Top 10: All Time TV

Last week I took a look at my favorite all time movies. This week I’m going go to the small screen and look at television shows. The same basic idea will apply, I reserve the right to change my mind based on any reason whatsoever. And some of these shows may not arguably be very good. But they’ve stuck with me for one reason or another. Also, in no particular order.

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation (Seasons 3-7)
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
3. Futurama
4. The Office (Seasons 1-4)
5. The West Wing (Season 1-4)
6. Stargate SG-1 (Season 1-5)
7. Stargate Atlantis (Seasons 1 & 2)
8. Battlestar Galactica (Up through Exodus)
9. Firefly
10. Band of Brothers

You’ll notice a big genre trend.  Only 3 of them aren’t space sci-fi. There’s a reason my first novel was set in that genre, you need to write what you love.

But what about these shows got them on the list? For example, I think there’s a reasonable chance I actually like Community more than the Office.  What disqualified it is the fact that I haven’t rewatched Community yet. I have rewatched the first few seasons of the Office a few times. And I still enjoyed them. I don’t know how Community will hold up on a second viewing.

That’s one of the biggest deciders for me in identifying a favorite, will I rewatch it, and will I still enjoy it. That’s what held true for all of the movies. There are many things I loved while watching them the first time . But when I go to rewatch them, I don’t really get anywhere close to them same enjoyment. For example, I really got into Lost while it was live but doubt I’ll rewatch it.  It’s an example of a show that suffers it was awesome, at the time.

That is also why many of the shows have season qualifiers. TNG for example, the first two seasons were just bad. They had a few good episodes (Q Who, Measure of a Man) but overall, I’m unlikely to watch them. I don’t even own seasons 1 and 2 of TNG, it wasn’t worth the money (though I have watched a view since they came onto Netflix).

Many of the longer running shows had sudden changes in how they were made (West Wing) or simply ran too long (The Office, SG-1). Sometimes the change wasn’t in production staff it just couldn’t hold onto what made it wonderful to start (Atlantis, Battlestar).

But when the shows were good, they were really good. I have rewatched everything on that list at least once, possibly twice.  And i know I will rewatch all of them again at some point in the future.