Patti got me the first season of Twin Peaks on DVD for Christmas. Twin Peaks is easily one of the greatest television shows to ever air. It broke the mold of TV sitcoms and spawned a generation of quirky shows that appealed to those of us who have a slightly left-of-center sense of entertainment. That got me thinking about my favorite TV shows of all time. Here is my top three, plus runner ups, as well as what constitutes a TV show and what does not.
<b>What is a television show?</b>
I am not in show business and I am sure there is a technical definition of a sitcom, but in my world it has the following attributes.
1 ? Has to air for at least one season. Not a made for TV movie or one time event like a concert or something. Not a mini series either.
2 ? Has to have paid actors. I love reality TV, both true ?reality? like fly-on-the-wall shows such as Cops as well as chatter-of-pop-culture like Survivor. That?s an interesting distinction. Survivor, the Bachelor, Fear Factor, and all of those that have popped up in the last 4 years are not true ?Reality? TV. They are scripted, have activities, have writers and directors and hope to have a certain outcome. They are great and I love Survivor, but real reality is a camera that tags along and let?s something run a normal course. Cops is a perfect example. I hate to say this, but so is that show with Jennifer Simpson and her husband. And you know what one of the earliest reality TV shows was? ?This Old House?!! A camera, a host, and film of people building things. Great stuff. Anyway, one of the reasons reality TV is such a great idea for investors is that you do not have to pay the actors. There is little risk in producing a reality show. Look at all the stupid crap that failed. While ?Friends? actors were getting paid a million dollars a show, Survivor gave out a million dollars to ONE person after 12 or 14 weeks of shows. Great idea. Earlier this year I got to meet with Larry Namer, the founder of the E! Channel and one of the folks starting a reality channel, and he said that a typical show like Cheers films 8 hours of tape for every one hour that gets aired. Reality TV films 60 hours for every one hour. So there is cost in the editing but that is nothing compared to not having to pay a bunch of actors. SO, to be considered a TV show it has to have paid actors reading scripts.
3 ? No sporting events. I like Monday Night Football, but I don?t think anyone would consider it a TV show.
4 ? No News Magazine shows. I like Dateline and 60 Minutes but that doesn?t count. You need a story line that runs through a few shows.
5 ? I am sure there is a difference between half hour comedies and one hour dramas, but not to me. They both fall under the TV sitcom discussion.
So, with the rules established, here are my top three as well as some runner-ups.
<b>My Top Three</b>
1 ? The top three could all go 1-2-3, but if a gun were put to my head, I would have to say Twin Peaks was my favorite show of all time. It is a toss up with the second one listed, but Twin Peaks was so unbelievably original and quirky it captured my attention every Saturday night. I would either watch it Saturday night or tape it and watch in early the next day. I loved the show. It was only until recently that I found out it was actually a pretty bad failure in the ratings. It was only on for two seasons but has one of the most loyal and passionate fan bases for anything out there. The writing was crisp and interesting, the camera shots and filming was beautiful (it took place in Northwest US), the characters were pleasant to look at and it had just enough bizarre twists to keep me interested. If someone did not watch the show from the pilot episode through the first one or two, it would be like reading the first half of a thriller in Russian, confusing and annoying, unless you speak Russian I guess. My point is the show would have been way too confusing if you did not see if from the beginning. Funny thing about the first episode on DVD. It does not have the pilot episode. That is actually pretty hard to find. Something about one company owning the pilot episode and only releasing it outside the US on DVD and another company owning the TV show. So my first choice would have to be Twin Peaks. Watching the first episode on DVD has brought back every single reason I loved the show. So many GREAT story lines, writing, characters (FBI agent Albert makes me cry I am so happy).
2 ? Little House on the Prairie. Make fun all you want but this was a great show. I had a hard time deciding if Little House or Twin Peaks was my favorite of all time. Maybe I like Little House because it first aired in 1975 when I was 4 and living in Liberia (my father worked for Pan Am) and it was one of the shows we got over there. Maybe I like it because part of me wishes I lived back then when life was hard but the rules were simple and goals in life were pure. Maybe I like it because the show strived to teach lessons, had humor, heart ache (remember when the Ingall?s son died), tragedy, drama, suspense and excitement. It ran for 9 seasons with a few specials. Some of the latter years kind of stunk like when Laura started dating and married Almonzo Wilder or when Mary goes blind, but it always had a strong story line and good sets (story took place in Minnesota but filmed in California). When Emily gets old enough, I am going to get the DVD if they have all seasons and make it a special thing for her and me to watch them together.
3 ? Northern Exposure. I loved this show for a lot of the same reasons I loved Twin Peaks. Great and original writing, great characters and pretty set location. Northern Exposure had the benefit of sticking to happy and encouraging stories lines while Twin Peaks had a dark side to it. Northern Exposure ran for 6 seasons and started around the same time as Twin Peaks, 1990 or so. Throughout the 6 seasons, it never lost the quirky edge or introduction of new characters that dooms other shows. One of the reasons I think I liked this show so much was that the community of Cicely was a lot like most families. At times dysfunctional, argumentative and contentious, but mostly about taking care of each other and providing support. Joel Fleischman embodied what most of us are not ? brash, to the point, overbearingly honest and direct. The show died because they brought in Ducky to be the doctor when the actor playing Fleischman left. That and it was time. Shows like Northern Exposure need to die out before they fade.
