top 30 TV shows

["BING E BONG"]

Just leaving this here while I think of what to do with it. Add your own lists if you want!


1. The Sopranos 
2. Monty Python's Flying Circus 
3. Breaking Bad 
4. Chernobyl
5. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin 

6. The Thick Of It 
7. The Ricky Gervais Show
8. Father Ted 
9. Fleabag
10. The Royle Family 

11. Scully 
12. Bottom 
13. An Idiot Abroad 
14. South Park
15. Sgt. Bilko 

16. The Young Ones
17. Fawlty Towers 
18. The Office (UK)
19. Rising Damp 
20. Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

21. Curb Your Enthusiasm
22. Shooting Stars 
23. The Twilight Zone
24. Brookside 
25. The World At War
 
26. The Larry Sanders Show
27. The Crown
28. Flight Of The Conchords
29. Boys From The Blackstuff 
30. The Inbetweeners

[toomanyhatz]

I'll give mine some thought. If we can get enough people to post (always an issue, I know) a poll might be in order.

A fair amount of yours would be on mine, particularly the first two, though of course there is the usual US/UK divide.

Speaking of which, no Simpsons?

[Deleted]

I.can't understand why The Simpsons is so popular.

[Deleted]

What's the Ricky Gervais show?

["BING E BONG"]

Feb 26, 2020 23:57:42 GMT "BING E BONG" said:

I'm watching this again on Comedy Central:



KP is let loose on all sorts of subjects and he's completely at ease with the two 'hosts' even tho' he's often out of his depth (I suppose that's where the humour comes from). The 'Monkey News' sections ramp up the lunacy even further - but it's all delivered with that same Manc near-monotone. And the animations are really cool, too.

Gervais comes across as a bit of a twat more often than not, but it doesn't really matter as it's Karl's show. I've been losing my piss over some of his stories, absolutely helpless to the point where I've worried what the neighbours might be thinking. He's a very very funny man.

["BING E BONG"]

Apr 15, 2020 17:22:41 GMT toomanyhatz said:

Speaking of which, no Simpsons?

I enjoy it when I watch it - sometimes quite a lot - but it's never been a part of my life in the same way that it is for people like yourself. It's never become special because there are so many of them, and I never watched it 'live' at its peak.

I absolutely understand why it's so loved, mind. 

[toomanyhatz]

I don't buy that G doesn't, honestly. For the sheer number of artists we all admire that have gleefully done cameos, if nothing else.

Although I do appreciate that his 'maverick' tendencies include sticking up for the unloved as well as dismissing the loved.

It's not "an American thing," in any case.

[Deleted]

Brookside?

[Deleted]

The Simpsons series 3 to 8 is the height of popular TV for me. I'll think of a list.

["BING E BONG"]

Apr 17, 2020 1:54:40 GMT @rodya said:

Brookside?

Is it that you don't know it, or just that you're surprised it's there?

It was a soap opera that aired on Channel 4 between 1982 and around 2000. In its early days it was wonderful, like a 30-minute Ken Loach film twice a week. 

Actually it probably wasn't that good really and my memory's playing tricks   I mean, I haven't seen those shows for almost 40 years. But I did really enjoy it.

[Deleted]

I know it from when my mam used to watch it in the 90s, I can only remember a handful of the characters. Just a surprise to see it listed but I've heard it was quite radical early on.

[Reactionary Rage]

Twin Peaks
The Simpsons
The Wire
Breaking Bad
The Sopranos
Curb Your Enthusiasm
I'm Alan Partridge
The Thick of It
Monty Pythons Flying Circus
Seinfeld
The Prisoner (original)
Brass Eye
Frasier
Freak and Geeks
The Day Today
The Kingdom (Lars Von Trier)
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
The Chappelle Show
Archer
Eurotrash
24
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
South Park
X-Files
Beavis and Butthead
Police Squad
Ren and Stimpy
Ripping Yarns
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Ash versus Evil Dead
The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer
The World at War
Chernobyl

I can't think of any more.

["BING E BONG"]

Ren and Stimpy!

[Reactionary Rage]

I loved it as a kid but not seen it in years, like a lot of TV I guess....you watch it once and then file it away.

I did struggle to come up with that list though. There are lots of excellent TV shows and some great drama but not as much as you might expect.

I still prefer films.

["BING E BONG"]

Apr 17, 2020 9:32:25 GMT Reactionary Rage said:

I loved it as a kid but not seen it in years, like a lot of TV I guess....you watch it once and then file it away.

I did struggle to come up with that list though. There are lots of excellent TV shows and some great drama but not as much as you might expect.

I still prefer films.

Interesting.

I much prefer TV, and that might have something to do with the fact that I have a relatively short attention span. Generally speaking TV is lower budget and less ambitious (of course there are exceptions), and films are where you get the big ideas. And there's nothing to beat seeing a great film on the big screen in a cinema. But TV has a greater range. Everything's represented. I can be entertained by Can't Pay? We'll Take It Away or Come Dine With Me as much as by an old Coronation Street or Play For Today. And that's before we get started on all the great shows of the last twenty years.