POLL UPDATE: "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME"! SHOW REACH DOUBLE-DIGITS IN VOTES, + A COUPLE CONTROVERSIAL CHOICES!

A few different milestones are being reach on this poll. The shows currently at the top of the results, have entered double-digits in terms of the amount of votes they've gotten, and a few other shows are getting closer to the total as more ballots are coming in. There's also been some more intriguing shows getting votes lately. Reality shows have started getting more votes all of a sudden, after being nearly nothing until now, and some votes have started coming in for miniseries too, and we got the first votes come in for TV shows, that originated in the '40s. There's also been a few shows voted on, that have tested some of eligibility rules. In fact, for the first time ever, I had to disqualify a show, because of it's ineligibility. One of these most recent ballots that came originally had a vote for "Tom and Jerry", which is hardly the worst idea, it's by any standard, it's an important and seminal cartoon series, however, while there have been numerous television incarnations of Tom and Jerry, most of which are eligible for this poll, the original animated shorts, not only weren't on television, they pre-dated modern televsion. This was back when it was commonplace for a trip to a movie theatre to not only include a double-feature, but also short film and newsreels in between pictures, but also animated short cartoons. When television finally came around, that's when we started seeing these old shorts on television, such as "Looney Tunes," "The Three Stooges", "The Little Rascals," or "Our Gang", and yes, "Tom and Jerry". Well, I informed the person, and se person, replaced it with another show. I knew that eventually this situation would come up, and I'm glad it took so long for it happen; Glad it was settled. Well, here's the latest ballots that have been submitted, most of which, again, were posted in Facebook groups "AD's You're the Critic" or "AD's TV Critic", which is home of some wonderful discussion and debate on film and television, and a lot of wonderful people who I'm more than thankful for their participation in this poll.

SCARLETT BROWN
1. ER
2. Charmed
3. Scandal
4. Rose Red
5. New York Undercover
6. Family Guy
7. The Simpsons
8. The Golden Girls
9. Sons of Anarchy
10. Supernatural ('05 Drama Series)

AI-LING LOGAN
Batman ('92 Animated Series)
Boston Legal
The Muppet Show
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Happy Days ('74)
The Twilight Zone ('59)
Animaniacs
The Electric Company ('71)
I Love Lucy

CHARLES E. HARVEY
1. All in the Family
2. M*A*S*H
3. Cheers ('82)
4. Seinfeld
5. The Simpsons
6. 3rd Rock from the Sun
7. The Big Bang Theory
8. MacGuyver
9. The Honeymooners ('55)
10. Everybody Loves Raymond

BILL SCHROEDER
Gunsmoke
Bonanza
Northern Exposure
Eureka ('06)
Family Guy
I Love Lucy
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (aka "Disneyland", aka "The Wonderful World of Disney")
M*A*S*H
Seinfeld
That '70s Show

JULIE BAKER MORSE
1. South Park
2. Ally McBeal
3. Grey's Anatomy
4. Glee
5. American Idol
6. Friends ('94)
7. Singled Out ('95)
8. Top Chef ('06)
9. Project Runway
10. The Nanny ('93)

MARLYCE CRAWFORD CHILDERS
1. I Love Lucy
2. 60 Minutes
3. Get Smart ('65)
4. Nova
5. Meet the Press ('47)
6. All in the Family
7. M*A*S*H
8. Roseanne
9. The Simpsons
10. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

MATT SMITH
1. Twin Peak
2. Arrested Development
3. Jeopardy! ('84)
4. Malcolm in the Middle
5. Nova
6. Monday Night Football
7. The Twilight Zone ('59)
8. The Honeymooners ('55)
9. Columbo
10. Star Trek ('66)

CINDY NAAS STAPLETON
1. I Love Lucy
2. The Prisoner ('67)
3. Hill Street Blues
4. The Ed Sullivan Show
5. MI-5 (aka Spooks)
6. Sons of Anarchy
7. Star Trek ('66)
8. Coronation Street
9. Monty Python's Flying Circus
10. Saturday Night Live

