GCRN – Top 100 TV Shows Countdown – Part 4 – 25-01

Touch! Touch! You got the touch! Stan Bush here,

and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

You're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Welcome to Geek Cast Radio as we continue our

countdown of the top TV series of all time. Today,

we are getting down to the final countdown as

we look at numbers 25 to the very special number

1. Of course, we have assembled the all -star

team of Geek Cast Radio, starting with one of

the co -creators of Geek Cast Radio, TFG1 Mike,

the man that's more podcasts than men. How's

it going? Yeah, pretty much. At this point, I

think it's, as of last year, it was over 1 ,200.

As of this year, it's probably close to 2 ,000

or 2 ,500 podcasts in the last seven years. It's

going, it's going. This countdown of ours has

probably been the most interesting one out of

the three that we've done. It's probably gotten

the most, well, I know it has broken a lot of

our website records with comments and stuff,

but... Top 25. It's going to be interesting to

see what makes up our top 25. Of course, of course.

And also joining us is his tag team partner,

the other co -creator of Geekcast Radio, Steve

Megatron Phillips. How's it going? Yo, it's going

pretty good. Awesome, awesome. Coming on the

podcast once again are my fellow combatants over

at Cinema Geeks, Kevin Optimus Solo and his better

half, Amanda. How are things? Truer words have

never been spoken. You guys actually fight with

film reels over there? Wow. Talk about Fight

Club. It's digital. We're in the digital world

now. Also joining us today are another special

guest coming back for his second entry into the

world of Dcast Radio. He was so great the first

time we had to bring him back again, DJ Valentine.

How's it going, man? What would you do if I sang

out of tune? We talked about Wonder Years last

week. We never talked about this song. Yeah,

sorry. I'm really into one of these for some

reason. When I promoted that we were doing this

week or when I promoted the episode last week,

I was like, and DJ Valentine has been promoted

to a series regular. I was like, I got a promotion?

This is the best job I've ever not had. increase

it in rate uh five percent bonus too but five

percent of zero is still zero yeah i know i i

told my bank my lawyer that my banker that they

were just laughing at me like hey i got this

check and that's nothing but zeros nothing but

zeros but that's it We're the opposite of Mickey

Mouse. Yeah. But before we get to the countdown,

DJ, because you didn't get a chance last week,

so let's do it this week. You want to just give

a shout -out over what you guys all do at Simplistic

Reviews? What do we do? We do organized chaos

over at SimplisticReviews .net. It's essentially

a... take a show that's like well -informed and

you know got some movie geeks and add a lot of

insanity and that's essentially what we do uh

but yeah i got me and matthew stewart and jason

palizzi uh they uh run the ship and i'm essentially

sitting in the captain's chair as they uh as

they make fun of me behind my back and in front

of your back don't wear a red shirt that's all

you gotta remember no red shirts i'm black red

shirt doesn't even wear yellow red blue i'm black

i'm gonna get shot first doesn't matter Oh, damn.

I did not think we were going to go that early.

I'm not as pretty as Aurora. I'm going down.

But if you're being aimed at by a stormtrooper,

you're going to get missed. Yeah, well, yeah,

that's true. For those that have not listened,

this is the first time you're listening to this,

definitely go back and listen to the other countdowns.

We're going to count down 100 all the way down

to 26. To be clear, because we're getting into

the nitty -gritty here, I just wanted to touch

on the rules real quick. We had 29 different

people, about 20 different podcasts, provide

lists. Each of those people ranked shows all

the way from 1 to 25 to possibly 100. The higher

it was ranked, the more points it received. And

then I combined those all and made the final

list. I am the only one on the recorder right

now that knows the remaining 25 shows. I hold

all the power for once in my life. And I do want

to give some hints of what's coming forward in

the sense of... This is going to be the closest

countdown that we've ever had. The last two,

once we got to the top five, was a pretty huge

jump. But to give you an idea of what we have

in store, number of points wise, the difference

between number 10 and number one is 327 points.

But the difference between number five and number

one is 27 points. So it was rather close to our

top 10 and our top five, especially so. I think

there are a lot of predictable things that are

going to happen, but I think there will be some

surprises as well. Anything else before we get

this countdown started? I don't know if I'm more

anxious to see what has made the top 25, or if

I'm more anxious to see what didn't make the

countdown at all. I think I'm overdressed. I'm

wearing a tie for some reason. Maybe I should

take this off. It's not just a tie. I'll wear

anything but a tie. Let's get this countdown

started. 25. All right. Well, coming in in the

world of number 25, we're talking about one of

today's biggest shows. As in number 25, we have

The Walking Dead with 902 points. This is the

first show to break the 900 point barrier. It

was on 14 lists, as high as ranked as number

five by two separate people. I'll start actually

with Amanda here, because Amanda, you had this

in your top 10 as well. It's falling here at

number 25. What are your thoughts on where it's

falling? Is it too high? Is it not high enough?

What do you think? Being that I had number seven,

I think that it should be higher just to make

me look better. But I do think it's got such

a craze, such a following behind it. I mean,

it's got video games. It's even got The Talking

Dead. So it's got another show that talks about

the show right after it comes on. What other

show has a show that talks about it? I mean,

I don't know why it's falling so low, but I'm

just glad it's in the top 25. Kevin, you actually

had this on the other end of the Top 50 at 81.

So are you at the other end of this and thinking

maybe it's a little bit too high and more of

what's in the now syndrome we've been seeing?

I think it's a little bit in the now syndrome

because I don't think... This might be one that,

you know, you do the list 10, 15 years from now,

it shows up quite this high. And that's not just

because more shows will be out by then. Me personally,

I ranked it just because it is something that

is very popular. A lot of people talk about it.

It does have, you know, that presence to it.

Me personally, I'm not a huge zombie fan. So

I have no experience with the show. So unlike

some people, I haven't seen every TV show that's

ever aired. So I couldn't rank this one too high

based on that. DJ. This was not on your list,

but any thoughts on The Walking Dead? I'm kind

of in a kind of a tumultuous relationship with

The Walking Dead right now. It's kind of like

that girl that you dated and then she cheated

on you with, I guess, with the governor. And

then, you know, no, I think after the governor

season, I was kind of like, I'm going to take

a break from the show. Because one, I'm not a

big horror guy. Matthew Stewart on our show,

he's kind of the horror wing of the show. I got

into this for the first couple seasons. I really

liked it. It introduced me to Jon Barenthal.

I really liked the show. But around that governor

storyline, it's kind of when I started to wane

on liking it. And I know it doesn't matter what

I think. This show was a... absolute monster

when it comes to ratings. I mean, the Talking

Dead show is getting higher ratings than regular

shows. What's the power of Chris Hardwick, though?

Come on. Chris Hardwick is apparently Jesus Christ.

The show has kind of lost my interest, but it

doesn't need me. That show is going to be on

the air for 75 years. There's going to be cockroaches

and the Walking Dead show is going to be airing

after the nuclear apocalypse in the future. one

of the few shows on TV right now that can like

legitimately compete with NFL on a Sunday night,

which is insane. Yeah. Which is crazy. The numbers,

I mean, it keeps going up. Even the season that

I did not like where it kind of got a little

monotonous, the ratings were still like ridiculous.

So it doesn't matter what happens. I do watch

The Walking Dead. I do kind of think it's a little

too high. I had it at 73, so I had it much lower,

mostly because I feel like there are times when

I love the show. It's like edge of your seat

excitement. I'm like, this is like, I have to

watch the next episode. But then there are times

that just drive me insane. I'm like, why are

you doing what you're doing? And that was most

of the first season. Like, the pilot, for example,

is awesome. It's a great episode. Yeah, great

pilot. And it kind of goes downhill, and it has

these peaks and valleys. It has some amazing

characters, and then some characters I can't

stand. Though I did get rid of most of them.

It's interesting you said you stopped after the

government season, because I feel like it actually

got better. that season that's what my sister

keeps telling me and i i kind of took it i really

like frank darabont and they kind of kicked him

to the curb really unceremoniously and i also

kind of pissed me off and i was like well i got

this other show mr robot on maybe i'll just focus

you must really hate game of thrones game of

thrones this is i i we talked about it on my

show and i was like uh you know last season i

know everybody loved last season i'm like look

george r martin if this keeps happening where

good people die and bad people win i'm gonna

gonna move on to something else because it seems

like i'm predicting everything i like that guy

i guarantee you he's gonna die in the next five

seconds so yeah yeah i mean it's so i can definitely

see why it says i'm actually kind of surprised

it's not hired to be honest with you uh so i

again it's one of those shows i feel like well

no one will be happy where we ranked it but i

actually have sling tv right now so i can watch

the walking get so that's partially because my

wife likes it as well but it's the only reason

i own that channel and the watch he's been to

but that's besides but uh It has its place, but

anything else on The Walking Dead before we move

on to the next in the countdown? Alrighty. Well,

next in the countdown, we're actually getting

to a spot we've yet to be, and I'm actually kind

of surprised it took this long to get here. It

took us 76 shows to get here, but we're finally

getting our first medical drama, as in number

24, we have Ur, or... er with 925 points on 14

lists as highest ranked as number eight uh kevin

i'll start with you here as you had it at number

eight are you sure it took this long to get on

medical drama and what are your thoughts on seeing

er for all at number 24 well i mean i know again

that mike's upset that another show is not in

this spot but uh i think er is uh is definitely

deserving of being in the top 25. I think this

is definitely a clear example of, again, I'm

going to stop saying this after this time, but

if you did this list 10 years ago, this would

be easily probably top 10 of this list. This

was such a huge show for that time period. It

was on for so long. It was critically acclaimed.

It had ratings. It had stuff people talked about.

It had so many... different actors come and go

that were so notable whether for their tv career

their movie career i mean for this show to be

on for 15 seasons was kind of crazy now me personally

when i was growing up in the 90s and in high

school and in college i actually preferred the

other medical drama of the same time period chicago

hope but that was just because of uh one of the

major actors from Chicago Hope and how much I

loved him. But ER definitely had the longer staying

power and the more critical acclaim. So I am

not surprised this is in our top 25. I thought

it might be a tiny bit higher, but it's hard

to predict. Hard to predict. Mike, you also had

this on your list. So what are your thoughts

on ER? Goose lives! Goose lives! No, he doesn't.

Technically, spoiler alert, he doesn't. Stop

it. There's two things I remember about this

show. The fact that Anthony Edwards was one of

the stars, and then at some point or another,

George Clooney took over. This essentially launched,

really, Clooney's stardom. Or it pretty much

pushed it over the edge. It was empty when Detective

Brannigan examined it a few minutes ago. Mr.

Sullivan. I've dedicated my life to pediatric

medicine. I've cared for dozens of dying kids.

Kids in agony, pain. You and I can't even imagine.

Ricky Abbott was going to die. Not in a month,

or a week, or a day. In hours. And nothing I

did or could have done was going to change that.

His mother had already watched one son die from

the disease, and she was sitting there, watching

her second son die in a horrible death from something

that she passed on to him. Sometimes it's impossible

to save a kid's life, and the only thing we can

do is save them from suffering. Leave them with

a little dignity. In the end, that's all they

have. Tell me, were you relieving the child's

suffering, or were you relieving your own? If

you were so certain you were doing the right

thing, why didn't you administer the lethal dose

yourself? You know, like Kevin said, I wasn't

even into Chicago Hope. I don't think I was into

a lot of medical dramas in the 90s. I mean, I

was watching ER, but... It's a show that I'm

going to have to revisit, just like I said in

the very beginning of the countdown, either the

first or the second episode, where I had to revisit

Scrubs. And we'll talk about Scrubs in the finale

next week. Hold on, here we go. Let's not do

it yet. But ER, I mean, you can't deny that that

show... And I know I say this a lot, just like

Kevin says, the acclaim and everything else,

and if this countdown was done, blah, blah, blah,

blah, blah. But if it wasn't for ER, we wouldn't

have stuff like Grey's Anatomy and all the other

medical dramas that have come after it. There

were medical shows that came before ER, no doubt,

and some maybe that are deserving of this list

that may not make it. But it definitely revitalized

that genre along with Chicago Hope, as Kevin

pointed out. But I think, too, having the backing

of Michael Crichton, and it also started off

with one of the best pilot episodes ever. If

you actually just watch the pilot of ER, it could

be its own movie, especially the use of language.

And I know that was a big deal at the time, how

they didn't really dumb down the language and

spoke in, like, authentic. lingo and things like

that so and also the characters are good like

no no riley was always my favorite character

in er i just i loved his journey is also you

know he stayed with the show for such a long

time but uh i i agree with kevin that this i

had this at number 11 on my list so i thought

it would be a little higher i'm glad it's in

the top 25 i'm glad it's on the list at least

we do get one medical drama but i think the other

thing that this show really did well that a lot

of shows fail at is not just reinventing itself,

but reinventing the cast. And they seem to be

able to do that without missing a step. Like,

yeah, you probably had some people that might

have dropped off that were big this -person fan

or that -person fan, but it was really able to

kind of do a revolving door of cast members without

losing the feel and the atmosphere of the show.

Definitely, definitely. And DJ, you also had

this on your list as well, I believe. Any thoughts

on ER? I watched this. There was two major, I

don't want to say, maybe bad to call it procedural

shows, but Law & Order and ER essentially were

like staples. ER came on Thursday nights at 10,

and I used to watch it. I remember the Quentin

Tarantino. This is one of the few TV shows Quentin

Tarantino directed an episode. I remember that.

Eric LaSalle. This is one of the first times

I've heard the F word, though they didn't. They

kind of bleeped it, but they didn't. There's

a scene later where a... certain top gun actor

is suffering from a certain ailment and he uh

falls out of bed and he says like the f word

and i i don't think they at least they let him

say it and i was like the first time i remember

when that episode happened they had like an advisory

on there i think they may have done it just for

that moment but er is a great show i mean other

than everybody just remembers it for clooney

but All the actors are on there. Maura Tierney,

Gloria Rubin. Stanley Tucci came on there for

a season or two. They're just great actors, great

performances, great stories. Michael Crichton,

John Wells. It's a great show. It also has probably

a TV milestone as far as an episode goes. You

know, you think about like the MASH finale or

stuff like that. But I think the episode where,

spoiler alert for ER, do I have to say that?

Spoiler, spoiler alert. Where Anthony Edwards

dies. See, I was stop dancing around and you

just went right into the gun. I mean, that was

an episode that just was like, I don't know.

It was groundbreaking. That seemed like at the

time it was just like earth shaking. I don't

know. It was, it was a big deal. uh amanda any

thoughts on er um yeah i had it 17 on my list

i think it's definitely um one of the greats

um in that that genre um i i don't remember a

ton of specific episodes i watched it with like

my mom and my grandma so i don't think that um

I was at an age where I maybe it was appropriate

for me to watch it. I remember seeing an episode

with where this guy was actually like going through

withdrawals. And I think that that hit me pretty

hard. So, I mean, I think it was a powerful show.

Like you guys said, you know, awesome cast, full

body cast. It wasn't the same characters all

the time. And, or, you know, over time. And I

think that it, it definitely spawned my love

for even like house and things like that. So

great, great pick here. And Paul McCrane from

RoboCop, you probably remember him on RoboCop,

he had this thing happening where him and helicopters

didn't get along. Spoiler alert, there's one

season where his arm gets cut off by a helicopter

blade, and then a helicopter falls on him. So

that was also very funny. There's a lot of weird

things that happen on this show, but it ran for

so long, you could run the gamut of drama and

funny and romantic at the same time. Alright,

so next up on the list is, in our number 23 spot,

is a show I wasn't sure was going to make the

countdown, but I know there are legions of fans

that will be happy that it did. Coming up next

is Doctor Who, with 943 points. It was on 14

lists, all the way up at number 2 on one individual's

list, so obviously there are... billions of doctor

who fans out there dj will they be happy or will

they be upset with us putting it here at number

23 this is going to probably restart the revolutionary

war that doctor they're gonna they're gonna start

we're gonna start pouring tea into the ocean

no no doctor who is Is it the longest running

TV show of all time? I don't know the records

here. I can't remember. I'm assuming it is because

my mother wasn't alive when Doctor Who came out.

This program probably has a beat somewhere. Yeah,

and I started getting into it because I was never

a huge Doctor Who fan at all because, you know,

I'm American. That's exactly my feeling on it.

But I know I have a lot of family from England,

and they're like, why aren't you watching Doctor

Who? And I'm like, I'm American. And they're

like, okay, watch it. And I was a big fan of,

I'm a big fan of BBC television anyway, but I

love Peter Capaldi, so I got into the newer Doctor

Who. And I've seen a lot of episodes, I've seen

a lot of episodes of David Tennant. I skipped

Matt Smith, I wasn't a Matt Smith fan. But the

show is almost like, how do you even talk about

it? It's like 60 years. I'm overestimating, but

there's so many years of television for Doctor

Who. It's a staple. It's probably one of the

most iconic characters in television history.

I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the

planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Casterburus.

I'm 903 years old, and I'm the man who's going

to save your lives and all six billion people

on the planet below. You don't have a problem

with that? No. In that case, I don't see. And

it's weird. It's delightfully weird, which is

great. There's no other show out there that's

like Doctor Who, and there's never going to be

a show like Doctor Who, so it's great. I probably

think just for the longevity's sake, the history's

sake, the actors who have gone in and out of

that show, it should have probably been higher.

Uh, but we don't like the British people apparently.

So no, this is one of those that, uh, I, this

is an example of one of the shows where it's

a show that I don't necessarily have to like,

or have to have seen a bunch of episodes, but

I still ranked it. I didn't rank it very high

headed at number 71 just because of the 26 plus

years and, and all of the, you know, cult following

that it has i've tried to watch this probably

seven or eight times i've seen you know nine

ten episodes and i just have not enjoyed a single

one of them yet so maybe i'm just watching the

wrong episodes but have you watched the tenant

ones the tenant ones are really really good i've

watched a few of the tenant ones i've watched

i've probably seen three different doctors and

i have had roommates that are obsessed with it.

We went to their wedding and it was Doctor Who

themed. They had a Doctor Who themed wedding.

Our friend Nate from Weekend at the Movies and

Cinema Geeks. But I just can't get into it. I

don't find it entertaining. It's just not my

style of thing. But I do recognize that it does

belong somewhere in the top 100. Mike, you were

going to say something? My very good buddy Michael

Powers has this rule of give a TV show at least

five episodes. If it doesn't grab you by then,

then just put it in your train pack pile. Okay,

well, I'm just saying that's his rule. But you're

a doctor. I tried three episodes from four different

doctors of the current series. I just, it's too

damn British for me. I just can't get into it.

America, fuck yeah! We're alienating everybody.

I'm just canceling all of my sonic screwdrivers

I was going to send you guys in a care package

and now I'm on my phone here. Continue, don't

mind me. But Mike, do you think even if you don't

necessarily get into it, do you think it deserves

a spot somewhere in the top 100? It deserves

a spot in the top 100. I think half of the, if

not half, or the 95 % of the fandom is going

to send a bunch of Daleks after all of us for

only having it at day three. No, I'm just saying.

At least you understand the references. I see

the toy crap all the time. Besides, one of our

other buddies, Michael Dodd, He loves his screwdrivers.

We have Mark Hu as well. They're not going to

be too happy with this. I would think as a network,

when we have a podcast dedicated to Doctor Who,

that it would probably make our top 100 list.

Steve, what are your thoughts on its merits of

being where it's at? Personally, I don't get

into the show. I'm more so like... the Star Trek

realm of sci -fi like this is this is a little

odd to me but like I don't generally get into

British television either but I do feel that

it does deserve a place in the top 100 because

of the longevity of it the fact that just you

know all the same reasons that you guys have

mentioned already but it's there's there's got

to be something to it that it's gotten this cult

following you know over the years and in the

fact that it keeps reinventing itself and staying

fresh yeah and the writing is very good on it

for a show like that to last that long it it

it just has to get something you know i'm saying

it's it's not like a flash in the pan this isn't

like american idol where it's a fad this show

is lasted several great actors and the writing

i mean for as weird as it is the episodes i've

caught some episodes that were very very deep

and i was like what i was really emotional why

am i tearing up in a a show about a guy that

gets in a blue telephone booth and goes back

in time. I'm tearing up. But no, I mean, I can

understand it. It might alienate some people

who don't watch BBC or Channel 4 or whatever,

but it's still iconic. And it's not going anywhere

anytime soon either. No, no. So it's going to

be on for a while. Amanda, worthy of top 100?

I actually had ER right above this on my list.

So I had ER at 17 and this at 18. I really have...

been kind of overwhelmed with the amount so i

haven't been able to get into the show but i

mean i've i've only heard good things so this

might warrant me um catching up on some of it

all right well we'll have to hope that dan can

find his way to that phone booth at some point

to join us but until then let's move on to the

next number in the countdown the dogs captured

him exterminate exterminate 22 All right, coming

in at number 22, another show that I think has

somewhat of a cult following, and the show that's

going to be coming back into the forefront, and

people might start talking about it again here

real soon. Number 22 is The X -Files, with 979

points on 16 lists. So that's a lot of lists

to be on. That's well over half of the list.

