EWB's 40 Favourite TV Shows Of All Time

[Ace]

YES! HIMYM at 16 makes me a happy chappy

[Jimmy]

I thought it was interesting that Dexter beat How I Met Your Mother for the best show of 2009, but How I Met Your Mother bested Dexter by three places in this list.

[Forky]

More people voted in this one, and I know I didn't watch HIMYM at all this year but I have the past couple years so therefore couldn't vote for it on the other list but could here. See what I mean

[Jimmy]

#15

The Shield

(36 Points, Appeared on 4 Ballots)

#14

House

(36 Points, Appeared on 5 Ballots)

#14

Doctor Who

(36 Points, Appeared on 5 Ballots)

#12

The Sopranos

(39 Points, Appeared on 5 Ballots)

#11

Arrested Development

(36 Points, Appeared on 9 Ballots)

[Damian WayLNKe]

I thought it was interesting that Dexter beat How I Met Your Mother for the best show of 2009, but How I Met Your Mother bested Dexter by three places in this list.

The current season of How I Met Your Mother has been below average in quality compared to the first four seasons and Dexter only seems to get better.

[Jimmy]

#10

The West Wing

(42 Points, Appeared on 5 Ballots)

#9

South Park

(42 Points, Appeared on 7 Ballots)

#8

The Office

(45 Points, Appeared on 8 Ballots)

#7

Friends

(49 Points, Appeared on 9 Ballots)

[EddieG]

Thank goodness Friends ended up above The Office. I do believe only one of the shows on my list made it on here.. damn!

[Ace]

Having just watched Seasons 1 - 10 of Friends in a two month period with my GF, I must say it is well worthy of 7th. South Park at 9th though? Really?

EDIT: And after checking my voting list, YES! I had Friends as 7th And I'm fairly certain Scrubs, Angel, AND Buffy make the top 6. This list officially rocks. Its making me wanna redo my Favourite Characters list now

[Guest Stan Kroenke]

Probably going to be my favourite five in the batch.

[Forky]

I like that Angel and Buffy are still go come. It feeds my Joss love. I'm still blown away with House being so low.

[Jimmy]

#6

The Wire

(53 Points, Appeared on 6 Ballots)

#5

Angel

(62 Points, Appeared on 11 Ballots)

[Forky]

oh yeah! Angel at number 5. I gotta check out shows like The Wire and The Shield. I've never actually watched the shows but according to some lists and stuff it seems like they'd be a good bet.

[GoGo Yubari]

The Wire should be higher, dammit :@

But then, I also love Angel, more than Buffy even. Good block there.

[Jimmy]

#4

The Simpsons

(68 Points, Appeared on 10 Ballots)

#3

Lost

(70 Points, Appeared on 10 Ballots)

Edited January 24, 2010 by Split Second

[Jimmy]

#2

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

(72 Points, Appeared on 10 Ballots)

#1

Scrubs

(79 Points, Appeared on 14 Ballots)

That's a wrap. Cheers to everyone who voted. (Y)

[TKz]

Why'd you have to go and ruin Buffy being at #2 by reminding me that Riley ever existed.

[Jimmy]

Where would the fun be in that?

[TKz]

I can't hold a grudge against a man with Doyle in his avatar.

[Jimmy]

I'm in love with Angel; such a quality show - On the 4th series. Man, I miss Doyle. I seriously hate that Glen Quinn died so young.

Edited January 25, 2010 by Split Second

[Skummy]

Catching up with this...

Only seen a couple of episodes of Heroes, don't like it.

Absolutely adore Twin Peaks - one of the greatest television shows of all time, and more influential than a lot of people probably realise today - it was the first American serial since The Prisoner to really show that TV could be weird, and could get a little dark and twisted, and people would continue to watch it. In that way it paved the way for everything from The X-Files to Six Feet Under and Nip/Tuck. Though the photo you've used is from Fire Walk With Me, the Twin Peaks spin-off film, not the series!

Monty Python's Flying Circus hasn't exactly aged brilliantly, though when it's good it's still brilliant. Maybe it's just that I've seen it all so often that it's kind of lost a lot of its appeal on me, with the exception of a few great sketches - Mr Hilter being the one that comes to mind.

Never really watched 'Allo 'Allo.

The Thick Of It is incredible - one of the most intelligently written and genuinely brilliant TV shows in recent memory, and seemingly the sum total of everything Armando Iannucci's worked towards his entire career. Considering any other writer would be happy with any one of the shows Iannucci's created or worked on in their CV, that's heady praise indeed - comedy writers don't come any better than him.

