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

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Considering that we didn't all get blown up, I think we can now agree that the Cold War was worth it, if only for giving us this Ike-era spy-vs.-spy send-up, in which Rocket J. Squirrel and lovable dimwit Bullwinkle J. Moose defended the US of A against Pottsylvanian sneak Boris Badenov and the slinky Natasha Fatale. Writer-animator Jay Ward's other creations (on Rocky as well as its follow-up The Bullwinkle Show) included oblivious Mountie Dudley Do-Right; time-traveling canine inventor Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman; and the Fractured Fairy Tales narrated by Edward Everett Horton. All shared a love of puns (Bullwinkle was an alum of Wassamatta U), a fast pace and a nothing-sacred sensibility. Rocky may not have won the space race, but it gave red-blooded American kids a leg up on the Russkies in appreciating satire.

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