This year marked the 60th anniversary of TV Guide Magazine, which debuted in April 1953, and to celebrate has been publishing a variety of “60 Greatest” lists, including the 60 Greatest Cartoons of All Time, the 60 Greatest Game Shows of All Time and the 60 Greatest Talk Show Moments.
Last week, its list of the 60 Best Series of All Time was released. You can find the entire list here. M*A*S*H ranked eighth, with this description:
Laughing in the face of death, Hawkeye, Trapper John, B.J., Hot Lips and the other cutups of the 4077th made war a little less hellish. M*A*S*H wore its Purple Heart on its bloody sleeve, and we cared deeply for these reluctant heroes on the front lines of daring satire.
Here’s the Top Ten:
- The Simpsons
- Breaking Bad
- M*A*S*H
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show
- The Wire
- The Twilight Zone
- All in the Family
- I Love Lucy
- Seinfeld
- The Sopranos
I’ve never seen The Sopranos or The Wire but I would definitely have put M*A*S*H above The Mary Tyler Moore Show. For the record, back in 2002 for its 50th anniversary, TV Guide Magazine published a list of the 50 Best Shows of All Time and M*A*S*H ranked 25th.
(Thanks to Gail for passing this along.)
My top 10 would be very different from TV Guide’s. M*A*S*H would be in my top shows but so would: Northern Exposure, Hogan’s Heroes, Everybody Loves Raymond, and the Andy Griffith Show (in no particular order) as well as several British shows (Good Neighbors, As Time Goes By, Foyle’s War, Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis).
In fact, I have never seen a single episode of: The Sopranos, Seinfeld, The Wire, Breaking Bad or the Simpsons! As to the rest, I hated All in the Family and I Love Lucy, thought Mary Tyler Moore was so-so, and The Twilight Zone is sometimes brilliants, sometimes mediocre and often unwatchable.
Whoa, dude, I’m sorry, but how could you possibly hate Lucy? That was one of the first shows ever, and a very successful one at that.
Now, in spite of its success and it being one of the most important shows in TV history, I’ll go ahead and agree with you in that I too didn’t particularly care for ALL IN THE FAMILY… however, I do love the counterpart show Norman Lear came out with, SANFORD AND SON, that show is hilarious.
I don’t mean to rag on anyone who loves Lucy. I just never found her on the show that funny (although I have many relatives and friends that love both I Love Lucy and The Lucy Show). I am bored by both of them.
Funny you should mention Sanford & Son, I enjoy that one much more than most 70’s sitcoms (All in the Family, Maude, The Jeffersons, Rhoda, Chico and the Man, etc). Sanford & Son was actually a copy/adaption of Steptoe & Son — a British sitcom that ran on radio and TV in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
ALL IN THE FAMILY was also supposedly adapted from a British sitcom, I just can’t remember what that sitcom was.
I haven’t ever seen any of Lucy’s show many shows, I’m just familiar with I LOVE LUCY, but I guess I can see how you can become bored with it, I can’t imagine it would be easy to carry a show for six years with only four regular actors.
Seems like earlier in the year, TV Guide’s list of the top however many shows was different, I seem to recall M*A*S*H making like number five on the list, I don’t even recall THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE WIRE (never heard of it), or BREAKING BAD even being in the top ten.
I’ve been binge watching Breaking Bad for the past few weeks. It’s nothing like watching M*A*S*H, but I truly like it and am glad I gave it a chance.
Not sure how The Wire and The Mary Tyler Moore Show are ahead of M*A*S*H on a Best Series list. I Love Lucy and All in the Family never really floated my boat and I only have a few Sopranos episodes under my belt.