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Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Shows of All-Time

4) All In The Family

Sadly, we just lost 90 year old Jean Stapleton over the weekend.
 
watched some ALF this weekend. good stuff. kind of bullshit though, his name was Gordon yet the loser family he ends up with won't even ask if he has a real name, and just call him by a damn acronym
 
Sopranos doesn't get knocked down for the horribad season when Tony was in a coma and the whole Joe Pantoliano fiasco? I actually had to stop watching the series.
 
Roseanne took a serious nose dive right around the time they opened their loose meat restaurant. It stopped being consistently funny and got too melodramatic. But the first few seasons were great.

I'm also catching up on the West Wing - we're currently about halfway through season 3. I love the writing and the characters, but the walking & talking thing is f-ing obnoxious. I spend half the show wondering why they never just stop or sit the hell down.
 
PhilliesDeacs said:
Roseanne took a serious nose dive right around the time they opened their loose meat restaurant. It stopped being consistently funny and got too melodramatic. But the first few seasons were great.

I'm also catching up on the West Wing - we're currently about halfway through season 3. I love the writing and the characters, but the walking & talking thing is f-ing obnoxious. I spend half the show wondering why they never just stop or sit the hell down.
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personally, i think it adds to the whole show... makes it much more real-life. that's how things happen- you go to a meeting, a press conference, whatever, and then you chat and discuss everything the whole way to wherever you're going next.
 
sorkin is too much of a pretentious dickbag for me to enjoy any of his shows
 
Nice to see Mel Brooks get some love for Get Smart at #83. Should have been higher but I'll take it.


Brooks described the premise for the show in an October 1965 Time magazine article:

"I was sick of looking at all those nice sensible situation comedies. They were such distortions of life. If a maid ever took over my house like Hazel, I'd set her hair on fire. I wanted to do a crazy, unreal comic-strip kind of thing about something besides a family. No one had ever done a show about an idiot before. I decided to be the first."
 
Cheers and West Wing are by far the best sitcoms during my lifetime. Very few shows truly merit appointment television status, and those did in their day.
 
jhmd2000 said:
Cheers and West Wing are by far the best sitcoms during my lifetime. Very few shows truly merit appointment television status, and those did in their day.
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i don't know that the west wing was exactly a sitcom... but i hear what you're saying
 
Breaking Bad>The Wire>Mad Men

Dick Van Dyke was made by physical comedy of DVD. Andy Griffith was a better written show imo. And I know it was better written that Everybody Loves Raymond. I am confused on the criteria.
 
Milhouse said:
sorkin is too much of a pretentious dickbag for me to enjoy any of his shows
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I love Sorkin. Guy is a douche, but I have loved every show he has written. I can't get the link to open, but I hope Sports Night is on there.
 
EatLeadCommie said:
How in the hell did The Shield not pop up until 71st?
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I had the exact same thought. 71 is terribly low for a show that well written. One of the things Ryan, Sutter and co did so well was keep the show consistent. From season 1 to 7 the characters, setting, plot, etc all developed and flowed logically and consistently. It's clear watching The Shield that those writers knew exactly what they were doing the whole time. A lot of shows *cough* LOST *cough* fail miserably at this and end up with inconsistent characters and "WTF?" plot holes. The Shield has one of the greatest finales ever because the writers knew what they were doing and weren't just pulling shit out of their asses to fill seasons. I would have had The Shield top 20 on my list
 
palmab03 said:
Sopranos doesn't get knocked down for the horribad season when Tony was in a coma and the whole Joe Pantoliano fiasco? I actually had to stop watching the series.
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So you stopped in the final season?

It's the best written television series of all time, and it isn't close. It's also incredibly well acted and directed. James Gandolfini and Edie Falco are simply outstanding. And it's funny you mention the coma episode, where he shows off his acting chops playing a yuppie businessman alter-ego. The dialog is funny, believable, and advances the narrative better than any written television show in history. The show covers race, gender, politics, economics, sexuality, growing up, violence, death, love, faith, et cetera. It runs the gamut of emotion and storytelling, and is beautifully framed around both the psychology and crime narratives.

Having seen about 65 of these series in total, I gotta say I think this belongs up top, and on a level above the rest.

Also Friday Night Lights sucks.
 
Skydog Deac said:
Dick Van Dyke was made by physical comedy of DVD. Andy Griffith was a better written show imo. And I know it was better written that Everybody Loves Raymond. I am confused on the criteria.
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Huh? DVD was not just him tripping over the table. And even if it was, physical comedy is still comedy. That show was legitimately funny and still is. So is Andy Griffith, but DVD was not just physical comedy and Mary Tyler Moore in her hotpants.
 
Dick Whitman said:
I had the exact same thought. 71 is terribly low for a show that well written. One of the things Ryan, Sutter and co did so well was keep the show consistent. From season 1 to 7 the characters, setting, plot, etc all developed and flowed logically and consistently. It's clear watching The Shield that those writers knew exactly what they were doing the whole time. A lot of shows *cough* LOST *cough* fail miserably at this and end up with inconsistent characters and "WTF?" plot holes. The Shield has one of the greatest finales ever because the writers knew what they were doing and weren't just pulling shit out of their asses to fill seasons. I would have had The Shield top 20 on my list
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If you exclude comedies, it is top 10 easily. I think it's top 5. Finally got around to watching The Wire and it was great, but I thought The Shield had a better run. Most shows have a season of meh, and The Wire had that in its 2nd season. The Shield had one with the Glen Close season, but she was so good it was still a good season, just pointless to the larger picture. Best finale ever and the build up to it was positively insane.
 
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