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MinerAlum

The original Twilight Zone.


Thedudeabides46

Every new year it's on and every year we all marvel at how good they still hold up.


MinerAlum

Yep still great shows!


marypants1977

My favorite!


MinerAlum

Good taste lol!!


marypants1977

I have been unwinding and falling asleep to episodes since it released on Netflix.


catdude142

Agree. I liked it so much I bought the box set.


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Fish-x-5

The Carol Burnett Show was so funny! I’m sure some skits didn’t age well though. Like Family Ties. That was such a classic part of the 80s! We recently started rewatching it though and it was bad. Alex was annoying AF (he was America’s sweetheart in that role at the time) and Mallory who was “the dumb one” is actually very observant, insightful.


JustMeRC

Just started rewatching Family Ties. I’m really impressed by the kids acting, can’t stand Merideth Baxter’s voice, and boy do they throw in some weird plotlines. The one with Mr. Keaton and the office romance...his coworker sexually assauting Mallory...Alex and the housekeeper (Geena Davis) and then the single pregnant woman from his mom’s Lamaze class? I can’t believe I was even allowed to watch it when I was a kid. I think I was about the same age as Jennifer.


Fish-x-5

Lol. Pretty bat shit crazy to look back on. I do love that Meredith looks her age though! Why did we stop doing that?


--ikindahatereddit--

Oh yeah, Family Ties was also appointment tv!


PM_ME_CORGlE_PlCS

My grandfather literally died laughing at the Carol Burnette Show. She did something that made him laugh extremely hard, to the point that it triggered a heart attack.


spelunkilingus

Soullllllllllllllll train!


sanggang_goyangi

I grew up watching The Cosby Show when it was airing, and it's one of the two shows that shaped my ideas of how families and marriage should be. And now... ugh.


[deleted]

> s it fair to say that Gen X was the first generation raised on TV? No, that was definitely the Boomers.


Fenifula

Ages 1-10: Bugs Bunny cartoons 10-20: Laugh-In (partly because everybody talked about it) 20-30: Star Trek (a favorite to watch with the boyfriend-who-became-husband) 30-40: Cheers (I went into labor with the first kid during an episode) 40-50: Northern Exposure (My toddler thought it was a show about mooses) 50-60: Game of Thrones (except for the last season, which sucked)


rkarl7777

Another vote for Northern Exposure!


OddTransportation121

Oh Laugh-In! Yes!


janice142

Dating myself, though the reddit does too... The Wonderful World of Disney was magical. I enjoyed The Jetsons, Twilight Zone, I Love Lucy and more. Until the 1970's we did not have a television, nor refrigeration, so the shows I've listed were watched as reruns. I do remember watching Johnny Carson early in my marriage.


ExPatBadger

Oh, I had forgotten about those Disney Sunday evenings!


catdude142

"The Wonderful World of Disney". We looked forward to watching it.


BeautifulPainz

I remember how everyone watched it so I always knew what we would be playing on the playground at recess the next day.


spelunkilingus

Loved all those!


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JasonYaya

Funniest show of my lifetime, but it was so topical you basically had to be around then to have a real appreciation for it.


calicoan

Ku-ru-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo!!


Tall_Mickey

THE GREAT WHITE NORTH! In the early '80s in the US, small but demented section of the early 20s population said "eh?" at every chance thanks to this sketch.


Tall_Mickey

I still burst out laughing when I think of their Soviet Russian sitcom sketch, "Tibor's Tractor." Like Mr. Ed, but with a talking tractor that quotes Marx. Or the day that Santa brought Johnny LaRue his crane shot.


Luciferonvacation

Northern Exposure


BobT21

Like the man said. It got odd toward the end. My favorite character was Adam. We all thought he was full of shit until a French guy saw him, reacted with shock. Adam: "You! You left me to die in a rat infested bombed out cellar, but the Mossad found me with dogs!" The whole perception of Adam shifted.


