The other day, Music Wench did a meme of her 6 Fave Shows of All Time. Hundreds of shows came to my mind and I figured I'd never be able to narrow it down to just 6. So I decided to apply a much stricter criteria, and after I did that, I found it extremely difficult to come up with 6! I have loved shows like The Brady Bunch, X-Files, Simpsons, King of Queens, Partridge Family, and LOCI, but my interest has always dropped off after the first 3-4 seasons, which also coincides to when I have deemed that a TV show has "Jumped the Shark". That may not necessarily be when others, or the TV industry, thinks that a show has jumped the shark.
The criteria I decided to use is to list my fave shows, of which I have loved from Season 1, Episode 1, to the last episode (or current episode if the show I like is still airing). I couldn't in all honesty include LOCI based upon this criteria, b/c I pretty much stopped watching halfway through Season 7, and only watched the Bobby episodes at that. For me, LOCI's jump the shark moment was the episode, "Frame".
In no particular order, my 6 faves are:
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., which aired for only one, short season from 1993-1994, and I'm STILL not over the fact that it was canceled. Brisco was absolutely brilliant, and so far ahead of its time. The casting was perfect, the writing extremely clever...but FOX, being FOX, decided to renew the tit & jiggle "Models, Inc." over "Brisco". You can still hear the Brisco County theme song sometimes, if you watch NBC sports, like during the Olympics. It's wicked good. I miss it. It had at least 2 or 3 more seasons left in it. I fell in love with John Pyper-Ferguson's character, Pete Hutter, and I've followed his career since then. He is, by far, my longest celebrity crush and he graciously accepted my Facebook friend request.
Friends. I love this show and we watch it obsessively. Every. Single. Night. Weekends too. We've seen the episodes so many times we can do all the dialogue. If it's listed, we'll watch it. In all those years and IMHO, it never jumped the shark. We own the series on DVD but since Friends has been shown on at least one station since it went off the air, we haven't hardly watched any of the DVDs!
Made In Canada, a/k/a The Industry in the USA. I stumbled on this show a year or so after we moved up here, because Comcast Cable TV carries the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC). I was seeing Rick Mercer on other shows, and I'd developed quite a crush on Peter Keleghan on The Red Green Show, and both Rick & Peter were on this show. It's a very humourous, and brutally accurate, take on the TV & film industry. I have only been able to get Season 1 on DVD, which was only 7 episodes. Whoever owns the rights to the rest of the seasons isn't selling right now, and my email inquiries to Alliance Atlantic/Salter Street Films, the CBC and even Rick Mercer's production company have gone unanswered. Fortunately I have most, if not all, of them on videotape. Here's another one that ended, in my opinion, way too early, but Rick wanted to go out on top and they did. In the early 2000's, it aired on some PBS stations, and also on Bravo, under the name "The Industry". It ended in 2003.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Music Wench and I diverge with our opinions on this show. Where she finds Benson & Stabler annoying, I adore them. We didn't even discover this show till 2005 when it finally went into reruns on USA. This is another one that I will watch if it's on. Like right now as I'm doing this blog post.
Lost In Space. LIS was dangerously close to jumping the shark when it went off the air. It did not, however, resolve the Space Family Robinson's predicament and for that I am disappointed. I love all 3 seasons, but even I admit that the storylines at the end were ridiculous and bombastic (don't get me started on "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" episode near the end of Season 3). Dr. Smith went from being a sly, greedy villain in Season 1 to a completely useless coward. Still, Don West was always hot. Some time in the 70's or early 80's, Bill Mumy approached Irwin Allen to obtain his blessing on a script he wrote, which would have wrapped up the series. Apparently all of the original actors were on board, but Irwin Allen didn't want to pursue it, so Bill gave up. Now Guy Williams and Jonathan Harris have passed away so it's too late now. The 1997 movie sucked out loud. I hear that Robot is at the Sci Fi museum in Seattle, so I simply must go up there and see him!
The Monkees. The swinging 60's SoCal beach scene, 4 likable & adorable young men and some wicked catchy music. What's not to love? The only reason I haven't bought them on DVD is that I heard the quality of the DVDs sold by Rhino isn't very good at all. I wish this was still on in reruns, but I haven't seen it listed anywhere in many, many years.
