POLL UPDATE! "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!": IN LIGHT OF WGA'S OWN RECENT LIST!

Well, while we here, having been painstakingly compiling a poll of the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!", the WGA, the Writer's Guild of America, which for the few who may not know, is the Screenwriters' Union in Hollywood, released their own list last week, of the "101 Best-Written TV Shows of All-Time".  Not gonna lie, being as list-obsessed as I am, I took a day and a half or so, pouring over it. Oh, if you haven't done that yet, here's the link to their list below:

http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4925

You should also the introduction to the list, written by Paul Brownfield, it's quite a good opening.

http://www.wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4857

Personally, I think it's actually quite a good list they compiled. Sure, there's a few complaints like all lists do, it certainly looks very different from a list I would've compiled, overall.... I mean there's maybe 3 or 4 shows, that I think, no good reason or argument can be made for their inclusion, and some of them were pretty high too but, that's not bad for these kind of lists, and the rest, I can certainly understand it getting on this list, even if a few wouldn't have made mine, or if it should've been in another order, but generally, I think the Writer's Guild did quite a good job on this. They did one a few years ago, regarding the Best Screenplays of all-time, and this one, and I like that they chose to do one for television, as I'm doing here. This poll was constructed to be a television equivalent, at least structurally, to "Sight & Sound"'s movie poll, so there's a lot of admiration I have for it.

In case you're wondering about their top-sheet results, they named "The Sopranos" as the Best-Written TV show of All-Time, with "Seinfeld", 2nd, followed by "The Twilight Zone", "All in the Family", "M*A*S*H", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "Mad Men", "Cheers", "The Wire" and "The West Wing" rounding out the Top Ten. (Alright, "The West Wing" was way too low, there I said it.) The rest, I'll let you look up, but it's actually not that different from the way our Poll has been looking. For the most part anyway, there's currently one show in the Top Ten, of our Current Results, that didn't make their list, (I'll tell you which show that is in a bit) but keep in mind, they're judging the writing only, of a show. The writing is one aspect, and a crucial one at that, but it's not necessarily the only aspect that makes great show. Especially in our poll, where we accept votes for TV shows, that don't even have writing. So there you go.

Speaking of votes, let's take a look at the newest ballots to be received in our poll, and a special thank you to Josh Lyons of Couch Potato Club, for participating. He's the latest entertainment blogger to participate, I sincerely hope we get many more of them soon.

JOSH LYONS (Couch Potato Club; http://www.couchpotatoclub.com/ )
Friends ('94)
Cheers ('82)
Roseanne
The Walking Dead
The Office ('05)
Married...with Children
The Simpsons
Monk
The Big Bang Theory
Alfred Hitchcock Presents ('55)

ARON FELLOWES
1. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer
2. Scrubs
3. Angel ('99)
4. Firefly
5. Boardwalk Empire
6. Breaking Bad
7. The Big Bang Theory
8. Dollhouse
9. Modern Family
10. New Girl

VONDA JACOBS
Survivor
The Voice ('11)
The X-Factor ('11)
American Idol
Revolution
Touch
Hell's Kitchen ('10)
MasterChef ('10)
Big Brother ('00)
The Amazing Race

LARRY BRAUS
M*A*S*H
Star Trek ('66)
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Saturday Night Live
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Mad Men
The Sopranos
The Walking Dead
The Bob Newhart Show ('72)
Dragnet ('67)

Well, we're still quite a ways from actually finishing that Poll, but we're getting closer. We're almost 3/4th the way done. The top sheet, still pretty much looks the same, with "Seinfeld" still way ahead of the field, although "M*A*S*H", is getting closer to them. Other than that, the only completely new entry into the Top Ten, making it into the Top Ten, for the first time, is "The Walking Dead," which, yes, that's also the show, that didn't make WGA's list. (I haven't seen it, you can complain to the WGA.)

Right now, we're still a little short of our goal of 100 ballots, so we still need more people, like you, to participate! In case you're new to this, the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!" poll, like I said, was a television reaction to "Sight & Sound"'s Movie poll, only thing is that, anybody can participate. If you want to submit your ballot, there dozens of places all over Facebook in movie groups, and movie reviewer groups, as well as on my Facebook page, you can Comment with your ballot their, you can send it to me, you can message it to me on Facebook, or you can just comment with it on this blogpost below. However you can get ahold of me, get ahold of me, basically. And leave your name too, I won't accept Anonymous ballots; if it's your choices for the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!", you should be proud enough to put your name down, and also because, I need a way of contacting you, in case I have a question on your ballot. For instance, in case a title has been used for multiple TV shows, like "The Office", or "Hawaii Five-O", or "Dragnet", most recently, or a few other cases, regarding rules. Here are the rules by the way:

RULE #1: As long as it originated on television, it's eligible for the poll, regardless of genre.
That basically means, you can vote for anything you want. Sitcom, drama, talk show, reality shop, soap opera, news magazine, children's shows, animated shows, instructional shows, miniseries, TV movies, network shows, cable shows,.. etc. As long as it originally aired on television, it's eligible. (ie. you can't vote for "M*A*S*H", the original movie, because that was first shown in movie theaters,  but you can vote for "M*A*S*H", the TV series, 'cause that aired on TV.)

RULE #2: You must select 10, and ONLY 10 SHOWS. No picking more, no picking less. Just 10!

It's been rare, but there have been a couple occasions where I had to disqualify a vote, for something like "Looney Tunes", which, the version of that, that most people mean when they say that, actually aired in movie theaters originally, so, things like that, that come up. So yeah, make sure, I can in some way, contact you, in case this happens.

So, that it's. Be as specific as possible, but don't worry, it's only ten shows. Time for to vote, and submit your ballot, to name the "TEN GREATEST TV SHOWS OF ALL-TIME!"