Writers Guild of America Lists the 101 Best Written TV Shows of All Time

[gotbeer]

Writers Guild of America Lists the 101 Best Written TV Shows of All Time

 

1. The Sopranos

2. Seinfeld

3. The Twilight Zone

4. All in the Family

5. M*A*S*H

6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show

7. Mad Men

8. Cheers

9. The Wire

10. The West Wing

11. The Simpsons

12. I Love Lucy

13. Breaking Bad

14. The Dick Van Dyke Show

15. Hill Street Blues

16. Arrested Development

17. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

18. Six Feet Under

19. Taxi

20. The Larry Sanders Show

21. 30 Rock

22. Friday Night Lights

23. Frasier

24. Friends

25. Saturday Night Live

26. The X-Files

27. Lost

28. ER

29. The Cosby Show

30. Curb Your Enthusiasm

31. The Honeymooners

32. Deadwood

33. Star Trek

34. Modern Family

35. Twin Peaks

36. NYPD Blue

37. The Carol Burnett Show

38. Battlestar Galactica (2005)

39. Sex & The City

40. Game of Thrones

41. The Bob Newhart Show and Your Show of Shows (tie)

43. Downton Abbey, Law & Order and Thirtysomething (tie)

46. Homicide: Life on the Street and St. Elsewhere (tie)

48. Homeland

49. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

50. The Colbert Report, The Good Wife and the UK Office (tie)

53. Northern Exposure

54. The Wonder Years

55. L.A. Law

56. Sesame Street

57. Columbo

58. Fawlty Towers and The Rockford Files (tie)

60. Freaks and Geeks and Moonlighting (tie)

62. Roots

63. Everybody Loves Raymond and South Park (tie)

65. Playhouse 90

66. Dexter and the US Office (tie)

68. My So-Called Life

69. Golden Girls

70. The Andy Griffith Show

71. 24, Roseanne and The Shield 

74. House and Murphy Brown (tie)

76. Barney Miller and I, Claudius (tie)

78. The Odd Couple

79. Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Star Trek: The Next Generation and Upstairs, Downstairs (tie)

83. Get Smart

84. The Defenders and Gunsmoke (tie)

86. Justified, Sgt. Bilko/The Phil Silvers Show (tie)

88. Band of Brothers

89. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In

90. The Prisoner

91. Absolutely Fabulous and The Muppet Show (tie)

93. Boardwalk Empire

94. Will & Grace

95. Family Ties

96. Lonesome Dove and Soap

98. The Fugitive, Late Night with David Letterman and Louie

101. Oz

 

[gotbeer]

IMO, Twilight Zone should be on top.  

[St1ck]

Glad to see Seinfeld, The Wire, and The Simpsons high on the list. 

[Ray McKigney]

Mad Men is at #7? That's a little high.

[St1ck]

One show I can see missing from the list though is Quantum Leap. 

[nate]

Mad Men ahead of The West Wing is hilarious.  WW should be at the top.

 

Boardwalk Empire at 93?  I loved 30 Rock but they had some truly dreadful episodes.  Hard to include any sitcom in the top 50 IMO.  Too much hit or miss content.

[gotbeer]

Also Star Trek is way too high at 33.  It has a lot of nostalgia and stuff, but writing?  Horrible.  And come to think of it, part of the nostalgia and lore was because it was so horribly written and acted.  

[Chimi]

No Married With Children?

[Lhalo]

No Married With Children?

I was just about to post this. WTF?

[Ray McKigney]

No Married With Children?

 

No Married With Children, but Will & Grace made it. That's legit.

[LBHalos17]

I was looking for "Three's Company"... This list is rigged.

[gotbeer]

While I haven't seen it since I was a kid, so it might have been a horrible show, just I didn't know better.  (Probably still don't know better)  But Little House on the Prairie?

[katie]

Switch Friends and Seinfeld

[Kenny]

I hate lists. They always leave something off, or put something lame in a high position.

[Ray McKigney]

Switch Friends and Seinfeld

 

Hahahahahaha!

[Schildog]

the simpsons should be divided into seasons 1-9 and 10-whatever it is now.

 

my word that show used to be great.

[Chimi]

Pretty sure an argument can be made for Always Sunny in Philadelphia over a lot of these shows.

[InsideThePark]

Pretty sure an argument can be made for Always Sunny in Philadelphia over a lot of these shows.

One of the most overrated shows... surprised to not see it on the list.

[Ray McKigney]

Why is Everybody Loves Raymond on this list? That show was horrible. It should be replaced with Mad About You.

[InsideThePark]

Friday Night Lights was a good show but 22 seems a little high.

[TobiasFunke]

Freaks and Geeks being on there says a lot about the show.

[2002_halos_II]

Where are Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days?

[InsideThePark]

Freaks and Geeks being on there says a lot about the show.

Great cast along with good writing, a truly epic season. That show was going places.

[Lhalo]

Pretty sure an argument can be made for Always Sunny in Philadelphia over a lot of these shows.

DeVito made the list with Taxi so he's happy.

[TobiasFunke]

Great cast along with good writing, a truly epic season. That show was going places.

For sure