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[Andrew999]

What are the Top 10 TV shows of all time - it will be interesting to see how far we can agree?

To get us started - without much analytical thought - off the top of my head, I can think of:

- Star Trek (original series)
- Burke's Law (original series)
- Man from UNCLE
- 77 Sunset Strip
- Danger Man
- The Champions
- The Avengers (Peel)
- Twin Peaks
- Gotham
- The Orville

I reserve the right to revise that top ten when others come up with better ideas!!

[Robb_K]

What are the Top 10 TV shows of all time - it will be interesting to see how far we can agree?

To get us started - without much analytical thought - off the top of my head, I can think of:

- Star Trek (original series)
- Burke's Law (original series)
- Man from UNCLE
- 77 Sunset Strip
- Danger Man
- The Champions
- The Avengers (Peel)
- Twin Peaks
- Gotham
- The Orville

I reserve the right to revise that top ten when others come up with better ideas!!

I am in the exact same position, just remembering shows off the top of my head, and forgetting hundreds.  I also will change my list as I remember more.  It is excruciatingly difficult to pick just 10.  I could pick over 100 that are roughly equal.

1) Monty Python's Flying Circus (UK)

2) Fawlty Towers (UK)

3) The Black Adder (UK)

4) Second City TV (Canada)

5) The Twilight Zone USA

6) Thriller USA

7) Science Fiction Theatre USA

8} The Heart Guy (Australia)

9) Amos 'N' Andy USA

10) The Alfred Hitchcock Hour USA

Honourable mention:

The Red Green Show (Canada)

Hockey Night In Canada

Maverick (1st year only) USA

Professor "T" (Belgium-Flemish)

Your Show of Shows USA

Yes, Minister (UK)

Jeeves & Wooster (UK)

Sherlock Holmes (Ron Howard) (UK/USA)

Red Dwarf (UK)

Ripping Yarns (UK)

Father Ted (UK)

The Simpsons (USA)

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (USA)

Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon (USA/Canada)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (Richard Greene) (UK)

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (USA)

Swingin' Time (Windsor, Ontario,Canada)

Jim Lounsberry's Sock Hop (Chicago, USA)

[paw broon]

Great idea, but as Robb says, " I also will change my list as I remember more."
The Avengers (Mrs Peel)
Sapphire and Steele
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Hancock's Half Hour
The Avengers (Mrs Gale)
Quatermass and The Pit
The Goodies
Ready, Steady, Go.
The Sky at Night

BUT.............. As soon as I listed these, more came into my head.  Some shows I loved way back, haven't stood the test of time so I didn't list them.  But I missed out Dad's Army, which does stand up well nowadays.  No hiding Place, which I loved decades ago, doesn't seem as entertaining now.
I didn't mention Doctor Who, a continuing favourite, apart from Eccleston, who I just don't like.

[The Ghost Man]

My list of 10 in no particular order:

The Untouchables
The Saint
The Prisoner
Danger Man
The Rifleman
The Avengers (Tara/Peel)
The Wild, Wild West
Captain Scarlet
The Benny Hill Show
Miami Vice

Honourable Mention and listing may be added to:

The Little Rascals
The Green Hornet
The Twilight Zone
Captain Harlock
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (Elliot Stabler seasons)
The Lone Wolf (Louis Hayward)
The Mighty Heroes
Married with Children
Leave it to Beaver
MadTV
Second City TV (Canadian)

[profh0011]

My 10 FAVORITE tv shows of all time... let's see...