And Amanda... I believe you had this at the highest

out of everybody. What do you think of the X

-Files coming in one spot ahead of Doctor Who?

I'm glad it beat out Doctor Who, but I think

it's horseshit so low. I have this at number

six. This is one of the pivotal moments of my

childhood that made me realize... That's not

something you hear every day. X -Files was the

pivotal moment of my childhood. It made me realize...

I'm super into sci -fi and the most creepy stuff

that you can see. There was a lot of stuff that

disturbed me, but there was also a lot that intrigued

me. I remember these, like, mutated... inbred

things that at one point that I had no idea where

they were and they were like hiding in these

people's houses and like killing them and having

mutated babies and it just disturbed the crap

out of me but I had to watch it it sucked me

in so much and kind of opened that realm for

me into the you know the supernatural sci -fi

alright so you would like it to be higher yeah

DJ higher lower or right where it's at uh i probably

i mean for my generation i think it's right where

it needs to be and i was a big fan of the x -files

i kind of fell off when robert patrick showed

up but uh it saddens me because i i'm as much

as everybody loved this show this is one of those

other shows that if people may not remember was

a phenomenon like you it was everywhere people

were making david letterman's making jokes about

in his monologue uh it saddens me that the show

is so great and the movies are so god awfully

bad fight the future wasn't that oh man for the

build -up the show was giving us they're gonna

pay off everything the cigarette smoking man

they're gonna pay off everything no we're not

gonna pay off anything okay we'll make a sequel

10 years later we're gonna know it's about decapitations

all right no aliens what about the sister uh

i just yeah that's just me like my personal but

no x -files is another one of those shows i think

it should be right where it is there that's because

of the the longevity of television in general

but x -files was one of the shows it got me through

college essentially i was watching that show

like every night so yeah nice mike what do you

think about x -files i think it's a really interesting

show i think it's a good show i prefer briscoe

over it though i had it ranked at number 47 so

i had it a little bit lower i still had it in

the top 50 i think it's one that was so popular

and had such a following, but it almost seems

like it had been somewhat forgotten for a little

while there. Obviously now it's coming back and

people are talking about it again and revisiting.

So I think it's, you know, getting back into

the now a little bit, but you know, nine seasons,

it had multiple awards. It was rated high. It

had a cult, you know, fan following. So I think

it kind of hits every. part that you want it

to hit on especially for the genre and and for

its uniqueness um so i think it has a lot of

things going for it and it definitely warrants

a place i can see it definitely being in the

top 25 steve agree or disagree i i mean i agree

i i'm not a fan of the show but i did i did watch

some of it and i have given it you know more

than one chance but it's i I totally get why

there's a following for it. It's definitely had

not only a long life with it and multiple movies,

and now it's got the revival, so it's definitely

deserving of a top 25. It's got the revival.

It's also, over at IDW, had a multiple series

of comic books. They've done... season 10 they

actually did the x -files meets transformers

for one issue oh lord that no dude that was awesome

what a weird combination they did x -files uh

and transformers crossover they did x -files

and ghostbusters crossover they did a whole bunch

of different x -files crossover things with with

the other properties and it was just really really

cool and hey you know for all those fans that

love the show back in the day and it's coming

back Good for them. Fox Mulder, I am Optimus

Prime. There we go. Well, even though Dan didn't

find... Give me your face! Give me your face!

That's really weird for me to say that, but give

me your face. That's a terrible moment. Anyways,

even though Dan didn't find the telephone booth,

maybe Scully and Mulder will help bring him back

to the countdown after this. 21. Well, in true

X -Files fashion, I have reappeared as we count

down to number 21. Coming in at number 21 is

a show we actually talked about not too long

ago when we talked about ER. And it's another

procedural show, but a procedural cop show. As

in coming in at number 21, we have Law. in order

with 992 points just barely below that 1000 point

barrier it was on 14 lists highest ranked as

number three by none other than amanda so amanda

let's start with you here your number three is

going down and i know your number six went down

with x file so i don't know if we have a personal

agenda against you i'm not sure but what are

your thoughts you guys are killing me i know

hey at least they're making the list yeah i was

gonna say at least my shit's making it kevin

What are your thoughts on Law & Order? I think

that it was so iconic. It spawned SVU, Criminal

Minds, Criminal Intent, whatever. It's got...

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's still on today. It's

still relevant today. It addresses things that

are... are in the now, in a state of mind that

we're all in. So it's not something that is lost

on what's going on that you can't connect with

it. I think that the characters, everybody knows

the characters, everybody knows the theme song.

It's got the Lumiere, you know, from Beauty and

the Beast. Lumiere. I definitely grew up watching

this with my family, and I really do like SVU,

too. That's also on my list, and I don't know

if that's going to show up or not. Probably not,

because this one's showing up now. I just, I

really liked it. Mike, any thoughts on Law &

Order? Not Law & Order, this show. You know,

we talked earlier about X -Files. No, I love

this show. Shut up. You better love it. You better

love it. I knew Mike was going to go bananas

over this. We talked earlier about how ER did

a masterful job of interchanging their cast.

Law & Order did that too. Law & Order had Jerry

Orbach, as Lenny Briscoe had. Jesse L. Martin

as Ed Green. You then bring in Chris Noth. Benjamin

Bratt. Benjamin Bratt. You bring him in. Jesse

L. Martin, baby. I just said Ed Green. And that

goes to our point last week with Flash. You know,

he's essentially playing the same character,

kind of. Anyway. But, no, Law & Order, I mean,

just... Just watch, specifically for Jerry Orbach

as Lenny Briscoe, that character to me was one

of the best characters. Between him and Sam Waterston

as Jack McCoy, those two, you know, Jerry on

the cop side and Jack on the law side was just

amazing. And like Amanda said, you know, it spawned

SVU, which is still going. It spawned Criminal

Intent. Think about this for a moment, folks.

Criminal Intent stars Vincent D 'Onofrio, who

is now Kingpin. who the very first thing I ever

saw him in before Full Metal Jacket, he played

Thor in Adventures in Babysitting. Damn right.

Damn right. But it also, Law & Order has a sad

kind of tragedy thing about it when it comes

to Jerry Orbach, sadly, because they brought

Lenny back for Trial by Jury, and Trial by Jury

didn't exactly go over too well. And then I think

shortly after that kind of failed for NBC, he

passed away. But the characters in the show,

the stories in the show, I know everybody for

the SVU side of it was pissed when Maloney left.

Pissed me off. But that show has only gotten

better with putting Mariska in the forefront

as the star. Just the sheer amount of the original

show that is there, even after, you know, the

original show before it ended its run of new

episodes, you had Jack promoted and you had Bruce

Wayne from Batman Begins. You had Linus Roach

as Michael Cutter. Thomas Wayne. Oh, yeah. Thomas

Wayne. Sorry. You know, but Law and Order was

absolutely amazing. What gets me about that show

is the very first few seasons, you have Paul

Sorvino as one of the cops. Oh, my God. You get

one of the guys from Goodfellas as one of the

cops in Law & Order. That's just amazing. Kevin,

this also was in your top ten at number five,

so thoughts on seeing it fall here? I mean, I

ranked it probably a little bit higher than I

should have. There's two things about Law & Order.

Number one, I don't think there's ever been a

show that has been watched more in reruns than

Law & Order. None. Zero. I think TNT is like

its entire like... It's on right now. It is.

And, you know, last episode, DJ talked about

how Family Guy was one of those that you could

come home from the bar in college and watch and,

you know, just... relax with your buddies until

you passed out. Law & Order was the show that

was on in between every single class that you

had or anytime you had a lunch break or an afternoon

break. It didn't matter. When you got back to

your dorm or apartment, you could turn on and

it was the beginning of a Law & Order episode

somehow. It could have been like 17 minutes past

the hour and somehow a new Law & Order was starting.

So you could always watch one. And they also

perfected tnt or tbs or whatever channel it was

airing they perfected the the the strategic television

move which i don't think had ever been done prior

to this it doesn't seem like where the one episode

was hardly even over And they would give you

the intro to the next episode without going commercial

break to keep you there. We're going to jam this

law and order down your throat. And you never

could get out of your chair to stop watching.

It's like, I'll watch as soon as it's over. But

another one immediately begins. So I think it's

definitely the next one. It definitely deserves

to be in the top 100. It was slightly high on

my list. I think it's somewhat in the right spot

for where it comes out. I could see the argument

from some people to maybe make it a little bit

lower. 20 years, it definitely left its mark.

Steve, any thoughts on Law & Order? Not much

other than what's already been said. I do agree,

though, that it should be in the top 100 for

sure. It's one of the, I think it's the longest

running cop procedural. yeah let me show us what

went 20 years it's you know it honestly didn't

get a huge amount of award acclaim it got some

in 1997 for outstanding drama series but it wasn't

necessarily you know award machine per se but

uh dj any thoughts before we move on to the next

in the countdown oh man god what i say about

law and order it's it's so much of a staple of

television it's like the news Because it's on

every day. I can see it every day. Ripped from

the headlines. It was the first time I've ever

heard the term ripped from the headlines. Like,

hey, I remember that was actually on the news

and now they're doing a show about it. And the

guy would come on and the criminal justice system,

the people are represented by two separate but

equally important groups. And when that started

happening, I'm like, oh, I just laid back in

my chair, put my feet up. I'm not going to move

for about 17 hours because TNT has no other programming

and I just sit back and watch Law & Order. So,

yeah, Law & Order is essentially. it again we're

getting to the nitty -gritty right here where

shows that are again on all the time and there's

been three great jacks in my life jack bauer

jack bristow Sam Warderson's awesome. I mean,

I think Aaron Sorkin knew how to use him a little

bit better, but Sam Warderson, man, he's awesome.

He's one of the great television lawyers that

you'll ever see. People talk about Matlock. Sam

Warderson was great. You trusted the guy. He

was almost like, oh, Jack's on the case. He'll

figure it out. He'll figure out how to get this.

So, yeah, it's a great show. All right. Well,

there's always those shows with a countdown,

and I think the next one's going to be the one

that's probably debated about the most for a

variety of reasons. 20 all right well coming

in at number 20 well a certain bias strikes again

and that of course is our relatively well -known

superhero bias as coming in at number 20 we have

daredevil Ryan's top 10 is really going out the

window. It was on 16 lists. It was on quite a

few lists. It is the first show to break the

1 ,000 -point barrier with 1 ,029 points, highest

ranked as number two. So it was number two for

one person. DJ, I think I'll start with you on

this one because I remember waiting to see Daredevil

and seeing your tweets about it and thinking,

I need to watch the show because based on what

DJ's saying, it's probably the best thing in

the history of every... thing ever of a man no

no i was just happy because um i'm a kid of comic

books uh so when avengers came out i was you

know this is the greatest thing ever my childhood

in front of me uh so when they said they were

gonna make an agents of shield show i was like

great they're gonna use it almost like the triple

a they're gonna call up people and they're gonna

do stuff and they're gonna have you know and

agents of shield which was hampered by the first

season they didn't do what i wanted them to do

Daredevil does everything I wanted a Marvel television

show to do. One, it pulls absolutely no punches.

And two, even if you include the television shows

in the movies, Vincent D 'Onofrio's Kingpin is

the best Marvel villain. It's between him and

Loki right now. It's between him, Loki, and Purple

Man are probably the best villains you're going

to see. And that's including the Red Skull and

Ultron and anything you see in the movies. And

it's not just he's an awesome villain. He's a

well -fleshed -out villain. In a show that we're

probably going to talk about later called The

Wire, maybe? Perhaps? I don't know if it's on

the list. A lot of people were saying, oh, this

is... People were up in arms because they were

saying, Daredevil's creators say they're comparing...

show to the wire and they're not saying in terms

of quality in terms of storytelling that they

were referring to where you're getting to see

two people fight for the the love of the city

and i just love how they they got the tone of

the daredevil comics right because i used to

read those religiously it's just a good solid

show and again you don't really have to be a

comic book fan to appreciate it and that's why

uh the show that just came out this weekend uh

jessica jones same thing it's just you don't

it may have powers in it but just like how the

dark knight it's like heat but with batman in

it daredevil's the wire but with uh daredevil

it's a great show great performance by vincent

onofrio and uh uh char what's his name um charlie

i forget cox yeah i i have my reservations about

him but he completely wins you over in the first

the first scene he has oh that's matt murdoch

i i buy him i completely i'm into this world

it's a great show i mean it may be super high

on this list because it's so of it being new

but you're not going to hear an argument from

me uh there's two two things with daredevil that

i suggest first of all everybody should at least

try it it's only one season that you have to

try for now but well obvious i'm saying i know

we're getting season two next year but i'm saying

the two episodes that i recommend everybody at

least watch once episode eight shadows in the

glass And episode 10, Nelson versus Murdoch,

because those are the origins of the kingpin

in Shadows in the Glass and how Foggy and Matt

met up and whatever in college. I remember when

this first was announced and first was like,

oh, it's coming to Netflix. And again, I'll reference

our buddy Mike Dodd from This Week in Geek. He

mentioned on Twitter, he's like, oh, got to wait

till 3 a .m. to watch Daredevil. All right, I'm

up. Who else is up? Who else is going to marathon

the whole show the first night, the first morning?

And I'm like, yeah, I'll make my way through

it, but I'm not going to sit there for 13 hours

watching the show. I watched the show. I absolutely

loved it. I thought it was great. The one thing

that I actually did a double take on is, oh,

my God, it's Fulton from the Mighty Ducks. Holy

crap. And he's good. And he's good. He's awesome.

Steve, question for you. This is obviously not

the first superhero show we saw, surprisingly.

But looking at the ones so far, we had Agents

of S .H .I .E .L .D., then we had Arrow, then

we had Flash, and now Daredevil. Do you feel

we got that order right? Actually, I believe

so. I don't... Well, we've also had Batman 66

in there, but... Ah, yes, true, true. But I definitely

think that they've gone in the right order as

far as quality and content. and what's being

represented as far as those superhero because

i know that there's a superhero bias no matter

what i'm one of the guilty parties here even

though daredevil is not per se my cup of tea

i'm still more of a fan of the flash but i will

say that what daredevil has going for it is the

strong cast of the villain which your show's

only generally as good as your villain that goes

for anything really and uh The tones and the

quality that they've managed to capture with

the show have kind of hit that bar a little bit

higher as far as the quality for superhero shows,

which makes it... Because you look at Agents

of S .H .I .E .L .D., and I've talked about this

on Altered Geek with Mike Powers, and we were

talking about the fact that the colors and the

backgrounds, the reason why everything's in shadows

and kind of in the dark is because it looks cheap

when you get a good shot of something. And then

it kind of continues like kind of down the line.

It gets better quality as you, you know, the

same order that we're going with the top 100.

Each show gets a better quality than the previous

one. And I think that that trend is kind of why

this landed where it did on the list. Why don't

we start with what we know then? You were found

in your apartment with one Daniel Fisher. Who

appears to be the victim of a homicide and currently

you're the only suspect, Ms. Page. Who the hell

are you guys? I'm Matt. He's Foggy. Who sent

you? No one says. So what? You're just a couple

of good Samaritans? Today's just my lucky day?

I bribed the desk sergeant with a box of cigars.

For his mom. Our practice is relatively young,

Miss Page, and we are aggressively pursuing new

clientele. You gotta stop giving Beth cigars.

She likes to smoke, Matt. It's a free country.

So how long have you been practicing law? What

time is it? It's 12 .22 AM. About seven hours.

To your point, S .H .I .E .L .D. is just getting

its good villain now. With Ward, I think. They

never really had a major villain, but Daredevil,

from the word go, same thing with Jessica Jones,

from the word go, and Flash, from the word go,

has strong, strong villains. You got Reverse

Flash, you got Killgrave, you got Kingpin. shield

didn't have that yet arrow had uh slade wilson

so they if you're right if you if you make the

hero have a complete equal opposite on the other

side your show will grow shield never had that

until maybe like right now Well, S .H .I .E .L

.D. has been hindered because of the films, and

I think because Season 3, the way that it started

playing out, Season 3 is when it actually started

getting good. Same reason Gotham. Gotham was

crap during Season 1, I felt. In Season 2, it

actually has gotten better. But it's, again,

because the villains have been stronger and have

been more prominent, it's made that the heroes

have to actually step up. And so each show, like

we've mentioned, has gotten better with quality.

And it's funny because it takes a Netflix show

to destroy the rest. uh i mean i'll start with

i'll move to here you did not rank daredevil

and my question is to you i know we talked about

we've obviously have a superhero bias but do

you think daredevil is actually one of the shows

that maybe deserves to be in the top 100 even

though it may be on extraordinarily way too high

You know, I was kind of torn on this, so I just

left it off. I was like, is it too soon? It's

got the one season. I know a lot of people like

it. I don't think I went as bananas for it as

everybody else did. I don't even think I saw

the last episode or something like that. Kevin

was getting through it for a show, and I was

just kind of... playing along for the ride here,

and I saw most of it. I think I took a couple

naps in the middle there, but I think that Vincent

D 'Onofrio, he scared me since he was in Men

in Black. Edgar, your skin is hanging off your

blouse. Yeah, the Edgar suit. So I think that...

He didn't have to do much to freak me out and

convince me that he was a villain in the first

place I was totally invested in his character,

and I thought that he was great and that might

be the only thing that's setting it apart for

me from the movies. It's an even better villain

than they've had. So I think it's definitely

a good quality show among the ranks of the superhero

shows. And I do think it's fitting in this place

above the others. Kevin, any thoughts on Daredevil?

I'll be very brief. Number one, I agree with

Steve that we got the shows in the right order.

Even if some of them maybe should not have been

on the list, they're still in the right order.

Number two, if you want to hear in -depth discussion

on this one, DJ and myself were on an episode

of In Session Film that we talked about this

for at least an hour, I believe. 17 hours. Yes.

It was a long episode. That's what happens when

people bring me on their show. Number three,

whoever on the website. On the comments said

that Vincent D 'Onofrio was bad at Kingpin. You're

out of your mind. You're crazy. And number four,

I will let the 200 comments that we're going

to get about this episode appearing on the website

do the rest of the talking. And a third of those

comments are going to be based on it's too new.

A third of those comments are going to be about

it being a superhero show. And a third of those

comments are going to be about the one season

argument. So I'll just let the debate continue

there. That is true, and that is funny, because

you know that's going to come up. I think if

there is one superhero show out of all of them

that we had to pick to make the countdown, this

is probably the most deserving, even if it is

new. Yeah, you, like me, actually had it at 100,

so we both lockstep with this one. because i

did want to have at least one superhero show

on my list and i think it's no doubt is way too

high i mean i mean looking at the history of

television is it is it deserving of this no i

mean come on now i mean i love the show it's

a great show i even still like it more than jessica

jones which is another great show which i watched

way too much of over the weekend but it was a

good time and i enjoyed it it did at least i

think set a new bar for what we can do with with

marvel in general, and actually has made me way

more excited for Marvel Netflix stuff than anything

else. I'm like, you know what? You can stop making

the movies and just do the Netflix stuff, and

I think it'd be okay. The one cool thing about

Daredevil, Joe Reed from Off the Cuff and Geek

Stuff GarageCast and I did a season pass on this

on Remote Control. Outside of the actual show

and its content and its characters and its episodes,

the coolest thing Netflix did is how they captioned

it. They actually have a setting for blind people

to watch this show, and it's just watching it

that way, because I am technically legally blind,

even though I'm not blind, I'm classified that

way, but I have a few blind friends, and just

turning that setting on and watching it that

way is just, it's a whole new experience for

the show. They have that in a lot of things.

Well, it was the first one that I noticed on

Netflix. All right. Any other thoughts before

we move on to our next in the countdown? Can't

wait for second season. Second season's got Jon

Barenthal. It's going to be great. All righty.

Yeah, definitely. Looks great. Looks great. All

right. For our next in the countdown, we're getting

into another classic comedy. 19. Coming in at

number 19 with 1 ,041 points, it was on 13 lists,

one of the most iconic comedies of all time.

Some are definitely going to argue it's not nearly

high enough, as it is I Love Lucy. It was highest

ranked as number 2 by Tim and Kevin. And so Kevin,

I'll start with you here. I also had this in

my top 10. Are you a little shocked this is not

making the top 10? Shock? No. Again, nothing's

going to shock me on this countdown that hasn't

already done so. So, I mean, come on. It's top

ten. It's top ten. 1950s comedy setting the stage

for tons and tons of shows to imitate it. And

that's not counting the, I guess what you'd call,

spinoff or continuation under a different name

that it kind of had. But, I mean. It's I Love

Lucy. It's... I don't know. It's top ten. Yeah,

I think definitely it is in the Mount Rushmore

of TV. Like, you're thinking TV. You ask a bunch

of people to name a TV show, a classic TV show.

