The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME

A - F

The Ed Sullivan Show

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For someone under 40, seeing Ed Sullivan on a television screen is astonishing. Stooped, brusque and imposing, he seems not only pre-televisual, but prehistoric. (His contemporaries nicknamed him "Old Stone Face.") This guy brought us The Beatles? And yet for over two decades Sullivan defined pop culture every Sunday night. By making comfortable older viewers who had grown up before TV, the square Sullivan bridged the generation gap like a Soviet-bloc leader transitioning from socialism to runaway capitalism. Then the revolution overtook him; The Rolling Stones mocked him, The Doors defied him and the young audience finally clicked away from him. But not before he established TV as America's new arbiter of taste and tastelessness.

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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...

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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