-
ADD TIME NEWS
- MOBILE APPS
- NEWSLETTERS
The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME
"First, I apologize. I know I left some of your favorite shows off this list. How do I know that? Because I left some of my favorite shows off this list. The happy and unfortunate fact is that there are far more than 100 great shows, and more created every year. Lists are incredibly important: they are how we define what matters to us, what we want entertainment and art to do, what we expect of our culture."
TIME TV critic James Poniewozik
MTV 1981-1992
In a way, a list of the 100 best TV shows misses the point of how people watch TV in the cable era: they watch networksHGTV, ESPN, Nickelodeonas much as they do shows. MTV, in the pre-Real World era, was the first network to teach viewers to watch this way, when the moon man planted its flag and killed the radio star in 1981. Quick-cut and compressedvideo in concentrate formmusic videos were not just a new way of selling music: they changed TV series (the pitch for Miami Vice was simply, "MTV cops") and influenced movies (graduating directors like Spike Jonze, David Fincher and Michel Gondry). The best clips from MTV's all-video '80s heydayfrom Michael Jackson to Talking Headscaptured the power of the music, rather than replacing it. MTV taught us to see with our ears and listen with our eyes.
View the full list for "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME"Special Features:
Most Popular »
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere
- Female Sexual Dysfunction: Myth or Malady?
- The Fall of Greg Craig, Obama's Top Lawyer
- New Moon Review: Team Jacob Ascending
- Fat Fees and Smoker Surcharges: Tough-Love Health Incentives
- Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
- The Story of Barack Obama's Mother
- Low Prices and Booze Put Brunch on the Rise
- For Churches, Beefed-Up Security Is a Mixed Blessing
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- For Churches, Beefed-Up Security Is a Mixed Blessing
- Tuition Hikes: Protests in California and Elsewhere
- Fat Fees and Smoker Surcharges: Tough-Love Health Incentives
- Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin
- Female Sexual Dysfunction: Myth or Malady?
- In Central America, Coups Still Trump Change
- Low Prices and Booze Put Brunch on the Rise
- The Fall of Greg Craig, Obama's Top Lawyer
- The Story of Barack Obama's Mother

















RSS