WGA's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time

[Mrs. Sawyer]

http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/wgas-101-best-written-tv-series-of-all-time-complete-list/

I know what all of you guys are thinking and I agree with you: Monday Night Raw getting snubbed is a travesty.

Here's the complete list. What are some of you guy's opinions?

1. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
3. The Twilight Zone (1959)
4. All in the Family
5. M*A*S*H
6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
7. Mad Men
8. Cheers
9. The Wire
10. The West Wing
11. The Simpsons
12. I Love Lucy
13. Breaking Bad
14. The Dick Van Dyke Show
15. Hill Street Blues
16. Arrested Development
17. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
18. Six Feet Under
19. Taxi
20. The Larry Sanders Show
21. 30 Rock
22. Friday Night Lights
23. Frasier
24. Friends
25. Saturday Night Live
26. The X-Files
27. Lost
28. ER
29. The Cosby Show
30. Curb Your Enthusiasm
31. The Honeymooners
32. Deadwood
33. Star Trek
34. Modern Family
35. Twin Peaks
36. NYPD Blue
37. The Carol Burnett Show
38. Battlestar Galactica (2005)
39. Sex & The City
40. Game of Thrones
41. (tie) The Bob Newhart Show; Your Show of Shows
43. (tie) Downton Abbey; Law & Order; Thirtysomething
46. (tie) Homicide: Life on the Street; St. Elsewhere
48. Homeland
49. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
50. (tie) The Colbert Report; The Good Wife; The Office (UK)
53. Northern Exposure
54. The Wonder Years
55. L.A. Law
56. Sesame Street
57. Columbo
58. (tie) Fawlty Towers; The Rockford Files
60. (tie) Freaks and Geeks; Moonlighting
62. Roots
63. (tie) Everybody Loves Raymond; South Park
65. Playhouse 90
66. (tie) Dexter; The Office (US)
68. My So-Called Life
69. Golden Girls
70. The Andy Griffith Show
71. (tie) 24; Roseanne; The Shield
74. (tie) House; Murphy Brown
76. (tie) Barney Miller; I, Claudius
78. The Odd Couple
79. (tie) Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Monty Python's Flying Circus; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Upstairs, Downstairs
83. Get Smart
84. (tie) The Defenders; Gunsmoke
86. (tie) Justified; Sgt. Bilko (The Phil Silvers Show)
88. Band of Brothers
89. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
90. The Prisoner
91. (tie) Absolutely Fabulous (UK); The Muppet Show
93. Boardwalk Empire
94. Will & Grace
95. Family Ties
96. (tie) Lonesome Dove; Soap
98. (tie) The Fugitive; Late Night with David Letterman; Louie
101. Oz

 

[Pink Ranger]

The Simpsons is a little too high. Homeland (which I feel is slightly overrated) is about where it should be, though I wouldn't mind seeing it lower. SNL is too high, as his TOS Star Trek (slightly).

Modern Family should be higher. Would like to have seen Homicide higher, but I'm aware that hardly anybody watched that show. Curb is definitely a better written show than Friends and Frasier.

 

[Sawyer]

The Simpsons is a little too high. Homeland (which I feel is slightly overrated) is about where it should be, though I wouldn't mind seeing it lower. SNL is too high, as his TOS Star Trek (slightly).

Modern Family should be higher. Would like to have seen Homicide higher, but I'm aware that hardly anybody watched that show. Curb is definitely a better written show than Friends and Frasier.

ehhhhh...

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

 

[Sawyer]

Again, I don't dislike the show, I just don't think it should rank so high. At least I have a higher opinion of it than I do Everybody Loves Raymond, which shouldn't rank at all...

At least The Twilight Zone made the top 3.

 

[jonathancrane]

I disagree with the ranking of Seinfeld at number two. I would put it at three or four.

 

[Sawyer]

The Simpsons wallowing in well over a decade of mediocrity (or worse) should rank them far, far lower than #11. Their executives/FOX has tarnished that show's legacy by not knowing when to get them off the ****ing stage.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

But it still did influence many cartoons that are more popular today and was one of the first shows broke the animation age ghetto and was a show that was more for adults than Children. It was the first of it's kind and proved to be a huge ratings hit.

Personally, I have no problem with Number 1 or Number 2. The Sopranos help legitimize the one hour drama show more so than any other comedy. Without the Soparnos, there wouldn't be shows like most of HBO's shows, The Wire, The Shield, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and many other shows that pushed the envelope in terms of writing in a more fearless and psychological manner.

And Seinfeld did the same for comedy. I always felt that Seinfeld had the best writing of any show I've seen. The way the plots weaved, and came together in humorous and unexpected ways were fantastic. Not to mention Larry David manage to find a huge amount of humor in the most simple and sometimes mundane situations that actually felt like it could happen in real life (well, more the later than the earlier seasons but I think Seinfeld is one of the few shows that actually manage to stay good in later seasons).