Monday, October 22, 2012

POLL UPDATE: "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME" POLL! Again, only ONE F***ING NEW PERSON PARTICIPATING! Guys, c'mon. SUBMIT YOUR BALLOTS ALREADY!



Well, I'm not 100% sure what's left that I can add or say to convince you, the readers, to enter your ballots for the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME"! This will be my forth update blog, since I first proposed the issue, and so far, only me, and now, four other people, have chosen to submit their lists. It took a lot of convincing btw, to get those people to participate. I'm not sure exactly why this issue seems to have created so little interest among my ever-growing readers. Yes, they are evergrowing by the way. Right now, I'm on track to approach, and possibly pass 3,000 Hits in October. I'm proud of that. Last October, I had only 200 hits, so I'll definitely take a 1500% increase.

As for television, I'm proud of television. I was discussing the TV show "Scrubs," recently with some people. I wrote a blog on it once, years ago, but we were discussing the reasons why the show was funny. I think the person who asked was expecting me to not come up with an answer, but I gave quite a few. For instance, how it was a modern-day M*A*S*H, but more importantly, the reason I am particularly fond of "Scrubs," was that it was, much of it's humor was based on the fact that it accepted the fact that the audience was incredibly knowledgable about television. That may sound like it's funny, but it's true. It's not the only show either. Much of "Family Guy"'s humor is that the show is based on that fact. We've watched and studied television most of our lives now. We should have an incredibly wide knowledge of it. It's seeped into our everyday culture, and it's stretched across all generations. Not just shows being aired in reruns, either. Starting with cable, especially with networks like "Nick at Nite," and TV Land, most of us have grown up, essentially with an entire history of television. We should've anyway. Wake up hungover, on a Saturday, and even by accident, you would've seen at least two episodes of some version of "Law & Order".

TV is how we reference things now. It's apart of our language, whether we watch it or not, eventually, the really great and quintessential parts of television, stick with us, showcasing, and often creating the pop culture landscape, we might not even realize it. It took me years to realize that "Shrinkage," wasn't a real word. I learned my alphabet from watching "Wheel of Fortune"; I betcha a lot of other people have too. From Carson to Kramer from Lucy to Tina, "Perry Mason," to "Monk", from Mockingbird Lane to "Sesame Street", television shapes our lives, for good or bad.

So, despite these lackluster numbers, I'm gonna continue pushing for this "Sight & Sound"-style list to form the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME". It's never been done, even marginally well before, and besides, I think it's a great way to honor television. Probably not what Farnsworth had in mind when he invented it, but he'd probably appreciate it if he wasn't dead.

Okay, for those who are new to this poll, there are two rules.
Rule #1: As long as it originate on television, it's eligible for this list. So, this means that you can essentially pick almost anything for this list. Comedy, Drama, Reality, Game Shows, Talk Show, TV Movies, Miniseries, Soap Operas, Children's shows, Cartoon, News Magazines, Cable, Satellite, etc. etc.... You want to pick Bob Ross Paintings, it's allowed. So everything is essentially on the table.

Rule #2: This is a Top Ten list, so you MUST pick ten shows, and ten shows only. There's no jury prizes or anything like that. I won't require you to rank them, although that's preferred, it's an option, but you can't pick 9, you can't pick 11, you must pick ten.

And that's it. Those are the only rules. So far, I've had five participants, including myself, the latest being my friend, Lillian Pancakes, a wonderful actress/writer/director friend of mine. She submitted her ballot, and change some of the results by the way.

LILLIAN 'PANCAKES' NADEAU
1. Quantum Leap
2. Queer as Folk
3. Roseanne
4. Friends ('94)
5. Cheers ('82)
6. Taxi ('78)
7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
8. Breaking Bad
9. Rocko's Modern Life
10. Melrose Place ('92)

With her list, now "Roseanne," "Friends," "Cheers," and "Queer as Folk," have been selected twice, so now there's 6 six shows, (along with "M*A*S*H" and "The West Wing") with 2 votes, and with the rankings being a tiebreaker, "M*A*S*H" and "Queer as Folk," are now tied for number one, which is certainly a sentence I never thought I'd say, but there it is. So, take a little time, make your own list, put it in the comment section of this blog, or Facebook me or Twitter me with the list if you can. (I'd prefer Facebook or Comment though), then tell your friends to do the same.

