jaye tyler cover band (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} stepliana) wrote in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} ohnotheydidnt,@ 2008-06-24 09:34:00 |
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EW Counts Down The New TV Classics: 100 - 76
EW, not content with the New Movie Classics (tyfuturism for all the posts) has decided that they need to let us know the New TV Classics as well.
The Hills over Deadwood and Mad Men? Oh, EW, you so crazy.
source
EW, not content with the New Movie Classics (ty
futurism for all the posts) has decided that they need to let us know the New TV Classics as well. |
| 100. SAVED BY THE BELL NBC (1989-93) Who were those kids who laughed so hard at Screech for wearing jacked-up pants and talking in that dippy voice? Oh, right: They were you. Mock it all you want, but you're still talking about it — as evidenced by that Screech crack you made just yesterday. |
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| 99. THE BACHELOR ABC (2002-present) The pioneer of the let's-make-two-strangers-get-married reality shows has roots in classic courtship (nicely dressed man gives nicely dressed woman a rose!), but the fairy tale always morphs into a scary tale of cattiness, regret, and sad-sack desperation (''My eggs are rotting''). Yet for all of its shame-filled shenanigans, The Bachelor stands as the most, dare we say, romantic of the genre. |
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| 98. MACGYVER ABC (1985-92) Did you know that Richard Dean Anderson can make an awesome action-adventure drama out of a tight jam, a paper clip, a Swiss Army knife, and some duct tape? Yes, you did. |
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| 97. PARTY OF FIVE Fox (1994-2000) This anti-90210 teen drama about a family of orphaned teens classed up the genre with thoughtful coming-of-age storytelling that embraced issues like alcoholism, cancer, and teen pregnancy. PO5 easily could've been a downer, but the series radiated we're-all-in-this-together hope. The fetching cast (Matthew Fox, Scott Wolf, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt) didn't hurt, either. |
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| 96. THE ARSENIO HALL SHOW Syndicated (1989-94) Though Arsenio may be remembered for his leaning-in, furrowed-brow sycophancy, this'll make you go hmmm: He gave the MTV generation a late-night destination of their own, and those barking dawgs drove the national conversation. Clinton's saxy appearance, Magic Johnson's frank discussion about AIDS...for a good while there, the flat-topped host was the center of the pop culture universe. |
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| 95. DESIGNING WOMEN CBS (1986-93) With cracklingly saucy dialogue and winning chemistry, the Sugarbaker Design team were an empowering mix of modern Southern women (played by Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, Delta Burke, and Jean Smart), from a staunch feminist to a racist belle. Of course, its female-power vibe was slightly undermined when CBS edged out Burke for gaining weight, but still.... |
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| 94. MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN Fox (1987-97) How did Al and Peg Bundy launch the Fox network? By spitting in the eyes of the Huxtables, with griping-sniping spousal shtick. The family comedy hasn't been the same since. |
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| 93. QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY Bravo (2003-07) By bringing five openly gay men into the homes of TV audiences, this groundbreaking reality series taught important lessons of tolerance, along with what pants you can wear with brown shoes. |
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| 92. THE BEN STILLER SHOW Fox (1992-93) Ben Stiller. Andy Dick. Janeane Garofalo. Judd Apatow. Bob Odenkirk. David Cross. Superclever sketches and satire. Charles Manson as recurring character. Crappy ratings. Cancellation. Emmy. |
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| 91. MAD MEN AMC (2007-present) It is, in a word, meticulous. Every line, every look, every strip of fabric in Matthew Weiner's paean to the glory days of advertising is as sumptuous as it is particular. But the gloss doesn't hide the smoke stains, the hidden pregnancy...all the tawdriness 1950s America so keenly tried to cover up. Mad Men is at once high art, socio-historical exegesis, and one hell of a seedy soap. |
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| 90. DAWSON'S CREEK The WB (1998-2003) Overflowing with earnestness, angst, and J.Crew separates, Creek reimagined the teen show as a place for serious introspection, vocabulary lessons, and pleasuring-yourself-to-Katie Couric references. And Creek also washed away the notion that kids who start out playing high schoolers can't graduate to much greater fame: Thanks, Michelle Williams and Mrs. Tom Cruise. |
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| 89. SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Nickelodeon (1999-present) Kids and stoners unite to make this trippy cartoon about the underwater life of an irrepressibly upbeat fry-cook sponge a perennial ratings (and merchandising) powerhouse. Draw your own conclusions as to why rockers from Wilco and The Shins to Pantera and Motorhead have cameoed on the show and its soundtracks. |