You know, certainly I Love Lucy is going to be

on there. Are you tired, run down, listless?

Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular?

The answer to all your problems is in this little

bottle. Now you pick up the bottle. Oh. A little

higher. That's right. The answer to all your

problems is in this little bottle. Vitamita Benjamin.

Vitamita Benjamin contains vitamins, meat, vegetables,

and minerals. Yes, with Vitamita Benjamin, you

can spoon your way to health. All you do is take

a tablespoonful after every meal. Now you take

some. Oh. It's so tasty, too. Steve, any thoughts

on I Love Lucy coming in here at number 19? Well,

I find it... Well, for one, the show, I do think

it should be higher. Also, it has the... One

of the things that was revolutionized back in

the day was... she pushed for the show to be

pre -recorded, which was unheard of at the time.

Because usually shows were pretty much live.

Yes, I learned this in a class that I'm taking.

So yeah, the whole thing with it was it was one

of the first pre -recorded shows in history as

far as that goes. But yeah, I think that definitely

it helped kind of push the... the genre of what

it is and deserves a spot on this list. Before

we go too much further, I've regained my thoughts.

So I'll say a couple more things about it. I

believe if my information is right, it was on

six seasons and all six of those seasons it was

nominated for Best Comedy Show. And also all

six of those seasons, it was rated top 10 in

all of the TV ratings, including four times it

was the number one rated show. in the country.

Four years, number one rated show in the country.

Not a lot of shows can say that. Now, only two

others were the Annie Griffiths and Seinfeld,

the only two shows that had that streak. DJ,

any thoughts on I Love Lucy? It's kind of sucky

because we're in a generation where people have

never even heard of I Love Lucy. That's kind

of where I'm happy that... young kids i'm talking

about uh i'm glad this movie's coming out with

kate blanchett i think is playing uh her in the

lucio ball and um that i think it's going to

bring more attention to how amazing this woman

was she's essentially the funniest woman if you

had to pick funniest women in history she'd have

to be your top three if not one she's lucio ball

is amazing revolutionary great show i didn't

have it on my list because i didn't really grow

i grew up with carol burnett But it's like one

of those things where it's like I hated Michael

Jordan, but I know he was the greatest basketball

player of all time. You can't like you hear Lucy.

I love Lucy. You're like, oh, yeah, of course.

I love Lucy. I think it should be higher if it

was up to me. Amanda, you actually are very close

in ranking this year at number 20. So you're

are you pretty happy where it's falling? Yeah,

I think it's a decent placement. I love Lucille

Ball. I think that she has so much physical comedy

that she brought to the table, as well as some,

you know, real and genuine emotion. And she wasn't

just, you know, bawling her eyes out and getting

in trouble with Ricky. I think she really brought

some emotion to the table. And I mean, it was

such a fun show to watch. And who does, like

you said, who doesn't know? I love Lucy. Who

doesn't know the candy episode? Kids, man. I'm

telling you. I've talked to people who have never

even heard of I Love Lucy and I just look at

them like, damn it. I'm an old man. That should

be required viewing in junior high or high school

or something. Or the Superman episode. Mike,

it wasn't on your list, but do you have any issue

with... It's great that it fell here. I think

a lot of people are going to hope it was a bit

higher. I love this show. I caught a few episodes

of it as a kid. Recently I've gone back and caught

a few clips on YouTube and the one that I remember

is the Superman episode. That was hilarious for

me because actually as much as people probably

hate this show, Lois and Clark actually spoofed

I Love Lucy in one episode and that was awesome.

But no, I Love Lucy Lucille Ball. It was an amazing

show. show as steve said you know i mean it it

pretty much gave it pretty much led the way for

women in television so mike before people attack

you on the website do you want to explain why

you didn't list it forgot about it Fair enough.

I forgot about Fastlane, too, and I didn't list

that. They're in the same category. I love Loosey.

It's actually my dad's favorite show, so I grew

up watching it a ton. I remember he had tons

of books on it going through it. It was in my

top ten. I had it at seven. I definitely think

it should be much higher. Maybe I should have

ranked it a little bit higher myself. You know,

there's not much more you can say about I Love

Lucy that has not been said. It's still funny

to this day. I mean, Ethel and Lucy and Ricky

Ricardo, too. I mean, I know a lot of people

who that was like the only time on TV that you

had a character speaking Spanish. Like it was

that was, you know, it seems kind of small today.

But at that time, that did not happen. And that's

a big, big deal to having an interracial couple

with a female led show like that. And it wasn't

never like a thing. It wasn't like a big deal.

It was just it just that's what it was. And I

think it says a lot. It says a lot about Lucy

when like you in her as a person that she could

pull that type of show off. So I think the most

mind boggling thing about this whole thing is

that 16 people couldn't find a spot for it in

the top 100. I know. I know. I'm not going to

lie. I'm not going to lie. I thought about fixing

ballots, but I felt that would be. should have

just rejected him and said uh think about your

list and send it back you're missing too many

hating chats too many send them back the list

with like a blank spot like a number three like

you i know we're talking i know we're talking

tv uh and i brought up the movie about it and

i found i looked up looked it up now aaron sorkin

is writing it which is amazing the kate blanchett

lucille ball pick and I think Oscar's already.

I think Oscar Isaac should play Desi Arnaz, because

the man can sing, he can act. That movie would

win Best Picture. I'm calling it right now. It's

a good chance. Any other thoughts on I Love Lucy

before we move on to the next in the countdown?

Alright, well, it's going to be kind of weird

having these two shows back -to -back, but hey,

what are you going to do? Oh, Jesus. I'm afraid.

Well, we're moving from a classic comedy to a

modern comedy. Oddly that these are being placed

back to back, but very different shows, but both

in the realm of comedy. Coming in at number 18,

we have the United States version of The Office

with 1 ,065 points. It was on 16 lists on as

high a strength as number six. I think I'll start

with this because if I was honest... The Office

is probably my third favorite show of all time,

possibly top two. But I'll be the first one saying

it's too high. I love the show. It's a great

show. I can go on days talking about it. It was

probably the highest ranked modern comedy for

me, but I had it not even in my top 20. I think,

too, it probably benefited from... The fact that

it did kind of start a new type of comedy for

the U .S. at least. We're leaving the 90s, getting

away from the laugh tracks to the sitcoms we

have today. Steve Carell is phenomenal. The relationships

that built the Dwight -Jim rivalry is great.

I can, again, talk about it forever. But I just

wanted to put that caveat on there. But DJ, you

did have it on number 13 as well. So what are

your thoughts on The Office? I saw the American

office before I saw the British office. And again,

it's like, though they're, they're not the same.

Howard's talking about Sherlock Holmes and the

last show where I can enjoy both of them equally.

They're not like one is the, they're not like

the exact same show. I. love the office i mean

when i went to i went to a film school down here

in florida called full sail and they play it

in their like when you go into the uh student

center they're just playing it on a loop it's

like one of the greatest shows that i i mean

i just love it so much and i again i am not a

fan of the laugh track and i this first kind

of time i've seen like the mockumentary style

on a sitcom steve carell was great but the thing

about that show and a lot of the Michael Schur

shows is that everyone has a moment to shine

it's not just you know Sam Malone and everybody

that falls to the wayside you know what I'm saying

it's like if it's not there's whole episodes

where it's just BJ Novak and what's her Mindy

Kaling or whatever or Oscar or Creed or everybody

has a moment to shine everybody gets you know

something to do So it kind of fell off near the

end of the series. So that's probably why I wouldn't

have it this high. Or I had it at 13, but I mean,

I can see why. I thought my post would be knocked

down somewhere. Well, that's actually when we

based everything off of was DJ's post. We didn't

tell you. Yeah, I'm the only reason I'm this

high. Nobody else. But no, I love this show.

It's hard for me to say, well, I don't like this

about the show. I don't like that about the show.

I love this show. the whole jim looking at the

camera stuff i the whole pam love triangle thing

i and i for me who hates love triangles i still

dug that the hell out of that stuff it's a great

show and you can get into a lot of people say

well i like the the zany humor but this was kind

of like smart dry humor and think of the people

who've come on this show james spader idris ilba

timothy oliphant who are essentially like dramatic

actors who nail every comedic moment. What was

James Spader's character's name? California or

something? Yeah, Robert California. Oh, my God.

Maybe one of the greatest characters ever. He's

kind of playing the same character in Blacklist

a little bit. A little bit, but he's a little

bit, you know, he doesn't shoot people. Less

sexual, more violent. It's just the opposite.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. But no, I love The Office.

Great show. Kevin, looking at the modern comedies,

which we had a lot of, no doubt, I think we've

run out of them at this point, so we can say

this is the highest ranked. Would you put The

Office as the highest ranked of the modern comedies

within, say, post -2000? I think I'd have to

take a six -month period and binge -watch all

of them and take notes to figure out which one

should be the highest. I think this one probably

has the widest following of not just... people

that are just watching whatever's popular on

tv but like people that are liking it more for

the intelligence of the jokes or the the cleverness

or things like that i i don't know i think it

depends on what your brand of humor is i think

some people are going to find someone else a

little bit more funny some people are going to

find this brand of humor better i i don't i think

this is a prime example of it's a show that you

can't necessarily argue that it doesn't belong

in the top 100 the argument only becomes where

it should fall i had it in the top 50 so i don't

really have a problem i think like you it might

be a touch high i think maybe closer into the

like the 40s or right around the midway point

would have been a little bit more apropos but

uh i don't think you can argue its place amongst

the 100 shows as far as being a member of it

And it also did probably one of the most important

things in the history of television. Well, really,

the world. It put Scranton on the map. And I

say that as someone who grew up in Scranton.

So it may have benefited from the fact that we

have three members of Docking Circles that are

from Scranton. So we may have ranked it too higher

than we should have. But, you know, just putting

that out there. Amanda, any thoughts on The Office?

I really was never able to get hooked on the

show. I've seen. pieces here and there. I've

never seen a full episode, but I just don't like

Steve Carell. What? Wow. I don't like him really

at all. This is information I needed a long time

ago. The most likable man in the world. See,

I like Steve Carell, I just can't stand this

show. So what are your thoughts on the show,

Steve? I mean, I wouldn't doubt that the show,

like, I obviously think that it should be in

the top 100 because people enjoy it. It's not,

you know, just because it doesn't hit my personal

taste doesn't mean that it doesn't deserve to

be there. Because I've heard everybody talk about

this show during its entire duration on television.

But that being said, it's not, I don't like it,

but that's because... I feel like something's

missing when I don't have the laugh track, even

with the laugh track, it doesn't give me the

cue to laugh. It feels like something's missing

in the background. I need some kind of a background

sound, even if it's not a laugh track, to kind

of enjoy whatever I'm watching. I'm not a fan

of the mockumentary -type style television show,

so that's kind of another reason why I can't

stand it. You're not a Christopher Guest fan,

apparently. I'm not a fan of most of the modern

comedies that are on TV right now. I like the

sit back, not have to think about it kind of

stuff. I get the memes that have come out of

this stuff or the little catchphrases like, you

know, that's what she said or stuff like that.

So, I mean, I get those. I just, I particularly

can't sit there and watch the shows. I will say

The Office was a little bit of an acquired taste

for sure. Because I know the first season that

came on, watching it, it didn't really find its

stride, though. I do think its second episode,

Diversity Day, is one of its best episodes, going

back to it. But it was, like I said, it was a

new kind of brand of comedy for the U .S. That

awkward comedy where it's just putting you in

situations that are weird. They are not breathing.

And they have no arms or legs. No, that's not

part of it. Where are they? You know what? If

we come across somebody with no arms or legs,

do we bother resuscitating them? I mean, what

kind of quality of life do we have there? I would

want to live with no legs. How about no arms?

No arms or legs is basically how you exist right

now, Kevin. You don't do anything. All right,

well, let's get back to it, because you're losing

them. Okay, too fast. Everyone, we need to pump

at a pace of 100 beats per minute. Okay, that's

hard to keep track. How many is that per hour?

How's that going to help you? I will divide and

then count to it. Right. Okay, well, a good trick

is to pump to the tune of Staying Alive by the

Bee Gees. Do you know that song? Yes, yes, I

do. I love that song. First I was afraid I was

petrified. No, it's ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive,

staying alive. You were in the parking lot earlier.

That's how I know you. Ah, ah, ah, ah, staying

alive, staying alive. Ah. Ah, ah, ah, stayin'

alive, stayin' alive. You can't tell by the way

I use my walk. I'm a woman's man, no time to

talk. Words of love, women warm, been kicked

around since I was born. Well, it's all right,

it's okay, you can't love the other way. I also

think like it ended up really, we talked about

Parks and Rec last week, building a lot of strong

relationships with the characters. It wasn't

as advert as it is with Parks and Rec, but there

are small bits here and there, especially with

like Steve Carell and Jim, like, you know, even

in season two, like the boat trip episode near

the end, they're just the small bits where there's

just a nice, nice little touches here and there

where you do get, you know, it's about finding

the, like the beauty and the small things in

life. And in the last season was pretty bad.

But it did lead to like one of my favorite finales.

And I think it kind of made up for the fact that

the last season and a half were not the most

fantastic. Wasn't the last season the reason

why it was so bad because Carell left? No, he

left the season and the last two seasons didn't

have Carell. And the season after he left was

actually pretty good where Ed Helms kind of took

the reins. And that's when Rabbit California

came in and was the main character. The last

season, Ed Helms left, and Minnie Kaling left,

and they brought in a lot of new characters.

They kind of had a weird thing going on with

Jim and Pam that really did not work out at all.

But at least the last episode definitely made

up for it. I still love the episode Joss Whedon

directed where Jim is convincing Dwight that

he's turning into a vampire. Every time an episode

comes on, I die laughing. There's a lot of shows

where it's... where it's like this overarching

thing but then there's just some episodes where

it's just Jim pranking Dwight and I can never

get enough of that I would say too another good

episode to start with is the injury that episode

yeah that's one of my favorites so alright like

I said I can spend all day talking about The

Office so let's go on to the next one before

this comes The Office cast 17 All righty. Well,

coming in at number 17. Well, winter is coming

because at number 17, we have Game of Thrones

with 1 ,071 points. It was on 15 lists as highest

ranked as number three. Amanda, let's start with

you here because this was in your top five. Again,

we're targeting you and at least it's making

the list. Any thoughts on Game of Thrones coming

in here at number 17? You're killing me, Smalls.

I'm just knocking out my whole list here. Sandlot

reference. Sandlot reference. I have this at

number four. Jeez. I think the production on

this show is just so outrageous and awesome.

Yeah, I started reading the books, and what I

started to do was read the book, and then...

catch up with the show so I'd read a few chapters

and then watch a show and read a few chapters

and watch a show and then it got to the point

where I was watching more of the show than I

was able to read so and I was okay with that

change off so I'm a little far behind in the

books but I was really happy with the change

off from from the first couple books um from

the pages to the screen and there's so many characters

and it just it really it doesn't get old even

though there's There's all these storylines going

on. Yeah, you're going to have that one episode

where you have the couple storylines that you

really don't give a shit about. That's just any

show that has multiple character storylines.

There's going to be some that you like more than

the others. But I think there's so many characters

to like in here. And just because they're going

to probably die doesn't mean that you don't get

invested in them. And the story is just so fantastical

that it's really right up my alley. I'm going

to continue watching it and bootlegging the crap

out of it. We don't. We're going to watch it

and by other means, she said. That's what she

said. Edit point. She's going to watch it by

other means. She's going to watch it at bars.

I don't know. DJ, you were far off with having

this at number 21. So any thoughts on Game of

Thrones? All right. Game of Thrones has probably.

one of the most shocking moments in television

history, and it's just a show filled with shocking

moments, great characters. It made Dungeons and

Dragons type stuff actually mainstream, which

is unheard of. The nerds are taking over. The

nerds are taking over. Because that movie didn't

do the franchise any good. Jeremy Irons really

brought it home on that one. i'm at the point

now if i'm talking i'm giving it it's laurels

because the first couple seasons i absolutely

love but i just i'm afraid george rr martin or

whoever's doing it now is a db db wise i think

now uh they're using the kill somebody you like

as a as a gimmick I don't want it to be a gimmick.

I want it to be part of the story. But right

now, especially the last season, which everybody

started to, you know, everybody loved, it's starting

to feel like a gimmick. Because after situations

like the red wedding and the purple wedding,

I'm like, all right, that was crazy. That was

great. But now it's like, all right, the Oberon

thing and the other thing. I was like, okay,

okay, I get it. Good people suck. Bad people

win. I get it. Just don't make it a gimmick.

Make it part of your story. I'm with you. And

again, I love Game of Thrones. just don't don't

test me in game of thrones don't don't don't

don't walking dead me game of thrones where i

start i stopped caring because like if something

happens to tyrian is essentially we're gonna

go walking dead game of thrones comparison tyrian

is daryl if anything happens to tyrian i'm done

that's the end of the show deal breaker i'm out

there's this i'm tearing the show braun is kind

of there he's like carol okay so if anything

happens It also appears that Jon Snow might be

Glenn for those that are... Jon Snow might be

Glenn. That'd be great. That'd be terrific. One

of the things we love about HBO is that they

can pull no punches. They give you everything.

I love that George R .R. Martin is going against

the norm of a normal show where no one is safe.

Absolutely no one is safe. But, you know, just

make it a good story. And it worries me when

I see George R .R. Martin at award shows or on

blogs. Get your ass into your goddamn office

and finish these freaking books, okay? I don't

want these guys flying by the seat of their pants,

which essentially they're doing now. I think

the show has caught up to the books, if I'm not

mistaken. Yeah, this is going to be the last.

The last season, I think, diverted a bunch from

the books. I have not read them, but from what

I've heard, this upcoming season is going to

be... But yeah, it's an amazing show. I mean,

for them to... Just for the fact that they made

Dungeons & Dragons stuff. I keep saying Dungeons

& Dragons stuff. Just Swords & Dragons and stuff.

Mainstream. People know about Game of Thrones

that... Jocks know about Game of Thrones. So

yeah, it's a great show. I'm watching you. I'm

looking at you. I'm looking at you, Game of Thrones.

Don't mess up. Kevin, you were not far off as

well with Game of Thrones drinking here. So you

happy it's falling at around number 17 and not

any higher? I really would like to make a statement

and somehow not comment on Game of Thrones until

it's entirely done. Because I just feel like

if I say something good, there's... has the opportunity

to do what loss did to a lot of people even if

it wasn't myself and just completely turn people

off with however it decides to end eventually

down the road so it's like i really wish i could

reserve judgment but it is a fun journey i will

say that after the first season i swore off the

entire show and was like f this show I was like,

I have no reason to watch a single more minute

of this show. Like that's completely done. I

cared nothing about any character that's alive.

I'm like, I'm completely done with this. And

then every time I started caring about a character,

they kill them off. So it's just like, I still

like the journey, but it better have a fricking

payoff at the end because otherwise I'm going

to be a very salty person. And like DJ. I worry

a little bit about it almost being a gimmick

at this point, but hopefully that's not something

that really holds any weight once it's all said

and done. But it's fun. It's got a lot of great

actors. Like Amanda was saying, the production

value of it's really cool. But man, this is going

to go one way or another. There's a lot riding

on how this thing eventually finishes out. But

I think there's no doubt it deserves to be in

the top 100 conversation. I think so, definitely.

It is certainly one of the most recognized shows.

It's like Walking Dead. You kind of have to watch

it that night because if you don't, it's probably

going to be spoiled for you more ways than what

sometimes by the old Facebook group. Did you

see The Red Wedding, dude? That's what you're

going to get. You're going to get 35 people telling

you what The Red Wedding actually means. I actually

have multiple podcasts I've had because I didn't

watch them all as they happened. I caught up

with them afterwards. In the last year and a

half of watching podcasts, somehow they would

always show up on... on Talking in Circles or

True Romance or somebody would want to talk about

them somewhere and I always had to stop the show

and be like, okay, I'll come back to you. Yeah,

I mean, it's a good show. I definitely I think

like you guys, sometimes I worry if it sacrifices

good, great moments for good storytelling. I'm

like, OK, where is this going? And I know I know

it's supposed to be this criticism of heroism

and things like that. And I do love the show,

the acting production, though. I will say on

the night it shows there's Game of Thrones. And

I think it's not it's like the fourth or fifth

best show on the night it airs because I like

to be better. I like Silicon Valley better and

I like last week tonight better. So I don't.

know what that means but i i ranking them though

i did rank game of thrones the highest out of

all those uh it's simply just it's an epic show

and it's what's great about it it's keeping fantasy

alive because it's it's not really in movies

right now it's like the only place to really

see fantasy but uh last witch hunter just saying

like i said it's keeping fantasy alive Last Winter

is killing it. Vin Diesel's trying to murder

fantasy. Vin Diesel, and what was that movie

with Jeff Bridges earlier this year? I forget

what it's called. Oh, Seventh Son? You're the

seventh son of a seventh son. I'm Jeff Bridges.