KYLE ARMSTRONG
1. The Simpsons
2. All in the Family
3. The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
4. Nova
5. Battlestar Gallactica ('03 Miniseries---> '04 Series)
6. Star Search ('83)
7. Friends ('94)
8. Tales from the Crypt ('89)
9. Match Game '73 (aka Match Game '74,... Match Game '79, and Match Game)
10. The Sopranos

JENNIFER SINCLAIR CALDWELL
NCIS
Deadwood
The Cosby Show
Criminal Minds
Spartacus (oka Spartacus: Blood and Sand ---> Spartacus: Vengeance ---> Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Hogan's Heroes
Sons of Anarchy
Roseanne
Survivor
Weeds

JON PALMER
1. Seinfeld
2. All in the Family
3. M*A*S*H
4. The Simpsons
5. The Sopranos
6. The Wire
7. Breaking Bad
8. The Cosby Show
9. The West Wing
10. Monty Python's Flying Circus

Before I get to the current results, there's a couple other shows that I want to discuss, in case some of you might have some concerns over their eligibility. There's been a couple votes for a show that was originally called "Disneyland", however it's listed here, currently under it's lead imdb.com title, "Wald Disney's Wonderful World of Color", however most of you will probably recognize it under it's most famous title, "The Wonderful World of Disney". This was a bit of a tricky call to determine eligibility. First of all, if you check imdb.com, the show has been known under at least seven different titles, in America alone, so this is already an odd choice, however, the program itself, in many of its incarnations, often includes material that didn't originally air on television, oftentimes entire feature films, and at times, animated shorts. It also often includes TV Movie of the Weeks, that each of which, separately, would actually count as their own show, and be eligible for this poll if somebody wanted to say, vote for "Young Harry Houdini", to name the first Disney MOW off-the-top-of-my-head. It also included a lot of material in of itself that was original television programming. Many might not know that it was the first TV series, to ever broadcast in color, for instance, so it's a landmark show. This is a very tricky call, because more than any other show that's come up so far, there's a clear blurring of the line on whether it's original television programming involved, but I have declared that "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color", in all of it's forms and titles, is eligible.

The other show that caused me to think twice about it's eligibilty is "Monday Night Football". Now, I haven't made a determination on sports until now. I did have a feeling that it would at some point come up, and now it has. Let me be clear, I'm not going to allow for people to pick and choose specific or general games, in any sport. You can't vote for the Super Bowl-, (what was the best Super Bowl? Eh,...) Super Bowl XXVI, nor can you vote for every Super Bowls in general, or any sporting event like that, whether it's the NCAA Tournament, the World Series, Specific Boxing Matches,... or anything of that nature. (I'm still debating whether to count votes for Sports Entertainment Programs [Pro wrestling, roller derby, etc.] I'm wait 'til that situation comes up, then make a decision on it.) Your not gonna be allowed to pick a bunch of great football games, and put them as votes. "Monday Night Football," however is not a specific game, it's a very specific TV program. We're gonna call it a documentary program, that is specifically recognized for it's uniqueness and landmark innovations in television broadcasting, which is clearly, one of the points of this poll. The reason I'm allowing this choice, is because it is specific to a particular series. So, if somebody wanted to say, vote for the "NFL on FOX," which, people might not remember now, but at the time, was very different from previous NFL or any sports broadcasts, that would be eligible for the same reason that Monday Night Football is eligible, and while, this does lead to some gray areas, (God help me, if somebody votes for the "Olympics", that's 190+ different broadcasts of the event for me to ask "Which one", and that only assuming they mean, one year's Olympics.) but I'm accepting it as a television production, not as a sporting event. The televised broadcast of "Monday Night Football", is a TV show, the games itself, or any particular game(s) itself, is not. I would regard that, the same way I would look at, Obama's Inauguration, the event itself is news being documented, which in of itself alone, isn't a tv show. The game(s) itself, no, but the broadcasting program, yes. Now of course, this opens up some cans of worms, and this could lead to some other gray areas in this poll. I'm not for instance, gonna accept anybody that just lists a bunch of major historical event of the past seventy years that just happened to have been televised, even if you single out a specific network's broadcast, I can't allow that. Just logically, I can't allow that-, to give an extreme example 9/11, isn't a television show. There's some obvious ones that aren't; there's some obvious ones that are; there's some that are in-between that'll be determined on case-by-case basis. I wish this was easier, I wish I didn't have to go through such explanations, but, precedent is now set for this, hopefully I won't have to deal with it too often.

