Top ten TV shows

A couple of weeks ago I listed my top ten movies. This week, I'll go through my favorite TV shows. I'm finding I trend toward comedy and science fiction, go figure. Anyway, here they are (in reverse order):

#10 The Greatest American Hero. Super hero comedy, gotta love it. I mainly enjoyed Robert Culp's character and the humor of not having the instructions for how to use the super suit.

#9 Babylon 5. The continuing saga kept this series interesting. Events would actually change character's lives instead of having a reboot at the beginning of each episode.

#8 Star Trek Deep Space 9. I know this wasn't the most popular Star Trek series, but it is my favorite because of the saga element similar to Babylon 5. The first couple of seasons tended to meander like typical Star Trek, but the last few seasons (with the Dominion War) were very exciting. Plus, it had my favorite Star Trek character of all time: Vic Fontaine.

#7 Eureka. Sci-fi comedy. The only series on my list that is currently running. The plot a lot of times is a little predictable (or it would have been higher on my list), but Sheriff Carter is a great character surrounded by some very intriguing personalities. I describe it as Mayberry meets X-Files.

#6 Get Smart. Spies and comedy. Granted, the show could be pretty dumb at times, but it was all tongue-in-cheek. Sometimes I like a show that is just so dumb it's funny. Don Adams was my idol when I was a kid.

#5 Star Gate SG1. Sci-fi comedy. It took a few seasons to find its stride. It technically isn't a comedy, but Richard Dean Anderson kept a lightness to it that was fun. Ben Browder tried to continue that and did okay.

#4 Star Gate Atlantis. In a lot of ways very similar to SG1. I liked it a little better, though, because of the banter between Rodney McKay and Col. Sheppard.

#3 MASH. Dramedy. You were never sure if an episode would make you laugh or cry or both.

#2 Home Improvement. Flat-out funny comedy. I never get tired of watching the reruns. They make me laugh even when I know the punchline ahead of time.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. The greatest television show of all time: The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. This was a bizarre mix of genres, which I loved. It was a western/sci-fi/comedy starring Bruce Campbell. It started life along side the first season of X-Files, but only made it one season. But it was a fun romp through the wild west that never took itself too seriously. I like that in a show.

As far as the ones that didn't quite make the top ten: Star Trek, Star Trek The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica (the REAL series from the 70s, not that Sci-fi channel fake), Bewitched, The Cosby Show, Hogan's Heroes, Beverly Hillbillies, Magnum PI, Farscape, The Red Green Show, and The Muppet Show. Sadly, other than Eureka, there's really not much on TV these days that really fascinates me. I guess I'll need to blog about that in the future some time.

By the way, I saw Avatar again. It still holds the #2 spot on my movie list.