<p>Talking about clunkers, Green Acres was, on the surface, one of the worst. BUT, seen as a story of a sane man (Eddie Albert) surrounded by insanity (not only the rural kind, but urban as well, personified by his wife), it takes on a whole new light.</p>
<p>digmedia, I guess you weren’t a big Beverly Hillbillies, and Gilligan’s Island fan.
I liked Petticoat Junction. Of course, I was pretty young then. Maybe, I would hate it now.</p>
<p>St. Elsewhere – ruined me for all subsequent medical shows. Brilliant, briliant and brilliant again. (I can’t stand ER, which I call “can you top this?” It gets more ridculous all the time. All that’s left now is for the aliens to land and take over Chicago.) </p>
<p>China Beach – Dana Delany anchored a superb cast and the writing was superb. She’s the best cryer around. </p>
<p>Homicide – Breathtkainlgy real police show and my all-time favorite police program. I joke that it got cancelled because there were too many smart black men starring on one show. All hail Andre Braugher, Clark Johnson, Yaphet Kotto and yes, everybody else in the cast. (melissa Leo was hot) Anybody remember the great episode with Vincet DiNofrio stuck in the Baltimore subway? </p>
<p>Law & Order – All of them, especially SVU. Enough perversion to appeal to my sleazy side, enough nobility to overcome it. </p>
<p>Without A Trace – Like L & O, also a nice take on contemporary issues with a wonderful cast and no doctrinaire endings. Sometimes the good guys win, sometimes they don’t. And Lapaglia is one very cool Aussie. </p>
<p>Other oldies but goodies: Northern Exposure, Start Trek: TNG and Deep Space Nine, In Living Color, The Newhart Show and way before my time, The Burns & Allen Show and The Honeymooners – these last two still better than any comedies on the air now.</p>
<p>And some show I just don’t get: Seinfeld, House, MASH (especially after the awesome movie, the TV show seemed pretty weak to me), Lost.</p>
<p>Gotta add “West Wing.”</p>
<p>I watch almost no TV currently, though I have gone through a couple of series on DVDs. However the list is highly influenced by dh’s and kids’ tastes.</p>
<p>NYPD Blues - especially the Jimmy Smits era
Law and Order - the original series
The West Wing (I saw hardly any of it though)
Lou Grant
The Prisoner
Star Trek - Deep Space Nine (I also rather like Voyager, and I like Jean Luc Picard, but a few of the other characters were unfortunately supremely irritating)
Firefly
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Babylon Five
M<em>A</em>S*H (though it hasn’t aged that well)</p>
<p>And if you want to add mini-series:</p>
<p>The First Churchills
The original Masterpiece Theater Forsyte Saga
Upstairs, Downstairs
Roots
Pride and Prejudice
I, Claudius
Tales of the City
Shogun</p>
<p>And the best foreign series I wish were available here? Der Alte.</p>
<p>And I’d add that back in the day, I loved Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers (Youtube clips make me feel very nostalgic - we made our sons watch The Who smashing their guitars), and the first few seasons of Saturday Night Live (Belushi era.) I’ve never liked sit-coms much, and hate laugh tracks.</p>
<p>Also don’t often see television anymore, but from the past:</p>
<p>MASH
ER (prior shark jump)
Northern Exposure (same)
St. Elsewhere
Hill St. Blues
Moonlighting
Twin Peaks
Homicide</p>
<p>BigApple,
if you liked Homicide, you should watch The Wire. It was created by the same people, it’s set( and filmed) in Baltimore, it is an unbelievable show( with the overwhelming majority of the cast being smart black men) . :)</p>
<p>Non-scripted, non-news television shows:</p>
<p>The Deadliest Catch
Nova
Nature
This Old House
Project Runway (don’t tell the guys)
What Not to Wear (really don’t tell the guys, and I don’t even <em>like</em> fashion)
The Tonight Show (starring Johnny Carson)
You Bet Your Life
Whose Line is it Anyway? (both versions)
Junkyard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge
Mythbusters</p>
<p>My kids are both fanatics about Deadliest Catch!</p>
<p>And we all love Who’s Line, both versions but especially the British one.</p>
<p>Thanx I’ll check out The Wire. But I hope its not a show like 24 where its hard to jump in in the middle and still understand whats going on. Maybe theres a web site somewhere that will bring newcomers up to date. </p>
<p>And one other show that I love </p>