FIREBALL XL5
JONNY QUEST
BULLWINKLE
STAR TREK
THE AVENGERS
McCLOUD
DOCTOR WHO
POIROT
SPACE PRECINCT
DARIA

[The Australian Panther]

Well I'm astounded that only Ghost Man nominated Twilight Zone. 
I personally don't like top ten lists because I consider it an impossible ask. And often it is limited by the age and the exposure to media of the people who fill out the top ten
So I find top ten or best 100 of all time movie lists compiled by magazines staffed by people who apparently never watched a movie or a TV show before the year 2000.
So first, I will comment on your lists. Please don't take offence. 
Andrew:-
The Orville? seriously?
The Avengers? Most of you listed that. So it stands.
All of those on your list are excellent picks.
Robb:- Great list. Monty Python, Faulty Towers, Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Maverick and Yes Minister are all hard to leave out.
But no cartoon shows?
Nobody has so far mentioned The Simpsons, which is a cultural institiution.
For years in Australia we would come home to a half hour of Warner Brothers Cartoons and if that that was an actual TV show I would nominate it.

Paw Broon:-
Finally someone mentions Dr Who, of which Harlan Ellison went on record to say that it was far superior Science Fiction to Star Trek.
And also the first music show, Ready Steady Go.
GhostMan:- I thought of 'The Untouchables' too. Also The Prisoner, Miami Vice are good choices.
Prof: - Listed Bulllwinkle and Johnny Quest and Fireball XL5  Excellent. But take a step back, Prof? What, nobody has yet mentioned Adam West's Batman? I'm Amazed.  I thought you would at least.   

Addams Family, Get Smart, Hill Street Blues, Z-Cars and the Bill. 

I will list some that I think that should be up there and have not been mentioned yet.
From my Childhood :-
Bat Masterson
The Naked City
The Rocky and Bullwinkle show.
Top Cat
F Troop
Lost in Space
My Favorite Martian
Get Smart [When I was a teacher, this was in afternoon reruns and kids were still coming to school and cracking the jokes in the playground. Hugh influence. 
Addams Family.
Z Cars - Which begat both Hill street Blues and The Bill. Huge Hill street fan, ALSO provided the structure for Alan Moore's Top 10, which for me is a better work than Watchmen.
Some of the shows on your lists I have never watched - there were a couple of years long gaps where I never watched TV. Others I have binge-watched since.
Also on my list would have to be
Battlestar Galactica - new series. 'And so say all of us!"
The Wire
Grimm
Foyles War
Longmire
Justified
Banshee
Black Sails.
Better stop there!

You can see why I find it counterproductive to pick only 10 or 20.

Cheers!

                   
 

[Captain Audio]

What are the Top 10 TV shows of all time - it will be interesting to see how far we can agree?

To get us started - without much analytical thought - off the top of my head, I can think of:

- Star Trek (original series)
- Burke's Law (original series)
- Man from UNCLE
- 77 Sunset Strip
- Danger Man
- The Champions
- The Avengers (Peel)
- Twin Peaks
- Gotham
- The Orville

I reserve the right to revise that top ten when others come up with better ideas!!

I'd have to agree with.
- Star Trek (original series)
- Man from UNCLE
- 77 Sunset Strip
- Danger Man
- The Champions
- The Avengers (Peel era)
 
and add
- T.H.E. CAT
- The Fugitive
- The Saint
- Gunsmoke

I put animated series in the same boat as anthology series. Entirely different feel compared to those TV series with main characters who become more and more like real people as the show evolves.

By the way, don't you think the main character of the Champions looks a lot like Sterling Archer?
If he was Sterling's real dad that would explain Archer's ability to heal rapidly from gunshot wounds and why his liver is still functioning after decades of massive alcohol abuse.

[Andrew999]

Like Captain Audio, I guess I'd focussed on drama shows in my mind - but my Top 10 comedy shows would be something like:

Fawlty Towers
Dad's Army
'Allo 'Allo
Hi-De-Hi
The Likely Lads (first series)
Bilko
Dick Van Dyke Show
Hancock's Half Hour
Garry Shandling Show
Outnumbered

Again, with the rider that I will change this list frequently as the mood takes me!