10 comments:

jami radant said...

From Jami (the female half of Everyone's A Critic Movie Reviews):


1. Felicity
2. Queer As Folk
3. Veronica Mars
4. Friday Night Lights
5. Dexter
6. Breaking Bad
7. Six Feet Under
8. Sons of Anarchy
9. Smallville
10. Sex and the City

jami radant said...

From Jesse (the male half of Everyone's A Critic Movie Reviews:

1. Arrested Development
2. Black Donnellys
3. Breaking Bad
4. The Office
5. The Big Bang Theory
6. Entourage
7. Deadwood
8. Sons of Anarchy
9. Heroes
10. Friday Night Lights

It was hard to leave off Dexter, Carnivale, and Smallville. But, I really like my sitcoms!

Anonymous said...

From Jim (Friend of Everyone's A Critic Movie Reviews} In no particular order...

1. Northern Exposure
2. All In The Family
3. Cheers
4. Big Bang Theory
5. The Simpsons
6. Person Of Interest
7. Seinfeld
8. This Old House
9. M*A*S*H
10. Chapelle Show

Anonymous said...

From Katie (Friend of Everyone's A Critic Movie Reviews}

1. Seinfeld
2. Twin Peaks
3. Veronica Mars
4. Lost
5. Arrested Development
6. Friday Night Lights
7. Modern Family
8. Dexter
9. Person of Interest
10. The Good Wife

Anonymous said...

Matt, friend of the above dudes.

1 - The West Wing
2 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer
3 - Battlestar Gallactica
4 - Firefly
5 - The Wire
6 - Chapelle Show
7 - Archer
8 - The Daily Show
9 - Fringe
10 - Game of Thrones

David Baruffi said...

Thank you Matt. I need some clarification on your list though. On "Battlestar Gallactica," do you mean the original series, or the newer series? And also, on "The Daily Show", do you mean, "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". (I doubt you mean the one with Craig Kilborn, but I have to clarify. You never know.) Thanks for participating, tell others!

Anonymous said...

BSG: Newer series. I appreciate the original, but too campy.
TDS: I wish I could say you could make a comparison, but post-Kilborn was on another level.

Anonymous said...

For what it's worth, the top three on my list were the only immediate locks. Ater that it was a complete crapshoot. I laugh my ass off watching Archer and The League, but they don't have the cultural significance or Seinfeld. Firefly aired for a dozen episodes.

Hell, I think The Vampire Diaries is the best drama on TV right now but WTF do I know.

David Baruffi said...

The few episodes of "Archer," I've seen, I've laughed my ass off too. (Haven't seen much of "The League" yet) so I understand that. Well, that's the beauty of this list, I am picking "The Greatest," not the "Most Important," although granted, they often do parallel.

As to your top 3, "The West Wing," was the only drama on my list, so I totally agree with that one. I've heard good stuff about "Battlestar Gallactica," but haven't gotten to it yet. As for "Buffy...", I think that was one of worse shows of all-time, and could never understand people's fandom with it. (I mean, she's killing vampires all day, you shouldn't be stressing over school.) It annoyed the hell out of me, can't stand Joss Whedon, but it's getting a lot of votes, so maybe joke's on me. (Oh, and yes, I know about "Firefly", but again, wasn't a fan) As to "The Vampire Diaries," I love "True Blood".

Oh, and "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," made my list too. :)

Thanks for participating. It looks like we sound some agreeing, and some agreeing to disagree. That's part of the fun of this poll. Try to get others to post too. Oh, and I checked out reasonablysober.com, it looks pretty cool and funny. I've signed up for e-mail updates of it. Can wait 'til your next blog.

Unknown said...

Here you go, David!
From Reel Honest Reviews, my top ten television shows across the last few decades are:
1. The Newsroom
2. Episodes
3. Parks and Recreation
4. The Sopranos
5. I Love Lucy
6. Curb Your Enthusiasm
7. Seinfeld
8. Saturday Night Live
9. LA Law
10 Moonlighting