I have some bones to pick with TV Guide – 50 of them to be exact.
Tonight, the digest-sized listings mag celebrates its 50th anniversary with a prime-time special (“TV Guide’s 50 Best Shows of All Time,” 10 p.m. on ABC/Ch. 7) based on a list published in last week’s issue – a list which makes me want to ask the folks at TV Guide: What planet are you on?
“Seinfeld”? “I Love Lucy”? “The Honeymooners”?
Puh-leeze. Picking those three as the Top 3 shows was just too easy – like shooting fish in a barrel.
And the rest of that list – “Cheers” (No. 18)? “thirtysomething” (No. 19)? “Friends” (No. 21)? “The Cosby Show” (No. 28)? Those shows are for wimps.
And how on earth did “Buffy” (No. 41), “Twin Peaks” (No. 45) and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (No. 46) make the list? Whatsa matter? The original “Star Trek” not good enough for you?
The truth is: I didn’t agree with one single choice made by the editors of TV Guide, so I came up with my own 50.
The challenge for TV Guide must have been to assemble a list that best represented the tastes of as many of their millions of readers as possible.
But since each of us watches TV in our own unique way, my list is intended to be pointedly personal, beginning with my choice as the Greatest TV Show of All Time: “Gilligan’s Island.”
Yes, Gilligan.
Long derided for the child-like simplicity of its situations and the overt physicality of its comedy, the secret of “Gilligan” was that it actually represented the cleverest formula for a situation comedy ever devised: seven people – each with a distinct role to play – all stranded on a deserted island with high hopes of escape, but no chance of ever doing so.
Known the world over after more than 35 years in reruns, with a theme song that nearly everybody knows by heart, “Gilligan” is the essence of a mass-appeal TV show capable of being understood by just about anyone of any age or background.
And for my money, the episode in which the castaways discover gold and then establish an economy which then destroys their fragile society, stands up as one of the best single episodes of a TV show ever made.
I loved “Gilligan” when I was a kid and I still find it irresistible. If “Seinfeld” is still popular in 30 years, I’ll revise my list.
As for the rest of my Top 10: “Mister Ed” is on the list because it was simply the best talking-animal sitcom ever; and “Candid Camera” comes in at No. 3 because it was the granddaddy of every single reality show that’s come along since.
“Pee Wee’s Playhouse” ranks as the most subversive children’s show ever to make it onto a big network, while “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” was the precursor of every voyeuristic TV show we enjoy today.
“Good Times” makes the list for introducing into our popular culture the character of J.J. “Kid Dy-no-mite!” Evans, and “Hawaii Five-O” makes the Top 10 for its dazzling sense of style and extreme violence.
“Jeopardy” is simply the finest quiz show ever broadcast, while “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” is my personal favorite of every sci-fi fantasy show that has ever aired.
And “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite” – running from 1962 to 1981 – was by far the most influential news program in the history of TV.
“Seinfeld”? Yeah, that show was pretty good. But “Gilligan’s Island” – now there was a TV show!
TV Guide’s 50 Greatest Shows of All Time
1) Seinfeld
2) I Love Lucy
3) The Honeymooners
4) All in the Family
5) The Sopranos
6) 60 Minutes
7) Late Show with David Letterman
8) The Simpsons
9) The Andy Griffith Show
10) Saturday Night Live
11) The Mary Tyler Moore Show
12) The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
13) The Dick Van Dyke Show
14) Hill Street Blues
15) The Ed Sullivan Show
16) The Carol Burnett Show
17) Today
18) Cheers
19) Thirtysomething
20) St. Elsewhere
21) Friends
22) ER
23) Nightline
24) Law & Order
25) M*A*S*H
26) The Twilight Zone
27) Sesame Street
28) The Cosby Show
29) Donahue
30) Your Show of Shows
31) The Defenders
32) An American Family
33) Playhouse 90
34) Frasier
35) Roseanne
36) The Fugitive
37) The X-Files
38) The Larry Sanders Show
39) The Rockford Files
40) Gunsmoke
41) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
42) Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In
43) Bonanza
44) The Bob Newhart Show
45) Twin Peaks
46) Star Trek: The Next Generation
47) Rocky and his Friends
48) Taxi
49) The Oprah Winfrey Show
50) Bewitched
Adam’s list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time
1) Gilligan’s Island
2) Mister Ed
3) Candid Camera
4) Pee Wee’s Playhouse
5) Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
6) Good Times
7) Hawaii Five-O
8) Jeopardy
9) Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
10) The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
11) The Untouchables
12) The Price is Right
13) Mission: Impossible
14) The Beverly Hillbillies
15) Sanford and Son
16) The Jeffersons
17) Captain Kangaroo
18) Lost in Space
19) Dragnet
20) The Young and the Restless
21) Sea Hunt
22) The Gong Show
23) Family Matters
24) Gomer Pyle USMC
25) Get Smart
26) Green Acres
27) Howdy Doody
28) The White Shadow
29) The Galloping Gourmet
30) Leave it To Beaver
31) Underdog
32) Baretta
33) The Equalizer
34) Starsky and Hutch
35) Columbo
36) The Adventures of Superman
37) The Match Game
38) Perry Mason
39) McHale’s Navy
40) Combat
41) The Munsters
42) The Saint
43) Batman
44) The Wild Wild West
45) College Bowl
46) Ironside
47) Kung Fu
48) Homicide: Life on the Street
49) The People’s Court w/Joseph Wapner
50) Tomorrow with Tom Snyder