[The Australian Panther]

You will notice that I didn't nominate any Aussie shows in my list. Not because there aren't any worth mentioning but because most are unknown outside Aus and NZ.
Except for Neighbours and Home and Away. Like many Australians those shows make me cringe.
Interesting fact,. Palm Beach Sydney which doubles for Summer Bay in the opening credits of Home and Away and is actually the province of celebrities and Millionaires, became a Coronavirus hotspot this Christmas and was responsible for Australia's Christmas lockdown.
I notice that nobody nominated the Bold and the Beautiful or Coronation Street either. Actually I had a job as a carer for a short time for a severally autistic boy. I found myself in the afternoon in a home where the lady of the house was a Bold and the Beautiful addict. I made the great discovery that the show is almost as nonsensical as Monty Python and if you read the interviews you realize that the stars and the production team are fully aware of that too.
The Prisoner [Prisoner Cell block H] comes to mind also. Rebooted as Wentworth That's one known internationally.
Cheers!         

[misappear]

Nobody mentioned the Honeymooners? 

[profh0011]

Finally someone mentions Dr Who, of which Harlan Ellison went on record to say that it was far superior Science Fiction to Star Trek.

Harlan Ellison's an ASSHOLE!  And he has personal reasons for continuously bad-mouthing ST for decades, taken to the point of a campaign to prevent established science-fiction writers from ever cotributing to it.  I think he had serious mental issues (but that's me).

I just recently ran across the story of how he physically attacked a network censor who was stupid enough to be crossing off things in one of his scripts right in front of him while he was working on "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA".  He did physical damage to the guy. It's no question why he never worked for Irwin Allen again!


What, nobody has yet mentioned Adam West's Batman? I'm Amazed.  I thought you would at least.   

I am CURRENTLY re-watching BATMAN for the 2nd time in a year.  It definitely had a huge impact on my life, as did LOST IN SPACE.  But this was a "10" list, not a "20". I had to think REALLY hard about which shows I personally loved and enjoyed CONSISTENTLY over the decades.

ULTRA MAN would have been on the list, except I don't have it in my collection yet, and haven't watched the '66 series since the mid-70s. The writing on that, I feel, was more consistently good than even on STAR TREK.  To put it simply: THERE WERE NO BAD EPISODES. 

Anyway, you may have to excuse me from the actual intent of this thread.  I'm not saying any of my shows were the "best", just, MY favorites.

[profh0011]

I got a few minutes before going to work, so...

GET SMART
BATMAN
LOST IN SPACE
ULTRA MAN
THE SAINT
SHERLOCK HOLMES
WKRP IN CINCINATTI
UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER
STAR BLAZERS
NIGHT COURT

[paw broon]

prof, you're not alone in your opinion of Mr. Ellison.  A former associate of mine ran into him at a con and said almost exactly the same thing.
But I hate to disappoint you - I don't particularly rate the Batman tv show.  I have 2 episodes, only because they are the crossover Green Hornet episodes.  Now there's a good tv show. But then, I am a big Hornet fan and have both serials and the tv show.
As for a list, I did forget some that I've always enjoyed and still watch from time to time. 
The Jeremy Brett Holmes shows were excellent and still are.
Yes, Minister;
Early series of Foyle's War;
Early series of New Tricks;
Upstart Crow
Forgot this classic, unforgettable comedy, Yes Minister.

[profh0011]

Watching Adam West's BATMAN is like watching not 3, but 4 DIFFERENT TV series in one.  Let me explain...

The 1st season really captured a special, unusual, and apparently hard-to-maintain balance between "adventure" and "weird humor".  I was just watching a video interview with director Robert Butler, who said the instant he read the script for the pilot, he "got" it.  Some writers "got" it. Some actors did-- ESPECIALLY Adam West.  But too many didn't.  It turns out, Butler did the first 3 weeks produced-- the 1st Riddler story, the 1st Penguin story, and the 1st Mr. Freeze.  Even now, those stories are INCREDIBLE to watch.  As are several others, including Zelda The Great, the 2nd, 3rd AND 4th Riddler stories, and, perhaps best of all-- the 1st Catwoman story.  WHOA.  That's played even more "straight" than the George Sanders Mr. Freeze was.

