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

[InsideThePark]

I've never watched it.  But I hear people rave over Doctor Who.

It gets really good after season 4

[stevestevens]

I've only seen season 1 but its maintained a very high user rating so I assumed that it would stay good. Guess I'll have to see about that.

 

Season 1 was solid.  Then it goes straight soap opera. 

[stevestevens]

It gets really good after season 4

 

I started to watch season one and it was terrible.  A friend told me to jump to season 4 and I liked it quite a bit.

[Tank]

A few of you here may be old enough to remember Soap. It's worth mentioning.

[Blarg]

Cancelled before it completed one season, Sadly my fellow members of the WGA neglected to even recognize Duckman, It is no wonder why I have refused to pay dues for the last 9 years.

 

Where the hell is Sports Night?

[InsideThePark]

I started to watch season one and it was terrible. A friend told me to jump to season 4 and I liked it quite a bit.

Yeah, season 1 is unwatchable for the most part. Season five is when Steven Moffat took over as executive producer. As you're probably aware of, he's the lead writer and executive producer for Sherlock. But anyways, if I were you, I'd go back and watch every episode written by Steven Moffat in the earlier seasons. Every episode he writes ranges from good to epic.

[nate]

Cancelled before it completed one season, Sadly my fellow members of the WGA neglected to even recognize Duckman, It is no wonder why I have refused to pay dues for the last 9 years.

 

It completed two 20+ episode seasons actually.  Definitely one of the best written shows.

[nate]

Dowtown Abbey?  My wife watches that.  I could watch season 1 with her, season 2 turned chick, season 3 was an unwatchable soap opera.  Season one was interesting when they explained how a house was ran and the different classes worked.  Once that was established, it was all chick flick soap opera crap.

 

Sherlock, needs to be on the list.  IMO, there has been nothing better on TV in the past 5 years.  That show is just completely awesome.  Can't wait for season 3!!

 

Downton Abbey sounds like Mad Men.

[Ray McKigney]

A few of you here may be old enough to remember Soap. It's worth mentioning.

 

That was when I was really young but I remember watching it. I always liked how they ended the show with the questions about what was going to happen the next week. Billy Crystal was in that, if I remember correctly.

[Taylor]

I would have put The Wire at #1 and not included Lost at all.

[InsideThePark]

The last couple seasons of Lost weren't great but it was so good early on that I don't have any issues with it being on the list.

[Tank]

That was when I was really young but I remember watching it. I always liked how they ended the show with the questions about what was going to happen the next week. Billy Crystal was in that, if I remember correctly.

Youre correct. Crystal played an openly gay guy, too.

[Lhalo]

Married with children got very stale the last several seasons. I'm guessing that had to have been a big factor.

Yet "The Simpsons" is listed at #11. I'm not taking anything away from that show but let's be real, Married with Children put Fox on the map.

[InsideThePark]

Yeah, I can't really argue with The Simpsons comparison. Married with children was pretty awesome after a mediocre start and a weak finish. It's fair to say they had enough good seasons to earn them a spot.

[Brandon]

Not surprising, but for the male social context of television, I thought Entourage would.have made the list looking at everything comprehensively.

[InsideThePark]

Entourage definitely belongs. It's another one of those shows that tailed off towards the end a bit... but the first 5 seasons were as good as any comedy.

[Redondo]

NYPD Blue is too low. Much better that Hill Street Blues which is ranked higher.

[wopphil]

Cosby Show and Golden Girls should both be higher.

[Glen]

A few of you here may be old enough to remember Soap. It's worth mentioning.

 

 

That was one of the first "adult" shows I remember watching with my parents.  Watched the first two seasons again with my dad a few months ago.  It's good but like many shows, it ran out of creative gas after the first few years.

[nate]

NYPD Blue is too low. Much better that Hill Street Blues which is ranked higher.

 

Blasphemy!

[Taylor]

The last couple seasons of Lost weren't great but it was so good early on that I don't have any issues with it being on the list.

 

First season was one of the best seasons of any show ever. After that, there were some brilliant episodes. But the entire convoluted mess that the show became proved the writers had no idea what they were doing.

[GuliblGuy]

Where on earth is Alf or Whitney??

[Brandon]

Yeah, the first two seasons of Lost were epic. Then they went all over the map and I think I did half of season 3 before throwing in the towel and having friends explain how it ends.