(http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1651341_1659152,00.html)
How I Chose The List By JAMES PONIEWOZIK

First, I apologize. I know I left some of your favorite shows off this list. How do I know that? Because I left some of my favorite shows off this list. (The Rockford Files, Get a Life and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, for starters.) The happy and unfortunate fact is that there are far more than 100 great shows, and more created every year. Adding to this list would be easy; taking shows off is the tricky part.

How did I settle on this list? Each previous All-Time List—movies, albums and novels—was divvied up between two critics. I'm TIME's only TV critic, so I have twice as much opportunity to be wrong. Starting months ago, I polled friends and colleagues, read other lists and spent days watching DVDs and going to the Paley Center for Media to re-evaluate shows I hadn't seen in decades. And I set a few guidelines:

—It's My List... which means that it's unavoidably subjective, indefensible and shaped by my experience. I included British shows, for instance, but not many, and generally those that got wide exposure on American TV. Because I'm American, and we're like that.

—... But It's Not All About Me. This list is not just about what I like or have fond memories of, or it would include Man vs. Beast and Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp. Like any critic, I relied not just on my gut but on aesthetic priorities. (Important: voice, originality, ideas, character and influence. Not so important: social conscience, moral values, educational content. I sincerely hope that no one over 5 watches TV to improve him or herself.)

—No Grading on A Curve. There are shows that have been handicapped because they had to deal with restrictive broadcast standards, because the medium was new, because they had to get a bigger audience than boutique cable shows, and so on. This is not fair. It is also not my problem. I aimed to make a list of the 100 best TV shows, not the 100 best shows "considering what they had to put up with," "for their time" or "if you like that sort of thing."

—Spread It Around. Is The Price Is Right objectively equal to The Sopranos? Of course not. But TV would not be TV without game shows?and talk shows, and sports, and soaps, and videos and even commercials. TV should be smart, but TV should also be dumb. So while I judged each show on its merits, I also stepped back, looked at the list, and tried to give an overview of what TV is and has been: fiction and non, daytime and primetime, highbrow and low, broadcast and cable.

—It's Not a Popularity Contest. This list features huge hits and commercial disasters. Some great shows have big universal themes and wide appeal; others have small audiences, not because people are stupid, but because they have themes (say, inside-show-business satire) that only so many people care about. I don't believe that the people are always wrong (or I'd never have picked American Idol), but if I put shows on the list simply because a lot of other people would, I might just as well have thrown together Nielsen's top 100 and gotten the whole thing done in an hour.

—Two Shows, One Slot. Where two shows with the same creators or talent had similar themes, milieus, characters or narrative styles, I generally picked one. So: Monty Python but no Fawlty Towers; Cheers but no Frasier; Seinfeld but no Curb Your Enthusiasm; The Bob Newhart Show but no Newhart; My So-Called Life but no thirtysomething. I did include both versions of The Office because they were different achievements (the American is the better series, Ricky Gervais' the better performance), but also because—all together now!—it's my list.

—The One-Year Rule: I considered only shows that debuted before 2006, to see if they held up beyond one season or (if they lasted a year or less) if they have held up over time. Sorry, Friday Night Lights.

Those are my rules; I took them seriously, and broke most of them at least once. Ultimately, I also had to realize that this isn't the Periodic Table of the Elements; it is a freaking top-100 list. It is hopefully well-informed, but it is not inherently more correct than your top-100 list. Lists are meaningless: they sell magazines and give you something to talk about at the bar. Lists are incredibly important: they are how we define what matters to us, what we want entertainment and art to do, what we expect of our culture.

Most of all, lists are about having fun and picking fights. If you have read my list and think I am a moron, that's all the thanks I need.