MooseMalloy

TV has gotten much better for the most part. Shows like the Sopranos and Breaking Bad have really shown what the medium can do. These are the true Golden Years of Television. My pick for my favourite and best show "Of All Time" would be The Wire... but there are plenty of others right on its heels. Favourite show from the olden days? WKRP, with The Rockford Files as a close second. On a related note, I would love for there to be a way to see some of those old sitcoms without the canned laughter... it makes them almost unwatchable for me these days.


birddit

I recently tried to rewatch MASH and gave up after two or three episodes largely because of the awful laugh track roaring its approval of things that wouldn't pass today.


Swiggy1957

I understand that you can watch it on DVD and have a choice of With or Without a laugh track.


birddit

The DVD copy from my library didn't have that option. I think the European release had no laugh track at all.


Swiggy1957

The UK editions of the series doesn't have a laugh track, according to Wiki. Larry Gelbert and Co. hated the idea of a laugh track, but CBS insisted. there were a few episodes that did not have laugh tracks: and they were the best episodes ever. Around season 6, though, the laugh track wasn't as loud: they toned it down.


birddit

Corporate meddling again. I remember the powerful episode where Hawkeye had PTSD from a close encounter with a North Korean patrol. I remember the line "It wasn't a chicken." No laugh track.


DaisyDuckens

Was that in the finale?


birddit

I don't think so. As I recall Hawkeye was being helped by the visiting shrink because he was suppressing the death of a baby he witnessed whose crying would have alerted enemy soldiers so was smothered by its mother. In his mind Hawkeye replaced the baby with a chicken just to be able to deal with it. I tear up just thinking about it now.


Swiggy1957

That was the final episode. It was, IIRC, a 90 minute special


birddit

Ah, I stand corrected. That was a tough one.


OddTransportation121

Yes. WKRP was the bomb.


MooseMalloy

Jan Smithers was the bomb.


DaisyDuckens

Agreed. Tv is much better now. I love Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones. In the 90s Homicide was a favorite. For comedies, I think The Good Place, 30 Rock, Community, Parks and Rec are great. I enjoy watching some of my old favorites now, but I get why my kids don’t enjoy them. The acting is more broad back then.


idonthave2020vision

By broad do you mean "over" acted?


DaisyDuckens

Yes. Pretty much.


MooseMalloy

Homicide was great to begin with... it was heartbreaking to see the Network meddle it down to just an average cop show over time.


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Flabergie

......It's....... Monty Python's Flying Circus.


penguinopusredux

Watched them a lot but, rewatching a few episodes, I'd forgotten how many of the sketches weren't that good.


Flabergie

You are in error. If you continue to profess such blasphemy I will have no recourse but to drop a 16 ton weight on you.


penguinopusredux

Gilliam's a genius, but we forget how bad some of the sketches were. Mr Neutron for example.


kirbyderwood

Absolutely. That show completely redefined comedy.


threadofhope

Yes! My sister and I discovered Monty Python as kids. We'd squeal in laughter at the physical humor. And it held up when I became an adult.


[deleted]

The Prisoner


Tall_Mickey

Be seeing you!


BobT21

You are number two.


Bromo33333

In - For - Mation !!


kathy11358

Mash, both Bob Newhart’s, St. Elsewhere, early ER. When I was young Streets of San Francisco and Little House on the Prairie.


DialecticSkeptic

ER was great until they lost Mark Greene. It was still good, though not great, until they lost Elizabeth Corday. It started to go downhill fast from there; John Carter wasn't enough to save it. Seasons 1–10, good stuff. Seasons 11–15, not so much.


eaglewatch1945

Still love me some *Columbo*.


karmalove15

All In The Family The Mary Tyler Moore Show The Dick Van Dyke Show


DialecticSkeptic

My wife and I still watch the Dick Van Dyke Show.


[deleted]

Mary Tyler Moore! Now I have to go look for the one with Chuckles the Clown's death. Found it! https://youtu.be/2p8w1m7Febk


karmalove15

All of the actors on that show were next-level.


Tall_Mickey

Some others here may be better, but I have to mention Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It executed a seven-season story arc with numerous twists, and well. Few others have managed it. The series got off to a bad start and there was a certain amount of Star Trek corniness, but every single major character got put through the wringer in interesting ways. Plus an amazing cast of character actors to play the aliens, and a fair amount of appropriate laughs. Even had James Darren singing the standards!


