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
See It Now
On the one hand, the title captured the potential of the then-new medium for journalism: we will record it, and you will see it, now. (The first shot was a then mind-blowing split-screen live image of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: two coasts, in your living room, at once!) On the other hand, See It Now did not just use television as a transmission tool; it took full advantage of TV's editing and production capabilities to assemble a new kind of news narrative. Its most famous confrontation was between Edward R. Murrow and Red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose old-fashioned demagoguery proved no match for TV's power to rebut his claims and, worse, allow him to make a fool of himself on camera, letting America see him, and clearly.
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