So with my top three, there are some runner-ups.
<b>Runner Up</b>
<u>Fantasy Island</u> ? I am talking about the original series with Ricardo Montalban and Tattoo and not the awful remake with Malcolm McDowell. Great show. Smiles everyone, Smiles!! Ha. Great 7 or so seasons of people walking off the plane into a Twilight Zone type hour of fun.
<u>Hill Street Blues</u> ? I love NYPD Blue but Hill Street Blues was the beginning. The same guy created both shows so you would image they would have the same edge. With a crime show, just like a hospital show, it is easy to get interesting story lines. But Hill Street seemed to keep a dark undercurrent to it that appealed to me as an 11 year old boy. Hill Street changed the way cops shows were produced.
<u>St. Elsewhere</u> ? I can hum the opening tune anytime, anywhere. The only thing that I didn?t like was the way it ended. The snow globe thing bugged me. The show was a hospital version of Hill Street Blues so maybe that is why I liked it. Watching the reruns is like hitting the jackpot in ?Hey, look how young that guy was back then? game.
<u>Thirtysomething </u>? Now that I am actually ?thirty something?, I look back on this show and think to myself ?my life is not like that?. In some ways it is, but not as yuppie-ish as their lives. Despite that, it was a great drama. Maybe I liked it because it tackled small issues, large issues and made me feel comfortable about getting older.
<u>Melrose Place/Knots Landing</u> ? I had to group these two together even though they were completely different. Both were nonsense prime time soap operas that had stupid story lines and great looking actors. Even thought these type of shows dumb down America, they are entertaining and require little intellect. Sometimes that is needed.
<u>Mash </u>? This was hard to leave off my top-three list. I loved this show. Great writing, lessons in some of the episodes and pure entertainment in others, great characters, tough theme that usually involves death and horrible outcomes, and a great ending to the series. Funny though, I didn?t really like the movie that spawned the TV show. Plus, the earlier episodes were better with Frank Burns, Trapper and Henry Blake. Nothing against Charles, BJ or Sherman Potter, but I liked the earlier guys better. And having Blake killed was an act of genius.
<u>Roseanne </u>? As a general rule, TV shows that show a slice of life do better because people watch them in the comfort of their own homes, and movies that are action or fantasy tend to do better because people get out of the comfort of their own homes to watch them. Roseanne, or better yet All In The Family, displayed a dysfunctional family that made all of us feel better about our own lives. Let?s face it, every family has its problems, and watching Roseanne made people feel good. The reason I like Roseanne better than All In The Family was because of the timing of it. All In The Family might have appealed to me more if I were a young adult in the 70s, but the themes didn?t make sense as much as the ones on Roseanne.
<u>I Love Lucy</u> ? This is a classic and if I can watch reruns of a black and white comedy show and still like it, they did something right. The show aired in the early 50s and I think has never stopped running (reruns, of course). I love the over-the-top acting by Lucile Ball and the wacky story lines. A show before its time.
<b>The Rest</b>
Based on preference, there were a ton of great shows out there. I can?t talk about Gun Smoke, Bonanza or the Andy Griffith Show because they were before my time and I was never around a TV station that showed the reruns.
And there are a ton of great shows that I loved and where ground breaking in their own way, like The Brady Bunch, Gilligan?s Island, The Honeymooners, Cheers, China Beach, Happy Days, The Simpsons, Barney Miller, Chips, Knight Rider and Mork and Mindy, but I had I had to draw the line somewhere.
The question you might be asking is what about the great comedies like Friends and Seinfeld. The biggest problem I have with them, and when I compare them to Cheers, is the design of the show. Take a look at a classic like All In The Family or Cheers, and it was basically one set and each episode had long scenes and long dialogue and looked and felt like a small play. Then take a look at Seinfeld or Friends. Each scene is short, quick and then jumps to another scene or shot. Both shows have great writing and were funny, but I wouldn?t put them in the same league as some of the older shows. I love Seinfeld as much as the next person, but watch a few episodes of that and a few of All In The Family, Mash or Cheers, and you get a different feeling. Kind of like walking through a house that was built in the 18th century and one that was built a year ago.
Finally, I did not mention some great British shows. I spent the first few years of my life living overseas and traveled a great deal when growing up. My father is especially fond of Great Britain and I remember watching Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and Are You Being Served while growing up. Fawlty Towers had one scene that I remember laughing so hard that my stomach hurt for days. But I kept these shows off my list because they were not main stream TV programs in the US.
I love TV. I watch sports, I watch News Magazine programs, I watch PBS and the History Channel. I also watch Survivor and NYPD Blue and channel surf until my wife is about to kill me. We are almost done with the first season of Twin Peaks and I can?t wait to get the rest of the episodes. Some elitists think that TV is the downfall of our society, but I think it?s the campfire or fireplace of our time. I still talk to my wife, I still play with my kids, I still learn things, I just do it while watching TV sometimes.