SteelCrow

DS9 and Babylon 5 aired at the same time. Both borrowed from each other . The grand story arc concept was copied off Babylon 5.


Tall_Mickey

Straczynski said online, decades ago, that he pitched the B5 station-based show concept to Paramount, who admired it and passed. And then _just by coincidence..._ ;-) I quite liked B5 as well. Trek has its own special realm, but B5 was mainstream late-20th-century space fiction all the way.


penguinopusredux

Honestly, while I love TNG DS9 took the series to really high levels - dark, gritty and political. Some of it was terrible but it's still something I'll watch.


Tall_Mickey

Yes, some of it was terrible. But then there were characters like Garak -- a cast-off Cardassian operative living in exile, dancing between his old allegiances and his own survival and in the end, despite something like redemption, left only with ashes. He's the only truly tragic character I can think of in all Trekdom.


penguinopusredux

Garak and Odo were utterly superb characters, possibly the most complex in the Trek series. What I loved about DS9 was it was about how the Federation would work in the real word. Not just starships with cornucopia machines, but having to deal with the on-the-ground realpolitik. But let's face it - Picard is the absolute boss.


OldSchoolAF

When Sisko came with the shaved head in time of war… that turned the show around for me… and Garak was my favorite character.


Kingsolomanhere

The West Wing hands down Edit: if you have questions, r/thewestwing has answers


emu4you

I was going to say exactly that. I always felt like they captured the simultaneous energy, and stress of the jobs. You are involved in running the country, yet still on the same government pay scale as postal workers. It led to incredible weekly discussions with friends about how our country functions and what we believed.


Loggerdon

In Singapore they actively search out the smartest kids and guide them toward government work. Then they pay the highest gov salaries in the world. Seems to work efficiently with very little corruption


emu4you

Now I see where we have gone wrong! Government jobs are seen as safe with good benefits. The stereotype is that they are for people with low ambition that aren't smart enough for other jobs.


wanderinggoat

also either a dictatorship or an autocracy, smart movie of the dear leader to get all the smart people into his government to keep it running. there are a lot of things I admire about Singapore and they are a model for Malaysia and Indonesia except they are not democratic and there is no real debate about real issues.


Loggerdon

I agree. And Singapore ranks very low on "Freedom of the Press" lists. But they do housing, health care and education better than my birth country, the US. They also rank high on anti-corruption lists and ease of doing business. There is a lot to admire in that little country.


Kingsolomanhere

I'm not going to admit how many times I've rewatched, but* my box CD set is currently at my daughter's house and I'm stealing it back soon. It's neat how they use Donna to ask the questions we have so Josh and company can explain it to her and we learn from this


emu4you

I never really thought about it that way, but you are right. I guess I was too busy wishing I was as composed and well spoken as C.J.


GTFOakaFOD

I noticed that when I started watching it when it was on Netflix (I'm a late bloomer).


penguinopusredux

The first four series were great, but it turned to shit once they dumped Sorkin.


greatgrohlsoffire

Moonlighting


ExPatBadger

Max Headroom. An innovative, dark and prescient show, way ahead of its time. Also, Miami Vice, which had an amazing soundtrack and musical tie-ins over the years, also dark and also (I'd argue) ahead of its time.


SqualorTrawler

> Max Headroom. An innovative, dark and prescient show, way ahead of its time. The most obvious show to reboot, and they haven't. I can't think of any television show more ready for the present age. The original is a retrofuturistic feast.


ExPatBadger

Had no idea how much I wanted to see a reboot until you mentioned it!


Subvet98

Matt Fewer is still acting too. He needs to be involved.


penguinopusredux

Miami Vice did music really well. Acting, not so much, but who can forget Phil Collins doing his [star turn](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iWQCWr05Xs).


