Last night the Writers Guild of America, East and West, released its list of the 101 Best Written TV Series as voted by guild members last year. Best of lists are generally pretty meaningless, little more than popularity contests (even one in which the list is television shows and the voters are television writers) and this is a particularly difficult list to parse given that despite being the 101 Best Written TV Series the rules for eligibility allowed miniseries like Band of Brothers and Roots and threw in British shows as well as long as they aired in the United States at some point.
That means pitting every single U.S. television show ever (Manimal, Supertrain, My Mother, The Car) against a very small subset of British shows (Fawlty Towers, Monty Python’s Flying Circus). Not exactly a fair fight. And don’t get me started on one list covering broadcast and cable which, while not exactly apples and oranges aren’t really apples and apples either. All of the expected classics like All in the Family, M*A*S*H, I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show made an appearance plus a few surprises like The Defenders and Playhouse 90.
The list is sure to generate some anguish on the part of those who feel certain shows were left out or ranked too low (or too high). And if someone were to break the 101 shows down by decade the results may be disappointing to some. I will say only that a best of list attempting to cover more than six decades of television is without a doubt going to skew more recent. Not just due to lack of familiarity on the part of younger voters who weren’t watching television in the 1950s and 1960s. The bigger issue may be simply lack of access for all involved.
Only the biggest hits of decades past are still seen on television today. The Star Treks and I Love Lucys. Only some of the more moderately successful shows have ever been released on VHS/DVD/Blu-ray or via streaming. Even fewer of the minor hits and unsuccessful shows are available. Think of all the shows that lasted one season or less, were never or briefly syndicated and haven’t been seen in decades. So while older voters may recall shows like He & She, East Side/West Side and Slattery’s People, they probably haven’t seen them in decades. That makes it tough to judge them against more accessible as well as more recent fare.
And then there are the shows that may no longer exist. For all we know, Mary Kay and Johnny, widely regarded as television’s sitcom, was the best the genre ever offered and everything that has come after it can’t compare. With only one episode known to exist and perhaps a handful of scripts, there’s simply no way of knowing.
For the record, here’s the complete list:
101 Best Written TV Series
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 and the City
40. Game of Thrones
t41. The Bob Newhart Show
t41. Your Show of Shows
t43. Downton Abbey
t43. Law & Order
t43. Thirtysomething
t46. Homicide: Life on the Street
t46. St. Elsewhere
48. Homeland
49. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
t50. The Colbert Report
t50. The Good Wife
t50. The Office (UK)
53. Northern Exposure
54. The Wonder Years
55. L.A. Law
56. Sesame Street
57. Columbo
t58. Fawlty Towers
t58. The Rockford Files
60. Moonlighting
61. Freaks and Geeks
62. Roots
t63. Everybody Loves Raymond
t63. South Park
65. Playhouse 90
t66. The Office (US)
t66. Dexter
68. My So-Called Life
69. Golden Girls
70. The Andy Griffith Show
t71. 24
t71. Roseanne
t71. The Shield
t74. House
t74. Murphy Brown
t76. Barney Miller
t76. I, Claudius
78. The Odd Couple
t79. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
t79. Monty Python’s Flying Circus
t79. Star Trek: The Next Generation
t79. Upstairs Downstairs
83. Get Smart
t84. The Defenders
t84. Gunsmoke
t86. Justified
t86. Sgt. Bilko (The Phil Silvers Show)
88. Band of Brothers
89. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
90. The Prisoner
t91. The Muppet Show
t91. Absolutely Fabulous
93. Boardwalk Empire
94. Will and Grace
95. Family Ties
t96. Lonesome Dove
t96. Soap
t98. The Fugitive
t98. Late Night With David Letterman
t98. Louie
101. Oz