Never seen Firefly, nor have I ever been tempted to watch it.

Barely seen any Peep Show, though what I have seen of it had its moments, just not enough to entice me to watch it regularly or buy it on DVD.

Futurama's brilliant, one of the ultimate geek comedies, given the amount of ridiculous in-jokes and tiny little references. And generally just bloody funny on top of all that too - I probably quote it more than any other TV show.

Never seen Prison Break.

Don't like Seinfeld, just couldn't get into it.

Can't stand 24.

Never watched Dexter.

True Blood is a pile of old shite.

Never seen It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia.

Never seen How I Met Your Mother.

Never seen The Shield.

Only seen a few episodes of House - it's good, but I've never cared enough to watch the lot.

I'm a lifelong Doctor Who nerd - I won't go into why it's great, but rest assured I'm bloody happy to see it up here, not that it was in any doubt.

Never got into The Sopranos, oddly. I really like James Gandolfini as an actor, and I'm really getting into Madmen, which is by the same writer, but the Sopranos never appealed. Maybe it was just the subject matter.

Arrested Development is one of the funniest programs I've seen in YEARS. Possibly the funniest sitcom I've ever known to come out of America. Every little thing about it is just executed perfectly, and the first two seasons are arguably two of the most perfect sitcom seasons in television history.

Never watched enough West Wing to get into it...on one hand, I could see myself becoming obsessed with it if I watched a lot, on the other I think it tends to rely on too much political talk which, while I understand it, I don't necessarily enjoy watching it all the time. To contrast it with the other political show on the list, The Thick Of It, I appreciate that one is a drama and the other a comedy, but in The Thick Of It the characters barely ever actually talk politics, but it's still firmly set in a political framework, while The West Wing is overflowing with political rhetoric, and I think that makes it a little less believable in places, and certainly a whole lot less enjoyable.

I'm one of the only people I know who really can't give a toss about South Park. Didn't like it much when it first started, even as a kid I got over the "it's funny cos it's cartoon characters swearing" schtick pretty quickly, I think the film is one of the worst bits of cinema I've ever seen, and while I appreciate that in recent years the series did get an awful lot better, it's still not good enough for me to go out of my way to watch it. I've probably seen four or five episodes in the last ten years.

Never cared for The Office - either the American or English version.

There are a couple of lines I'll quote from Friends - "Did your Dad ever hug you Chandler?" "...no....did he hug you?", "I am one sorry polantologist" - but for the most part it's everything I dislike in a sitcom - attractive people leading impractical lives, who never seem to go to work unless the plot calls for it, and who, unless it's an obviously signposted emotional moment, talk almost entirely in punchlines, rather than in believable conversations, and which, in later seasons, becomes almost entirely self-referential - instead of Chandler being sarcastic and Monica being a neat-freak, the show is full of jokes ABOUT Chandler being sarcastic and about Monica being a neat freak, which would alienate the five people left on the planet who had never seen an episode of Friends. Just generally bloody awful for the most part.

The Wire is genuinely one of the best TV shows ever made. Great dialogue, great setpieces, fantastic storytelling, brilliant characters, and just generally a joy to watch. I have to admit, though, I get sick of reading reviews that praise it for its "gritty" realistic portrayal of the drug trade, as if the middle-class white British entertainment columnists of The Observer have a fucking clue about the realities of the drug trade. That minor niggle aside, television doesn't come much better, and it's always fantastic when a great program can come along that isn't afraid to be intellectual, to challenge the viewer, and to not pander to any lowest common denominator, and which is allowed to ride out its full storyline without getting cancelled.

Never watched Angel, never been the least bit tempted to.

The Simpsons is an obvious one. Yes, there's an awful lot of terrible episodes, but at its best, it can be near perfection. It's not something I'd ever go out and buy on DVD, and it's been years since I've made a point of watching it on TV, but I can always find time for it, and a quote or two will sneak into my conversations when relevant. Barely a week goes by without either me or one of my friends saying "It was the BLURST of times?! Stupid monkey!"

Can't bloody stand Lost. It's like the anti-Twin Peaks.

Don't give a toss about Buffy. Saw maybe five episodes, two of them were acceptable, three were dross.

Watched Scrubs a fair bit in the first season, liked it, but never really bothered with it again. Nowadays if I catch it I tend to find it pretty hit and miss...I might not laugh once through an entire episode, or I might laugh my head off at it, but obviously not enough to become a fan.