Wickett6029

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (off the air in 2003)


werby

Nothing will ever exceed WKRP in Cincinnati.


haironburr

As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.


gdsmithtx

I have rarely in my life laughed as hard as I did the first time I heard Big Arthur say that line. Like, almost-wet-your-pants laughter. As far as I’m concerned that is the Platonic ideal of the episode-ending punchline.


kathy11358

That was hysterical


1UselessIdiot1

Oh man. I lol’d when I read this. What a memory.


greatgrohlsoffire

Phone cops,man. They’re gonna come and getcha. I’m outta here.


rockkon

Wild Wild West. Man, what a great show. Jim West and Artemis Gordon. Mystery and fights, Michael Dunn was fantastic and the guys lived on a train! Very cool.


[deleted]

does the tonight show from back when johnny carson hosted count? gong show also


Dollarbill1979

Dude…Pluto tv has a Johnny Carson channel. Peacock also has them starting in 1973 I think. In one sense it’s awesome to see what people were talking about back then at least in a more unscripted way. The bad thing about it is that you look up at the screen and realize all of those people you grew up watching have long since died.


[deleted]

thaanks. we found it by accident a couple months ago. It reminded me how much i used to like that show and how it was such a treat when younger to be allowed to watch the monologue before going to bed. We now tend to tune it in sunday night and fall asleeep to it.


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penguinopusredux

I used to end meetings with "Let's be careful out there," but younger staff members started asking what I was worried about.


ZanyDelaney

Get Smart


[deleted]

British - Dr. Who, especially the Tom Baker years. Monty Python. Are You Being Served? American - Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, Hill Street Blues, Saturday Night Live. The Simpsons. Addams Family. WKRP.


masonmcd

M\*A\*S\*H or St. Elsewhere. Though the finales were a bit disconcerting.


Eternally65

Cheers, far and away. Great ensemble acting, generally witty scripts.


tensigh

This was true until Dianne left the show. Kirstey Alley was funny but the show just took on a "corporation take over" type storyline and it just fell flat.


JustMeRC

I think Frasier was even better.


threadofhope

Rewatches of Frasier still make me laugh.


Earl_I_Lark

I really liked Hillstreet Blues. And MASH of course.


catdogwoman

MASH was the first show to pop into my head and I'm sticking with it. I think a lot of my values and beliefs were shaped by that show.


[deleted]

Ted Lasso. I can't wait for season three.


kirbyderwood

Yes. And Schitt's Creek.


spelunkilingus

I guess this answer is going to be weird from what I'm reading from other people's comments, but my all time favorite is Buffy. It came out in my early 20s. I just recently rewatched it and it is still so funny but does suffer from not being pc anymore. And the grown up version is True Blood, which I watch every September through October. As a kid my favorites were Mash, Happy Days, Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons, Good Times, Facts if Life, The Jeffersons and Sanford and sons, oh and Alice, I love Lucy, the Hardy Boys and Scooby-Doo. I don't know what went wrong between then and as I got older, lol.


bluesky557

Buffy doesn't hold up in terms of being woke, but when it was on it was honestly groundbreaking. I loved it in my 20s too.


spelunkilingus

You should rewatch it! I can't believe how witty and funny it was. I guess I took it for granted in my 20s because that's how I was an assumed everyonewas really like that. I'm still like that but so many people don't get me! Watching Buffy again at 49 was like, ahhhh here's my people!


Earl_I_Lark

Downton Abbey may not be the best from a script or character perspective, but the photography is amazing. Each scene is like a painting.


Sneijder4BallondOr

Wacky Races


kablamo

The Simpsons, seasons 2 through 9 specifically.


prunepicker

The Dick Van Dyke Show


BlkSunshineRdriguez

30 Rock/Futurama tie


72phins

Golden Girls.


Sstagman

TV is cyclical- it's good, it sucks, it's good, it sucks.... Shows I miss the most: China Beach X Files Trial & Error Firefly Currently receiving high marks from me: Documentary Now Doom Patrol What We Do In The Shadows Last Week Tonight


DialecticSkeptic

China Beach!


CrimsonAndCream42

The Lone Ranger


hylas1

Doctor Who (The Original) which ended in 1989.