Also had Jon Snow in it. Exactly. For five seconds.

Steve, any thoughts on Game of Thrones before

we move on to the next in the countdown? I knew

my wife was watching it at one point. It's not

one of those shows I get into, but again, right

now I don't have HBO, so I definitely see the

reason why it's in the top 100. I just don't

know if I would rank it right now. Maybe, like

Kevin said, when it gets done, maybe going back

and then blitzing through the whole show and

then giving it a fair go. I think that's the

way to go, and then people can tell you to either

do that or not do that. I think it is a show

that it benefits from, from marathoning too.

Cause that's what I did with the first like season

or two. I think it does. There's so much going

on. And by first five seasons. Yeah. Cause by

halfway through the season, I'm trying to, I'm

like, Oh yeah, that's that character. Cause it's

like, there's so many characters. I don't know

anyone's names. I'm like, Oh, new characters

and hierarchies. Well, and like my wife, she

lost interest, but that's because like. In between

waiting between seasons, she forgot what happened.

She's like, I didn't have to re -watch the whole

damn show. Forget it. It's one of the few shows

where I will watch the previously on. Let's move

on to the next in the countdown. Someone's number

one is going down. 16. Yes, like I said, we're

having another person's number one. go down at

number 16, and it's actually mine. Coming in

at number 16, we have The West Wing. It was on

17 lists, as high as ranked as number one, as

I mentioned, with 1 ,132 points, so we're getting

up there in points more and more. DJ, you are

another one to rank this rather high, so before

I go off on my diatribe, I'll let you speak on

your thoughts on West Wing. Aaron Sorkin is my

second favorite writer. working right now it's

christopher mccorry and him and then tarantino

so i love the west wing i love everything aaron

sorkin does but i think the west wing was probably

his television masterpiece i mean he had sports

night and studio 60 which was kind of tumultuous

and stuff like that but sport west wing i mean

mart uh martin sheen everybody on the show was

amazing and there's where the walk and talks

came from it actually like got me into politics

because I was a notorious I don't give a crap

about politics at this time but when I watched

the West Wing I loved it yes and every character

on that show from Rob Lowe to Bradley Whitford

to Allison Janney I mean it's just from Dulé

Hill it's just a great performances by everyone

and the writing was top -notch I know he kind

of left near the middle of it he had the end

of fourth season four seasons he had some problems

but I mean If you have any doubts about the writing

caliber of an Aaron Sorkin, watch the first episode

of The West Wing. I think that's the episode

where he takes down the religious lady and she

doesn't stand. No, that's later on. I want to

say season two or three. There is a taking down

of a religious person, but it's not that one.

it's martin sheen's only appearance in the in

the pilot he actually only shows up in pilot

for like a few minutes and it's more of a it's

it's it's a taking down but more of a play yeah

i mean because when somebody gets erin sorkin

writes a character to get to take somebody down

they get us to strip you in half It's just such

good writing. And again, I always hear, oh, nobody

talks like that. It's not realistic. I'm like,

yeah, but it's poetry. It's just good writing,

man. And on top of that, you're getting a caliber

actor like Martin Sheen to do this stuff, be

the president, and you buy him as the president.

It's just a good character role. And one thing

that always bothered me about the show, the one

thing, vice presidents, you know. kind of there

kind of real though it's true i guess it's right

but is this yeah depending you can have a bigger

role in the show but you care more about bradley

whitford or uh you know rob lowe than you give

a crap about the vice president united states

It's interesting because I didn't realize John

Spencer, who played the Chief of Staff, I didn't

realize how much of a role Chief of Staff actually

played when it comes to President. Kevin, any

thoughts on the West Wing? You're another person

who had this ranked in their top 100 as well.

Yeah, I had it ranked just based on the... acclaim

and how much I respect the people that say it's

good. I personally haven't seen it. Along with

24, Westman kind of came out at a time where

I just wasn't watching a lot of TV. I was graduating

high school. I was off in college. I was getting

way more into movies and I just kind of... missed

a lot of that little chunk of time of television

so i didn't see much of west wing or 24 but i

was at least uh conscious of the impact they

had the ratings they had the awards they had

the followings they've had so i did rank both

of them real close together so i think it's fitting

to be on the countdown but i can't intelligently

say where i would place it I mean, speaking to

the accolades, it did win a ton of awards. It

was one of those dominant award winners. It won

three Golden Globe Awards, 26 Emmy Awards, including

Outstanding Drama Series for four consecutive

seasons from 2000 to 2003. so it definitely had

that acclaim it it was also nearly like every

actor on the show that showed up for an hour

was nominated for best actor it was i'm christian

slater golden globe basically basically it did

looking at the award season that time and like

best supporting actor was like west wing actors

and and then like another guy and it was like

wonder who's gonna win this one But yeah, like

I said, it's my number one show and I'll be honest,

it is my favorite, but I legitimately felt like

it was the best show that I've ever seen. And

I felt like it had the pedigree to match it as

well. It's to me that the perfect matching of

two things where you have subject matter and

talent. Aaron Sorkin's writing fits so perfectly

within this type of storytelling because, yeah,

he does happen to write. In an intellectual manner,

fast -paced, a lot going on. And what better

place to do that than the epicenter of the world

inside the White House. And also with his background

as a person who has written stage plays. In a

lot of ways, West Wing was that. You could put

almost every episode on the stage and it would

work because his words were so... perfect in

describing what was going on there were wars

going on across the world and it in West Wing

was never a show that was going to show you that

it was going to show you the what's happening

in the West Wing and you wouldn't know the stakes

you would know the importance of what's going

on because of the reactions in the room and then

the talent of the acting Martin Sheen he He was

super presidential. He had that Kennedy -like

vibe. Sustaining hope in this winter of anxiety

and fear. More than any time in recent history,

America's destiny is not of our own choosing.

We did not seek, nor did we provoke an assault

on our freedom and our way of life. We did not

expect, nor did we invite a confrontation with

evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength

is how they rise to master that moment when it

does arrive. 44 people were killed a couple of

hours ago at Kenneson State University. Three

swimmers from the men's team were killed and

two others are in critical condition. When after

having heard the explosion from their practice

facility, they ran into the fire to help get

people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of

heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're

our students and our teachers and our parents

and our friends. The streets of heaven are too

crowded with angels. But every time we think

we've measured our capacity to meet a challenge,

we look up and we're reminded that that capacity

may well be limitless. This is a time for American

heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve

what is great. This is a time for American heroes,

and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory.

God bless you. And God bless the United States

of America. Great performance from Bradley Woodford,

John Spencer. I've heard people say that Aaron

Sorkin can't white women characters, and I'm

thinking those people never watched The West

Wing. I know. Allison Janney, CJ Craig, is one

of the best women characters, seeing her transition

from season to season. It does go downhill after

Aaron Sorkin leaves, though I do think it picks

up in season seven when you kind of get Jimmy

Spence and his run as president as well, and

it kind of gets... a dual focus there, but season

five, definitely season six is a little bit,

it goes in some weird directions with some, some

characters Toby, Toby Ziegler in particular,

but I haven't watched this show so many times

and I still do. And I also think it's a show

that there's a lot going on each episode and

there's so many shows where. there's a continuous

storyline, but you can probably pop in here and

there and still understand what's going on. My

favorite TV show episode of all time is the season

finale of season two, two cathedrals has one

of my favorite, like one of the epic moments

with Martin Sheen inside a church as he has this

monologue controversy. Yeah. And very much so.

And what's great about it, half of it's in Latin.

And it doesn't matter. There's no subtitles,

but you understand the emotions that's there.

Again, I can go on forever talking about the

West Wing. Obviously, I would wish it was higher.

I'm glad it's where it is. Kevin, I think you

might like it because I know you love good dialogue

and it's full of it. Give it a shot. Definitely

one that's on the radar. This is what I'm using

the Top 100 for. It's creating my queue. It is

available for streaming on Netflix. I tend to

watch it way too much. Whoever told you that

he doesn't know how to write women? Emily Mortimer,

Newsroom, Felicity Huffman, Sports Night? What

are you talking about? I know. Go to my Twitter

timeline. Jane Fonda newsroom. Jane Fonda's amazing

on newsroom. Your Twitter timeline is all kinds

of fun right now, Dan. I know. I attract the

crazy people. That's what I do. Any other thoughts

on the West Wing before we move on to the next

in the countdown? All righty. Let's keep this

show going. Coming in at number 15, we've had

some modern dramas. We're continuing the modern

drama and we're getting some AMC love as coming

in at number 15. We have Mad Men with 1157 points.

It's getting harder to say these numbers if we

get higher. It was on 18 lists as highest ranked

as number two. Let's throw it over to DJ. Let's

start with you here on any thoughts on Mad Men.

I am not a Mad Men fan. My compatriot, Justin

Polizzi on our show, he loves Mad Men. He berates

me every time. Why have you watched Mad Men?

It's the greatest show. Well, he has a deeper

voice than me, so I probably didn't say it like

that. But yeah, it's John Hamm. I've seen a couple

episodes. I've never gotten into it. I'm not

a big fan. The time period, it just never clicked

with me. hear great things about it and john

ham the episodes i did see was good in it and

um not not the uh not january jones the other

lady who's the uh from drive i forget her name

uh she was okay i just never got into madman

never my show kevin any thoughts on madman Well,

I should have told you to record what I said

about West Wing because you're going to have

to play it like three more times. So play it

for Mad Men. You're going to play it at least,

I think, at least two more times during the countdown.

But it's again, you can't deny the popularity,

the acclaim. And I'm not at all surprised to

see this in the countdown. I'd be interested

to see how people think we get the order of these

modern dramas in the top 25 either right or wrong.

But I don't think too many people could argue

it's spot in the countdown. Yeah, and it has

won. It was actually the first we talked about

with S .H .I .E .L .D. being nominated for awards

and being a cable show. Mad Men was the first

basic cable show to actually win the Emmy for

best drama, and it did so. And also Jon Hamm

won for best performance. I do. The first thought

that comes to my mind when I think of Mad Men

is style, but it's style with substance. And

oddly, it was. When I first got a Blu -ray player,

one of the first things I bought was Season 2

of Mad Men. And I had Season 1 on DVD. And the

first thing I really appreciated, because Blu

-ray was Mad Men, a TV show, but the vibrant

colors, the way it would really represent that

time period as well. And I would watch this show

with my wife, and she would get so angry. So

much so. Because of the way women were treated

at that time. She was like, how? I'm like, it's

not. The show is trying to represent that time

period. They're not saying it's the right thing

to do. That's just Jon Hamm likes to play around

a little bit. It's kind of what he does. How

do you think I feel? Jon Slattery is running

around in blackface. I was like, what the hell

is it? Exactly. Exactly. It is true that time

to a fault. But I do think it is just heavy drama

in some of the best ways. I have not watched.

I'm still trying to catch up with the last season.

from all around the characters and in just the

evolution or de -evolution of Dom Draper as it

goes on and then the evolution of that of Peggy

and their dynamic from... throughout the season.

And two, Kevin, I think you might actually like

it too in the way it uses history as a backdrop.

It doesn't use it a great deal. It's not in the

forefront, but you'll see it affect how things

go from, you know, being in the 60s, so Kennedy's

assassination to Martin Luther King to boxing

matches and things like that. So it definitely,

I think, it makes you feel like you're seeing

that genre or seeing that time period in a way

that you really didn't see displayed in TV. All

right. Any other thoughts on Mad Men before we

move on to the next in the countdown? I give

it credit for one thing. The trailers they have

for the next episode, the way they put those

together is pretty funny, where they don't give

you any information. A person will say one word,

and it's just a montage of people saying one

thing. I thought that was pretty clever for a

trailer for the next episode. So you get to see

a taste of the episode, but you have absolutely

no idea what's going on. Well, I think for the

next in the countdown, we might be repeating

Kevin's recording once again. 14. All righty.

Well, coming in at number 14, we have another

number one going down and another number one

of someone on the countdown. DJ, you questioned

it before. You asked when it was coming up. It's

finally here. Coming in at number 14, we have

The Wire with 1 ,000. 159 points. It was only

on 14 lists, so it's actually been on one of

the fewest lists of the countdown so far, but

those that ranked it, ranked it rather high.

DJ ranked it at number one, and we also had it

at number one. For another person, I had it at

number two as well. So DJ, I think we have to

start again with you here, coming in at number

one. Thoughts on The Wire? Just like the show

itself. completely underappreciated for a show

this amazing that it didn't get any did it get

any Emmys? No? It got nominated but it never

really won any major awards. It's one of the

greatest shows I've ever seen because I remember

somebody was telling me, I was in school and

somebody was like, hey, you should watch The

Wire. you know, watch The Wire. I was like, nah,

I'm good. I'm straight. I'm not going to watch

The Wire. You're going to freaking watch The

Wire. And they gave me the box and I sat there.

Okay, I'll effing watch it. All right, leave

me alone. And I watched one episode and before

I knew it, it was four o 'clock in the morning

and I had burned. I like lost half a part of

my life. I could not turn it off. It's one of

the most engaging, tense. well -written well

-performed shows i've ever seen with child actors

to old men i mean michael b jordan as a kid is

in this show idris elba first time i've ever

seen him it's just great and uh uh i was i always

say his name wrong i we just call him omar barack

obama's favorite character in television history

uh it may be one of the greatest characters ever

uh he's essentially a gay murderous robin hood

And he's kind of on the outlier of the show.

It is such a crazy show that's so well acted.

Dominic, is it Dominic West? Dominic West, that's

McDonald's. Also great. And we were talking about

Daredevil earlier where you get to see the way

this city, I think it's, I'm pretty sure it's

Baltimore. It's definitely Baltimore. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know if they ever, ever say it, but how

the city, these different aspects. of crime and

order and law work for the heart of the city.

It's such a well put together show that reinvents

itself every single season where one season we're

following mostly the cops and sometimes the robbers.

Second season we're following the robbers and

sometimes the cops. The third season we're following

the porch or whatever the hell. I might have

got that order wrong, but it's just such a...

good show when everybody on there brings their

A game. I mean, there's just moments that I don't

want to spoil it if you haven't seen it, but

there's the Muslim, the Omar, if you shoot at

the king, you best not miss. The stuff that's

going on in that show is so good. And the fact

that it never got an award for writing, it's

so good. Such a good show. Taking what you want,

when you want it. Willing to use violence when

your demands aren't met. This is who you are.

Why should we believe your testimony, then? Why

believe anything you say? That's up to y 'all,

really. You say you aren't here testifying against

the defendant because of any deal you made with

police. True that. That you're here because you

want to tell the truth about what happened to

Mr. Gant in that housing project parking lot.

Yeah. When, in fact, you are exactly the kind

of person who would if you felt you needed to.

shoot a man down on a Housing Project parking

lot, and then lie to the police about it, would

you not? Hey, look, I ain't never put my gun

on no citizen. You are a moral, are you not?

You are feeding off the violence and the despair

of the drug trade. You're stealing from those

who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from

our city. You are a parasite who leeches off...

Just like you, man. ...the culture of drugs.

Excuse me? What? I got the shotgun. We've got

the briefcase. It's on the game, though, right?

I think there's not a show that can compete with

it when it comes to a number of just well -developed,

interesting, intriguing characters from top to

bottom. Largely because of the change of focus

that it has. Like season one, the major focus

is that of the court system. And then season

two is the doc. Season three is... the the mirror

race season four is schools in season five is

a newspaper and uh also i'll i'll admit that

being a baltimorean or ever being someone who's

a resident of baltimore and taught in baltimore

sometimes season four gets too real and get a

little pspsd watching it at times i'm like yeah

i've been there i know exactly what that is and

for me what makes The Wire is such an amazing

show. There's a lot of things. It's the details.

It's the authenticity where it feels like, okay,

this is people that get it. This is people who

were there. It has a number of amateur actors

that really bring something new to that cast.

David Simon is a guy who definitely has his time

in Baltimore and knew the people, knew the cops.

There are a lot of cops that are actually on

that show as well that really speak highly of

the way he portrays that lifestyle. I think,

too, it's just... It's not a phony bone, and

it's about everything feels genuine. And, yeah,

and similar to Game of Thrones, where there's

a couple of true villains, but in... In The Wire,

it's really just giving you an understanding

of where everyone's coming from and kind of just

showing you the mess everyone is in. And it really

presents it in an interesting way. I will say

those that go to watch it, it is methodical with

its pacing. It takes a while for things to happen

because it's representing a system where it takes

a while for things to happen. So I think some

people get turned off by the fact that it's slow.

And I honestly don't think I really appreciated

it. It's like the third time I went through it.

And you really see just how it builds upon itself

so much. season to season, how it lays breadcrumbs

here and there that come in the progression two

seasons later, three seasons later. And its best

season, season four, its major character isn't

even in most of the season. There's an episode,

I think, is it season one, where it's Dominic

West and the, I forget his name. Wendell Pierce.

Yeah, they go through a crime scene, and it's

shot for maybe four minutes, and they're breaking

down the crime scene, and they're talking to

each other, but the only word they're saying

together is, is it fuck? I think it is. It's

four minutes long, and they figure out the entire

crime by just going, fuck. Fuck. The whole crime

scene. It's the way they shot it. I guess they

wrote it really funny, because it's just one

word. I've never seen a scene like that before.

It was just... Amazing. Great show. That's part

of it, too, because there's always a little sense

of humor in there, too. There's a lot of high

drama, but there's always a little sense of humor.

Kevin, I know it's a show that you're not super

familiar with, but you did rank it. Any thoughts

on The Wire before we move on to the next in

the countdown? Well, I think it's interesting

because I had... The Wire, The West Wing, Mad

Men, and 24 are all within six rankings of each

other. And we've seen three of them back to back.

So you can just cue the clip and we can move

on. All right. I will do that. The beauty of

editing. All right. All right. Well, I think

there's always those big surprises that show

up. And I think not many people would have thought

this show would make the top 20. But I think

people are going to be happy with it for the

most part. We'll see. 13. Alrighty, well, coming

in at number 13, it's time to light the lights,

as in number 13 is The Muppet Show. We've had

a lot of sketch comedies, and we're getting another

one, a lot different, with 1 ,193 points. It

was on 20 lists, as highest ranked as number

1. What's kind of interesting, though, about...

the the muppet show is that it's on 20 lists

it's the most list we've got so far but no one

ranked it minus one or two people really really

high it's really a show that benefited from a

lot of people ranking it that's why it fell here

uh steve let's start with you here shocked to

see the muppet show so high falling here at number

13 i'm not really because a lot of us had had

caught this show as kids I mean for the most

part or you know pre -teens or whatever I mean

just depending on what era but it's like the

Saturday Night Live for kids that you know you

get to see Muppets I mean it's just it's a great

show I'm not I am kind of surprised to see it

land here in particular I would have thought

that maybe it would have been higher up on the

list but being the The fact that it's, again,

making a resurgence might have something to do

with it. But no, I mean, I'm kind of glad to

see the show show up here. Mike, any thoughts

on The Muppet Show? The Muppet Show was amazing.

It just really, really is. Everything about it

was so enjoyable. And as Steve said, for us as

kids or as preteens or whatever, This was our

Saturday Night Live. It really, really was. And

just seeing who they, you know, watching it back

now, seeing who they were able to get in those

early seasons for guests, just amazing. I absolutely

love The Muppet Show. I think my two favorite

skits are Pigs in Space and anything that the

Swedish chef does. He's definitely iconic. Amanda,

is this a product of the Muppet bias we're known

in love for? Maybe my own Muppet bias? Pepe the

Shrimp is my shit. That was actually my screen

name, my AOL screen name when I was little. I

rank this at number 33. I definitely don't. um

have a full appreciation yet for the new rendition

it's way too adult way too risque um i love holding

on to the the nostalgia of um the more wholesome

less mean hearted um slutty version of what it

is now um i think that it who Who can't get behind

The Muppet Show? I don't understand the person

who put it at number one. I really don't. I'm

sorry. But I definitely think it's well -deserving,

even in the top 25. Kevin, thoughts? We talked

a lot about sketch comedy. I don't know if this

is one you were thinking would make the list.

Something I've been doing as we've been going

through is every episode and every time that

one's revealed, I've been basically crossing

one of my shows off that I thought had no chance

now of making it. I had had a bunch crossed off

that I thought had no shot, and this is one of

the only, I think maybe the second time I've

had to go back and uncross it off. I did not

expect this one to show up at all. I'm very surprised

that it's landed here. I thought if this showed

up, it would have been maybe in our second episode

or first episode. I mean, just because it wasn't

on a super long time, and I think... People have

different favorites when it comes to the world

of Jim Henson. Some people are Sesame Street,

more heavy on that. Some people love the Muppet

movies. Some people like Fraggle Rock. Some people

like, you know, there was the Muppets Tonight.