* The Abbott and Costello Show
* ABC's Wide World of Sports
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents
* All in the Family
* An American Family
* American Idol
* Arrested Development
* Battlestar Galactica
* The Beavis and Butt-Head Show
* The Bob Newhart Show
* Brideshead Revisited
* Buffalo Bill
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* The Carol Burnett Show
* The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
* A Charlie Brown Christmas
* Cheers
* The Cosby Show
* The Daily Show
* Dallas
* The Day After
* Deadwood
* The Dick Van Dyke Show
* Dragnet
* The Ed Sullivan Show
* The Ernie Kovacs Show
* Felicity
* Freaks and Geeks
* The French Chef
* Friends
* General Hospital
* The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
* Gilmore Girls
* Gunsmoke
* Hill Street Blues
* Homicide: Life on the Street
* The Honeymooners
* I, Claudius
* I Love Lucy
* King of the Hill
* The Larry Sanders Show
* Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)
* Leave It to Beaver
* Lost
* Married... With Children
* Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
* The Mary Tyler Moore Show
* M*A*S*H
* The Monkees
* Monty Python's Flying Circus
* Moonlighting
* MTV 1981-1992
* My So-Called Life
* Mystery Science Theater 3000
* The Odd Couple
* The Office [American]
* The Office [British]
* The Oprah Winfrey Show
* Pee Wee's Playhouse
* Playhouse 90
* The Price Is Right
* Prime Suspect
* The Prisoner
* The Real World
* Rocky and His Friends
* Roots
* Roseanne
* Sanford and Son
* Saturday Night Live
* Second City Television
* See It Now
* Seinfeld
* Sesame Street
* Sex and the City
* The Shield
* The Simpsons
* The Singing Detective
* Six Feet Under
* 60 Minutes
* Soap
* The Sopranos
* South Park
* SpongeBob SquarePants
* SportsCenter
* Star Trek
* St. Elsewhere
* The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
* Survivor
* Taxi
* The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
* 24
* The Twilight Zone
* Twin Peaks
* The West Wing
* What's My Line?
* WKRP in Cincinnati
* The Wire
* Wiseguy
* The X-Files
* Your Show of Shows

good to see gilmore girls finally included on one of these lists.

Another list another gripe:

First he says that he won't pick shows with similar themes from the same creator (i.e. Cheers included, but no frasier; Seinfeld included but no Curb Your enthusiasm). First off, that's a dumb rule, but then he goes on and names both the British and American version of the Office. I guess I just don't get it. If the American version of the Office is named...Curb should too.

oh yeah, and he also named "MTV 1981-1992." That's kind of a copout.

not ordered,

why the fuck should I care

cheers and frasier dont really have similar themes, but i get what you are saying. he shouldnt have place beavis and butthead along with king of the hill either, if we are going to get bitchy about it. (though i never really saw the appeal of king of the hill)

never could get into king of the hill.
and mary hartman, mary hartman? nobody remembers that.

King of the Hill is really accurate. I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Next door, was our neighbor, who could have been Hank Hill. Drinking Hamms, smoking Camel straights, and watching the cars go by with his drinking buddies.

Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was awful.

Without Cop Rock this list is bullshit.

First of the great soap opera parodies.

Glad St. Elsewhere is on the list.

well so was married with children. it was hilarious and trashy but by no means a QUALITY show that stands the test of time.

Is this an old list, or are they just doing these every 3 years now?

No Northern Exposure?!?!

Didn't find either funny.

not sure if it's better than B&B, but King of the Hill is definitely a great show. You might need to watch like 100 eps of it to realize, though, so thank heaven for FX.

they should hand out bags of coke with every dvd sale of Gilmore Girls.

this could be the key. i've only seen. 1.5 episodes.

thatd be an added bonus, for sure.

but man it is a great show. a shame it got lumped in with the grrrl power/ soap opera shows of the early aughts.

good show, great'd be stretching it a bit

no, it's great.

of course i'm probably only saying it because i am a weird, quirky person and that's who the show caters to. obvs. also, ive watched a season on dvd within a weekend.

speaking of, sad to not see scrubs on there.

Twilight Zone, Married With Children, and Six Feet Under are on there so I'm happy.

it's cute how you think this is impressive

well i am cute.

i dont think its impressive. its just that if you watch a whole season of a show within a short time period, you tend to look at the show differently and find it way better than any other normal person would. or i do. this is how i work. it doesnt happen to you, you remain objective, but i cant do that.

liiike, i watched season 5 of scrubs yesterday and decided that it smy all time most favourite show )besides conan). i was just so concentrated on those characters that i adore them.

if that makes sense.

yeah, I definitely enjoy marathoning eps more than I do once-a-weeking them.

That said, I can't see that method helping Scrubs much. I need like a three-year break from that show.

nah, it helps a lot. i've watched season 3, 4 and 5 over the last three weekends and i am totally overcome with the brilliance of the show. i think its the same sort of appeal as gilmore girls because it's very weird and a lot of folks won't like it due to that, but it's totally got something that makes it brilliant, even within all the dumb shit.