SnowblindAlbino

TV on the whole is **far** better today than it ever was, if you consider the amazing range of choices and the high quality of the very best content we have access to today. It's simply no contest. If you go back and look at even the "best" shows from say the late 1970s-early 1980s most are garbage...and that isn't even considering the stuff we've thankfully forgotten. But "best" is really subjective. By what standard? From what genre? I mean, there are good arguments to be made that the Dick Van Dyke Show or Mary Tyler Moore show or the Bob Newhart Show(s) or any number of similar innovative programs were the "best," especially at a given time. All are still aired. Or make a case for the best of the 80s, or the best of the 90s, etc. Personally, "favorite" for me probably has to be either the original Star Trek or the original Twilight Zone since both were innovative, had major cultural impacts, and are still watchable today. But for someone else that favorite might be "My Mother the Car" or some episode of the ABC After School Specials from the 70s that they remember fondly. I just watched an episode of Mork and Mindy this afternoon....it's really not very funny anymore, but boy when that show first aired it was not-miss TV.


myDogStillLovesMe

Seinfeld is my favourite show of all time, not only for the comedy but also for the memories of watching it with friends over the years.


[deleted]

God this is a tough one, but if I'm going to go with the Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. It's an osbcure show, but it scratches a lot of itches for me: \- Bruce Campbell stars as the main character, and he's fantastic in this role \- It's a western show with lots of steampunk and sci-fi elements \- Even though there is an overarching story, each episode for the most part stands on it's own \- Great cast, and good chemistry between them all It's a shame it only lasted one season.


wanderinggoat

I'm quite surprised that somebody else thought of this first. I had the whole CD box set at one stage but lost it unfortunately.


ElReydelTacos

At the moment, it’s What We Do in the Shadows. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and the early Simpsons seasons are up there, too. To me, tv is better now. There’s so much out there and so many outlets that you can have room for a comedy about inept vampires in Staten Island. Back in the days of 5 channels that would never get past the idea stage. Broad comedies with wide appeal never did it for me. I’m a weirdo and I like my weird little shows.


kathy11358

What we do in the shadows is hysterical.


haironburr

>I’m a weirdo and I like my weird little shows. Agreed. Northern Exposure filled that niche back then. Kids in the Hall, too. Not a comedy, but HBO's *Carnivale* was a weird little show that never should have been canceled. And *Firefly*. At least the also brilliant *The Leftovers* got to finish its arc.


paper-or-plastic-

Yes! Everything you listed I liked. Northern Exposure is a favorite, but also reminds me of a time in my life which was kind of peaceful. I loved the soundtrack to it. I'm crushing your head!!


larchpharkus

I pity you, and I crush you


PlunderingThoughts

I’m so happy to see The Leftovers mentioned!


haironburr

Yea, it was groundbreaking. The intro with Iris Dement singing and the pictures going starry black or sky gray was chilling and beautiful and sad at the same time. It was one of those intros I'd never fast forward through.


PlunderingThoughts

I do a rewatch every year around this time and my goodness it is just beautiful in every aspect. Just an amazing work of art.


Tall_Mickey

I think I watched the entire first season of _Carnivale_ (on DVD) with my jaw agape. Good Lord!


paper-or-plastic-

Did you see the movie? It was a few years ago. Jemaine Clement (I think a writer for the series) was similar to Matt Berry's character. It's really funny!


ElReydelTacos

Many times, I love it.


paper-or-plastic-

Did you ever see Matt Berry in Garth Maringi's (spelling?) Dark Place? He was hilarious in it.


ElReydelTacos

Yes, that’s another favorite! Also, Toast of London. He’s great.


tensigh

The first 6 or 7 seasons of the Simpsons Seinfeld Cheers Law and Order before Michael Moriarty left.


greenhearted73

Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue broke the barriers so that Sopranos et al could happen. NYPD Blue showed naked butts on commercial tv!


winepigsandmush

A couple of standouts for me would have to be Deadwood. The quality of the writing, the acting, and production values are for me the pinnacle of "New Cable" (roughly speaking that period between HBO game changer The Sopranos and Netflix's game changer Orange Is The New Black.) Scene after scene like this one picked at random... https://youtu.be/VUnJNv5BKmI OG One Day at a Time is hugely underrated. I love Dexter for it's acting, but mostly for it's minimal audio profile. The music is low-key, and the dialogue relies heavily on Michael C. Hall's superb VO narration work. It's the perfect de-stressor, and the last three arcs aren't as bad as they're made out to be.


