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

Does anyone else despise when "Best Of" or "All-Time" lists start at #1?

I always feel like it adds to the purpose of the article to start at the bottom and move to the top....opening a link and seeing the top 5 immediately just makes me not want to read the rest of the article/list.

That's a great list, but I haven't seen a few of the top 25, mostly the older shows.

And I really liked FNL, I distinctly remember thinking a few times "Man this is really well written", so I'm glad that was somewhat confirmed.
 
Would it be crazy for me to suggest that Venture Brothers is fantastically written and should be on that list...? I've rewatched all of the seasons recently, and personally I just think it's an amazingly well written and hilarious show. But I guess it's just a cartoon on CN and doesn't have a whole lot of viewership...but the 4th season just started!
 
They forgot about Quantum Leap......such incredible, well written lines such as....

"OHHH BOYYYY"

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Barney Miller should be in top 5.
 
EatLeadCommie said:
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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the second season of the wire was not meh.

the serial killer story line was horseshit and ridiculous though
 
I do think this is a pretty good list.

Aside from hating Friday Night Lights (which is some teen drama shit with good cinematography and not good writing) and thinking Mad Men is supremely overrated at 7 (some incredibly clunky dialog, tho The Suitcase and The Sword and the Chrysanthemum are two of the best dramatic eps of all time) I really gotta agree with a lot of the list.

Arrested Development is probably a better "written" sitcom than any other show. Top Banana is Shakespearean storytelling. Compare it to a show like Seinfeld that's more self-aware observational humor and the writing has no comparison.

The Shield should be way higher. I'm rewatching that next.
 
I absolutely think FNL belongs in the top ten. Season 2 was awful, granted, but remember that was the year of the writers' strike. And they wrote themselves into the corner with the Tyra/Landry murder (that guy is actually one of my best friends, btw) - an idea they had shelved for the end of Season 1.
 
I think modern family , 24, and freaks and geeks are too low. I also would have had sports night and the sorkin sunset 50 or whatever it was called in my top 50. Oddly I did not take to west wing

Parenthood would make my top 100. So would the coupling uk show
 
I'd put The Wire in the top 3. My only problem with The West Wing and most Sorkin stuff is that while the writing is fast, witty, deep, etc - it's very clearly writing. Its perfection is effective but also never actually believable.

To me it was almost impossible to believe The Wire was actually scripted at times. If there has ever been something more authentic on TV I can't think of it. Considering the show was also awesome I might even put it #1.
 
DCDeac said:
I'd put The Wire in the top 3. My only problem with The West Wing and most Sorkin stuff is that while the writing is fast, witty, deep, etc - it's very clearly writing. Its perfection is effective but also never actually believable.

To me it was almost impossible to believe The Wire was actually scripted at times. If there has ever been something more authentic on TV I can't think of it. Considering the show was also awesome I might even put it #1.
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I do find The Wire to be better dialog than The West Wing or other Sorkin shows, because they're less snappy and perfectly back and forth sitcommy.

However, The Wire is still guilty (note: being hypercritical here, it's a top 3 show ever) of stilted dialog at times too. The show has an absolute ton of dialog; it's the driving force behind the storytelling, more so than a lot of the shows on the list. And while I think they do just an unbelievable job juxtaposing the crime life and the cop life, and the plotting is second to none, I do think some of the dialog is a bit unbelievable. One of my favorite scenes of all time, teaching the kids to play chess, is just too perfectly metaphorical for the characters to be believable. You do have to love some of the catch phrases, though, like "it's all in the game, baby."

I know I just slurp Sopranos on here constantly, but I feel like it's maybe the only better written show I've ever seen than The Wire. The dialog shows the characters' imperfection and flaws and faults, and they constantly make use of mispronunciations and mis-used words to underscore how dumb the characters may be (see: Carmine in the last 2 seasons especially). They especially wrote Tony's part well, because he takes things he learns from other characters, or for example when he was in the hospital and the Hopi Indian saying was on the wall "You go about in pity for yourself..." and repeats the lines he has learned to several characters in different contexts, quite believably like people do.
 
Fair points all. Both were great shows, plus the Sopranos had possibly the greatest ending ever.

I find the negative feedback on Mad Men to be pretty interesting. My favorite thing about that show is that the really clever dialogue comes from characters you'd expect to be able to pull off those kinds of insightful comments... Peggy versus Joan a couple episodes back was just brilliant stuff in my opinion, but some people thought the dialogue sounded awkward. Or the scene where Don has no idea Ted thinks they're fighting. I think they write awkward well and do it intentionally.
 
I like Mad Men a fair amount, not sure how much it accomplishes as a show, but it's pretty great. The writing is at times breathtaking, and at other times just ok. I also feel like the casting is a bit hit or miss. Hamm is a really fantastic actor, January Jones is a really bad actor.

I do love the minor characters, especially my BOY Ken Cosgrove. And as annoying as Pete is, his casting was a stroke of genius. He plays that part so well.

Also, Sally Draper was really well cast for a kid actor IMO.
 
TownieDeac said:
I do find The Wire to be better dialog than The West Wing or other Sorkin shows, because they're less snappy and perfectly back and forth sitcommy.

However, The Wire is still guilty (note: being hypercritical here, it's a top 3 show ever) of stilted dialog at times too. The show has an absolute ton of dialog; it's the driving force behind the storytelling, more so than a lot of the shows on the list. And while I think they do just an unbelievable job juxtaposing the crime life and the cop life, and the plotting is second to none, I do think some of the dialog is a bit unbelievable. One of my favorite scenes of all time, teaching the kids to play chess, is just too perfectly metaphorical for the characters to be believable. You do have to love some of the catch phrases, though, like "it's all in the game, baby."

I know I just slurp Sopranos on here constantly, but I feel like it's maybe the only better written show I've ever seen than The Wire. The dialog shows the characters' imperfection and flaws and faults, and they constantly make use of mispronunciations and mis-used words to underscore how dumb the characters may be (see: Carmine in the last 2 seasons especially). They especially wrote Tony's part well, because he takes things he learns from other characters, or for example when he was in the hospital and the Hopi Indian saying was on the wall "You go about in pity for yourself..." and repeats the lines he has learned to several characters in different contexts, quite believably like people do.
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I think some of the stilted dialogue on THE WIRE is the fault of some not-so-good acting, rather than anything lacking in the words.
 
jaybone said:
I think modern family , 24, and freaks and geeks are too low. I also would have had sports night and the sorkin sunset 50 or whatever it was called in my top 50. Oddly I did not take to west wing

Parenthood would make my top 100. So would the coupling uk show
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Parenthood is, without a doubt in my opinion, the most underrated television show currently on-air.
 
SmooveDeac said:
I think some of the stilted dialogue on THE WIRE is the fault of some not-so-good acting, rather than anything lacking in the words.
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I agree, and I believe the quote is:

[The] game is the game
not
It's all in the game, baby.
or
All in the game, yo no it's no baby. can't see Omar using "baby" as an end of sentence demonstrative ;-)
 
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It's all over the script. Probably no use of "baby," though. One of my favorites:

"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?"
 
The "Fuck" scene is a good example. It was an awesome, memorable scene, but it's not realistic writing.
 
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