Even at 7 years old... when my family took me to the drive-in to see the "BATMAN" feature film... even then... I sensed, SOMETHING was wrong.  That delicate balance was gone. The sense of real DANGER was gone.  Everything was in broad daylight. The plot rambled.  The main highlight of the film was Lee Meriweather... and, crazy enough, I've concluded over the years she was not playing the same character Julie Newmar did.  Heh.

Season 2 started, and just as much as the change between seasons 1 & 2 of LOST IN SPACE, it was like watching an entirely different show.  Instead of an adventure show with weird humor... it became a SITCOM with costumes. Turns out, story editor Lorenzo Semple Jr., who had forged so much of season 1, stepped down, and they promoted the WORST writer on the show-- Charles Hoffman-- to be the new story editor.  It's still watchable-- IF you're in the right frame of mind.  But it took until the 2nd HALF of season 2 before they finally got around to doing some stories I really liked.  Specifically, "The Zodiac Crimes" 3-parter, "That Darn Catwoman" (which some have argued SHOULD have been the season FINALE), and "Pop Goes the Joker" (a bit of which turned up in the 1989 feature film).  The rest... "ehh!"

And then you have season 3.  OH. MY. GOD.  Talk about FALLING RIGHT OFF A CLIFF.  I just re-watched the entire 3rd season from start to finish for the first time in decades.  I tolerated most of it.  That's the best I can say.  There are really only 5 episodes in that entire season I like.  5 !!!  One is so straight, it feels like season 1 -- The Siren with Joan Collins.  The others are all HILARIOUS comedies written by Stanley Ralph Ross, which work simply because they're so FUNNY-AS-HELL.  That's the 2 episodes with King Tut, and the 2-parter with Shame, his gal Calamity Jan, and her mother, Frontier Fanny.  Ross later went on to develop the Lynda Carter WONDER WOMAN show.  Boy, he was good.

It's a shame they couldn't have maintained the quality from when it started.  Yvonne Craig deserved better.

[profh0011]

Last year I watched THE GREEN HORNET tv series, because someone had posted every episode on Youtube.  It was every bit as good as I remembered.  If ever there was a show sabotaged by its TIME SLOT.  The whole time it was on, Fridays @ 7:30, it was up against "THE WILD WILD WEST", which was consistently in the TOP TEN in the ratings, and, "TARZAN", which had a built-in audience going back decades.

Those who insist "it failed because it was played straight" have NO IDEA what they're talking about.

It's sad that the BATMAN-GREEN HORNET crossover has been seen by far more people, because it's not half as good as the least episode of the show itself.

I've also been listening to the radio show, which had INFINITELY-better writing.  To get stories as DENSE as the radio show, the way the TV show was done, every episode would have had to be an hour long.

I've also seen both GREEN HORNET movie serials.  DAMN, those are good!!!  While each has one main villain, they're not structured like most serials.  Each episode has a cliffhanger, but as soon as the cliffhanger is resolved, they move on to the next crime plot.  They feel more like a weekly TV series than one long storyline.

The 1st serial greatly expanded Kato's role from what it was on the radio show-- and he got EVEN MORE screen time in the 2nd one.  Keye Luke ("Lee Chan" from the Warner Oland CHARLIE CHAN films was Kato.  Gordon Jones played Britt Reid in the 1st serial, but crazy enough, Al Hodge from the radiuo show did the VOICE of The Green Hornet when he was in costume.  Warren Hull played Reid (and did his own voice as the Hornet) in THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN!, and I feel he was a huge improvement.

Wade Boteler was Mike Axford, and he was a LOT funnier than the guy on TV.  Anne Nagel was Lenore Case, and I got to like her WAY more than the girl on the TV show.  I highly reccomend the radio show and both serials.

