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

Full List

A - F

  1. The Abbott and Costello Show
  2. ABC's Wide World of Sports
  3. Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  4. All in the Family
  5. An American Family
  6. American Idol
  7. Arrested Development
  8. Battlestar Galactica
  9. The Beavis and Butt-Head Show
  10. The Bob Newhart Show
  11. Brideshead Revisited
  12. Buffalo Bill
  13. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  14. The Carol Burnett Show
  15. The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
  16. A Charlie Brown Christmas
  17. Cheers
  18. The Cosby Show
  19. The Daily Show
  20. Dallas
  21. The Day After
  22. Deadwood
  23. The Dick Van Dyke Show
  24. Dragnet
  25. The Ed Sullivan Show
  26. The Ernie Kovacs Show
  27. Felicity
  28. Freaks and Geeks
  29. The French Chef
  30. Friends

G - M

  1. General Hospital
  2. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
  3. Gilmore Girls
  4. Gunsmoke
  5. Hill Street Blues
  6. Homicide: Life on the Street
  7. The Honeymooners
  8. I, Claudius
  9. I Love Lucy
  10. King of the Hill
  11. The Larry Sanders Show
  12. Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)
  13. Leave It to Beaver
  14. Lost
  15. Married... With Children
  16. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
  17. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  18. M*A*S*H
  19. The Monkees
  20. Monty Python's Flying Circus
  21. Moonlighting
  22. MTV 1981-1992
  23. My So-Called Life
  24. Mystery Science Theater 3000

N - S

  1. The Odd Couple
  2. The Office [American]
  3. The Office [British]
  4. The Oprah Winfrey Show
  5. Pee Wee's Playhouse
  6. Playhouse 90
  7. The Price Is Right
  8. Prime Suspect
  9. The Prisoner
  10. The Real World
  11. Rocky and His Friends
  12. Roots
  13. Roseanne
  14. Sanford and Son
  15. Saturday Night Live
  16. Second City Television
  17. See It Now
  18. Seinfeld
  19. Sesame Street
  20. Sex and the City
  21. The Shield
  22. The Simpsons
  23. The Singing Detective
  24. Six Feet Under
  25. 60 Minutes
  26. Soap
  27. The Sopranos
  28. South Park
  29. SpongeBob SquarePants
  30. SportsCenter
  31. Star Trek
  32. St. Elsewhere
  33. The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
  34. Survivor

T - Z

  1. Taxi
  2. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
  3. 24
  4. The Twilight Zone
  5. Twin Peaks
  6. The West Wing
  7. What's My Line?
  8. WKRP in Cincinnati
  9. The Wire
  10. Wiseguy
  11. The X-Files
  12. Your Show of Shows

Video

  1. How I Chose The List

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