I agree with forgo. GG was a good-to-great show that often doesn't get the respect it deserves. It probably loses points for its lame last couple years, but there are few shows with such well rounded engaging characters & intelligent (if not completely believable) dialogue.

is this your first time watching through it? I can't imagine that it is, but I also can't imagine that you think the show stands up to repeated viewings so well, 'coz it kinda doesn't really at all.

yea, it actually is. i never got into scrubs until i bought it on dvd late last year. i watch it repeatedly now.

Also, Felicity? wtf?

Missing from list: Pete & Pete, Veronica Mars

meh to both those shows.

but the absence of ren and stimpy (while including spongebob which is great, but in no way comparable) is criminal.

oh ok. I sort of felt the same way when I started catching re-runs of the best episodes for the first time, but now that I'm seeing the same episodes for the third and fourth time, I've totally lost the feeling. Be curious to see if you react similarly to repeats.

unfortunately, repeats around here are of the 3rd and 4th season which i have watched way too much in the last couple of months so i usually turn them off. because odds are i JUST watched that episode. but some i can watch over and over again. its classic tv.

Never got the appeal of Ren & Stimpy. If you don't think Pete & Pete is brilliant, then there really is no hope for the young folks of today.

my mother ruined pete and pete for me. so i cant watch it. all my friends adore it though, no thanks.

ren and stimpy was pure genius though. early ren and stimpy. not the latter years where john k left and it just became nonsense.


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No Nova, CBS Sunday Morning, or Cosmos?

Still, the inclusion of The Wire and Rocky & his Friends makes up for alot.

fake edit: and yeah, no Ren & Stimpy?! The John K years were groundbreaking.

Sadly, I was a huge fan of Scrubs, but once the show hit syndication, I went from thinking "I can watch this show every day and never get sick of it" to "I can't stand to watch much of this show at all." What used to be funny, has simply turned grating and repetitive. And Season 6 was atrociously bad.

Gilmore Girls though. Great show that really does not deserve the bad reputation it has. Being a 24 year old male, I'm pretty sick of defending it.

you also have the greatest avatar ever, so you get an e-hug and high five, brotha.

Man, I seem to keep hitting all these sore spots with you and your mom. Its really not intentional. Sorry.

I'll watch the youtube at home.

my overall impression is that this is really another add on your favs discussion of sorts. There's several here that are just odd choices and for each great one that's mentioned. I immediately think of one or two others that aren't there but then it all depends what you're looking for.








The brilliant and demented mind of John K is lost on many and praised by few. I would call it genius.
Spongebob was a decisive marketing tool ripoff... but hey the kids love it and viacom keeps raking in the bucks. what's not to like?

no, pretty much everything anyone brings up i can associate something with my mother and her shittiness. dont worry.

i didnt want to like spongebob based on my own misconception of what held said above but onc ei did start to watch it. man, it's really good and funny. stupid, but delightfully so.

wow...i had no idea SG would be a Married with Children fan. you moved up a spot kid.

