100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time (1997) and Top 100 Episodes of All Time (2009) are lists of the 100 "best" television show episodes on U.S. television as published by TV Guide . The first list, published on June 28, 1997, was produced in collaboration with Nick at Nite's TV Land. [1] [2] The revised list was published on June 15, 2009. Both lists exclude game shows and variety shows, but include situation comedies and drama series. [2]
About 25 shows from the original list were featured during a special week on Nick at Night on Nickelodeon and TV Land. [1] [3] On the original list several shows, including I Love Lucy , The Mary Tyler Moore Show , The Dick Van Dyke Show , Seinfeld , Cheers , and The Odd Couple had multiple entries, but none did on the 2009 list. [3] The original list included 35 episodes from the 1950s and 1960s, while the 2009 list only included 10. [3] Over one-third of the new list first aired in the twelve years since the original list, including 14 from the most recent two years. [3] The June 2009 list included episodes as recent as the April 12, 2009, "Peekaboo" episode of Breaking Bad and the April 7, 2009, "Baptism" episode of Rescue Me , while the 1997 list included a two-month-old episode of The X-Files . [3]
CBS was the original broadcaster of 35 of the 1997 list members, including both of the top two: "Chuckles Bites the Dust" of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" from I Love Lucy. [1] Several television series were represented by a different episode in 2009 than they were in 1997. The 2009 top rated show was "The Contest" from Seinfeld although in 1997 the show had been represented by "The Boyfriend" (number four) and "The Parking Garage" (number 33), instead of "The Contest". [3] Three of the top 10 1997 episodes were removed although the series continued to be represented by other episodes: "The $99,000 Answer" (number 6) from The Honeymooners , "Thanksgiving Orphans" (number 7) from Cheers ; and "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" (number 8) from The Dick Van Dyke Show. [3]
The 1997 list included detailed show descriptions for all episodes, while only a select few were accompanied by more than a single sentence in the ascending order 2009 list. [3] Only one of the thirteen contributors to the 2009 list was involved in the 1997 list. [3]
Paley Center for Media's James Sheridan regretted the recency bias of the newer list. [3] Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel viewed the original list as a triumphant result despite its conflict of interest. [1] The original list was derided for omitting Bonanza and The Golden Girls entirely. [1] Daily News ' David Bianculli was critical of the original list, saying that many selections would not be on a more legitimate top-100 list. [2] He claimed that episodes chosen from Murder One , The Partridge Family , The Love Boat , and Speed Racer reveal a lack of either maturity or perspective, while others showed taste and bravery. [2] Chicago Tribune critic Steve Johnson complained that it was premature to claim that any episode of ER had established sufficient cultural significance to rank third on the original list. [4] Jaime Weinman of Maclean's complained that the 2009 list was composed of the most well-known episode of famous series, claiming that they were largely unexceptional episodes. [5] He preferred the 1997 list, which he said was produced when TV Guide was a higher caliber publication. [5]
Lists are made to provoke discussions and arguments, so curatorial staff member James Sheridan has some bones to pick with TV Guide about their recent ranking of "The 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time."
Cheers is an American sitcom television series that ran on NBC from September 30, 1982, to May 20, 1993, with a total of 275 half-hour episodes across 11 seasons. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Network Television, and was created by the team of James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles. The show is set in the titular bar in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax and socialize.
Mary Tyler Moore was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–1966) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970–1977), which "helped define a new vision of American womanhood" and "appealed to an audience facing the new trials of modern-day existence". Moore won seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Ordinary People. Moore had a supporting role in the musical film Thoroughly Modern Millie. Moore was an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism and diabetes awareness and research.
