Television Is Terrible. The Top 5 Television Shows Of All-Ti

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:39 pm

I hate television. Not the act of watching it, not any more - you can pretty much watch it when ever you like now. I DO hate being expected to watch shit at a specific time for a non-live event in 2011. That's stupid.

Most tv shows are so goddamn dumb, and the ones that aren't dumb eventually become that way because it takes so many people to create a tv show.

So here we go.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:40 pm

OK, wait, I have to watch all of the episodes of a particular show that MAY be on the list, to see if it holds up or not.

So this thread is on a two-week vacation until I can do that.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:41 pm

I hope the Anna Nicole Smith show makes the cut. Oh, and Muppet Babies.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:06 pm

Those shows did NOT make the cut.

I have downloaded both series of the show in question, I will now begin watching it. Or: having it on the second monitor while I work on the first one.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:15 pm

I just bought every episode (5 seasons) of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, if you need to borrow those for research. $30 for 5 seasons of Pee-Wee's Playhouse? How does one NOT buy that, I ask?

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:08 pm

Hmmmmm, top five?

Since I dislike television in general I'll only throw in a top 3 list.

3rd place: 60 Minutes

Only I hope they kill off Andy Rooney in a future episode.

2nd place: (TBA)

1st place: Mystery Science Theater 3000

Instantly became a rabid fan. The show was totally addicting to the point where not only did I make appointments to watch but I taped it like my life depended on it.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:32 pm

60 Minutes is not on the list. But I consider that a news ... program, not a TV show. Call it the difference between pinball and video games.

Pee Wee's Playhouse is not on the list, because I have never seen Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Isn't MST3K like three hours long per episode? Plus, come on. Come on guys.

"Come on." -- Ken Rosenthal

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:25 pm

I'm guessing with a shotgun I could probably hit something on your top five:

The Wonder Years, Seinfeld, Cheers, Night Court, Married ... with Children, The Office. My dad would add MASH, Taxi and Barney Miller, none of which I watched. If we're going with the popular vote we need Cosby and Family Ties in there too.

Although not as well known, both Fawlty Towers and The Vicar of Dibley have made me wake up people in my house, laughing. Soap's another one; it was before my time, but I've downloaded a lot of them and when that show was funny, it was funny.

I could see some Star Trek working its way in there as well. And, if animated shows get to play, Family Guy/Simpsons/Futurama.

One show I always hated was Roseanne ... which, based on my track record, I'm guessing was Pinback's favorite show of all time.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:15 am

Roseanne had some moments which transcended the "sitcom" genre and made for gripping television. Most of these moments consisted of John Goodman getting angry. But no, it's not in my top (anything) list.

Look, Breaking Bad is the greatest show in the history of television, by far. Once we've got that established, we can move on and start just throwing out show names...

Here are some of my all-time FAVES:

Family Guy -- unseated The Simpsons as the funniest show ever, and now kind of makes The Simpsons look a little pathetic.

Battlestar Galactica (new one) -- A remake that shamed the original and pretty much every other sci-fi show on TV.

Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist -- The world's first, and still best, glimpse of H. Jon Benjamin, the funniest man ever, mixing it up with Jon Katz, the second funniest man ever.

Deadwood -- I still haven't gotten past season one, but I know I love it.

Cheers/Taxi -- You have to isolate the first three years of Cheers here, the rest were embarrassing. But these two were done by pretty much the same group of writers/producers, and reached the summit of laugh-track-based sitcoms.

Seinfeld -- Too many astonishingly great moments to dismiss, no matter how much you want to because of what a dick Jerry Seinfeld is. "Is that a Titleist?" is still the best line ever uttered in the history of comedy.

Iron Chef -- I like Iron Chef.

House -- House isn't often a great show, I just like to watch it.

The Office -- The American one.

The West Wing -- I watched until John Goodman showed up, and it was the best drama I'd seen up until that point. Martin Sheen screaming at God, calling him a "feckless thug" is a great moment.

Firefly -- The best western sci-fi show ever. There need to be more western sci-fi shows.

Uhhh. There are others, I can't remember, though. Everyone likes The Wire, but I haven't seen it.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:07 pm

pinback wrote:Here are some of my all-time FAVES:

Family Guy -- unseated The Simpsons as the funniest show ever, and now kind of makes The Simpsons look a little pathetic.

