grey's Anatomy" combined. If that doesn't convince you, the series also rode the coattails of current events (gas crunch, energy crises, Iran), featured overripe plotlines involving sex, money, family and lies - what could be more American? - and had the ultimate villain, J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman, below with Linda Grey). It was the one 1980s series that other shows wanted to be, and its imitators - "Dynasty" "Falcon Crest" and "Knots Landing" - all enjoyed long runs.
824 (2001- present, FOX)
Set aside the groundbreaking real-time format and the split-screen action. Think about the plots. An African-American senator on the verge of becoming president. Terrorist threats against the US including an exploding jetliner. Patriot Act-level surveillance and wiretapping. Secret prisons and torture. So much of what this show does has come true, you start to worry that a heroin-addicted special agent is at this moment stopping a weaponized virus from wiping out Los Angeles. Kiefer Sutherland's Jack Bauer is a hero for the modern age, amoral in motion, conflicted at rest. "24" shamed other cop dramas with its movie-size action, its breakneck plotting, but most of all its immediacy. After "24," you can't pretend your characters don't live in the real world. Now, the clock is always ticking.
9TWIN PEAKS (1990-91, ABC)
Black lodges, damn fine pie, log ladies - "Peaks" was something television hadn't been before: Weird. Once viewers figured out "Who Killed Laura Palmer?" the noir soap veered into chaos, but you see its influences in everything from "X-Files" to "Lost." The show was also the first to bring "cinema" to the small screen. Film director David Lynch included visually riveting but plotless side scenes, a seasoned cast, and on-location shooting in the Pacific Northwest instead of a studio lot. "Peaks" didn't look like TV. Backward-talking dwarves? Creepier than anything but Bea Arthur. And the next time you think "ER" is gutsy for killing off a major character, consider this. In the series finale, Lynch killed off half the cast of "Peaks" and left the main character possessed.
10SESAME STREET
(1969-present, PBS)
Many an aging Generation Xer can thank "Sesame Street" for teaching them to read. Bert, Ernie, Big Bird and the gang created the first TV show parents and kids could watch together. Segments were short enough to engage the kiddies, and funny enough to keep mom and dad from changing the channel. The series also inspired entire networks dedicated to kids, like Nickelodeon, lessening the program's power, but not its importance. No one hammered home what kids needed to know about the letter "E" and the number "8" like Grover and the Count.
11THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JOHNNY CARSON (1962-92, NBC)
Like Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson (below) set the bar for late-night talk-show hosts and no one since has managed to combine his charm, wit and genuine ability to converse with his guests.
1260 MINUTES
(1968-present, CBS)
From Vietnam and Watergate to the Iraq War, Mike Wallace and this team have kept reported the world's most riveting news.
13THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW (1948-71, CBS)
Ed Sullivan owned Sunday night and his show can always brag about two pop culture milestones: breakthrough performances by Elvis Presley, in 1956, and The Beatles, in 1964. 60 million Americans watched.
14I LOVE LUCY (1951-57, CBS)
Lucille Ball's genius comedy about a Cuban bandleader, Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz, above, with Ball) his madcap wife and their game neighbors, Fred and Ethel Mertz, created three-camera television and filmed episodes that allowed for rebroadcasts. Every sitcom actress since then has been billed as "the next Lucille Ball." Never gonna happen.
15LAW & ORDER
(1990-present, NBC)
If Jack Bauer doesn't stop the world from blowing up, there will be three things left: cockroaches, Cher and "Law & Order." The Dick Wolf show removed character from the squad room and the courtroom and riveted audiences that liked stories with a beginning, middle and end.
16MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS
(1969-1974, PBS)
Chances are every cast member of "SNL" and writer on "The Daily Show" can recite a sketch from this British troupe whose show first aired on the BBC. The Pythons skewered everything you weren't supposed to bring up at a dinner party (religion, politics, silly walks). Go YouTube "Philosopher's World Cup" and "How Not to Be Seen." Oh! "The Hungarian Phrasebook." "Blackmail"! There, you just lost an afternoon.
17THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW (1967-79, CBS)
Burnett was not only a great comic, specializing in outrageous satires of melodramas like "Gone With the Wind," but she cleverly surrounded herself with pros who were often funnier than she was, like the demented Tim Conway and Harvey Korman.
18THE SIMPSONS (1989-present, FOX)
Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright and Yeardley Smith gave voice to TV's most endearing animated characters.
19SEX AND THE CITY (1998-2004, HBO)
The story of four sexually liberated women falling in and out of love in New York was one of two Sunday night HBO shows that you talked about first thing on Monday morning.
20ER (1994-present, NBC)
Two words: George Clooney . America's fascination with this handsome devil began on Thursday nights in a high-octane medical drama that grabbed you by the throat with its frantic pace, overlapping dialogue and believably exhausted residents.
21THE HONEYMOONERS (1955-56, CBS)
This sitcom about a bus driver, his best pal and their wives still sends us to the moon.
22MIAMI VICE (1984-89, NBC)
The coolest show of the 1980s. The adventures of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) hooked viewers with its funky portrait of an American city drenched in crime. What other show had a hot soundtrack, launched a No. 1 single and made white Armani jackets worn over T-shirts all the rage?
23SEINFELD (1990-98, NBC)
The antics of four neurotic New Yorkers who preferred each other's company to kooky girlfriends, sponge-worthy boyfriends and crotchety parents made for quirky, inspired comedy.
24GUNSMOKE (1955-75, CBS)
Over 30 Westerns came and went during this show's tenure, but Matt Dillon outlasted them all.
25ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH-IN (1968-73, NBC)
The fast-paced comedy show really socked it to us. The stars it gave rise to were the best of the day: Lily Tomlin, Goldie Hawn, Ruth Buzzi and Joanne Worley.
26HILL STREET BLUES (1981-87, NBC)
The pioneering Steven Bochco cop show paved the way for "NYPD Blue," among many other gritty procedurals.
27STAR TREK(1966-1969, NBC)
Even though it was only on for four years, "Star Trek" spawned a galaxy of other "Trek" spinoffs and a parallel universe of movies.
28THE X-FILES (1993-2002, Fox)
The first time geeks were heroes. Forget the mythology; its legacy of witty dread is cemented by one episode: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."
29THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW (1961-66, CBS)
This sitcom about the life of comedy writer Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke), his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and his colleagues was sharp, funny and memorable.
30SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (1975-present, NBC)
It was "Laugh-In" for the 70s, a hip mix of satire, music and straight comedy. In its early years, everyone was home watching.
31JEOPARDY! (1964-75; 1978-79; 1984-present, NBC and syndication)Merv Griffin's game show for smart people has consistently given us the right questions to our answers for over 40 years.
32MOONLIGHTING (1985-89, ABC)
If "Miami Vice" was the '80s coolest cop show and "Dallas" was the best soap, "Moonlighting" was the hippest romance.
33MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1966-73, CBS)
This stylish "24" precursor was a thrill-ride from the opening credits.
34The Cosby Show (1984-92, NBC)
The most popular sitcom of all time and if you watch "the Monopoly scene" between Cosby and his son, you'll know why. After Theo gives an impassioned speech about "loving me as I am" after he gets a D, the crowd "aahs." You expect Cosby to hug him. Instead, he pauses, "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in... I am your father. I brought you in this world, I can take you out."
35GENERAL HOSPITAL (1963-present, ABC)
Three words: Luke and Laura. Their star-crossed romance catapulted changed the face of daytime television.
Additional reporting by Paige Albiniak, Deborah Starr Seibel and Maxine Shen


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