I was heavily into The Monkees at the time (went to see them, screamed outside their hotel) but I don't think I could watch them now. Some shows I could, like Hill Street Blues. Even NYPD Blue once Caruso had left.
ReplyDeleteStar Trek's humour has stood the test of time, though of course the acting now seems hammy. I love Dexter, but it's not a show I rewatch in repeats. It annoys me that they've moved so far from the books, which are now being compromised to fit in with the TV show. Cody and Astor started off as trainee serial killers that Dexter was going to train as his father had him.
Boston Legal is wonderful, and I am very glad I got the 5-season full box set.
But the only show I can watch over and over and over and never get bored is LOCI, G/E episodes.
I wonder why?
I admit that the Monkees was a very silly show, but it's one that I can still watch. But for Brian, not so much. Esp. Season 3. The music was better and I liked their new hippie look.
ReplyDeleteI want to like Star Trek so much, but I was more attracted to LIS b/c I could relate to the children. ST didn't hold my interest b/c it wasn't funny and there were no children. I've never seen Boston Legal and we regret never giving it a chance. I do love Bill Shatner though; he's a brilliant actor. He's doing an intense interview show called "Aftermath" which is absolutely riveting. He asks the questions that we all want to ask ourselves.
Ha!! I remember The Monkeys!! I always thought they were so dumb, but adorable. I could not decide who I thought was cutest! I never missed an episode, but I was so little that I hardly remember anything that happens, just a lot of bad decisions, slapstick antics and fun music. The music was my fave!
ReplyDeleteI never heard of this Brisco show, but now I will have to look it up on Netflix and see if I can find it. I am intrigued!
I actually asked Santa for a 'Best of the Monkees' CD last Christmas, which he kindly provided. I lent one of my friends one of their albums I had in about 1968. It never came back, and there was a track on there called 'Sometime in the morning' that I love(d). Sadly, it isn't on the 'best of' :0(
ReplyDeleteHill Street Blues used to be fabulous, ditto for NPYD Blue, until they employed Jimmy Smits to take his clothes off every 10 minutes (blurgh!!), 'Homicide Life on the Streets' and from my childhood, I used to LOVE stuff like 'Champion the wonder horse' and a dubbed french thing called 'Robinson Crusoe'.
Loved the Monkees. I was totally in love with Mike,never mind Davey Jones. I was also completely addicted to The Dukes of Hazzard.LOL
ReplyDeleteJohn Schneider another crush.
Little House on the Prairie was also a favorite.
Ooh, what about Circus Boy - Monkee Mickey Dolenz as a little boy on an elephant, known then as Mickey Braddock!
ReplyDeleteJoJo, go and beg, steal or borrow Boston Legal. There are times when it is so outrageous that your jaw will drop to your chest. It is so funny you will have tears streaming down your face. You will be overwhelmed with disbelief. Every single episode for the full five years was in "Today's Choice" in my listings magazine.
Oh I loved the Monkees!!! I remember my cousin and I were so in love with them. lol
ReplyDeleteAlso loved Friends and The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. Bruce Campbell has always been a favorite. Also really loved him Xena: Warrior Princess.
I vaguely remember Lost in Space but I remember watching it all the time.
Never heard of Made in Canada and I just never got into SVU as you mentioned. Love Mariska and Chris but not the characters. Oh well, it would be boring if we all liked the same thing. ;-)
It's hard to choose just six. Very good move to choose shows you liked from beginning to end (still after all these years for SVU). If I did that LOCI wouldn't have made my list either. Probably neither would Homicide. lol Oh well, now I have to go look for Brisco County Jr. to watch.
I have every single Monkees LP, individual and group, and singles on vinyl plus all the bubblegum cards and a slew of other stuff. Mike is married to his 3rd wife...his first wife passed away from ALS. While he was married to her she got pregnant and he slept with a guest of their show...both were pregnant at the same time and their babies born within a month of each other. He lives in California and has his own company, Pacific Arts. David lives here in PA and just got married to his 3rd wife and half his age. Supposedly, she beat him up but he denies it. Micky has also been married a few times. He came to Pittsburgh while he was on "Circus Boy" and loved how the Pittsburghers received him. Peter has been married multiple times and had the bad news of being diagnosed with cancer of his tongue. After some treatment, he was doing well but the cancer has returned.
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