I agree. Family Guy is much funnier than Simpsons, and some of their episodes were much more significant than Simpsons the way Jon Stewart is often more significant than the network news.

Seinfeld -- I have a comment about Seinfeld. It's not pretty; I'lll get to it later. I watched the last episode; other than that I usually don't.

The Office -- I cannot watch this show; Steve Corelli's ridiculous performance in The Forty Year-Old Virgin has made me not like him. Another one I need to comment about.

The West Wing -- I loved this show, I'm seriously considering resubscribing to Netflix just so I can watch it.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:35 pm

#5 - STAR TREK

Look, you can argue all you like about the cultural ramifications of this show, but the truth is, it defines science fiction for the great majority of people on planet earth.

It is iconic. It is woven into the fabric of our culture. It rudely attempted to discuss social situations and issues even though the three networks that were available were quite socially fascist, conservative and useless.

....

Christ, this has been an open window on my PC for 4 days. I can't do eloquent on this topic. Star Trek is NUMBER FIVE.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Jan 30, 2011 9:15 pm

Tdarcos wrote:The Office -- I cannot watch this show; Steve Corelli's ridiculous performance in The Forty Year-Old Virgin has made me not like him.

How the....

Why?

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:20 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:The Office -- I cannot watch this show; Steve Corelli's ridiculous performance in The Forty Year-Old Virgin has made me not like him.
How the....

Why?

In the absence of a disabling condition such as severe obesity (my problem) or some screwy (usually religious) idea one isn't supposed to have sex before marriage, the probability of a normal looking guy reaching 40 and never having had sex is so low as to be effectively zero.

Which made the whole premise of the movie ridiculous since he specifically said he wasn't remaining a virgin because of some sort of decision not to have sex until he got married, but because he wasn't interested.

Which is total uncorrupted bullshit. In the end the guy doesn't have sex until after he got married. If the guy had any interest he'd have gotten laid long before.

Hell, I might have been 35 by the time it happened to me, and only because I didn't even try, figuring incorrectly that no woman would find me interesting being as fat as I am. As soon as I bothered I found more than one woman who would.

But for a normal guy to claim he had no interest until he was 40 raises the question what changed that.

There's also another reason, the "use it or lose it" problem; if you never have sex for decades you can either lose the ability to have an erection or be unable to perform with a woman at all, which makes the claim he was able to perform for the first time at 40 another bogus claim.

Why do you think I asked the doctor for Viagra samples? I know how difficult it is.

WTF · Post by **WTF** » Mon Jan 31, 2011 11:28 pm

Deadwood -- I still haven't gotten past season one, but I know I love it.

What the --

Ben, I used to like you. But what the.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 1:50 pm

I just saw the first two episodes of "Misfits," which is a British TV show, and if the rest of them are as good as the first two episodes, it's in the goddamn conversation. Do you hear me you animals. In the conversation.

Describing the plot would not be helpful. Don't listen to any descriptions of the plot. Just go to the Pirate Bay, type "misfits season one" and get the fucking thing.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:27 pm

Yes, Misfits is the best show ever, and any time spent not watching it makes me hate humanity.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Feb 14, 2011 8:58 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Yes, Misfits is the best show ever, and any time spent not watching it makes me hate humanity.

WHAT ARE TWO THROUGH FOUR GOD DAMMIT

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Feb 15, 2011 9:50 pm

pinback wrote:
Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Yes, Misfits is the best show ever, and any time spent not watching it makes me hate humanity.
WHAT ARE TWO THROUGH FOUR GOD DAMMIT

#4 it's always sunny in philadelphia
#3 the wire
#2 misfits
#1 breaking bad

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:24 am

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:#4 it's always sunny in philadelphia

Maybe I seen the wrong one(s), but on the couple of chances I attempted to sit through this, not only didn't I laugh, but I made whiny little "chhuh!" noises every few seconds when it hadn't ended yet.

DEFINE THE MAGIC.

Overacting and reading lines really fast is not the same as comedy. But like I said, maybe I saw the wrong one(s).

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Feb 16, 2011 8:27 pm

You're gonna have to tell me which one you saw.