The Highest Quality Shows on Television

I'm a little late here, but as I've done nothing but watch TV for the last two days I am an expert on the subject:

Daily Show w/ Jon Stewart
Sopranos
Six Feet Under, although it's a bit operatic for me
Rescue Me
and for that matter, does anyone remember The Job?
Family Guy
South Park
Da Ali G. Show, although I doubt they'll be making another season in the U.S.

And a (sheepish) honorable mention for Gilmore Girls, just because my fiance loves it and the writing is pretty sharp

Current Shows (well, sortta):

The Sopranos
Deadwood
Law & Order

(I know, for me, the pickins' are extremely slim)

Coming to a cable network near you:

The Larry Sanders Show
Thirtysomething
Twin Peaks
Northern Exposure
The Buffalo Bill Show
The Slap Maxwell Story
Dallas (in its prime, a truly guilty pleasure)

I can't believe no one mentioned "Arrested Developement"

I can't believe they were canceled dept.:
.....Arliss
.....Boston Public

All time favorite Mini-Series:
.....Roots
.....Lonesome Dove

I can't believe they were canceled dept.: distant past
.....East Side/West Side
.....Best Of The West
.....Filthy Rich

Simpsons
Queer as folk
Sopranos
House
The Newsroom

Yikes. A lot of british sitcoms which I cant' remember the names of.

Sanford and son

I'm removing The Inside, Orange County and Smallville and I'm adding...

House M.D.
Firefly
Kitchen Confidential

It truly is sad that Firefly, Arrested Development/Kitchen Confidential never got the ratings to not be cancelled by Fox, the network that manages to create so many great shows, only to cancel most of them prematurely.

How those shows get cut and crap like Stacked gets renewed, I'll never know.

Any list that does not have the show LOST on it is not worth being a list.

1. Curb your enthusiasm
2. Curb your enthusiasm
3. Curb your enthusiasm

HBO's ROME is right up there on my list right now - not a real big fan of episodic TV, but I make it a point to catch that one - even have my PVR set to snag each new episode.

Other than that, my TV watching is pretty much from the History Channel and Discovery groups, News, and Finance. C-Span once in a while, if I notice a guest or topic of interest, and once in a while something on A&E or Bravo catches my attention.

Best show ever? I think my vote goes to The Andy Griffith Show, though NYPD Blue, ER, and Northern Exposure would hafta get honorable mention. And prolly Have Gun, Will Travel, too - some pretty thinky plotlines there.

I can agree that "Rome" is a production of great integrity with a production design I wish more feature films could muster. The two main characters are endearing additions to fictional writing.

As far as humor, the final episode of Larry David's "Curb You Enthusiasm" has to be one of the best ever written. Okay, so he borrowed a bit from "Angels in America," but just imagining Larry as a gentile was enough to make me crack up. When he got back on the plane and ordered a drink, I was convinced but what he had in store for the final episode of the season was even funnier.

NOVA's recent offering about the Washington "Scab Lands" was one of the best documentary in years. Actually, it would fit into the creationist's scheme of things -- at last, something that formed in minutes instead of eons.

Hands down, the Aaron Sorkin years (1-3) of The West Wing.

His "Two Cathedrals" episode was the best damned thing I ever saw on the telly, except for that bloody penguin.

But since you asked, the first five years of the X-Files were superbly written too. Spooooooooky stuff!

But Sorkin's writing tenure at WW gave TV the best drama and character development this side of Shakespeare. His writing style made those shows the best tv theatre in history.

The two shows mentioned above, along with the first couple of years of Miami Vice were the only shows I would purposely arrange my time around.

New discoveries-Twins (Melanie Griffith is BRILLIANT!)
Prison Break (You have to relax your credibility standards, but boy, is it suspensful)

I don't believe I mentioned-Deadwood,West Wing, the L-Word (Never mind my initial intentions, I got hooked on the storylines.)

Oh wait!-I forgot about "House", and "Bones". FOX is off the hook this year.

Real Time With Bill Maher

How I Met Your Mother

30 Rock

Gilmore Girls

Firefly

The Venture Brothers

Venture bros.!! from teh venture co.!!!!

go team venture!

Centroles said:


I LOVE this show...I read something about it somewhere, and I saw the DVD one night, so I thought, I'll give it a chance and got it. Talk about funny.

Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin - one of my all time favorite lovable sleazes- perfect in his role- and the guy who plays Kenneth - where the heck did they find him? Anyway - the whole cast just works together.

Then all the SNL alumni fillers - Rachel Dratz as the gay woman who raises ferrets and has a crush on Tina, etc...it's just such a surprising pleasure to find a well-written but silly comedy on tv today.

My all time favorites were pretty much the same as Timber's - Andy Griffith and Northern Exposure certainly. I wish I could find episodes of that (Northern Exposure) on DVD.