Meers007

Quantum Leap
A show from the late 80s that spilled into the late 90s, Quantum Leap was a brilliant sci-fi show. Some episodes weren't as good as others, but it still had its moments.

Knight Rider
It may be coming back in the fall, but the original Knight Rider with the Hoff was great. It had Mr. Feeny as the voice of the car, and it was just a good show, even if it was for the car.

The A-Team
A throwback to the 1970s with an all-star lineup of Mr. T, Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, and Dwight Schultz, they turned a toaster into a tank and stuck up for the little guy. And in that link, when Dirk points at the Cylon, it's because he was in the original Battlestar Galactica.

Star Trek: TNG, DS9, ENT
The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Enterprise were all good shows in their own rights.

NCIS
A show by Bellisario, it is CSI with dyslexia and an N. But it is CSI, except in the military.

NUMB3RS
A show by Bellisario, they use math to solve crimes. Which is pretty interesting.

Psych
A fairly new show on USA here in the States, yet another cop drama. Not as good as the others, but still good.

Mythbusters
They blow stuff up in a comical manner. 'nuff said. And for that matter, anything on Discovery is good.

Robot Chicken
Fifteen minutes of grown men playing with action figures. The best was the Star Wars one, and you can find it on the AS website even though they make you pay for it on DVD.

Magnum, PI
A show by Bellisario (see a pattern?), this is a great show with Tom Selleck in a Ferrari 308 GTO. Great cop show.

The Simpsons, Futurama, and Family Guy are always at the top though just for sheer shits and giggles.

__________________

Beatnik

Interesting topic.

My preference for TV skews heavily toward the black or absurd comedy and more subversive dramas, so if those things don't turn your crank, look elsewhere because most of these aren't for you. Here are my favorites. In no particular order except the first few.

icky what new series you watching? i'm guessing generation kill.

The Wire - the best show on TV ever. you're an idiot if you disagree.
Deadwood - for all the god damn motherfucking cocksucking fans of tough guys talking in iambic pentameter, set in the lawless American West.
Arrested Development - the most comedy per minute ever squeezed into a show
The Office (UK version > American Version) - it amazes me that there are a ton of Americans that love the American version but have never seen Ricky Gervais as David Brent. the biggest difference is that the UK version has infinite replay value, but with the American version i'm done after one or maybe two viewings
The Larry Sanders Show - groundbreaking HBO faux docu-comedy about an egomaniacal late night talk show host as played by Gary Shandling. probably the darkest and funniest tv show ever made by the early 90's. seasons 3-5 are the best. arrested development's jeffrey tambor (george sr.) is even funnier in this show. and it's got jeremy piven, sarah silverman, janeane garofalo, rip torn, jon stewart and about a thousand cameos from stars of the early 90's
Extras - of course
Band of Brothers - self explanatory
The Comedians of Comedy - a comedy central mini-series/road movie following four insanely funny "indie" comedians around on a tour. like dane cook's 'Tourgasm' but funny and without making you wish the entire cast dead. patton oswalt may be the best standup comedian in america today. and zach galifianakis is the best comedian in the 8th dimension.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - the wrongest show ever made
Mad Men - just started watching it, I'm almost through Season 1 and it's fucking GOOD. something tells me quite a few old schoolers here would love this show.
30 Rock - never take a hippie to a second location
Firefly - great western sci-fi with random chinese curse words thrown in
Moonlighting - Bruce Willis on the TV playing a detective and singing Wooly Bully
Northern Exposure - extremely innovative back then and a lot of shows today follow their subjective narrative style
Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! - just watch it on Adult Swim and thank me later. it's the most creative and subsersive and revolting sketch comedy since Mr. Show, and i'd say better than Mr. Show at times.
Generation Kill - from the writers/creators of The Wire, about the 2003 Iraq invasion, told from the perspective of a Marine Recon company/batallion on the business end of the American advance. verisimilitude up the wazoo. i've watched every episode now and i realize that i don't understand half of what's going on, but after a second or third viewing i will.
Dinner for Five - Jon Favreau's show on IFC where he sat with 4 other hollywood types over a nice dinner and talked shit about hollywood. the episode with Deadwood's David Milch and Tim Olyphant, and Michael Rappaport and Jay Mohr is the best episode, but they're all good.
Spaced - a UK comedy from 2000/1 about London slackers, with the dude from Hot Fuzz/Shaun of the Dead. it's got some brilliant moments.
Mr. Show - old HBO sketch comedy with Arrested Development's David Cross, and Bob Odenkirk. It's dated now but still incredibly funny
The State - old MTV sketch comedy which preceded Reno 911 among many other things. Absurd and random and heavily influenced by Monty Python, and pudding.
The Dana Carvey Show - available on Hulu now. Dana Carvey himself sucks in it - the monologues are particularly awful and pandering. but it's got Louis CK, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carrell and Robert Smigel as writers/actors.
TV Funhouse - for the legions of fans of animal puppet humor, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Robert Smigel. This is coming out on DVD very soon.
Lucky Louie - Louis CK's "sitcom" on HBO. Easily the most offensive humor ever done in a sit-com filmed in front of a live audience. It's a little thin at places but otherwise jet black humor and brutal honesty dominates, just like in his stand-up.

__________________

Concr3te

Bah! I was going to say NCIS! It's my favourite series. Others I really like:

It's always sunny in Philadelphia (damn, Beatnik Beat me to it)

Two pints of lager

icky

I'm that transparent, am I? Yes, I started watching Gen Kill last night.

And I'm going to start watching the latest season of Weeds too.
You had me at "wrongest". I'm definitely going to check this one out.

Beatnik

hahaha Np that's just the only mini-series out now that I know of worth watching.

Oh yeah looking back at yr OP Oz was very good, if not very very disturbing. And I've been meaning to grab a season or 2 of The Shield too.

Interesting Generation Kill observation - look at the driver of the humvee that the reporter is riding around in. Look familiar? I didn't place him until after the 4th episode.

__________________

Hidus

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/




p.s. I liked The Wire too but this link made me laugh pretty hard

Bommando

Much like YouTube, even better than the article itself are the comments. How do that many serious people manage to track down a satire blog and get all serious about it?

The Internet: Still really serious business.

__________________

bleckuhffinity

30 Rock is pretty great especially considering how much I hated that whole crew when they were on SNL.

Live every week like it's shark week.

__________________
-F- bleak

icky

I totally picked up on him right away from The Wire 2nd season. One of the guys is also a creepy serial killer from The Shield. And of course, the reporter is from Oz.

Beatnik

hahaha yep. I keep waiting for him to crack an egg into a beer, pound it, then stand on top of the bar and whip out his dingaling.

I love that 'Stuff White People Like" blog. That The Wire article thing is great, especially the part about people waiting for the entire series to hit Netflix before watching all the episodes back to back, which is exactly what I (and most of my friends) do, except without the hassle of Netflix.

__________________