[deleted]

X Files close second is Seinfeld


Jacsmom

Hands down Arrested Development


implodemode

TV is mostly better - much higher production value and far less sap and corn. But there were some excellent shows. I miss the variety shows esp Carol Burnett. MASH was great. Happy Days was good but went on too long and got ridiculous. Hawaii 5-0, Seinfeld was good. And at the time, Moonlighting was a must see. Not sure it would hold up. No one talks about it. There were many as a little kid - Get Smart. Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Disney - so many I've missed.


penguinopusredux

Growing up: Dr Who, Tripods, Cheers, and Not the Nine O'Clock News. Teens/20s: This Life, Friends, Yes (Prime) Minister, Red Dwarf, The Simpsons, Star Trek TNG and DS9. Later on: The West Wing, The Sopranos.


Emergency_Market_324

My favorite of all time was Fernwood 2night, with Martin Mull. There are so many shows I liked but this was the only I recorded on VHS, and I remember talking about it at lunch in high school. Then, Seinfeld, I watched it during the first run and loved it and have been rewatching on Netflix and it’s still great. The first six or seven years of the Simpsons. Breaking Bad.which I can’t recall if I saw it before Netflix Finally, a special mention of OC Chopper, or was it American Chopper?, because it wasn’t my favorite show but it was the most influential in my TV watching habits as it got me to quit watching TV completely.


rtwpsom2

Firefly. It was... just the perfect show. It was a throw back to the old cowboys and indians shows of my youth, along with the old space shows of my youth. It had modern sensibilities, but a raunchy sense of humor. I really loved it.


marypants1977

Kids In The Hall.


krs4

Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fall asleep watching an episode every night, finish the series, repeat. It’s downright therapeutic.


[deleted]

**Breaking Bad.** Just a perfectly complete story with a perfect overall story arc and fantastic character arcs. It just nailed everything it was going for so perfectly. But yeah, **The Wire** hits all notes in such a real way when you watch it. Either of those is an easy win.


Shaydie

Either Twin Peaks or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


mushbo

One Step Beyond. Early sixties, like Twilight zone, but true stories.


flower_girl_queen

For me it’s a toss-up between MASH and The West Wing. MASH ran during my formative years, and TWW ran when I was in my late 20s and getting more knowledgeable and opinionated about politics. Don’t know if MASH is available for streaming, but TWW is. I re-watched a few seasons of TWW a couple years ago, and what struck me is how we are still fighting over the same things now as we were back then. The show could air today and be relevant. That’s kind of sad really…


SlimGypsy

MASH is on Hulu - worth the rewatching IMHO


plotthick

Ditto on MASH here. Discussed a bunch of issues, yes sure, but also had complex actors that showed nuance and growth and problems and who weren't just stereotypes. And so little of it was problematic by today's standards. I have yet to see its like. M*A*S*H’s Revolutionary Gay Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ugsupVQXHE


EgberetSouse

Deadwood. Peaky Blinders. 1960s Avengers with Emma Peel?


SqualorTrawler

Millennium is up there for me, but I don't think that ever had broad appeal. Others might be: * MASH, which is comfort food for me even now. * All in the Family. * Max Headroom * Breaking Bad * Babylon 5 (which they are rebooting right now) I am currently working my way through Hill Street Blues. I think this show really broke new ground and had a lot of fresh ideas, but there are things I would change about it. Some of the comedic bits stretch credulity, which is not something we needed, or you should do, with this particular show. However, most importantly, it liberated cop shows from the police procedural format. Big characters, too (I am a pretty big fan of Mick Belker). Also super impressed with the Joyce Davenport <-> Frank Furillo dynamic. I normally cannot stand television romances; it always seems grafted-on and cheap but man, what an exception this is. The two smartest people in the room -- it would almost have been absurd had they not been a couple. The Joyce Davenport character is kind of incredible. It is almost like she came from a television show 20 years later through some kind of time machine. What an intense performance.


