The Top 50 TV Shows of All-Time: #s 45-41
Here's the next installment. How are you coping so far?#50- "Just Shoot Me"
#49- "L.A. Law"
#48- "The Carol Burnett Show"
#47- "That 70's Show"
#46- "The Rockford Files"
#45- "THE BIG BANG THEORY" CBS 2007-PRESENT
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Geek is chic! Socially-inept physicists Sheldon and Leonard-- their names combine to form a tribute to the legendary producer behind "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "The Andy Griffith Show"-- have their worlds turned upside down when a beautiful young woman moves in across the hall. "The Big Bang Theory" is one of the few multi-camera sitcoms currently in production, but while the show's structure is largely traditional, its jokes are anything but. A program that could easily slip into slapstick or overly-familiar character types instead focuses on the clash of disparate cultures. Producers claim that their references to physics are specific and able to withstand the harshest academic scrutiny, and each character is drawn lovingly regardless of social stature. Actor Jim Parsons should have a shelf full of Emmys when his run as Sheldon has finished. Here's just a taste of the youngest show on the top 50 list.
#44- "THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS COMEDY HOUR" CBS 1967-1969
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To this day, Tommy and Dick Smothers are careful to correct anyone who says that they were canceled by the CBS television network in the spring of 1969. They were not canceled. They were fired. The Smothers Brothers sparred with CBS censors during the full three seasons they were on the air. They welcomed controversial performers on their stage, did expert political commentary on racism, religion, and the Johnson Administration, and they loudly opposed the Vietnam War when no one else on network television was doing it. Rob Reiner, Steve Martin, Bob Einstein, Albert Brooks, Don Novello, Peter Bonerz, and Howard Hesseman all cut their teeth writing or performing on the "Comedy Hour," and it was one hell of a music show too, with Ray Charles, the Doors, Joan Baez, Donovan, the Who, Ike and Tina Turner, and Pete Seeger all appearing during the show's all-too-brief run.
Here's a copy of a somewhat typical network memo regarding the show circulated during the brothers' last season on the air early in '69. The extras contained on "The Smothers Brothers: Best of Season 3" DVD set released last year include many more.
#43- "NIGHT COURT" NBC 1984-1992
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"...but I'm feeling much better now."
I don't think a single video clip could be any more representative of the heart and soul of a TV series than this one.
#42- "THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW" CBS 1961-1966
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During television's weakest decade, creator Carl Reiner's TV show-within-a-TV show served as sort of a programming Everest upon the American television landscape. The Van Dyke show still has to be considered one of the funniest and most well-rounded shows in the medium's history. Mary Tyler Moore was cast as Laura, the wife of Van Dyke's "Rob Petrie" at home with young son Ritchie, and characters Buddy, Sally, Mel, and Alan Brady (the latter played by Reiner himself) tickled our funny bones at Rob's workplace, where he served as head writer for a popular variety show. "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was stylish and sophisticated, and because few current events or fads were referenced on the show, a popular school of thought proposes that the show would still be a hit if it premiered today, if they only added color and had Rob and Laura sleeping in a queen-size bed.
I know that TV audiences today would still go for this: Mary Tyler Moore in capri pants.
#41- "NYPD BLUE" ABC 1993-2005
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American nanny L. Brent Bozell III claims that "NYPD Blue" was the show that inspired him to begin organizing the Parents Television Council, one of the highest-profile media advocacy groups committed to combating what it deems as "indecent" TV programming. But I watched "Blue" consistently for each of its 12 seasons, and I already knew all those words. Many of the words on the series were written by David Milch, one of the most distinctive and formidable writing voices that has ever worked in television, and with this show, Milch proved that he could write jaw-dropping stories and dialogue even while juggling addictions to heroin, Vicodin, and alcohol. (Working for Milch, however, might be something else altogether.) "NYPD Blue" will always be remembered as the Dennis Franz show, though. Franz's character, Andy Sipowicz, tried to steer clear of his haunting demons (some that overlapped Milch's, incidentally) and to sustain his fragile grip on his humanity while surviving "on the job." Here's a sampling of "Sipowicz" at his best-- working it, as always, in the interrogation room, but this time against one of his own. Sorry, no bare buttocks in this particular scene, but I'm sure you can find your own. Don't let the hand-held camera make you woozy.
Bonus "Night Court" clip from YouTube! "Christine Sullivan" and "Dan Fielding" highlights. No dialogue necessary for this one-- it's all sight gags and Huey Lewis.
posted by CM @ 11:58 AM
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