<p>Coupling – the American version was a short-loved disaster, but the British version if you can catch it anywhere (and if not buy the DVDs, its worht it) is wildly funny, witty, unconventional, with characters you actually care for and writing that is stylish and not by the numbers. Yes, its all about sex, and occasionaly far more explicit than anything you’d see in the U.S. But the Brits pull it off with consumate style. A wonderful mixture of high-brow comedy and pure raunch.</p>
<p>mathmom, you should watch all of West Wing…I never watched it when it was on TV but bought all the DVDs after borrowing the first season. Your kids picked a winner there IMO.</p>
<p>Project Runway is awesome, and I’ve been watching Gilmore Girls, L Word, and Veronica Mars via Netflix. Plan to add Charmed, I Claudius, Six Feet Under, Entourage and Weeds, have heard good things about all.</p>
<p>Oh one last sitcom to suggest, especially for cc parents…Campus Ladies.</p>
<p>Hilarious! Smartly written, and out of the box.</p>
<p>The premise is two 40-something women who decide to enroll in college (“University of the Mid-West”), AND live in the freshmen dorms. Their roommate is an 18 yo, as are all their new found friends.</p>
<p>The series has some excellent guest stars (including Sean Heyes, Jason Alexander - who also directed at least one episode - Jeanene Garofalo, and Ed Begley Jr), and was conceived by David Steinberg (the comic).</p>
<p>It is shown (was shown?) on the Oxygen channel. Well worth the hunt.</p>
<p>Oh the West Wing is one of the few they didn’t pick. I was reading bedtime stories to my youngest most of the years it was on. If we ever get through Buffy and then Angel I’ll suggest it.</p>
<p>As with the best movies, some of mine seem to be out of left field, but I’m right there with you all on a bunch:</p>
<ul>
<li>West Wing (early episodes)</li>
<li>House</li>
<li>MONK - love Tony Shaloub’s handling of this role</li>
<li>Meet the Press </li>
<li>Dinosaurs (not sure of the name, but story of a family of dinosaurs. Kids attended La Brea High School. My favorite line was the baby’s hitting anyone in range, saying “Not the mama”)</li>
<li>The Famous Teddy Z (anyone remember this one? It was incredibly funny and I never missed it)</li>
<li>All in the Family (early years)</li>
<li>To the Manor Born</li>
<li>CSI (original Las Vegas one)</li>
<li>Man from U.N.C.L.E. (oh, yeah - I admit it. I even like seeing David McCallum on NCIS ! )</li>
</ul>
<p>Ones I don’t get: Seinfeld (why is stupid and insecure hilarious?) and reality shows (first, I don’t find average people on TV any more intriguing than I find the guy down the block. And I think they’re rigged anyway.)</p>
<p>My now shows…</p>
<p>Amazing Race
Deadliest Catch
Project Runway
Workout
Without A Trace
Cold Case
Cash Cab!!</p>
<p>That’s pretty much it … I just don’t watch that much TV…I’d rather watch CC.</p>
<p>Ones I wish could come back…</p>
<p>MASH
Homicide Life on the Street
EcoChallenge
I Love Lucy
Law and Order with Lenny, Ray and Jamie (Jerry Orbach, Benjamin Bratt and Carey Lowell)</p>
<p>BigApple,
The Wire is between seasons now( it’s an HBO show) , but the previous 3 seasons are out on DVD. It’s not like 24, but it’s better to start from the beginning, to meet all the characters( unlike 24 they don’t kill people off by the dozen) .</p>
<p>Oh, oh, oh! </p>
<p>I forgot one - the new Battlestar Galactica is really good too!</p>
<p>ldmom06 I love Cash Cab!</p>
<p>(that’s all)</p>
<p>And I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the new sitcom The Knights of Prosperity (aka Let’s Rob Mick Jagger). Produced by David Letterman, with Mick Jagger (yep) as executive producer! My good friend Maz Jobrani plays the East Indian cab driver (pretty funny for an Iranian). Great writing.</p>
<p>Excellent writing for the sitcom The Class as well.</p>
<p>The Larry Sanders Show – far and away the best tv show everrrrr</p>
<p>Absolutely Fabulous
The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Sex In The City
Thirtysomething (I was such an addict!)
ER (ditto, the earlier years)
Northern Exposure
Project Runway (addicted, I’ll admit it)
Taxicab Confessions (un-turn-offable)
Pee Wee’s Playhouse (I’m serious)
Hill Street Blues (the music!!)
Taxi
The Mary Tyler Moore Show</p>
<p>Oh dear. Separated at birth AGAIN.</p>
<p>AbFab!!! The one in the French farmhouse?</p>
<p>And Northern Exposure. And Taxicab Confessions - even though I have never been to Vegas.</p>
<p>But I even like American Idol. Eeek.</p>
<p>And Hill Street Blues, ah, from my apartment on Riverside Drive and 104th…</p>