* The Abbott and Costello Show - OK for its time
* ABC's Wide World of Sports - fantastic
* Alfred Hitchcock Presents - great
* All in the Family - groundbreaking TV in the US
* An American Family - never saw it
* American Idol - pure cheese. Love it
* Arrested Development - very, very good
* Battlestar Galactica - meh
* The Beavis and Butt-Head Show - loved it
* The Bob Newhart Show - great
* Brideshead Revisited - never saw it
* Buffalo Bill - Really? It was OK, but top 100?
* Buffy the Vampire Slayer - no
* The Carol Burnett Show - very, very funny
* The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite - obvious pick
* A Charlie Brown Christmas - not show how this qualifies, but it's a classic nonetheless
* Cheers - M*A*S*H in a bar, great
* The Cosby Show - great
* The Daily Show - better w/Kilborn
* Dallas - hell no
* The Day After - no
* Deadwood - never saw it
* The Dick Van Dyke Show - phenomenally good
* Dragnet - dry humor at its early best
* The Ed Sullivan Show - predates me
* The Ernie Kovacs Show - predates me
* Felicity - no
* Freaks and Geeks - still underrated
* The French Chef - ?
* Friends - hard call to make. 1st 3 seasons were great, last 3 were misery
* General Hospital - not for me, but I can see why
* The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show - predates me
* Gilmore Girls - never cared about it
* Gunsmoke - no
* Hill Street Blues - yeah, basically created a genre
* Homicide: Life on the Street - great
* The Honeymooners - classic
* I, Claudius - ?
* I Love Lucy - invented the sitcom. Ball was genius
* King of the Hill - B& B was better
* The Larry Sanders Show - great
* Late Night with David Letterman (NBC) - great
* Leave It to Beaver - hate this show
* Lost - never saw it
* Married... With Children - yeah
* Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman - great early parody
* The Mary Tyler Moore Show - invented workplace comedy, fantastic
* M*A*S*H - maybe the best show ever
* The Monkees - uh, no
* Monty Python's Flying Circus - what Brit comedy should be
* Moonlighting - stayed too long, great first few years
* MTV 1981-1992 - hehehehehe, without the distinction it's not here
* My So-Called Life- how long was this on? Still, very well done
* Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Brilliant
* The Odd Couple - Great
* The Office [American] - funny
* The Office [British] - funnier
* The Oprah Winfrey Show - I hate Oprah, yet she belongs
* Pee Wee's Playhouse - groundbreaking
* Playhouse 90 - too old for me
* The Price Is Right - great
* Prime Suspect - not for me
* The Prisoner - ?
* The Real World - no
* Rocky and His Friends - if this means Bullwinkle, hell yes
* Roots - how does a miniseries qualify?
* Roseanne - great early, bad late
* Sanford and Son - yep
* Saturday Night Live - hit and miss, but belongs
* Second City Television - absolutely
* See It Now - ?
* Seinfeld - top 5 ever
* Sesame Street - yes
* Sex and the City - no
* The Shield - no
* The Simpsons - yes
* The Singing Detective - ?
* Six Feet Under - never saw it
* 60 Minutes - yes
* Soap - interesting that this is included with Mary Hartman on the list
* The Sopranos - absolutely
* South Park - yep
* SpongeBob SquarePants - meh
* SportsCenter - at its best with Dan and Keith, now a parody of itself
* Star Trek - hmm...
* St. Elsewhere - GREAT show
* The Super Bowl (and the Ads) - OK
* Survivor - no
* Taxi - underrated comedy
* The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson - yes
* 24 - never have seen one minute of this
* The Twilight Zone - brilliant
* Twin Peaks - great
* The West Wing - great
* What's My Line? - genius
* WKRP in Cincinnati - great
* The Wire - ?
* Wiseguy - nah
* The X-Files - yes
* Your Show of Shows - very underrated


Notable omissions: The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, 90210, Jeopardy!, Good Times, Fridays, Scrubs

This list reminds me how much old timey television sucks.

These are spot on.

I'll argue that "This Old House" and "Sneak Previews/At The Movies/Siskel & Ebert" should have been on the list. Both shows were way ahead of their time. "This Old House" was the first of it's kind and its basic format has spurned countless shows and entire networks. Similarly, "Siskel & Ebert" was one of the first shows completly focus on movies/entertainment and indirectly led to shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and countless others.

The absence of Veronica Mars is made up for by the inclusion of My So Called Life. Man, I love being a teenage girl.

You're dead to me.

(You know it was Ty who got me into all things Joss Whedon?)

I watched the movie, and never gave the show a chance as a result.

I can understand its exclusion simply for that fact.

show absolutely nothing like the movie.

show is awesome, movie is shit.

French Chef=famed gourmet chef Julia Child...Food Network would not have existed without her...

I, Claudius=lurid but classy Roman-era drama from Britain

The Prisoner=Patrick McGoohan taken to a secret society that wants to find out why he "resigned". Eerie, thought-provoking stuff. Think "LOST" + Twilight Zone + spy adventures + Shakespeare

See It Now=News reportage from Edward R. Murrow, the kind of journalism that no one does anymore.

The Singing Detective=British dramatic miniseries written by Dennis Potter, punctuated by musical numbers...remember Steve Martin in "Pennies From Heaven", where the music interrupted the tragic tale, and all of the music was lip-synced? The same idea, but in a very twisted psychological tale.

The Wire=see thread in SOMB.

Of that list, these were essential for me

* ABC's Wide World of Sports
* The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
* A Charlie Brown Christmas
* The Daily Show
* The Ernie Kovacs Show
* The French Chef
* I, Claudius
* King of the Hill
* The Larry Sanders Show
* Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)
* Mystery Science Theater 3000
* The Prisoner
* Rocky and His Friends
* Second City Television
* The Singing Detective
* Star Trek
* The Wire

Omissions:
Alexi Sayle's "Stuff"
Connections
Brady Bunch
That Was The Week That Was
Laugh-In

Nova has turned into garbage the last couple of years.