There's the Muppet Show. I personally think the

Muppet Show is probably the best thing that they

did. you could maybe put one or two of the movies

up there with it. The current Muppet show, just

to kind of get some heat from the message boards,

I guess, the current Muppet show, we watched

one episode and I couldn't watch anymore. Maybe

it got better, but I do not need the Muppets

making those. That's my same opinion of it. It

didn't. The jokes and the things that they were

making the Muppets say and do, I was actually

somewhat appalled by. So I was like, this is

not something I want to see. They fired their

showrunner, didn't they? Yep. Thankfully. He

ran away from that like a fireball. But the Muppet

Show from the 70s and the 80s and obviously on

reruns, the number of guests they were able to

get, the number of just musical stars, actors,

etc. that they got was awesome. The whole premise

of how they did it was cool. I love the show.

I did not expect to see it. The one thing I'll

say about the new Muppet Show. The problem is

the same thing what they did with Muppets in

Space. They made it about one specific character.

Muppets in Space is all about Gonzo. And Gonzo

does not need his own movie by himself. Hey,

hey, hey, bite your tongue. And making the show

all about Piggy and her having the late show

and blah, blah, blah. The one thing the new Muppet

Show gets really, really cool in the beginning

is the homage to the original intro in the end

where Kermit says, oh, time to get things started.

And then you hear the little doop, doop, doop,

doop from the original theme song. But the original

Muppet Show is just amazing. Build a jacuzzi

and they will come. DJ, any thoughts on the Muppet

Show? You guys have pretty much said everything

I can think of. I remember hearing someone a

long time ago, I think it was when Jason Segel

brought the movie back, and they said, the Muppets

in general are an ultimate good. And I always

loved the Muppets because I love any kid show

that treats kids not like idiots, and the Muppets

never did that. I mean, I guess Pixar's kind

of the new generation of that where they make

products for children that adults can enjoy,

and the Muppets were... kind of a product for

children that adults could enjoy. I love the

Muppet Show. I'm very giddy it's this high. I

don't think, I'm not sure where, I can't remember.

I'm pretty sure I had it on my list. I think

so, yeah. So yeah, Muppet Show's great. I'm happy

it's here. Dan, you nailed this one 100 % when

you said nobody's going to expect it, but everybody's

going to be happy about it. Yeah, it's great.

I love it. I'm sure someone on the message will

not be a fan of it, but if you don't like the

Muppets, you're dead inside. That's all. You're

dead. You're a black. hearted person i could

see the argument that it's too high definitely

uh but again it's one where it just benefited

from the fact there is so much universal appeal

for the show because really there was one person

that ranked it high and then everyone else was

it was around the 50s 30s or 40s or below it's

just that it was on 20 lists and Because of that,

it got ranked at number 13. So, yeah, I was actually

surprised when I was making the list. I'm, like,

making sure I'm getting this one right. I'm,

like, all right, well. That's exactly what I

would put after The Wire and West Wing. Oh, yeah,

of course. You know what? If we saw, like, an

updated Muppet Show that would do, like, a skit

like that. Oh, my God. I want Kermit as Omar.

So bad. I'd see animals more of an Omar, I would

think. That's true. Yeah, that's true. All right,

well, we are getting into one more to the top

10, and, well, we'll see. I mean, this is where

it's going to get really tough because, again,

it shouldn't be a question of it belonging, but

is it belonging in this top echelon? So we'll

see what happens with our next in the countdown.

12. Coming in at number 12, it is daily, and

it is a show. It is The Daily Show with 1 ,201

points. It was on 15 lists. Again, five lists

less than that of The Muppet Show, but was ranked

higher by more people. It was highest ranked

as number three. Let's see here. DJ, maybe we

ended with you last time, so we'll start with

you here this time. What are you thinking of

seeing The Daily Show fall here at number 12?

That's super high. It's actually exactly where

you ranked it. I know. Sometimes I rank these

things high because I just wanted to get the

votes to get up because I never thought anybody

else would agree with me. To be fair, I ranked

it higher than you. It wasn't my top 10. But

yeah, I was trying to get it some high because

I thought it was just me because The Daily Show

essentially... wasn't Jon Stewart ranked the

most trusted newsman in the world at some point

and it's essentially a show where he just makes

fun of politicians but behind it it was like

a heart he had heart to it where he wasn't like

he's being genuine with the audience I think

that's what everybody appealed to the show and

the skits were essentially you know find something

you said and then find that you're being hypocritical

about it later but There's some moments on The

Daily Show where John would talk to the audience

and talk to the crowd and talk to people watching

in a really genuine way. Anytime there was a

tragedy or something like that, I would go to

The Daily Show because I know Stuart would put

it in perspective that I might not get from Fox

News or MSNBC or CNN. John Stuart would break

it down to me like I was a seven -year -old.

He would explain it to me like I was, you know.

where i could understand why did this happen

well sometimes things happen and it's just a

great uh way to show news to people that may

not even give a crap about world events politics

any of that stuff and because it was tongue it

was firmly at the cheek and john stewart wasn't

as let's say sardonic as a bill maher who's you

know some people can take bill maher some people

hate bill maher because he's the i'm smarter

than you guy now stewart wasn't the smarter than

you guy he's the he's the i'm one of you and

he's presenting he's he's along the ride with

you in terms of your world as you're living in

it so yeah daily show is great kevin no it was

not on your list and i know we get to these points

where it shouldn't be if it belongs or it doesn't

belong but do you think daily show belongs in

the top 100 i can see an argument for it being

in the top 100 what was it on like 20 one seasons

20 some it's been it started in 1998 if i don't

believe it's uh john sturt was on for 16 years

on the show yeah i mean so i mean good lord that's

some staying power and i think there is something

to say for its brand of what it was doing and

and kind of the intelligence of what they were

doing I don't have a problem with it being in

the top 100 I expected to see it especially after

we talked about the um the couple shows last

episode Colbert and uh you know with Letterman

and Johnny Carson so I mean I think it's probably

the most intelligent out of all of those shows

maybe um so I don't have a problem with it being

in the top 100 I don't think I'd put it quite

this high I think I'd probably put it on the

other side of 50 but uh I think it's, like you

said, you can't argue that it belongs somewhere

in the top 100, I believe. Steve, any thoughts

on the Daily Show? You also had this ranked around

a little lower at 30, but do you think it's too

high? Are you happy with its placements? What

are your thoughts? I'm actually quite happy of

where it landed, just because I feel like, for

the same reasons that DJ was saying, I felt like

I could trust him more so than... he was more

genuine and more real and yeah he was putting

the comedy spin on it but he wasn't trying to

i don't know talk down to you yeah i mean the

other stations like they either talk down to

you or they gloss over something like they're

just unemotional and uncaring and he genuinely

gave a shit so i think that that's part of what

made him so appealing and the fact that um he

he wasn't afraid to get dirty No, he would get

dirty more ways than one. Amanda, any thoughts

on The Daily Show? I know you hated the Goldberg

Report. Was it the same with The Daily Show?

I just don't like Jon Stewart. Nothing against

the show, really, and what it did. I don't have

my hand in a Bible right now. I just couldn't

get involved with it. I couldn't like it. I don't

think I've ever seen a full episode. It just

really wasn't my bag. Fair enough, fair enough.

Yeah, I think I'll have to kind of defend my

top ten because I could see that being a target

for a lot of people. But I think, I feel it's

legitimate. I mean, looking at The Daily Show,

I started watching it not too long before Jon

Stewart came on when it was Krug Killed Warren's

show and it was this, it was kind of just this

off -the -wall wacky news show. It was funny,

it was fine, but it... Really, when Stewart took

over, it slowly became something more, especially

in 2000, with Indecision 2000. It kind of hit

a new level, and that's where it became more

respected. It's won a Peabody. Its acclaim is

undeniable. For 10 consecutive years, it won

an Emmy for Best Variety Show. For 10 years,

and it was only beaten by The Colbert Report,

which it very much was the father of. It's also

a show that has launched a number of careers,

from Ed Helms, Steve Carell, Steve Colbert. Rob

Riggle, Rob Coldry. I could go on. Louis Black,

David Tell. I could go on for a very long time

with people who very much got their start, got

their break because of The Daily Show. And probably

the show I have the best and most relationship

with. Because 16, 20 years, I've changed a lot

as a person, obviously, within that time. And

The Daily Show is one I continue to stay with.

it combined the smart intelligent way of doing

but also kind of it could be goofy and dumb fun

as well uh it's it's been said a lot but like

stewart i'm still trying to get used to trevor

noah as as a comedian on it but when when stewart

was was there he was able to just we talked about

with the muppets like not treat you like a child

but he was the wall television wasn't there it

was just like he was talking to you as an individual

thinking of something like you know after september

11th when his was one of the first when he finally

came back his was one of the first shows that

i came and and dj like you mentioned after tragedy

he just had a way of just dealing with it being

sad about it finding a way to find humor at all

or just if it was just making fun of himself

but it's just i don't know his in his interviews

i usually hate talk shows when it comes to interviews

i usually stop watching them at times some of

his interviews are pretty bad when he's interviewing

someone from some like hugh grant because of

some tv show or movie he has coming out but when

he's doing a political interview or he's interviewing

one of his comedian friends like dennis leary

or something like that it's usually a lot of

fun and he is when he when he cares he's in a

fantastic interview like he had the interview

not before he left with the new york times reporter

regarding the war in iraq war the iraq war interview

and like it was one of the the best interviews

of that topic and it came from the daily show

a comedy show so uh i don't know i can go again

similarly with the west wing and go on forever

talking about the daily show some may argue it's

too high but i think if you i think it's legacy

is only going to gain and Who knows what's going

to happen now that he left. I think Trevor Noah

is still kind of finding himself a little bit

with it. But, you know, I think it's in good

hands. All right. Any other thoughts before we

move on to number 11? All right. All right. Let's

move on again to the final one before we get

into our top 10. Again, this is where we're getting

into. Does it belong in the top 10? I'm really

curious about a number 11. I think some may argue

it should be higher. I don't think anyone's going

to argue it should be lower for the most part.

But coming in at number 11, we have The Sopranos

with 1 ,205 points. It only beat The Daily Show

by four points. It was on 16 lists. It was number

one for one person, another number one going

down. DJ, let's move over to you on this one.

Any thoughts on The Sopranos? I saw the first

three seasons of Sopranos and I dropped. For

me to get into a gangster show, I mean, and again,

I know Sopranos is one of the most acclaimed

shows that I've seen in my generation. It kind

of lost its way for me. But I mean, James Gandolfini,

God rest him. He was great on that show. Elaine

Brock was great on that show. I think it picked

up near the end. but i i i kind of fell off in

the middle of it but it's the first season i

loved it i was like this is like i'm watching

like a goodfellas show this is great but i i

think what was the season where joey pants came

on board season yeah that was the season where

i was kind of like i don't really see i loved

it because he came on i thought he was a cool

character he was the one that was obsessed with

gladiator if i remember correctly yeah but yeah

i mean it's it no matter what i i i'm very particular

in certain things where i might get complacent

about a show but i know it's it was a great show

the first season i love and james gandolfini

any episode i turned on he was he was that the

show is probably going to define his career is

that that character tony soprano it's amazing

so that So yeah, Sopranos is one of the greats.

And I think HBO was already on the map at that

point, but man, it rejuvenated in a huge way.

HBO was on the map, but Sopranos... Transcended

it. Transcended it, launched it, whatever you

want to call it. Sopranos essentially did for

HBO what The Shield did for FX, launching FX's

original series. And The Sopranos was just so

damn... good whether it's a gangster show or

not which obviously it is but it's one of those

things where there are certain shows that you

have certain characters that you really root

for whether they're hero or villain this was

a show that basically broke all of that it didn't

matter if it was hero or villain because you

wanted to like tony soprano you wanted to root

for that character um and The show was just amazing.

I remember my aunt, may she rest in peace, and

my uncle, they used to watch this show every

time it came on, every single week. That's all

they talked about was Sopranos this, Sopranos

that, and everything. The show was just amazing.

And you're actually not too far off because you

had it at 26. Do you think it's a little too

high or do you think it's at a good spot? Is

it 11? No, I think it's at a good spot. I just,

I don't know. I wish it was almost top five,

maybe at number five or six, only because of

the fact that it did so much and it affected

so many lives. Like I said, you know, my aunt

and uncle could not when it was airing. This

is one of those shows before the Internet, you

know, all that stuff. But this was one of those

shows that if you watched it the next day. You

essentially had a family meeting to talk about.

You essentially did a podcast before it was even

a thing, just having a discussion with your other

family members that watched the show. I mean,

this is one of those, I guess you could say,

office water cooler kind of shows where every

time you go into work the next day, everybody

was talking about it. And the way they developed

the character of Tony Soprano, the way they did

Edie Falco's character, even the kids. uh jamie

lynn descala and oh god what's the son's name

i can't remember he was in daredevil the movie

yes that's what i wanted stole my line i was

like hey wait a minute what's tony soprano jr

doing in daredevil um but this show is one of

easily one of the best of all time. Top ten,

at least. I mean, I know it's just missing it

by a hair, but absolutely awesome. Kevin, looking

at the modern comedies or modern dramas that

we have so far with The Sopranos, The Wire, Mad

Men, West Wing, Game of Thrones, kind of the

backwards order that we have, do you think people

are going to think we got that order right? I

mean, I think there's going to be debates. Well,

first off, Doc and Marty must have brought me

the internet before the rest of you guys. But,

yeah, I mean, I think that Sopranos might benefit

a little bit from being more that show that was

kind of ushered in, like you guys were saying,

a different era of TV maybe, even though it was

airing alongside some of the shows that you mentioned.

I think maybe in time it'll drop a little bit

lower. But I could also say that maybe with those

rush of shows that we've had over the last five

to six years that maybe Sopranos lost a little

bit already, maybe it kind of was forgotten a

little bit by some, and people now view Wire

or like you with West Wing or somebody with maybe

eventually Game of Thrones might be ranking them

higher. I think it just kind of depends on what...

type of show what genre of show you like better

do you like mobster you know shows better do

you like your fantasy swords and sorcery better

do you like more realistic political type stuff

better i think there's going to be some debate

about the order of it but i don't think there's

ever going to be a consensus with the shows you

listed as to which one's better which one's worse

etc so i think they're all deserving of being

in the conversation and i definitely i don't

see Sopranos as top 10 material like Mike, but

I cannot argue against it being top 25. I think

it definitely deserved to be talked about in

today's episode. It debuted in 99, and I'm sorry,

my grandparents did not have a computer with

the internet in 1999. I'm just busting your balls,

man. Get on the TARDIS. That was back in the

day where you needed A .O. Hell to get online.

Oh, man. You've got mail. Yeah. See, actually,

I did have Sopranos in my top 10. I do think

it's a top 10 show for sure. Not just because

it's placed in aspect, not just on HBO, but if

you look at, we talked about that in today, we

have a golden age of TV. People talk about it

a lot. What shows brought that along? To me,

they're the two shows, one of them we talked

about already with the West Wing and the other

being Sopranos, I think brought the type of drama

that you can do in television to another level.

And I think what's interesting about Sopranos,

It's a mobster show, but at the heart of it,

it's really a family drama, at least for the

early on, where it's really Tony Soprano trying

to work out his issues with his own mother, with

his kids, trying to have that deal with the dichotomy

being a dad and also being a mobster and having

how they deal with it. There's mobster elements

as well, but I always found that to be the most

intriguing. It's like watching a classic show

from the 50s being a family show, but it's about

mobsters or something like that. And James Gamalke

is just such a legit actor. That guy is just

a force. You know, Augustus. Are you fucking

with me? No. Octavian became Augustus. Forget

about that. Bottom line, Augustus was a Caesar.

Not everybody loved him, right? You know why?

I don't know that I give a fuck. Everybody loved

him because he never ate alone. Ravish, it was

the longest time of peace in Rome's history.

He was a fair leader, and all his people loved

him for that. Just the one that they stabbed

in the back? No, that was Julius. Talk about

Augustus. He shared his wealth, and all his people

loved him. He said that three fucking times.

I heard it. His people loved him. What's your

fucking point? You remember the story you told

me about the father bull talking to the son?

They're up on this hill. They're looking down

at a bunch of cows. And the son goes to the father.

Dad, why don't we run down there and fuck one

of these cows? Now, you remember what the father

said? The father says, son, why don't we walk

down there and fuck them all? I told you that.

Why don't we fuck them all? That's funny. Okay,

I get your point. Why don't you just come out

with it instead of all this fucking Augustus?

I'm always impressed when you have a genre. We

talked about it with Deadwood. A genre that has

done so much. Monster movies have done so much.

It's a genre that's so well -worn. When you can

find new... in interesting ways of displaying

that genre or going after that genre or trying

to like revitalize that genre in smart ways when

i'm always impressed when people can do that

which is what i found with soprano so uh again

it's it has its claim 21 prime prime time emmy

awards five golden globes it probably would have

won more emmy awards if it wasn't for the west

wing because there were the two shows kind of

going hand to hand each year but uh i was gonna

say i think if we did like uh if we ever did

a list of like top 100 live action tv characters

i think tony soprano would definitely be on that

list for sure for sure all righty well any other

thoughts before we move on to the uh the elite

10 of the countdown just think of it this way

it's lorraine bracco as his therapist she was

in goodfellas people come on now i think there's

a lot of people out there that are starting to

get nervous because there's only 10 spots left

and i think a lot of people have a lot of shows

they still want to see so it's going to be interesting

here Yeah, I'm sure I feel the angry comments

being written as we speak. Alrighty, without

any further ado, let's get into our top ten.

Starting off our top ten, sometimes you know.

You just want to go where everyone knows your

name. Because at number 10, we have Cheers. It

was on 15 lists. Highest ranked as number 3.

Total points of 1 ,236. Again, we didn't have

a lot of 80s comedies, but we're getting another

one here. Kevin, we ended with you last time.

Let's start with you here. You had this in your

top 10. It's in the top 10. Are you happy where

it's placing? Yeah, I mean, I had it at number

7, and it's at number 10, so I can't complain

too much about that. I think this is a comedy

of a generation here. Anybody that was an adult

or a TV watcher in the 80s... Cheers is one of

those shows that they watched. It was, I believe,

nominated for an Emmy almost every single year

that it existed. In fact, I'm almost positive

it's every year. Seven out of its 11 seasons,

it was in the top 10 TV -rated shows. It was

number one on one of those years, so it has the

ratings, it has the awards. It was definitely

popular and talked about. I know none of those

three are enough to make it on its list alone,

but I think just for... the generational impact

and also for i i don't want to put cheers and

friends in the same sentence but i'm going to

because in the same way that we were talking

about friends is kind of that ensemble cast from

the 90s in a different way cheers is that ensemble

cast in the 80s it wasn't your typical comedy

family thing or you know your prototypical sitcom

type thing it was an ensemble cast with one setting

basically and again if we were talking about

some of the most iconic episodes or some of the

most memorable episodes in tv history at least

at least one of them would be coming from cheers

uh mike i know last time we did talk about cheers

i know it wasn't on your list but any thoughts

on seeing it fall in the top 10 It's well -deserved.

I mean, Cheers, for me, someone coming, you know,

being born in Massachusetts and the whole bar

thing was in Massachusetts and Sam Malone as

a character played for the Red Sox and all that.

And what I didn't like about Cheers as it went

on was the constant cast changes. I mean, I'm

sorry. Christy Alley's all right, but she's no

Shelley Long. True. The chemistry. Between Kirstie

Alley and Ted Danson was okay, but it was better

with the other two. Like I said last time, you

had Frasier, you had Cliff, you had Norm. I mean,

hell, Cliff and Norm eventually became toys of

their own in Toy Story. So you got that. I think

the coolest episode that I remember off the top

of my head. Was when Carla decided to get revenge

on her old teacher and shave half her head. Basically,

she nailed Connor halfway. That was amazing.

But absolutely love Cheers, yeah. Amanda, any

thoughts on Cheers? Definitely before my time.

What? I remember... They were just at the bar

the whole time, right? That's the only set that

they had was just at the bar. No, there were

a couple other sets. There was Sam's apartment,

Diane's apartment. There were a few other sets,

but they were mainly at the bar, yeah. Well,

all I remember is the bar, and I was fucking

bored with that. I was seven. I didn't get to

go to the bar. What's a bar? Technically, though,

if we want to be real, guys, this show gets on

our countdown for the theme song alone. yeah

so very true very true uh dj i know last week

you talked about uh you weren't we talked about

fraser you weren't the biggest cheers fan but

you have any issue with it falling in the top

10 i i get it i mean again i like i said if you're

saying i'm a fraser guy and i was god i was i

was old enough to watch it i just again i was

probably too young to get it but uh when fraser

came out i i got that and i i The whole love

triangle thing with him and Frasier and Shelley.

