Al Weisel - CDNow's 10 Essential American Television Series
|
|
|
|
|
| The 10 Essential American Television Series
|
 |
 | By
Al Weisel
CDNOW Senior Editor, Movies
Bruce Springsteen wasn't the first person to complain about
"57 Channels and Nothin' On." But while we have all lamented
about how truly bad some of the programming on television can
be, the truth is that in the 75 years since the first
television broadcast on April 7, 1927 (of Herbert Hoover),
there have also been a lot of wonderful shows on television.
In the 1950s, movie studios worried that television would
replace the movies. But instead television became a completely
different art form, allowing us to get to know characters over
a long period of time, inviting them into our living rooms,
and sometimes growing older with them. And while it turned out
movie moguls had nothing to worry about as far as television
being a threat, especially considering the quality of much of
what got on the air, there have been many series that have
equaled the best of what you can find on the big screen. The
inauguration of PBS in 1968 and the growth of cable and
syndication have brought more variety and competition to
television -- though it hasn't put an end to occasional
frustrated channel surfing.
For the best in British broadcasting, see The
10 Essential British Television Series.
| |
| 1. Roots |
 Roots wasn't just a television show -- it was a
cultural phenomenon. But this miniseries is as powerful today
as it was when it got the whole country talking in 1977. Based
on Alex Haley's book about his ancestors, from the enslavement
of his great-great-great-great-grandfather Kunta Kinte to the
aftermath of the Civil War, Roots may have been about
one American family, but it was also about the American
family and its struggle to, as Martin Luther King, Jr. put it,
"live out the true meaning of its creed, that all men are
created equal." It's a struggle that still continues but one
that has never been treated as well as it has in American
television's finest hour.
|
|
| |
|
| 2. Sopranos |
 The Mafia has become the metaphor for the dark side of
the American Dream. It is the subject of two of the finest
American films ever made, The
Godfather and The
Godfather Part II, as well as The
Sopranos, one of the best TV shows ever made. But like
The Godfather, The Sopranos is as much about
family as it is about the family. Tony Soprano (James
Gandolfini) is in many ways a typical American father --
except for the fact that he kills people for a living. His
struggles to relate to his children and his wife have touched
a chord that many people can identify with.
|
|
| |
| 3. Simpsons |
 The longest-running prime-time animated series in
history is more than just a cartoon. It's the most realistic
portrait of an American family that has ever been on
television -- despite the fact that the protagonists all have
yellow skin and architecturally challenging hairdos. For more than 300 episodes and counting, The
Simpsons has been the wittiest -- and most subversive
-- show on television. The show has been able to get away with
things a live-action show could never have gotten away with,
even occasionally biting the hand that feeds it.
|
|
| |
|
| 4. Mary Tyler Moore |
 Although most American sitcoms have been built around
family units, The Mary Tyler Moore Show was built
around what had increasingly become just as important as
families to many people in a society that had become
increasingly mobile -- friends and co-workers. And Mary
Richards (Mary
Tyler Moore) was a new kind of heroine, a working woman
who was not a housewife, and wasn't even married, making her
own way in the world. But what was most unique about the show
was the caliber of the writing, produced by perhaps the best
assemblage of talent in the history of
television.
|
|
| |
| 5. Twin Peaks |
 It
was like nothing that has ever been on television before or
since. Twin
Peaks, David Lynch's surreal mystery about the search
for the killer of a young girl in an eccentric northwestern
town, took viewers on a dark, strange journey. Kyle
MacLachlan's cherry pie-loving FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
investigated the murder of Laura Palmer by following cryptic
clues delivered by backwards-talking dwarfs and apparitions of
giants that had viewers saying, "Huh?" -- and eager to find
out bizarre event would come next. Though the series lost
steam in its second season, the first season and the episode
where the killer is finally revealed are the most imaginative
shows ever aired on television.
|
|
| |
|
| 6. All in the Family |
 Norman Lear's sitcom about a squabbling family living
in New York's Queens headed by a working-class bigot broke
more taboos than any show in the history of broadcast
television. Archie Bunker (Carroll
O'Connor) insulted every minority in America, reflecting
a troubling reality that television had always ignored. It
wasn't pretty, but it was often very, very funny. Until All
in the Family came along, TV had always shown an idealized
view of the world. But virtually every episode of this show
dealt with a subject that was off limits for most programs at
the time, including racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, rape,
menopause, sex -- you name it, All in the Family dealt
with it, and always entertainingly.
|
|
| |
| 7. Larry Sanders |
 Many classic TV shows have had show business as their
subject from I Love Lucy to The Dick Van Dyke
Show, but no show had ever approached the subject as
realistically as Larry Sanders. Garry
Shandling's warts-and-all portrayal of Larry Sanders, a
needy, egotistical, self-pitying late-night talk show host was
unprecedented. What made the show even more extraordinary was
that all of the guests were actual celebrities poking fun at
themselves. With insightful, witty writing and a talented cast
that included Rip Torn as a seen-it-all producer and Jeffrey
Tambor as Larry's sycophantic sidekick, the show helped put
HBO on the map as a producer of original
programming.
|
|
| |
|
| 8. I Love Lucy |
 Television's first great sitcom, I Love Lucy's
classic routines are as funny today as they were when
Americans were getting their first televisions in the 1950s.
Lucille Ball is the greatest comedienne that has ever been on
television and it is impossible to watch her working on an
assembly line, stamping on grapes, or trying to say
Vitameatavegamin without collapsing from paroxysms of
uncontrollable laughter.
|
|
| |
| 9. Star Trek: Next Generation |
 Twenty years after the beloved cult science-fiction
show Star
Trek went off the air, it seemed unlikely that the
magic could be recaptured. But Star
Trek: The Next Generation was in many ways better than
its predecessor. It brought cinematic special effects to the
small screen, intellectually challenging scripts, and a cast
whose acting was a cut above what one usually found in
science-fiction TV shows, especially from former Royal
Shakespeare Company member Patrick Stewart, who played Captain
Jean-Luc Picard. While this generation of Star Trek
provided plenty of space battles and frightening aliens, it
also wasn't afraid to treat its audience like
adults.
|
|
| |
|
| 10. M*A*S*H |
 M*A*S*H
wasn't the first TV comedy set during wartime. But
M*A*S*H was no Hogan's Heroes. The jokes may
have been fired with machine-gun rapidity, but the show never
let you forget that real guns were being fired at characters
on the show. No show before it had ever dared to have its
characters spout one-liners while dressed in clothes covered
with blood. First aired while the Vietnam War was still
raging, M*AS*H mixed comedy and tragedy with a skill
that has rarely been matched. The last episode of the series
had the largest audience of any television series episode in
history.
|
|
| | |