[paw broon]

OK, perhaps I should go back and watch more Batman tv.
I'm with you on the Hornet.  Great stuff.  I used to have the audios on tape, but no way to play them now.
I binge nowadays on Audios of Doctor Who, Paul temple and Lord Peter Wimsey.  They're good listening while sorting out comic boxes or bagging and boarding. The River Song audios from Big Finish are very enjoyable.
As for TV, I want to list these:-
Early Waking the Dead - Trevor Eve and the always excellent Sue Johnson;
Unforgotten - Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bashkar
Early Spooks - my goodness they were really good.

[misappear]

Regarding Mr. Ellison:  I had the displeasure some years back of having to sit through a couple of hours of my boss pulling me into a conversation with Ellison.

We all have opinions, but I try to keep my public statements civil, Not hurtful. Not so Ellison.

[Andrew999]

I'm with you on the Honeymooners - and Car 54, Where Are You? The Munsters and Addams Family

Funny, how once you start something like this, other things spring to me - Upstart Crow (yes, of course, how could I have missed that one!) and I really, really, really must watch The Green Hornet TV series and movie serials again after others have raved about it.

Adam Adamant? Loved it when it came out but watched it recently, seemed a bit slow. Should be revived though - still a great concept.

[The Australian Panther]

HoneyMooners has to be way up there.shares with Faulty Towers that there were only 12 episodes and both series were legends.
For the UK Tele shows, I was today reminded of 'Life on Mars' which made John Simm and Philip Glenister household names in the UK and Australia.
And for comedy, Steptoe and Son. 

Cheers!

[profh0011]

THE GREEN HORNET:  141 episodes right here at this very website!!!!!

https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=2800








I've also been hooked on SAM SPADE and PHILIP MARLOWE. Especially MARLOWE.  Gerald Mohr has become my favorite Marlowe.  I feel it's criminal that he never played the part in a movie or TV series.

[paw broon]

Andrew mentioned Adam Adamant, so if you fancy sampling it:-
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adam+adamant

[Captain Audio]

Andrew mentioned Adam Adamant, so if you fancy sampling it:-
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=adam+adamant

I'd found this recently and already watched the first two episodes. Pretty good so far.
There are a couple of TV pilots for similar series in which Sherlock Holmes is found in suspended animation and revived in the late 20th century.

[Captain Audio]

Regarding Mr. Ellison:  I had the displeasure some years back of having to sit through a couple of hours of my boss pulling me into a conversation with Ellison.

We all have opinions, but I try to keep my public statements civil, Not hurtful. Not so Ellison.

Ever hear of what happened on Ellison's first day at Disney?
"the Starlost' was a great idea for a series BTW, should be revived, with no input from Ellison of course.

[narfstar]

I am not good at ranking my likes and they are dynamic. I agree and disagree on some already posted. I will post some that my wife and I can watch multiple times. Classics would be Have Gun Will Travel and Green Acres. It is hard to maintain that zany humor, which is why Addam's Family and Munsters only lasted three season. Get Smart was mentioned and it managed to last and is great but Green Acres holds up even better. Corner Gas is a Canadian classic. UK gave us Keeping Up Appearances. More recent US we have Golden Girls and Big Bang. I think the Stargat/Atlantis was much better than the remade Battlestar Gallactica. The first four seasons of Babylon Five are excellent.

[crashryan]

Speaking of thawing out Sherlock Holmes, in 1999-2000 DiC Productions put out an animated series, Sherlock Holmes in the 22d Century, in which Holmes is brought back from the dead by "cellular rejuvenation" and fights a cloned Moriarty along with a robot Dr Watson and a female descendant of Inspector Lestrade. I freelanced storyboards for a couple of episodes. However I've never seen the show. Has anyone out there seen it?

[Edited to fix the Watson thing; I seem to have deleted an important part of that sentence).