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| 88. MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE Fox (2000-06) In this tart take on The Wonder Years, a kid genius struggles to survive teendom, school, and his working-class clan — and remakes the family sitcom in the process. Every comedy that was described as ''charmingly quirky'' in the years after it premiered (not to mention the ones that shrunk from four cameras to one, and booted their studio audiences) probably owed some inspiration to Malcolm. |
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| 87. DEADWOOD HBO (2004-06) It blew away traditional TV westerns' freshly-scrubbed vision of the frontier life to illustrate how the west was really won — via curse-happy whores, emotionally reticent lawmen, and a town full of backstabbers and rule breakers. Creator David Milch gave his colorful cast of characters (led by standout Emmy nominee Ian McShane as pimp daddy Al Swearengen) some of the most poetically foul language since Eminem — and now we'll never look at Rawhide the same again. |
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| 86. PRIME SUSPECT ITV (1991-2006) Drooling over British television often begins here, with Helen Mirren's stunning turn as brilliant-but-troubled cop Jane Tennison. In seven seasons of the limited-run series, Tennison battled the boys in the squad room and her demons at home, spiraling through alcoholism, promiscuity, and a slew of bad choices, while Mirren took other actresseses to school with her tour-de-force performances (nabbing six BAFTAs and six Emmy nods). |
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| 85. THE KIDS IN THE HALL HBO (1988-94) Because it didn't rely on lame celebrity impressions. Because its recurring characters, no matter how absurd (the Chicken Lady, Buddy Cole, Kathie and Cathy), always seemed thought out beyond a catchphrase and a funny wig. And because it was uproarious. That's why the cool kids thought it kicked Saturday Night Live's ass. |
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| 84. NORTHERN EXPOSURE CBS (1990-95) We were supposed to identify with Rob Morrow's fish-out-of-water New York doctor, a realist trapped in a town full of Alaskan loonies; instead, we found ourselves wishing our hometowns were just a little more like Cicely. John Corbett's eternally gorgeous Chris in the Morning didn't hurt. |
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| 83. ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Comedy Central (1994-2005) Navel gazing is so very...American. The English path to funny is through a blithering lack of self-awareness, a la Patsy (Joanna Lumley) and Edina (Jennifer Saunders), the boozing buddies of AbFab. Tart, tarty, and aging gracelessly, Pats and Eddy set the awkward mood for The Office's more subtlely painful Brit nitwits David Brent and Gareth. |
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| 82. THE HILLS MTV (2006-present) When is a reality show not reality? When it's MTV's spin-off of Laguna Beach, which created a new genre of television by mixing soap opera and documentary. The result is undeniably addictive without being remotely believable. |
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| 81. MURPHY BROWN CBS (1988-98) The unflappable FYI host earned her spot in TV — and feminist — history when then-VP Dan Quayle called her out for having a kid without a husband. Emmys and Candice Bergen and just-plain-funniness aside, you can't ignore a sitcom that can make that high-ranking a politician look like a dope |
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| 80. KING OF THE HILL Fox (1997-present) It's almost impossible to keep a satire from sneering, but KOTH manages to gently jab Hank Hill and his Arlen, Texas, neighbors, while grounding the animated series so firmly in reality, it might be the only 'toon that could work as a live-action sitcom. |
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| 79. THE COMEBACK HBO (2005) Lisa Kudrow's painfully pathetic rendering of a sitcom has-been's brush with a second chance felt like a brilliant preemptive strike to those snarks gleefully anticipating post-Friends failures. As the indefatigably deluded Valerie Cherish, Kudrow's brilliant combination of desperation and arrogance kept her from being a caricature. |
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| 78. I'LL FLY AWAY NBC (1991-93) Critics still get gooey over this period piece set in the 1960s South that paired Sam Waterston as a morally righteous DA with Regina Taylor as a dignified pillar of womanhood — roles that were helpful, given that Waterston went on to play Law & Order's morally righteous DA, while Taylor serves as The Unit's dignified pillar of womanhood. |
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| 77. THE GOLDEN GIRLS NBC (1985-92) If anyone out there can quantify the enduring appeal of little old ladies discussing their sex lives over cheesecake, congratulations! You're a genius equal to the creators of one of TV's most unexpected success stories. |
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| 76. IN LIVING COLOR Fox (1990-94) The provocative, outrageous sketch comedy series boasted a primarily African-American cast, which seems even more revolutionary in today's whitewashed TV landscape. And extra points for serving as the launching pad for such stars as Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Lopez, and about 437 Wayans. |
The Hills over Deadwood and Mad Men? Oh, EW, you so crazy.
source