Well, as to the current results, there's definitely a few shows that are clearly ahead, as "M*A*S*H", "Seinfeld" and "All in the Family", each have gotten to double-digits in votes, with "Cheers", a few votes behind in fourth, holding off the rest, barely. I also mentioned on this blog a few weeks ago, that after the People/ABC Poll named "I Love Lucy", the greatest TV show of all-time, that I'd bet that if I poll a random group of friends, that I'd get find five friends who'd say "Arrested Development", before I'd find one who say "I Love Lucy". Well, I haven't polled my friends, but among this group, I was, a little wrong. After not getting many votes at all for awhile, "I Love Lucy", have just jumped into in poll, not only ahead of "Arrested Development," but it's now snuck into the Top Ten, for now. Well, shows what I know, or maybe it's just the ballots that have come in so far. I'm still way below my goal of 100 participants, so if you haven't submitted a ballot, now's as good a time as any.

For those of you who are reading this and wondering, "What-the-hell I've been talking about this whole time?", a few months back, I started a poll of to use "Sight & Sound" criteria for their once-a-decade poll to determine the greatest movies of all-time, and am now using it for television, to find out the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!" Now, obviously "Sight & Sound" has far bigger subscription numbers and prestige than this blog here does, for now, but I still think this is a noble goal. TV's been around, give-or-take a few years, but about as long as moving pictures was when "Sight & Sound" started their poll, it's about that amoung of time that television has been predominantly available. Unlike "Sight & Sound" where they poll critics and filmmakers, I'm polling everybody, mainly because, most reknowned critics and filmmakers wouldn't answer me. So, if you want to submit a ballot, you can contact me on Facebook, or Twitter (Facebook is preferred), where I have numerous posts on my Facebook page of all of my blogs, leave a comment below on this blog with your ballots, or somewhere else, that will eventually get to me, with your name, and I will count it. No anonyomous blogs btw, it's your choices, so you better put your name down. Now, there's only two rules to this poll, you can probably guess them by everything else that you've read, but I'll repeat them here.

Rule #1: As long as it originated on television, it is eligible for this poll, regardless of genre. Now, I talked a bit about a few shows that have tested this rule, but still, with few exceptions, everything is eligible, whether it's a sitcom, drama, soap opera, TV movie, miniseries, reality, news magazine, documentary, children's show, animation, cable series, broadcast, variety show,... etc., if you think it's one of the greatest TV shows of all-time, as long as it originally aired on television, and not in movie theatres, it's allowed. The example I use is "M*A*S*H", the TV series, you can vote for, but the original movie that inspired the show, you can't vote for that, 'cause that was shown in movie theatres first. As you read before, original Tom & Jerry cartoons, were shown in movie theatre first, so they aren't eligible.

Rule #2: You must select 10 shows, and ONLY 10 SHOWS. No picking more, no picking less. We have no, jury prizes for #11, and no pushing just a few shows, you must pick 10.

Other than that, that's it. Make sure I can contact you in case there's a question I have to ask. Keep in mind, a lot of shows have the same title, or similar titles, and a lot of show, especially nowadays, have been remade in recent years, so that needs to be analyzed as well.

Okay, take a few minutes, think it over, and fill out your ballots, and have your votes counted, by commenting below on this blog, on my facebook posts, links, however you can get ahold of me. You may rank them, but I don't require it. The way I count the ballots is most votes get the highest ranking, and only in case of a tie, do I break the tie by finding a show'(s) average ranking, so for that reason, I recommend it, but I'm not gonna insist. Hard enough coming up with ten, at least I think so, but I think it's important to determine what really is considered the greatest of an art form, and I think it's time to do a poll on television. What do we consider the greatest of the medium? So far, over 190 different TV programs, have gotten at least one vote, so far. No two ballots I've seen the exact same yet. Most of us, have been watching TV our whole lives at this point, which should all have some basis to make our own determinations, so, let's all do it. What are your choices for the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!"?