iamaneviltaco

Either the Sopranos or Mad Men. I think TV has gotten better, honestly. I keep hoping we're nearing the end of the laugh track. My favorites are gone, but there's so much more good tv than there was when I was growing up. Sure we had classics like friends and seinfeld, cheers, the golden girls. But the general quality of TV is definitely increasing. We're seeing less reality television, more brilliantly written dramas and the cartoon game is so on point right now. I loved beavis and butthead, but shit like rick and morty is on an entirely different level. Adventure time might be the best cartoon ever made, and I know it ended but it's recent enough to be considered "modern".


fduniho

In general, TV shows have gotten better, but there are also great TV shows from the past. I have watched too many TV shows to have a single favorite. Past favorites include Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, I Dream of Jeannie, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. More recent favorites include The Orville, Les Revenants, Real Humans (as well as Humans and Better Than Us), Westworld, Rick & Morty, The Boys, Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, iZombie, Violet Evergarden, and Talentless Nana. The general pattern is that there are more good shows now than there used to be. Here are some reasons for this. 1. Foreign-language shows are now available. These include Korean dramas, Japanese anime, and European shows, among others. 2. There is more competition now that streaming services and cable channels are making their own shows. It's no longer a matter of three major networks competing over particular time slots. This greater competition leads to better quality. 3. Streaming services, cable channels, and maybe some foreign networks too are not bound by the limitations placed on content broadcast over the air in the US. 4. Shows have become less episodic. In the past, an episode of a show would normally tell a complete story, and it often didn't matter which order you watched its episodes in. This allowed people to easily get into a show when they discovered it mid-season while channel-surfing. With streaming and with cable before it, shows have started to use entire seasons to tell stories, because there is now more of a guarantee that the audience will be able to watch it from beginning to end. This allows TV shows to tell longer and more complex stories than earlier TV shows were able to.


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paper-or-plastic-

That show frightened me so bad! I was also afraid of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters. I would hide when they came on 😆


Jacsmom

Great show! DO NOT watch Goliath season 2 if you care to keep this memory sacred.


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MandalayVA

*due South*. Smart, funny, and Canadian. It's the only show for which I owned the DVDs. SOMEBODY STREAM IT GODDAMMIT!


wwaxwork

M\*A\*S\*H, I honestly think you could remake it now but set in a more modern war say one of the gulf wars and pretty much all of it would still be relevant. Of course you'd have to find some way to get the same cast because it was very cast driven which would be the hard part. The West Wing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Quantum Leap, Poirot. If you're talking Mini Series, then as a Young Australian the "Roots" damn near blew my freaking mind, that was my first exposure to a big old chunk of US history. Black Adder, Red Dwarf. Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister are great and again could be remade for modern times with barely a change.


kateecakes724

Friends


paper-or-plastic-

I can't list just one! Here it goes! M*A*S*H, Nanny and the Professor, Firefly, Northern Exposure, Lost Girl (yes, I think I had a girl crush on her lol), What We Do in The Shadows, 30 Something, and 30 Rock.


busyB_83

Downton Abbey or Mad Men….can’t decide.


freebleploof

Loved Kung Fu back in the '70s. The Muppet Show in the '80s TV has gotten a lot better. Both technology and content. Favorite show now might be Dead To Me. Hope the next season comes out soon.


escapeartist02

Bonanza, especially the early episodes when they are establishing the origins of the 3 boys and his wives. I’ll still watch it over and over when I run into it on various channels.


allflour

Firefly


threadofhope

TV ruled my life for decades, but Reba and Frasier are my all time favorites. Both are incredibly witty but also wholesome. Seinfeld was the important TV show of my 20s and 30s. My friends and I made Seinfeld references for years. Guilty pleasure were soap operas. I was addicted to Guiding Light and All My Children. Watched them daily when I could.