It was just like, okay. But with Frasier, I think

that type of show was more my speed than Cheers.

But again. But Woody. with harrelson yeah you

know it's funny i used to i used to hate him

on that show and i love everything he does now

and coach too coach was awesome yeah yeah yeah

i did it was just never it was never a show for

me uh but again i get it cheers is uh one of

those staples so yeah i can understand Yeah,

and like Kevin mentioned, it was definitely a

show of a generation. I had it at number 15,

so I'm not right here with this. I think it definitely

is deserving. It was, again, an awards darling.

It actually was nominated for 111 Emmy nominations.

I think you just made that up. No. It's legit.

All of the Emmys. It won all the Emmys. It won

only 28 times, but it was nominated for 111.

7 million Emmy nominations. It's still getting

nominated to this day. Today. They still nominate

it. But yeah, and 31 Golden Globe nominations.

It was highly popular. It was highly well -received.

So it is streaming on Netflix. For those who

have not seen it, you can check it out. So unless

you're bored with bars, and then maybe you won't

like it. But I don't know. All right. Well, any

thoughts on Cheers before we move on to number

nine? All righty. Well, let's get into the next

in the countdown. Nine. Well, we started with

the top ten with a 1980s comedy, and we're getting

even older with another classic comedy. Coming

in at number nine, we have All in the Family

with... 1 ,246 points. It was highest ranked

as number three. It was on 17 list. Kevin, you

were the highest ranker of this, so I will start

with you here. Thoughts on All in the Family?

I mean, it's in the top ten. Can't get too angry,

but guessing, thinking this should definitely

be a top five show. Take it away, Meathead. I

don't know who that is that you're referring

to, but no, I thank God we have this in the top

10. Good Lord, we would have had a hillstorm

of anger and people coming after us if this was

not at least in the top 10. But, I mean, again.

As much as the Cheers is a generational show

for the 80s, All in the Family is a generational

show for the 70s. It ran the entire decade, basically

starts at the beginning, ends at the end. A bunch

of awards, darlings, as well, just kind of like

Cheers. Man, there's not many shows that can

say that they were the number one rated show

in the country five years, and All in the Family

is one of those. Oh, well, come on. Irene had

to run. It's a well -known fact. Men are white

more than women. Aren't you? Have you been reading

Playboy? No, Irene, the Bible. The Bible? The

Bible. And in the Bible, it says, God made man

his own image. He made women after, from a rib.

Cheaper cut. the same work as a man, and if he

was getting paid $6 an hour, why should I get

$5 .50? Because, Irene, you're getting what?

You're getting $5 .50 an hour? Oh, gee, that's

exactly what they're paying you. What they're

paying me. There goes your rib theory. And there

goes the whole country, meathead. When you see

the data, they're giving women the same pay as

men and giving women the same jobs. Where the

hell is it all going to end? What are you going

to say when a woman is managing the Mets? I'll

say we have equality, right? Right. Right, Michael?

Let's think about that a minute. I don't need

to say anything about All in the Family. Everybody

knows what All in the Family is, knows why it

deserves to be on this list, and I'm just happy

that we have it in the top ten. I don't care

which spot it's at. Yeah, I'm right there with

you. It was funny because I watched a lot of

classic TV growing up. My parents liked to live

in the past, but I was not allowed to. I was

not allowed to watch All in the Family. So it

was, you know, because of Archie Bunker, he was

a bigot. But he was also an amazing character.

And definitely, I would say it's the type of

character we can't get away with today. But maybe

we could with some TV. But I don't know. Like

you said, I am super happy it is where it is.

It's within the top ten. Like I said, I had it

at five. There are certain things that we can

do today with comedy that get away with, like

cursing and whatnot. But when you get into it,

like... Dealing with other issues, sometimes

we're a little bit more shaky. So I don't know

if he can make All in the Family today. But it's

definitely a show that was certainly important

for a number of reasons. You had spinoffs like

The Jefferson. So it has had a lot of other spinoffs

after All in the Family. So it's had some revival

series as well. Steve, I'll move over to you.

You had this on your list, but you had it at

the other end. So what are your thoughts of seeing

it here falling in within the top 10? I'm glad

it's here. I mean, it definitely deserves to

be on the list. No matter where it's placed,

I think that it's pretty iconic in and of itself.

And yeah, most everybody's heard of it. So I

really don't think that there's much to explain

there. But yeah, I'm glad that it showed up.

Yeah, it's like finding out Michael Jordan's

in your top 10. If he was in the top 10 baseball

players of all time, he might have a problem.

Yeah, there might be a problem there. Yeah, there

might be a huge problem there. He might be in

the top 10 Chicago White Sox of all time. DJ,

any thoughts on All in the Family? Yeah, this

show was way ahead of its time. I remember watching

this back when I was 73 years old. the thing

about this show is it makes you fall in i guess

fall in love with this guy and he's one of the

most reprehensible people on the planet essentially

he's just you know racist asshole and uh i still

like i still i still love them and and this show

kind of ruined rob rider for me for a little

while because i was like wait Meatheads directing

this movie? I didn't know that's what everybody

thought. And then, you know, it was like Princess

Bride directed by Rob. I mean, get me out of

here. But no, it's such a good show. I didn't,

I think I was more akin to, I was a Jeffersons

fan and the Jeffersons was a spinoff of this

show. So if you ever want to have a treat, just

watch George Jefferson and Archie Bunker have

a conversation. It's probably one of the funniest

things you'll see. Amanda, any thoughts before

we move on to the next in the countdown? Just

going to preface this by saying I don't care

about the hate I'm about to give for this statement.

It should have been family matters. Did she do

that? She did. She actually did. Man, brave.

I gotta say, brave. I feel like this is an episode

of Candid Camera except for audio right now.

I think Steve Urkel has the right gunpoint. Say

Family Matters. Say it's gonna win. Say it. That's

what I grew up. I didn't watch All in the Family.

I watched Family Matters. So that's where my

heart lies. Just because they both have family

in the title. That's why I'm justifying that

because I have Family Matters in my top 25 and

I think that it should... I would back you if,

you know, Reginald Bell Johnson was playing Al

Powell. That would be awesome. But he's playing

Carl Winslow, so I have to back away. I always

assumed they were in the same universe because

I would just want to see John McClane meet up

with Steve Urkel. Oh, God, I would pay money.

I would, too. Cash money. Steve Urkel is the

limo driver. You're very fast, our guy. Hey,

John, I need you to get this thing for me. Alrighty,

well, I think that we talked about having a show

with reprehensible characters that might happen

again with our number eight. Eight. Ironically,

we had Roseanne and Married with Children kind

of fall head to head. And these are very different

shows when I own family in this. But I think

definitely you can see influences as coming in

at number eight. It's our first animated show

of this portion of the countdown with South Park.

1 ,395 points. It was on 19 lists. Didn't rank

number one for one person. Amanda, you had this

in your top 20 as well. So I know you probably

would rather this be Family Matters. But what

are your thoughts? You're damn right. I have

South Park at number 19. I've seen so much South

Park. It's ridiculous. There's a reason why there's

so many seasons of the show. It's another one

of those that tackles those sensitive topics

or the now topics that everybody is talking about

or curious about. Or just, you know, too scared

to bring up. Even making fun of fucking Canadians.

Like, I love that. We do that. Let's have our

audience up. Hey, hey. But let's not talk about

that. I think that there's a lot of controversy,

of course, that surrounds this. I always got

a kick out of it. Baby Fox McGee's axe from the

Pinewood Derby episode slayed me. That's in the

new episodes, but I find a lot that I can always

have fun with, and I'm not ashamed to know the

words to Mr. McGee's Christmas Pooh. Nothing

to be ashamed of. Mike, any thoughts on South

Park falling here at number eight? Do you think

it's a little too high, or what do you feel about

South Park coming in in our top ten? I remember

when South Park first debuted, one of the biggest

things Cartman ever said was, knock off that

tree -hugging hippie crap. That was used at radio

stations everywhere that week. South Park is

a show that essentially... takes pop culture

makes fun of it and makes a lesson out of it

all at the same time it's very timely of a show

and and like we said a few i think we said it

either last time or the episode before last week

where even today they can take you know you know

you talk about you know dj we talk about law

and order ripped from the headlines it's exactly

what's up it's a comedy version of we're from

the headlines yeah yeah except they except they

rip up the headlines they don't it's not ripped

front they rip them up and they basically like

the most recent episode that i had seen was the

uh the yelp episode i was like oh my god but

everything that Trey Parker and Matt Stone, I

almost mixed the names up again. Everything they've

done with the show is just absolutely amazing.

Even if it is an animated show, it definitely

deserves to be here. I don't watch it all the

time. I catch episodes here and there. I used

to watch it a lot a few years ago. But if there's

an episode with a really hot -button issue being

lambasted, I will most definitely watch it. Definitely.

Steve, any thoughts on South Park? I used to

be an avid watcher of the show. I haven't recently,

but that's because I don't have the channel.

But I do see the critical acclaim behind it and

the fact that it's still ongoing and the fact

that, one, they're the most timely with their

information and stuff that they're hitting with

the news or with the pop culture or anything

else because they produce a lot of episodes pretty...

much on the fly compared to Simpsons where you'll

have to wait six months for a payoff. Well, yeah.

Simpsons should wait six months for an episode

to be animated. South Park, they get the episode

done in six days. Yeah. Turnover rate is ridiculous.

Especially when half the voices are the creators.

But what about the guests that they do have?

I mean, or like the celebrities that they put

on there. I mean, Mel Gibson. You guys remember

Mel Gibson in this? Was that actually Mel Gibson?

I know George Clooney was the dog. No. I don't

think Mel Gibson was actually on it. His portrayal.

No, their portrayal of Mel Gibson. Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah. Yeah. There's no way that Mel Gibson

would agree to do that. I was like, if Mel Gibson

actually did that, I might turn my opinion toward

it. He's too busy calling people sugar tits to

really get in on it. You know, this show is...

One and a half seasons or two seasons away of

beating Law & Order as far as the longest running

primetime show. Because it's got 19 seasons at

this point. Dick Wolf better get on top of that.

He's too busy in Chicago with Fire and Petey

and Ned. DJ, it's not too far off from you. You

rank South Park, so thoughts on it seen here

at number eight. A show that's this offensive

and mean -spirited and just... just in your face,

not giving a shit. And it's still this smart.

This crazy to me. I mean, I, I, I attest for

me personally, it has one of the funniest jokes

I've ever heard, which is the naggers joke from

wheel of fortune. I laugh every single time.

And it's not just the payoff because the payoff

is. Perfect. It's the black cameraman who leans

over when he's waiting for Stan's father to say

it. The show, every time I think they're just

making poop jokes or shit jokes, no, they will

do that, of course, and they'll kill Kenny, but

then they'll say something that's really, really

intelligent. They'll look at it in a way where

you're like, damn, that's actually exactly what

I was kind of... mulling around in my head but

they just put it in a way where i couldn't say

it it's the show is hilarious and when they take

out shows like family guy and simpsons which

i mean i when i i started as a simpsons person

but i kind of leaned toward uh south park when

i got older because it's just i don't know simpsons

became a malaise where south park was always

edgy It was never pulling punches. It was right

in your face. It's never not been it. Yeah. From

the first episode to now, it's just, I don't

believe they're going to say that. I don't believe

they're talking about shit. I don't believe this

person. Mr. Hat and Mr. Slave. They're mixing

with Akira. It's like, what are you? Are you

kidding me? You're probably never going to see

a show as original as a South Park. Not for a

while. And you're never going to have a lunchroom

monitor better than Chef. Especially with Isaac

Hayes behind his voice. Scientology be damned.

He was great. Don't say that too loud. Scientology

be damned. He was great. Kevin, question for

you. I mean, we had an idea with the animated

shows, but are you surprised we got a lot of

them and surprised we're seeing South Park so

high? Yeah, I thought we'd only get like two

or three on this whole list. I'm surprised at

how many we got. I think South Park is a show

that our parents' generation will never understand

how intelligent or clever it was. Everybody at

that time just saw it on the surface value. And

like everybody said, it's so clever. It's so

intelligently written. And the commentary, social

commentary is so right on. I think I wouldn't

put it in the top 10, but... If we had not ranked

it higher than Beavis and Butthead, Futurama,

and Family Guy, I think we would have been in

trouble, so I'm glad it showed up. Yeah, I mean,

I'm usually one that says number of seasons is

not a big deal, but for South Park, to me, it

is, because very rarely can a show go seven seasons

and still... be high caliber and South Park still

does that they still have great episodes they

may be not be as as many great episodes per season

but still and also still like in the zeitgeist

and talked about people it's one of those shows

people cite in debates but it's like well South

Park they portrayed this perfectly so it's like

you know you see it all the time I know the PC

principle was a big one recently and my only

my only concern with South Park though is that

is it too much in the now where where it is that

six -state turnaround, does it just hit a story

that, like, in three years from now, you're watching

it, and, like, I don't even know what to refer

to, so it won't have the same impact. You do

run that risk, I think, so I think that would

be a knock against it. You run that risk, but

I think it's also, South Park essentially is

a time capsule. Yeah. Everybody in high school,

at one point or another, did a time capsule.

That's essentially what the first 18 seasons

of South Park are, and then, you know, going

forward, season 19, 20, however many it does

get. It ends up being, even if you watch an episode

from season 19 three years from now, you can

go back and be like, oh, that was what the world

was like. We were, you know, all about the Yelp

reviewers or we were all about the Apple end

user agreement or, you know, what was the one?

Warcraft. The what? The Warcraft. That is one

of the best. There was one. Oh, damn it. the

no i think that was the apple one with the centipede

yeah that's right yeah but i mean that i i think

that's the beauty of it is it doesn't everyone

always says that certain shows are are you know

a product of their times south park is that but

it's also i think it's more of a looking glass

than anything else point taken point taken all

right any other thoughts on south park before

we move on to the next the countdown naggers

naggers oh naggers all righty let's move on to

the next in the countdown seven uh i'm not sure

how this is going to go with some people in the

countdown tonight because it's a show i know

it's very special for a lot of people that are

speaking right now coming in at number seven

we have star trek enterprise no star trek bacula

oh With 1 ,436 points, it was on 20 lists as

highest ranked as number three. You know what,

Steve? I got to start with the person who has

a Star Trek podcast, Star Trek Generation coming

in top 10. You happy to see it here? Absolutely.

Out of all of the Star Trek shows, I'm definitely

glad this is the one that shows up in the top

10. This is probably, to me, one of the strongest.

written and casted Star Trek shows overall. Because

I've been given unusual powers, I am not suddenly

a monster. Except for these abilities. I don't

yet know how far they go. I'm the same William

T. Riker you've always known. Well. Everyone

still looks uncomfortable. Perhaps they're all

remembering that old saying, power corrupts.

And absolute power corrupts absolutely. Do you

believe I haven't thought of that, Jean -Luc?

And have you noticed how you and I are now on

a first -name basis? Number one, Will. Something

has happened already. Yes, the original series

was iconic, but I think this one even kind of

one -ups it. uh because without this they would

never have had the rest of the movies they would

never have had ds9 voyager or enterprise and

i i think that it just has the most staying power

as well as uh the fact that it had been emmy

nominated for several episodes um i think it

won for a couple of them like best of both worlds

um but it's it's it's i i find it the most intelligent

and in uplifting Star Trek show out of all of

them because it's just a lot of it's the cast

and the writing. Kevin, I know you're another

huge Star Trek fan. This was in your top 10.

Happy to see it fall here at number 7. Yeah,

I'm super happy that it's in the top 10. I'm

actually shocked that 20 people had this on their

list because I always thought that Star Trek

was something that... you either liked or there

was a lot of people out there that didn't really

care for it. So I'm happy that 20 people listed

this. I definitely think it deserves to be in

the top 10. It definitely deserves to be way

higher than the other Star Trek entries that

we already had in the top 100. And I guess my

biggest argument in support of this is not those

modern action and drama shows, notwithstanding

that I mentioned that I haven't seen enough of

like The Wire and West Wing, etc. I can't comment

on those, but out of all of these other shows

that we're talking about, this is probably one

of the most intelligently written shows that

we're talking about. I mean, the storytelling

that they do, the concepts that they tackle,

the metaphors and analogies and stuff that they

draw to how they relate it to different things

in life are really great. Like Steve said, the

characters, you can't bet against Patrick Stewart.

I mean, are you kidding me? There's just a lot

to love about this, and one thing that it did

do is it was, for the most part, pretty consistent.

I mean, any show that's on seven seasons is going

to have a stinker episode here or there, but

overall, it didn't seem that it ever really had

an entire season where you're like, well, that

season kind of was in the toilet. It was pretty

high caliber throughout, so I'm super happy that

it's top ten. Amanda, I know when we talked about

the original series, you said you're a Picard

girl, so are you happy to see Picard in the number

seven? Yeah, I'm not surprised to see it in the

top ten here. I've got it at 21, just because

I don't remember too much about individual episodes,

but... It definitely stuck with me. I remember

the look and the feel and how much I was engaged

and how much fun I had with it. So I'm glad to

sit here and no surprise that it made its way

to the top 10 in the geek -centric list. Reading

Rainbow represented. Take a look. I combined

those. That's why it's so high. I did not do

that. Don't. I don't think I did that. You did.

My thoughts on Star Trek The Next Generation.

This was my first Star Trek show as a kid in

87, 88, and I had seen a number of episodes over

and over and over again. It actually took Steve.

We were trying to get done, and we will eventually

get it done eventually. We were trying to do

a movie spotlight on MWire for the Star Trek

films, and he told me to... Which episode was

it that you told me to go watch? The one with

Scotty? What's the episode called? I don't know.

I'm not the... yeah he told me to go watch relics

and i go watch it and i thought the episode was

great and the best joke out of the whole series

with the original cast was my sharp my ship was

the original enterprise we didn't need any a

b c no he said he was he was contacting the holodeck

and said oh what a b c or d yeah It was absolutely

awesome. But I remember this as a kid watching

Jonathan Frakes as number one, watching LeVar

Burton as Geordi, watching Michael Dorn as Worf,

and obviously John Luke Picard with Patrick Stewart.

And this show just reshaped a lot of people's

minds to Star Trek because, as we've already

said, this show lasted, what, seven years? Seven

seasons? Seven seasons, four movies. That's the

other thing. I had seen Voyage Home and Undiscovered

Country and Final Frontier. I had seen bits and

pieces of those as a kid, but First Contact was

the very first Star Trek movie I ever actually

went to the theater and see. And without this

show, that movie would have never happened. And

honestly, without this show, we wouldn't have

the awesomeness that is DS9. Alright, DJ, any

thoughts on Star Trek Next Generation? Well,

I think I may have said this before. I was raised

at gunpoint as a Kirk guy. My stepfather was

like, you'll like Kirk. Oh, you're going to fucking

like him. But as I got older, I started to appreciate

Picard because at first I just thought he was

the old stick -in -the -mud guy. But the whole

Borg thing really gave him character. And then

when it got into, I found out that... Spoiler

alert, I guess. The whole situation... I'll tap

dance around it. The whole situation between

him and Sisko on Deep Space Nine, I thought that

was... It just gave him more character, and I

started to appreciate him. I'm still a Kurt guy.

Stepdad, don't kill me. But I do appreciate Picard,

and Patrick Stewart is a pimp. There's no way

around it. Patrick Stewart will always be a pimp.

The man doesn't age, for Christ's sake. And the

show... I liked... The transition it did for

the movie, some of the shows I caught sporadically,

but because of its longevity, which far surpasses

the original show, the original show's bread

and butter is the film, it's not the show, but

I can see it being on this list. I don't think

it should be this high. I don't think it should

be higher than The Wire. But, I mean, it's a

good show. I think I would have had a little

bit lower than this. I mean, it does have some,

I mean, it was the first show, the syndicated

show to be nominated for an Emmy. So that's similar

to Mad Men being the first show that went for

being a basic cable show. So it did, it did break

that ground in seven seasons, but all right.

Any other thoughts on Star Trek before we move

on to number six? 15 years ago, imagine when

the news came out in 2000 that Captain Jean -Luc

Picard was going to be Professor Xavier. I was

happy, because I was like, exactly like Professor

Xavier. Exactly, yeah, that was awesome. Alright,

well, for number six, I think number six might

be a surprise, but I'm kind of surprised it's

going to be a surprise, if that makes any sense.

I don't know. Alright, let's see how it goes.

Six. Coming in at number six, we are about to

enter a zone, the Twilight Zone. And in at number

six, with 1 ,453 points, it was on 19 lists.

Highest ranked as number one by two people. So

similar to The Wire, which was number one for

two people, this was also number one for two

people. Actually, Amanda, I will start with you

because you had this ranked on your list as well.