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and focuses on his personal life with three of his friends: best friend George Costanza, former girlfriend Elaine Benes and his neighbor from across the hall, Cosmo Kramer. It is set mostly in an apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. It has been described as "a show about nothing", often focusing on the minutiae of daily life. Interspersed in earlier episodes are moments of stand-up comedy from the fictional Jerry Seinfeld, frequently using the episode's events for material.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American sitcom television series created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Moore portrayed Mary Richards, an unmarried, independent woman focused on her career as associate producer of a news show at the fictional local station WJM in Minneapolis. Ed Asner co-starred as Mary's boss Lou Grant, alongside Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Georgia Engel, and Betty White, with Valerie Harper as friend and neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern, and Cloris Leachman as friend and landlady Phyllis Lindstrom.
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom television series that aired on CBS from October 3, 1960, to April 1, 1968, with a total of 249 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons—159 in black and white and 90 in color.
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom created by Carl Reiner that initially aired on CBS from October 3, 1961, to June 1, 1966, with a total of 158 half-hour episodes spanning five seasons. It was produced by Calvada Productions in association with the CBS Television Network, and was shot at Desilu Studios. Other producers included Bill Persky and Sam Denoff. The music for the show's theme song was written by Earle Hagen.
A series finale is the final installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. It may also refer to a final theatrical sequel, the last part of a television miniseries, the last installment of a literary series, or any final episode.
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey, that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982, to May 25, 1988. The series stars Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, and William Daniels as teaching doctors at an aging, rundown Boston hospital who give interns a promising future in making critical medical and life decisions. The series was produced by MTM Enterprises, which had success with a similar NBC series, the police drama Hill Street Blues, during that same time. The series were often compared to each other for their use of ensemble casts and overlapping serialized storylines.
TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time is TV Guide's list of the 50 most entertaining or influential television series in American pop culture. It appeared in the May 4–10, 2002 issue of the magazine, which was the second in a series of special issues commemorating TV Guide's 50th year. The list was also counted down in an ABC television special, TV Guide's 50 Best Shows of All Time, on May 13, 2002.
Mary Richards, portrayed by Mary Tyler Moore, is the main character of the television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Season four of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on August 12, 1992, and concluded on May 20, 1993, on NBC.
"Chuckles Bites the Dust" is an episode of the television situation comedy The Mary Tyler Moore Show which first aired on October 25, 1975. The episode's plot centers on the WJM-TV staff's reaction to the absurd death of Chuckles the Clown, an often-mentioned but seldom-seen character who starred in an eponymously titled children's show at the station. Most of the WJM-TV staff cannot help making jokes about the strange death of a strange person except for Mary, who repeatedly scolds her co-workers for disrespecting the deceased. However, during Chuckles' funeral service, Mary begins to giggle uncontrollably, much to her embarrassment. The celebrant assures her that laughing is the proper response to the life of a clown.
David Gibbs Lloyd was an American screenwriter and producer for television.
All-Time Top 100 TV Themes is the ninth volume of the Television's Greatest Hits series of compilation albums by TVT Records. TVT Records released the two-disc collection in 2005. It included 100 themes featuring tracks from the first seven discs of the series and newer themes from television series since the last disc was released in 1996. Notably excluded was any Western themed television series. The album catalog was later acquired by The Bicycle Music Company. In September 2011, Oglio Records which headquarters is located at Los Angeles announced they were re-leasing the Television's Greatest Hits song catalog after entering into an arrangement The Bicycle Music Company. A series of 9 initial "6-packs" including some of the songs from the album have been announced for 2011.
Situation comedies, or sitcoms, have long been a popular genre of comedy in the US, initially on radio in the 1920s, and then on television beginning in the 1940s. A sitcom is defined as a television series featuring a recurring cast of characters in various successive comedic situations.
History of the Sitcom is an eight-part CNN documentary television series that traces the development of the American situation comedy show from the 1950s to the 21st Century. The show features 184 interviews with creatives, actors and directors including Norman Lear, Mel Brooks, Yvette Lee Bowser, Marta Kauffman, and Carl Reiner. The series follows a similar format of the CNN Original Series The History of Comedy.
"Opie the Birdman" is the first episode of the fourth season of The Andy Griffith Show. It aired on CBS on September 9, 1963. In the episode, Opie accidentally kills a mother songbird and bears the responsibility of rearing her three young birds.