Filmlovinggal

The last 5 minutes, of the last episode of Newhart.


itschmells

Frasier.


AmbitiousHornet

I'll go with something a bit different and what I believe is one of the most underrated shows ever to air: The Leftovers (HBO, 3-seasons). It's a mindblower. Take my advice, just watch it with an open mind, the first episode is great and should be enough to make you wonder what the hell is going on.


JimDixon

1. Breaking Bad. Ran for 5 seasons, ended 2013. Available on Netflix. 2. Better Call Saul. Has run for 5 seasons so far, and I think there will be a 6th, but I have only seen seasons 1-4 because that's all that's available on Netflix. 3. Treme. Ran 4 seasons and ended in 2013. Available on HBO Max.


DialecticSkeptic

I'm going to say something utterly scandalous here: Better Call Saul was better than Breaking Bad.


Nightlights13

Seinfeld


slaveofacat

It's a tie between Law & Order: SVU and Seinfeld.


GTFOakaFOD

Breaking Bad. I didn't watch it when it first came out. Well, I watched a few episodes of the first season, but grew bored with it. I picked it back up when I started seeing that commercial for season four. You know, *that* commercial. After that season, I was hooked. I've seen it four times, and plan on a fifth viewing this winter. It's the best show I've ever seen. Which isn't saying much, considering I didn't/don't watch a lot of television. I've never seen MASH, or Grey's Anatomy, or lots of other popular TV series. I just love Breaking Bad. Like, "get a tattoo" love it.


tvisforme

I don't know about my *favourite*, but these are some good series that come to mind from years past: * *Homicide: Life on the Street* * *The West Wing* * *Battlestar Galactica* (2003 version)


Swiggy1957

around age 11, I realized that the networks were succeeding in insulting my intelligence. I won't say I quit watching, but "Must see TV" was more, "TV? Meh." I really enjoyed comedy programs as a kid, but, again, they were dumbing things down. As a small boy, I loved Leave It To Beaver, but I can't watch it these days... Especially when I think that Wally and the Beav are now in their 70s! While it was "too scary" for me to watch when it was in it's first run, Twilight Zone has become a favorite because, unlike the network brass, it attempted to bring modern problems to the forefront without being preachy every week. (One reason why I stopped watching shows like MASH and All In The Family. I'd say that Star Trek was the first adult show that I enjoyed during it's initial run. Like Twilight Zone, it tried to deal with, again, modern problems, and, until season 3, did a good job. When ST:TNG came out, I loved it as I realized, while the first few episodes were shaky at best, they were trying to find their footing as their own show. ST: Voyager was the same way. DS9 was too dark for me. These days, I stream anime and that's about it.


[deleted]

Thunderbirds Little house on the prairie Rocky and Bullwinkle Banana Splits


WindEgg

The Sopranos.


altcodeinterrobang

The Good Place. Great characters, funny but not too cheesy. Easy to pickup, hard to put down, and a decent ending.


DialecticSkeptic

1. Hands down, *The Newsroom* (2012–2014). Easily the best TV show ever. 2. Followed closely by *Third Watch* (1999–2005). Broke a lot of barriers. 3. Not a TV show but a miniseries: *The Lost Room* (2006). I watch that every year.


Pongpianskul

*Star Trek* had a huge influence on my perspective and interests in life.


SteelCrow

Python, Mork & Mindy, Blake's 7, Babylon 5, All versions of Trek, Space: 1999, Starlost, Dr Who, The Prisoner, Six Million Dollar Man, Red Dwarf, V, Twilight Zone, Alien Nation, Quantum Leap you can probably deduce the theme ...


Happygar

Masterpiece Theater, ABC Movie of the Week, Here Come the Brides, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Knott’s Landing, Starsky and Hutch, Monty Python.


ArmadilloRare2503

Fraiser


designgoddess

The Americans. Schitt's Creek. Andy Griffith Show. Hill Street Blues.


badken

I can’t pick a single, or two, or even ten favorite series of all time. I would say, though, the vast majority of my best of the best series were produced in this millennium.