Surprised to see the Twilight Zone coming in

here at number six. Yeah, I had it. So quite

a bit off from my spot here. I do think that

it's super iconic and fun show. Definitely not

surprised it's ending up on this list, geek -centric

or not. Every time I drive in the snow at night

when you're... driving with the lights on and

there's no street lights and it looks like that

that warp i'd play the twilight zone song in

my head and um get a little freaked out but i

think that it uh i want to say it was revolutionary

i don't know because i wasn't living in that

time period but i feel like i feel like i'll

tell you what was going on at that time i do

feel like It deserves a spot on the list, but

I don't know about this high. Number one, two?

Two people ranked at number one? I'm pretty shocked

about that. You're serious? Kevin, any thoughts

on the Twilight Zone? I was trying to figure

out what the one surprise show was that was going

to make our top ten. didn't have it listed i'm

like i know every other show that's going to

show up and then there's one spot that i don't

have filled so this is it uh i think twilight

zone i did not rank it but i totally can see

it being in the top 100 i can even make uh see

people making an argument for top 25 especially

with a geek -centric list. I'm a little shocked

that people have this ranked number one, and

I think maybe top ten is a slight push to be

this high, but I can see an argument for the

top 25, so I don't have a big issue with it.

See, actually, I had it at number three, and

I think it is a top ten show, because if you

look at Influence, I think it's a show that's

influenced probably more so when it comes to

the realm of television, storytelling, movies,

than any other TV show. I mean... look at directors

like Spielberg and from more so than any look

at Twilight Zone and storytelling techniques

more so than anything, you know, so much so that

when they had the movies in the eighties, they

wanted to take part of it. If you were to look

at the best television episodes ever, I guarantee

you, if you did that list, that Twilight Zone

would probably have. up there as many as any

other shows. Its storytelling, its ability to

curate brilliant short stories episode per episode,

it was unlike anything. It's still today to that

level. You walk into this room at your own risk

because it leads to the future. Not a future

that will be, but one that might be. This is

not a new world. It is simply an extension of

what began in the old one. It has patterned itself

after every dictator who has ever planted the

ripping imprint of a boot on the pages of history

since the beginning of time. It has refinements,

technological advances and a more sophisticated

approach to the destruction of human freedom.

But like every one of the super states that preceded

it, it has one iron rule. Logic is an enemy and

truth is a menace. Any state, any entity, any

ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the

dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete.

A case to be filed under M for Mankind in the

Twilight Zone. I mean, so many shows have parodied,

used, from we just talked about Star Trek The

Next Generation, there are many episodes of that

show that are based on shows that came in because

of the Twilight Zone. Same thing with South Park,

same thing with other shows. It's kind of this...

flower that many people go back to to to then

retell i mean there's been so many movies that

have been made based upon twilight zone episodes

so many tv shows that have used it too so i do

think it's worthy of the top 10 and i think maybe

people don't they just think oh it's a sci -fi

show but if you go back and watch it it was high

caliber storytelling from television show that

was on caliber of other science fiction being

told at the time of anything that's probably

better than most of science fiction movies at

that time you know um Dan, did you have Alfred

Hitchcock Presents in your top 10, too, then?

I did not. I had that in my top 25. Do you think

there's much of a separation, though, between

the impact or the effect that either one of those

had? Definitely. I think Twilight Zone is...

Hitchcock had its impact, but it's not nearly

to the level of the Twilight Zone. I think I

need to go back and revisit both, because it's

been a long time since I've seen either one.

Did you see the newer... vibed one of the Twilight

Zone. I think... Are you speaking English? What's

His Nuts from 98 Degrees was actually on there,

and so was Jessica Simpson. No, I didn't see

it, no. Nick Lachey? Nick Lachey was actually

in a Twilight Zone. Why did we just mention those

two people? Why do I know that name? So easily,

yeah. There was that revival series. There was

one in the 80s as well. I do think sometimes

people... There might be a misunderstanding of

how great it was. Just to show you, I mean, Writers

Guild of America in 2013 rated it the third best

written TV show of all time. TV Guide, 50 greatest

TV shows of all time. It ranked within that,

within their top 25. TV Guide's 100 Greatest

Episodes of All Time, and it has three in the

top 11. There is a huge amount of respect out

there for it, and I think people just, I don't

know, maybe it's a novelty that people think

it was, but really, it's, I think, maybe a little

underappreciated. But anyways, I'll stop talking.

I think it also could depend on if people value

more of the, you know, individual stories and

individual writing like that versus maybe some

other people who like the overarching, you know,

five -season continuity storytelling mode. You

know what I mean? So I think some people could

gravitate one way or the other. I'm not saying

I'm either way. I just need to go back and revisit

it because I haven't seen it probably in over

a decade at least. I think it's still on Netflix

and Amazon Prime, if I'm not mistaken. I don't

know. I think it's quite the show. And like you

said, that could be because a lot of people think

of TV, they think of character building, but

the Twilight Zone, that's definitely not happening.

Though you could blame it that he may have given

us M. Night Shyamalan because he seems to try

to model his endings off of the Twilight Zone,

so that could be a negative. Steve or Mike, any

thoughts on the Twilight Zone? No, I haven't

seen much of it, but what I have seen of it,

of course, they're the old shorts, black and

white and everything, and I... love the the stuff

that i've seen of it um there's no denying that

it's had a impact on not only the kind of like

horror kind of mind screwing you know thriller

type uh sci -fi it's got a nice mix of everything

in it so i i can definitely see the appeal for

it and the reason that it's it's ranked this

high DJ, any other thoughts before we move on

to the next in the countdown? Pretty much whatever

you guys were saying. It's influenced so many

things. I'm not really big into this genre, but

I've seen the William Shatner one, which was

great, and the Talking Tina, which is essentially

Chucky. And without Twilight Zone, we wouldn't

have Black Mirror. I don't know if anybody's

seen Black Mirror. That show is ridiculous and

essentially is taking a lot from what the Twilight

Zone is doing. So, yeah, Twilight Zone, I think

this might be a little too high for me personally,

but it's a groundbreaking show. And I would probably

put it ahead of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. All

right. Any other thoughts before we move on to

number five? All right. Let's see what's next

in the countdown. Five. For number five, we are

returning to the world of comedy. As in number

five, we have, hello, Newman. Seinfeld with 1

,453 points. It was on 19 lists, highest ranked

as number one. So it was number one for one person.

No doubt the classic known as Seinfeld. Let's

see, Mike, we didn't hear from you last time.

So let's start with you here. Thoughts on seeing

Seinfeld fall here at number five. I remember

as a kid. My dad and my stepmom used to watch

it all the time. And at the time, we had had

one of those log cabins. And where my bedroom

was, it was the overhang kind of thing. So I

would essentially fall asleep to yada, yada,

yada. Or, you know, I was in the pool. You know,

just all this stuff. I'm actually going back

right now as we're doing this episode, as we're

doing this countdown. I'm actually watching every

single episode from all nine seasons because

they're all on Hulu. I did not remember because

when this came out, I was way too young for it.

I did not remember that season one was only five

episodes. Wow, I didn't even remember that. I

mean, it was just, well, because I'm going back

and watching it, like I said, on Hulu. But everything

about this show, I mean, you know, you got the

bow tie killer as Kramer. I mean, come on. Simply

amazing. And, you know. Lately, this year specifically,

I tend to use Serenity Now a lot. But the show,

the writing, the comedy, yeah, it's built around

Jerry's comedy act, and that's all well and good.

I'm glad they only do that at the beginning and

end of the show, and the rest of the show is

whatever story, whatever episode they're going

to do that week. But who did not absolutely love

Seinfeld? You're too young. This is definitely

one I need to revisit as an adult. I just could

not get on board at all with it. I think maybe

by the time I was watching it, it might have

been obviously in rerun form, I think. So none

of it really held up for me. The only thing I

remember is the soup Nazi and Elaine dancing

horribly and them sitting in a diner. I think

it definitely was too adult for my time. The

thing for me really quick, and I'll let everybody

else go, is I find myself in my life, obviously

we're all filled with choices, but for me personally,

there was two things that I took a completely

different path. And I've told part of this story

a lot of times. I could have either read a...

A book series about a former lingerie buyer turned

bounty hunter or Harry Plopper? Well, I picked

the former lingerie buyer turned bounty hunter.

I could watch Friends or I could watch Seinfeld.

Seinfeld is infinitely better than Friends in

my personal opinion. Agreed. It just has more

staying power. It has better written characters

than Friends did. I think that's certainly a

debate to have. Okay, let's move over to you

because you had this in your top 10 at number

10. So thoughts on seeing it fall within the

top five? I mean, this is a slam dunk show. It

has to be in the episode today, regardless of

where you put it or, you know, top 10, top 15,

top five. It's an automatic selection. I think

one thing that you get with, we have a theme

going in today's episode because I think we've

talked about the writing on at least half, if

not. 75 % of the shows we've listed today. It's

definitely what I think separates a lot of these

shows from some of the other ones that we've

talked about previous is the amount of intelligent

and just creative writing that we got in this.

And there was no show like Seinfeld before. It

broke the mold. So it's iconic. It belongs here.

There's no way you can argue that this is not

supposed to be talked about today. DJ, I know

you have a lot of love for Seinfeld, so happy

seeing it here at number five. I'm happy. The

thing about Vanna was saying she wanted to revisit

it. The good thing is you can, because all the

episodes kind of hold up. Pretty much hold up.

I mean, because the show is not really about

anything specifically timely. It's about the

weird things everyone does. They say it's a show

about nothing, but it's essentially about...

people and the weird crap that people do like

i don't want to ask this girl her name but i

know it rhymes with a female body part so i'll

just try and figure it out by this yelling mova

and you know all this other stuff it's just you

know these little piccadillos that everybody

has it makes fun of and you can those aren't

going away those they had them in the 50s they

have them now they'll have them in the future

that's what makes it great and it's one of the

few like uh laugh tracky kind of shows that i

like it's a marriage with children and this where

you know the audience is there's some i prefer

my comedy without the laugh track but this is

one of those shows where the writing was so good

the characters are so fleshed out and their own

thing elaine is completely, is funny in a completely

different way than Kramer is funny, who is completely

different, who is different than George is funny,

and has Seinfeld's funny, or Newman, or any of

these guys, Soup Nazi, everybody. Mandalay industry.

There's so many great stuff that's coming out

of this show. What was the lawyer? The Johnny

Cochran ripoff. I always forget his freaking

name. Jackie Childs. Jackie Childs was awesome.

That was Phil Morris. Oh, my God. Another one

of these shows where any character that comes

in usually knocks it out. Uncle Leo. There's

crazy characters out of anywhere. And it's not

like... Jerry, hello. It was Jerry. Where you

just have little things. people do and we're

bringing attention to it. If it's the masturbation

episode, it's the girl with the man hands, it's

John Drudge Reinhold, the close talker. It's

just so many little things that are in this show

that just make it hold up forever, I think. Kramer,

I'm out. I'm out. Contest is one of the greatest

things ever. Kramer turning into Kenny Rogers'

chicken and Numa wanting to eat him. Kramer getting

thrown into the river in a sack. There's just

so much good stuff going on in Sci -Fi. Steve,

any thoughts before we move on to the next in

the countdown? Nope. Fair enough. We're getting

into the nitty -gritty here, so let's see what's

happening with our next entry. Four. Well, we

knew where we'd get this show eventually. The

question was when we were returning to the world

of animation. So you can guess what show this

is. As in number four, we have those zany Simpsons

as the Simpsons with 1548 points. It was on 19

lists. This was ranked number three by three

people. So we've had one show ranked number one

by two people. This is by far the one ranked.

won by the most people so far in the countdown.

Steve, we ended with you last time. Let's start

with you here. Thoughts on seeing The Simpsons

fall at number four? I'm not surprised. Surprised

that it's number four, yes, but not surprised

that it's on the list. It's been one of those

shows that I think almost everybody's watched

at some point in their life. Bandolier, silencer,

loudener, speed cocker. Ooh, I like the sound

of that. And this is for shooting down police

helicopters. Oh, I don't need anything like that.

Yet. Just give me my gun. Sorry, the law requires

a five -day waiting period. We've got to run

a background check. Five days? But I'm mad now!

I'd kill you if I had my gun. Yeah, well, you

don't. And like I said earlier, yeah, they aren't

the most up -to -date with their stuff, but I

still find the show very entertaining. And they

do tend to get a lot more of the actual guests

to show up, of celebrities to voice characters.

Even if it's not them playing themselves or a

character that they played, it's still fun to

see. You know, like the Monorail episode, you

get Leonard Nimoy showing up by the end of it.

and and beaming away and and written by conan

o 'brien yeah i mean it's it's it's a it's a

really well done show and and all these guys

that have been on it for the you know the last

what 25 years um have have just knocked it out

of the park to i mean yeah it's it's kind of

repetitive at some points and in old and yeah

they've switched some stuff up this year but

it's uh it's still an iconic show even from way

back when Mike, thoughts on seeing The Simpsons

fall here? I think it's good. The Simpsons to

me, honestly, is 89 to 92. Don't get me wrong,

I've watched it the whole time, but that, when

it debuted on Fox as its own separate thing with

Santa's Little Helper outside of the Tracy Ullman

show, and then going into 1990 -91, that was

the... That was the apex of Bartmania. I had

every single thing Bart Simpson back then. It

was just simply amazing. They've done musical

albums. They've done all this stuff. Probably

the first show to really expose a comic book

guy. You know, I mean, honestly, 25 years or

well, I think it's on season 27 at this point.

But, you know. Simpsons, life well spent. Definitely,

definitely. TJ, moving on over to you. I'm guessing

with the debate, South Park, Simpsons. I think

now in my life I'm a South Park guy, but it's

undeniable. Everybody was a Simpsons person.

It started off as a Bart the Bart show, and then

it turned into the Homer show. And near, man,

right around that time. It started to fall. Right

around the time South Park kind of came around

is where I think Simpsons, for me personally,

was kind of falling off a little bit. But it's,

again, it was a phenomenon. I had the lunchbox.

I had the Bartman t -shirt. I had everything.

I think it should have maybe ended. maybe 10

seasons ago just for its own legacy sake because

now you're going to have all these seasons that

have been out that are kind of tarnishing but

how many times have you run at home to watch

the Halloween episodes those are one of the greatest

you got to see Homer Simpson kill his own son

literally kill him but yeah the way they were

messing with pop culture I think South Park has

now transcended them and done it a little bit

smarter for me personally i know people still

love the simpsons and they worship the altar

of matt groening so but yeah simpsons is a great

great show i just i think now where it is now

i don't think it would be this high but if you're

taking overall and what it did for animation

in general you know for adults i can understand

it being this high especially sunday night prime

time animation that was amazing seth mcfarland

needs to be like thank god you existed yeah you

know i you know you mentioned all the merchandise

and i mentioned earlier too i remember when desert

storm was going on i had a rambart shirt rambart

i remember it was so awesome you're alive during

desert storm We all were. I'm 35 years old. World

War II, I was there. No, probably not. Early

90s. Amanda, you had this ranked pretty high

as well at 13, so do you think it's deserving

of the top 10 here? Or top 5, actually, as we're

getting Simpsons at number 4? Yeah, I guess so.

I think that... i might like south park as a

show i might enjoy that one better but i think

as a quality show overall um i can see how it

it beat out south park um i think i had like

a pizza hut puppet or something like that a bart

simpson like a doll something like that but um

i never never made it a point to watch it if

it was on i'd watch it um whereas south park

i'm like it's wednesday i gotta watch this new

episode guys um so that's where my bias lies

but i'm glad i definitely made the top 25 uh

kevin any thoughts on the simpsons i guess i'm

in the minority i've never owned anything that

had simpsons on it whatsoever um i didn't watch

it as a kid i didn't watch it as a teenager i

don't watch it as an adult doesn't conan write

for it now He used to. I'm with DJ and Amanda.

I would rather watch South Park. I'm not surprised

with its longevity and how much acclaim it gets.

It's an easy pick for everybody to put on top.

I think there might have been a couple people

that didn't get to help us create our top 100

animated series list that they felt left out,

so they wanted to give some extra love to some

animated shows. But this definitely deserves

to be on the episode today. I don't know if I

put it ahead of three or four of the other shows

we've talked about, though. Yeah, I think it's

a little a tattoo I do think it's deserving of

top 10 not just because of longevity because

with an animated show you're kind of you have

a You know, kind of an unfan advantage there

a little bit. But its first ten seasons were

brilliant, were some of the best TV ever. And

it gets kind of a label of, like, dumb, similar

to South Park, where it's just, like, bark jokes.

But Simpsons, at itself, too, was, I would even

argue, at times, smarter than that of South Park

when it was at its best, when you had some of

the people like Conan Dana Gould. It was more

layered to it. Because South Park is certainly

great as a satirical force. But I think what

Simpsons had, too, was it was able also to humanize

its characters in a way that South Park couldn't.

And honestly, I think if you asked Matt Stone

and Trey Parker, they would tell you that South

Park is a better show, as they show in the Simpsons

Did It episode, where I think it was definitely

them showing some love for the Simpsons and kind

of knocking on the family a little bit. But I

do agree. It's probably, I don't know. know four

is a little high i think it has the fact that

it's been on for such a long time certainly has

impact on it for sure but uh and it's you know

can't deny it's iconic and also gave us some

pretty awesome sega genesis games so it's a market

so can't can't can't deny that either so all

right well we're getting down to the very nitty

-gritty of this countdown as we're getting to

our top three three Coming in at number three,

we are getting possibly our last modern drama.

As we're getting, say my name, you know my name,

Breaking Bad. Coming in at number three with

1 ,549 points. Highest ranked, this again was

number one for three people. It was on 18 lists.

DJ, let's start with you here. Thoughts on Breaking

Bad falling in here at number three? Vince Gilligan,

man, he's... I mean, this guy went from X -Files.

He probably did some stuff in the middle. But

to have X -Files and Breaking Bad on your resume

ain't too goddamn shabby. And I only knew Cranston

from Malcolm in the Middle. So when I got into

this show, I was like, I didn't know what it

was. Is this a comedy? And now Bryan Cranston

is considered one of the finest actors we have

working right now. And his turn, his arc on this

show. because i at the time i was stupid i didn't

understand what the point of the show was but

probably around the end of season one i was like

oh i know where this is gonna go this is showing

how this guy essentially breaks bad how this

guy goes from this put upon charlie brown -esque

person who's dying To this arch villain, essentially

the origin story of a supervillain. You are not

some hardened criminal, Walt. You are in over

your head. That's what we tell them. That's the

truth. That is not the truth. Of course it is.

A school teacher, cancer, desperate for money.

Okay, we're done here. Roped into working for,

unable to even quit. You told me that yourself,

Walt. Jesus, what was I thinking? Walt, please,

let's both of us stop trying to justify this

whole thing and admit you're in danger. Who are

you talking to right now? Who is it you think

you see? Do you know how much I make a year?

I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe

it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly

decided to stop going into work? A business.

Big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ.

Goes belly up. Disappears. It ceases to exist

without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're

talking to. So let me clue you in. I am not in

danger, Skyler. I am the danger. A guy opens

his door and gets shot and you think that of

me? No. I am the one who knocks. That's great.

Aaron Paul, this is probably the best work he's

done. I'm not a big Aaron Paul fan, but this

is where he's tolerable for me. Damn sure I ain't

need for speed. But yeah, you have so many great

performances on here by very good character actors.

And it's just a good... Ryan Johnson's directing

episodes. Ozymandias may be one of the greatest

drama episodes for any show. So yeah, Breaking

Bad's an amazing show. I think this... I think

I probably... I can understand it being this

high. I don't know if I'd have it... Oh, man.

Top three. I mean, it's a great show. It's tough.

But, I mean, it's undeniable how great Bryan

Cranston is and how great the writing is and

how great the direction is of the show. And the

story. Yeah, definitely. Kevin, any thoughts

on Breaking Bad Falling Here? I would have expected

this to fall along with all the other ones that

we were talking about, with The Wire and West

Wing and Mad Men and 24. I'm surprised that this

one has separated itself somewhat from the group.

I guess I'm just not keen enough on which ones

of these shows people like the most. I've heard

way more good things about The Wire than I have

Breaking Bad. So I'm not shocked that it's on

the countdown. I'm not shocked that it's in the

top 25. I think number three is kind of pushing

it. I don't know. I don't think it is, honestly.

I think when you look at character arcs, I think

Breaking Bad may have one of the best in TV history

by far. It's a show that certainly takes its

time, but legitimately, the words tread lightly.

