50 best TV shows "of all time"

[matgb]

Heh, another amusing "best ever" list that, for the most part, concentrates on the last few years only at Empire Magazine. Aint it Cool smugly observes: Britain’s Empire magazine has chosen the 50 best TV shows ever made. Turns out they think only 39 of them are American shows! which partially reflects the nature of Empire's readership and the

Comments

[andrewducker]

You don't own all the first four seasons of The West Wing?

What are you thinking???

[matgb]

Well, initially it was "I'll buy that when I've got a DVD player", it then became "I'll buy that when I'm not horribly in debt" then it became "I really ought to have got around to buying that already" and now it's "they didn't have series one or two on the shelf".

A friend had everything when I lived in Exeter, which made it slightly easier.

If there was an easy way to do these that included "mark the ones you can't believe you've still not got" then West Wing would be top.

[theweaselking]

Okay, they're clearly insane.

They've got Heroes on there, and 24, and then the top 5... Buffy? Lost? The Fucking Simpsons?

If this was a list of the top 50 most pointless wastes of celluloid in history, sure, I'll agree with the Simpsons in spot #1. Until then, fuck no. There has *never* been a joke in The Simpsons that wasn't both A) done somewhere else, better, first, and B) clearly identifiable as such.

PS: Three Star Trek Shows make the list, and yet there's no House? Definitely defective.

[andrewducker]

Meh.

I like House, but it's the same joke over and over. It's lasted so long because it's a _great_ joke, but it's not classic TV.

And I'll take Buffy over 24 any day of the week :->

(And Spaced over both, obviously)

[theweaselking]

My point is not that House is perfect TV.

My point is that House is better than Star Trek.
And Heroes.[1]
And 24.
And Buffy.
And Lost.
And The Simpsons, but that's a given. Infomercials are better than The Simpsons.

(I'd take Buffy over 24, too. And I'd stab myself IN THE HEAD rather than watch Buffy.)

My point, in fact, is that a good chunk of that list is complete unwatchable crap.

[1]: It started good. It could have been good. And they the writers all went stupid, and never recovered.

[matgb]

There's a small problem with this assertion. House may or may not be the best show ever.

In the UK, it's broadcast on Five. I believe Five does have viewers. I don't know any, but they may exist. This is probably also why CSI is as badly rated and why no one watches Grey's Anatomy.

In my old town, you couldn't get 5 at all unless you got cable or satellite, and a lot of people don't.

The best show ever won't get any viewers on Five, at least none that count. Plus it's a poll of Empire readers (I did some digging, I thought it was a staff ranking which Future frequently do for features) ergo the sample is biased towards people prepared to buy Empire magazine.

Ergo, in a vote of idiots, a show that a lot can't see isn't going to do well, even if it has got Hugh in it.

And, um, I like the Simpsons, still. Always did, the humour appeals. Oh, and I'm only 6 episodes into Heroes.

[burkesworks]

Another worthless list. And the omission of The Prisoner on any list so dominated by sf is criminal; are the pollsters' powers of recall and critical faculties as frothy and ephemeral as the bubbles on their Starbuck's lattes?

[matgb]

Like I said, "all time" does seem to mean "last few years", I can't find a methodology and am not going to go look for a copy of the magazine. Scratch that, front page of the site says "as voted by you".

Ergo, it's "best TV shows of those I can remember and I wasn't given many prompts". The Prisoner was the first series of SB's that I watched after I moved in, so I do concur, it's just that I'm not an Empire reader. Self selecting sample, statistical bias in favour of the 20 something and stupid(ish).

[getawaywithit]

I think the 'last few years' point is proved spectacularly by the fact that the results of this posted on their website show that they believe Doctor Who started in 2005. And a list that can find three slots for Trek-related shows but not include The Prisoner, M*A*S*H or Edge of Darkness does not make me think well of the critical facilities of Empire readers.

[matgb]

You could link to it and point out the differences?

[caramel_betty]

19. Scrubs

WHAT IN THE NAME OF GOD?

Jesus H Christ.

[matgb]

Empire readers. Empire readers who complete polls and send them back.