The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

A - F

The Daily Show

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Jon Stewart's nightly fake-newscast has become a bold, truth-telling Onion of the air for a cynical, disaffected, not-as-ill-informed-as-you-might-think audience. And while we journalists often characterize the show as being about politics, it's really about us: the show has nailed the reflexive media impulse to rationalize conventional wisdom, to sensationalize, and to reduce everything important to a branded phrase and a dandy graphic. ("Mess O'Potamia," e.g., for the war in Iraq.) Stewart and company have found the B.S. detector that stenographic media outlets seem to have thrown in the trash, cleaned it off, souped it up, and cranked up its sensitivity to 11.

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How I Chose The List

Adding to this list would be easy; taking shows off is the tricky part. How did I settle on this list? I set a few guidelines...

Talk Back

What is your all-time favorite TV show?

Which films should have been included and weren't? Did we leave off any of your favorites? Were any shows on the list more influential than others? Tell us what you think

Blogs

Tuned In

TIME's TV critic James Poniewozik blogs daily on all visual media. Join the discussion here

A - F

From Abbott and Costello to Friends

G - M

From General Hospital to Mystery Science Theater 3000

N - S

From The Odd Couple to Survivor

T - Z

From Taxi to Your Show of Shows

100 Best Movies

Presenting the 100 best films as chosen by TIME's movie critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel

All-TIME 100 Albums

A list of the greatest and most influential records ever by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light

100 Best Novels

TIME critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo pick the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present