There's so much... like i couldn't tell you just

the but you have my west wing ahead of this didn't

you i did i did i had this at 10 but i i i don't

i think three is i don't think it's pushing it

i think it's a top 10 show for sure doing research

i saw nearly like this was one top one and a

lot of other lists in top five i rarely was it

outside the top ten for most of the list that

that i saw and not not to mention brian you know

going at the accolades again brian kranz it's

one of the first shows to benefit from the netflix

netflix effect where the ratings were kind of

like you know minuscule for such a long time

But as it's kind of word of mouth spread, its

series got thrown on Netflix, people caught up

with it. So its last season was like ridiculously

high rated when nothing else before that actually

was up to that level. So I think it showed it

definitely benefits from a marathon watching.

And similar to The Wire, it's a show that certainly

it takes its time. It lets things develop. But

like I said, those words tread lightly. It's

just I could not tell you just the satisfaction

of what that. felt like hearing those words in

in that moment because it was unexpected so i

kind of maybe ruined it a little bit but it was

just i don't know it just showed you just the

trajectory of this character and when he went

in heisberg but uh i mean i mean i could see

some people saying it maybe it's a case of what's

recent but I don't know I think looking at again

the talent that's involved here when you have

the director of the next Star Wars movie directing

Breaking Bad I think if anything it's only going

to rise because people are going to be like oh

that's where I mean Rian Johnson did things like

Looper and obviously and Brick but certainly

has his impact felt here but Amanda any thoughts

on Breaking Bad? This is one that I've only seen

the first two episodes and I couldn't really

get on board and I know that There's such a widespread

love for this show that at some point I'm going

to have to catch up with pop culture and get

on board with the show. I think I had this in

the 30s simply because of the following I know

that it has. I think if it's worth it, this is

one that I'm definitely going to have to throw

on the list from this list that I haven't watched

that I need to. The first season definitely even,

it's very... you know methodical pacing wise

so i think it that that can turn a lot of people

up to i think having high expectations for anything

and i think the danger with tv and what we could

probably talk about this more in the wrap -up

episode is that the opinion of it is so varied

that it's almost impossible to i feel like no

matter what show you're going to get maybe a

few people are going to throw that it's too high

you know once you get into the top five it's

almost like there's a it gets dangerous no matter

what you're picking All right. Well, we have

two shows left. Let's see what's left in the

countdown. Two. Before I reveal number two, I

didn't emphasize this enough, but number four

was 1 ,548 points. Number three was 1 ,549 points.

And number two. It's 1 ,550 points. So in these

three spots, we went up three points. To show

you how close this list was. Where the difference

between two and four, very close to one another.

So it's razor sharp here. And Seinfeld was not

that far behind with 136. So when we're getting

into this top five, again, we're hearing a lot

of debate here. Because I think there's no universal

thought. But I don't think we'll have any issue

with this one coming in at number two. Though

some people may say it's not high enough. But

I'm glad at least... made it this high. Coming

in at number two we have... With 1 ,550 points,

like I mentioned, it's highest ranked as number

one. So it was number one for one person. It

was on 20 lists. So Breaking Bad was top three

for three people. MASH was only top one for one

person, but it was on more lists. So again, a

benefit of having a lot of people loving it and

additionally to being ranked high. Kevin, I know

you thought Breaking Bad was too high. Are you

okay with MASH falling here at number two? It's

interesting. The shows that have... been on 20

lists because it seems like there's only muppet

show star trek and mash it's an interesting collection

of shows that and there might have been a couple

other ones but i'm not surprised this is in number

two i would not have been upset or raised a stink

if it no matter where it landed in the top 10.

But I think it was expected that it would be

somewhere in the top 10 just for what it was,

its style of comedy, its award acclaim. I think

it was nominated for Best Comedy every single

season it was out. It was in the top 10 of ratings,

9 out of its 11 seasons. And everybody knows

MASH. It has probably one of the most popular

television episodes of all time. Is it still

the highest rated episode? episode of all time

it's the highest rated yet tv show of all time

still to this day yeah so i mean there's no arguing

that it belongs in the top 10 i think as far

as where it places in the top 10 it just depends

on who you're pulling and what they're uh what

kind of things they put more stock in where some

of their personal bias will kind of land but

i i think number two is pretty impressive for

us with uh kind of the different trends that

we've shown in the overall list that we still

have this at number two i'm kind of impressed

with that I guess if you consider this a sitcom,

would you say this belongs, looking at it probably

being ranked as really a high sitcom, would you

say that's correct as the highest -ranked sitcom?

I think that's tough. I think you throw in I

Love Lucy and All in the Family in that conversation

as well, and I could see people making debates

and arguments for all three of those. I'm not

sure which one I would land on. Mike, any thoughts

on MASH? I remember this show as a kid watching

it. All I really remember, though, is Alan Alda

and his character. No, seriously. Honestly, I

have not watched M .A .S .H. in over 15 years.

What I do remember recently, I believe it was

recently, wasn't there an article somewhere online

where it's like, hey, the M .A .S .H. theme song

actually has lyrics, but it couldn't be played

on air. uh because suicide is painless was the

line they got yeah yeah it's one of those shows

again that i'm gonna have to go back to uh and

and see if you know as an adult i really get

what was going on with that show uh dj any thoughts

on mash well uh i remember the korean war no

um It was not nearly as bad as the War of 1812.

Oh, God. The War of 1812 was rough, but the Korean

War was a little bit of a kid. No, I was never

really a mash fan. Did Igabod Crane join us on

this show? This isn't Sleepy Hollow. Perhaps

I did join you. No. No, I never was a big mash

fan. I was a comic book reader, and I remember

there was a guy named Hawkeye, and I realized

he wasn't the Hawkeye. I was like, oh, what the

hell? But no, no. Alan Alda was the only person.

I think he was the... He was the George Clooney

of MASH. Because without MASH, there is no ER.

It's a very precursor to that where, you know,

it's a medical show, medical comedy. But they

did have very dramatic moments in it. But I never

was a big fan. But the records it still holds

and has broken and what it did and how it influenced

the country and stuff like that, it's undeniable.

So, yeah, being in number two, I can understand.

Secretary Stack? Yes, please. Potatoes? Fine.

Cream corn? Thank you. And for the entree today?

Here it comes. Steady. We have liver or fish?

I didn't hear you say that. Because it isn't

possible. It's inhuman to serve the same food

day after day. The Geneva Convention prohibits

the killing of our taste buds. Easy. I simply

cannot eat the same food every day. Fish, liver,

day after day. I've eaten a river of liver and

an ocean of fish. I've eaten so much fish, I'm

ready to grow gills. I've eaten so much liver,

I can only make love if I'm smothered in bacon

and onions. Are we going to stand for this? Are

we going to let them do this to us? No, I say,

no! We're not going to eat this dreck anymore!

We want something else! We want something else!

We want something else! We want something else!

I don't think you can get a show that's better

at mashing that of drama and comedy better than

that of mash. I think the episode that... Oh,

wow. Yeah, that was an unintentional pun. And

I'm going to eat some mashed potatoes. Wow, that's...

It's late. Sorry about that. Frank Castle needs

to hunt you down for that one. We go way back.

The episode that comes to mind is one of the

first episodes I saw. which was bad because I

know it's looked at as one of the best with the

chicken episode. And I think it was way too young

to watch it. And it's still kind of, uh, for

those that don't know, I don't want to spoil

it, but basically it's, it's rather shocking,

but very poignant at the same time. You know,

we talked about it, you know, had a hundred Emmy

award nominations, which was weird, less than

cheers, but still, uh, you know, in its 11 year

run, it. It's won tons and tons of awards. It's

Peabody's to Writers Guild's awards. Its impact

on TV is undeniable. And I think to this day

still is recognized as such a phenomenal show.

So I do think like, you know, MASH is one where

you, like Kevin mentioned, you place it within,

it has to be within the top 10 someplace. I'm

happy we got so much love. Some people may have

just ranked it off reputation, which happens,

but I do think it's deserving. I am wondering

if people are kind of scratching their heads

at what could be number one, because I was kind

of surprised at what it ended up being, but I

don't know. Any thoughts before we move on to

the final number one in our town? We're on the

brink of everybody getting upset about shows

that don't make it. Airwolf is a very good show,

I'm telling you. It's going to be okay. Just

say it. Go ahead. All right. Well, it's all come

down to this, as they say, as we get into the

last of the countdown. And one. I know. I feel

like we need some sort of drum roll or something

of that nature. To put in some perspective, number

one, it obviously had the most points. It was

on the most lists. It was only a number one for

one person, though, but I think it benefited

by the fact that it was on 22 lists. Coming in

at number one, we have Caroline in the City.

No, that's... Oh, boy. I was about to literally

jump out of the window I'm looking at. That was

on the opposite end of the top 100. I stole Kevin's

joke from last countdown. Well played. No, really

coming in at number one live from New York. It

is Saturday nights as in Saturday night live

coming in with fifteen hundred and sixty three

points again and only beat mask by 13 points.

So that's really one person ranking it over another

person making it this high. Like I said, it was

number one for one person. I know it's dangerous

calling any show the best show of all time. I

mean, there's certainly some argument here for

Saturday Night Live. But you can kind of see

this coming if you saw how much love sketch comedy's

got. So let's see. Kevin, let's start with you

here. Thoughts on seeing Saturday Night Live

being at this end of the countdown? I think it

benefits from a couple things here. I think the

arguments for it, obviously longevity. I mean,

it's been on for 40 seasons. Not a lot of shows

can say that. Number two. everybody can remember

at least one sketch from saturday night live

that they really love or one cast member or uh

loves a cast member that went on to make you

know series of movies there's different decades

there's different you know casts that people

can like point to i think if anybody's going

to make an argument against it it might be to

a consistency level and and kind of play into

what dj was saying along with some of the other

sketch comedies that maybe like with a chapelle

show or something else that was more consistent

as far as uh number of good skits and that type

of stuff so i mean i think maybe some people

could point to that as an argument for maybe

not being number one but i definitely can see

with the number of sketch comedies that we've

had on the list that this one would be at the

near the top and a pretty obvious pick for for

number one once We saw everything else that had

been revealed. So I think it's interesting. I

don't know how people will react to this one.

I can see it being ranked. I had it in the top

25. I had it at number 24. So I'm not super upset

with it being here. I wouldn't personally put

it at number one, but I can see the argument

both ways. Amanda, you had it not far off. So

happy seeing it here at number one? Yeah, my

number two slot felt good. for this but um not

a big surprise to see it at number one uh skills

just saying on my part uh but uh there's no way

that you can deny the power of the show um and

like kevin said the cast from the different um

casts that they've had there's so many um iconic

faces that have come from this show um and all

the skits and you know just because they're not

all the best skits doesn't mean that it really

does take away from the show. It spawns some

movies that I love. A Night at the Roxbury is

one of my favorite movies ever. The Ladies' Man.

Nobody was expecting those two movies to be done.

I know. I really love Stuart Saves His Family.

That's my favorite. The other thing that this

series did is because it's been on for so long

and because it's a live show, it also has kind

of a historic thing, too, where it's been around

for a lot of different events. You think of the

episode, you know, around 9 -11 or different

things like that. So, I mean, it's also had something

to say from a cultural standpoint, too, and kind

of the role that a television show can play.

But I didn't mean to cut you off, Mandy. Keep

going. I did. Even bringing it today in. I saw

an article about what they did in response to

the horrible stuff that happened in Paris, how

their cold opening, they opted out of doing a

funny sketch, and they did a very serious tribute,

and it was perfect. It was really, really well

done, and it shows the sensitivity of the people

who are... who are putting on this production.

And as much as they will poke fun at Donald Trump

and whoever they can, they do take on some issues

that I think are relevant and need to be at least

made light of sometimes and shows compassion

where need to do. Mike, do you think Saturday

Night Live deserves the top spot that we've awarded

it? Yeah, I do. Because if you think about this...

I'm going to make a 20 -year -old movie reference

here. This is essentially television's version

of Mr. Holland's Opus. In Mr. Holland's Opus,

you had four different decades or five different

decades of music. Look how many different decades

and different hosts Saturday Night Live and cast

members Saturday Night Live has had. Whether

it's Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase, whether it's

Eddie Murphy, whether it's Chris Rock, whether

it's Daryl Hammond. Look at everything, you know,

Will Ferrell, you know, look at everything that

this show has done, and how can you not say it's

a number one joke? I mean, it's touched everyone's

life over the past 40 years in one way or another.

Welcome. How are you? Welcome, Pete. We like

the name of your store. Hi, thanks for having

me. Now, did I pronounce your name correctly?

You sure did. Pete Schweddy. Well, Pete, Terry

and I have been looking forward to having you

on the show because we know you're the master

of all kinds of Christmas goodies. Tell us about

them. Well, there are lots of great treats at

this time of year. Zucchini bread, fruitcake.

But the thing that I most like to bring out at

this time of year are my balls. Mmm. Mmm. Balls.

Tell us about your balls, Pete. Well, over at

Season's Eatings, we have balls for every taste.

Popcorn balls, cheese balls, rum balls, you name

it. Wow. My mouth's watering just thinking about

those balls. It's been years since I've seen

any balls. Would you like to see my balls now?

Yeah. Whip them out. DJ, any thoughts on Saturday

Night Live? I wouldn't have it at number one,

but it's changed the landscape of comedy. It's

essentially a breeding ground to maybe the greatest

comedians we've ever seen, from Eddie Murphy

to Bill Murray to Gilda Radner. Robert Downey

Jr. was on Saturday Night Live. Chris Rock was

on Saturday Night Live. We don't want to remember

those. I mean, good or bad, he was there. You

know what I'm saying? So Lorne Michaels was essentially

like, if you're funny, Lorne Michaels knows you

exist. He's finding you. You know what I'm saying?

Or if you have any type of talent. When we were

coming up with the idea for our show, our podcast,

we were trying to say, you know, we should do

cold opens like Saturday Night Live. It's always

in the back of your mind. Let's do it kind of

like Saturday Night Live. It's not the baseline

of comedy shows or sketch shows. We're like the

black Saturday Night Live or we're the weird

Saturday Night Live. But Saturday Night Live

is the baseline for sketch comedy and maybe comedy.

It's got to be up there. But I think this might

be too high for me for as great a show as it

is. And I remember hearing that they were going

to stop that show right around the time Eddie

Murphy came on. And Eddie Murphy essentially

saved that show. But its longevity makes it great.

I don't know if I'd have it so high. But again,

it's impacted everything. yeah i mean i agree

i don't know i had in my top 10 but i mean i

know when you get this high it's almost like

it's impossible really to say anything deserves

it really but i know like we mentioned longevity

and because it's a sketch tv show does fit into

the mold of what we like today like i don't watch

saturday night live when it's on but i'll probably

catch it on monday youtube like this week and

like watching on youtube and the digital shorts

and it really fits in kind of it's almost like

ahead of its time in that way and it's it's always

had to try to evolve sometimes it's taken too

long, but you know. Again, like Kevin mentioned,

the one knock on it is probably consistency because

there are some years that are not that great.

I forget what it was, but I was reading something

that mostly universally people think the best

years of Saturday Night Live are the years that

they were in middle school. And very rarely do

you hear Saturday Night Live is the best it's

ever been. It's usually like, it was better back

then. And then it's like, it was better back

then. It's just this continuously thing because

during the Adam Sandler years and during the

90s. early 90s, late 90s, like that was never

looked at as all that phenomenal, but a lot of

people look back and think it was great. So it's

just a product of the fact that a lot of the

bad sketches go away and a lot of the great ones

still, you know, to this day ring supreme. And

I think you do kind of see the love for it when

you see something like the 40th anniversary episode

where... You had all these people coming back

and celebrating it in that way. So is it number

one worthy? I don't know. I don't know necessarily

I've ever watched it and thought this is the

best TV show of all time. But I think there is

an argument there. I don't think it's necessarily

all that outrageous. But I don't know. All right.

Any other thoughts on Saturday Night Live before

we take a break? All right, well, let's take

a quick break. When we come back, we'll just

do a little roundabout of the countdown so far

before we lead into our final conclusion episode

next week. I'm Colin Baker. My name's Fraser

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Simon Fisher -Becker. This is Ian McNeese. Hi,

this is Travis Ritchie. You're listening to this

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so the countdown is over, and I'm sure we made

some people angry, made some people happy. It's

kind of the nature of this business, really.

DJ, you're the guest here, so let's get your

thoughts here on the overall countdown of today.

What are you thinking? I'm upset the wire's not

number one, so I'm going to be very selfish.

No, no, no. The way this is formatted, you're

really going to get, the way we did the voting

and stuff, you're really going to get like a

high. I did not know what was going to happen,

which usually you go on one of these list things,

and you're like, okay, it's going to be this,

this, this. I had no idea, and everybody has

an outlook on different. things that influence

them and things that they have to put there because

it's great and you have to put it there. But

I'm happy The Wire got up this high. I'm happy

The West Wing got up this high. I'm happy The

Muppets got up this high. And there were certain

surprises that were higher than them, like Saturday

Night Live or Twilight Zone for me or Star Trek

for me. But I think it was good. I'm a little...

Despite that I wasn't in the bottom 100 because

there were some that were there, I wanted way,

way higher so I could argue my piece. I'm curious

what those might have been. Mr. Robot. I'm sorry.

You wanted a number one. We know. You wanted

actually just a countdown, a top 100 where each

one is Mr. Robot. Yes. I was going to have episode

one be number one, episode two be number two.

No. Mike, thoughts on the countdown as we have

finished it up with our finally revealing our

completely top 100? It's interesting to say the

least. As I've said before, out of the three

top 100s we've done, it's probably the most interesting.

I think the top 10, a lot of people that have

been commenting on the website, they're going

to be pretty upset because their predictions

did not come true. I'm alright with it. Hey,

at least my number one didn't even make the list,

though. So there is that. No, hey, I'm glad it

didn't make the list, honestly, because it's

one of those things where I wouldn't have to

worry about it falling in the 90s or the 80s

or whatever else, and everyone can just calm

the hell down, because not even Walker Texas

Ranger made this list. You're not the only one.

A few number ones did not make the list. We can

kind of talk about that at the final episode,

but Amanda, any... specific episode show that

surprised you good or bad as we got into the

top 25 um i'm also one of those people's their

number one didn't even make the list super sad

but um the episode uh this episode as a whole

i'm glad that so many of my higher ranking shows

did at least make the list um You know, there

were so many surprises along the way that I'm

not really sure. And, of course, there's a ton

of my favorites. Elf didn't even get a mention.

MacGyver didn't get a mention. So I think there's

going to be some interesting talks in the wrap

-up episode. Kevin, I know we had a lot of modern

stuff. We still had some modern stuff today,

but you're at least happy we got some classics

in the top ten? Yeah, I mean, for a long time

I had... what, 70, 80 of my shows that weren't

even mentioned, but I think I ended up 50 -50.

50 of my shows made it, 50 of my shows didn't,

so I guess I can't complain too much. I'm glad

that we did get some love for some classics.

I think we definitely had some explaining to

do for a few select classics that did not even

make it in the top 100, which we'll obviously

get to in the wrap -up, but a little surprised

at the number one, but I had it definitely as

one of the ones that was going to be in the top

25, so just the exact order kind of shocked me

a little bit, but I was... pretty right on with

most of the shows that I thought were going to

show up in today's episode. So today's episode

I'm pretty happy with. I think there is going

to be some interesting discussions during the

wrap -up, though. Yeah, I think, you know, we

saw some shows that came in the top 25 that shouldn't

definitely not be there. Like we mentioned already,

Daredevil, some things that may be too high,

some things that may be too low. I Love Lucy,

for example. Yeah, I should definitely be a top

10, just saying that. Just throwing that out

there. I know SNL being number one. I get it.

I understand why it happened. I necessarily,

again, it's more so when you do a list of this

manner, the way we did it, it's where you have

exposure, people being aware of something, and

I think SNL being what it is definitely benefits

and maybe... A little bit too much. I don't know.

Be curious what people have to say. But we're

not done with the countdown, as we've mentioned.

We're going to have one more episode where we

kind of reflect on it, look at what made it,

what didn't. Maybe give some honorable mentions

of the shows that just barely missed the countdown.

Maybe reveal some of the number ones of people's

lists that, you know, did not make it because

there were quite a few. Like I said, it took

a lot to make the top 100. But no, if anything,

I just want to thank all those that were. taking

the time to comment on the episode, positive

or negatively. We appreciate the constructive

criticism or the constructive phrase, whatever

way you want to put it. Any other thoughts before

we bring this episode to a close? I'm just interested

to get to the wrap -up so we can delve into this

a little bit more and hopefully appease some

of the people that didn't get their shows talked

about. Certainly, certainly. And we talked about

different ideas of approaching this and maybe

doing it differently in different ways and seeing

how that goes out. But DJ, I'd like to thank

you again for coming on. Mike and Amanda and

Kevin as well. But anyways, we hope you appreciated

and enjoyed our look at the top 100 TV shows

of all time. Thanks for listening. And remember,

always unleash the geek in you. On the Geek Cast

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