A bit of TV nostalgia.

 

As a follow-up to the Nielsen Ratings of the very top TV shows year by year in the USA, I thought I might take a crack at listing MY favourite programs down the decades. Not one of them reached the top, by the way. I have also highlighted the performer in each show whom I felt was the main reason for my enjoying the program (not always the star). Personally, I enjoy reading other people’s lists of likes and dislikes. I think most of us do. It gives us a chance to agree or disagree, to applaud the writer’s excellent taste (when he/she chooses what we like), or to deride his lack of taste when he/she doesn’t. The good thing about having your own website is that you get to indulge yourself every once in a while. I have picked out my five favourite shows per decade, a few of which were mini-series (*). About two thirds of my choices are American productions, the other third are British. So, here’s a trip down memory lane just for the hell of it.

THE FIFTIES

                     THE HONEYMOONERS 1955-6

 

Art Carney as Ed Norton

 

              THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW 1955-9

Phil Silvers as Sergeant Ernie Bilko

 

                           MAVERICK 1957-62

James Garner as Bret Maverick

 

THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB 1955-8

The one and only Annette Funicello

 

THE UNTOUCHABLES 1959-63

 

 Robert Stack as Eliot Ness

 

THE SIXTIES

HONG KONG 1960-1

 Rod Taylor as Glenn Evans

 

STAR TREK 1966-69

William Shatner (Captain Kirk) & Leonard Nimoy

(Mr Spock)

 

BATMAN 1966-8

Adam West as Batman

 

F TROOP 1965-7

Larry Storch as Corporal Randolph Agarn

Frank de Kova as Chief Wild Eagle

Melody Patterson as Wrangler Jane

 

THE INVADERS 1967-8

 

 Roy Thinnes as David Vincent

 

SEVENTIES

 

DAD’S ARMY 1968-77

Arthur Lowe as Captain George Mainwaring

 

M.A.S.H. 1972-83

McLean Stevenson as Lt. Colonel Henry Blake

Loretta Swit as Major Margaret Houlihan

 

PORRIDGE 1974-7

Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher

 

FAWLTY TOWERS 1975-9

John Cleese & Prunella Scales as Basil and Sybil Fawlty

 

I, CLAUDIUS 1976*

 

 Derek Jacobi as Claudius

 

 

John Hurt as Caligula

Sian Phillips as Livia

 

EIGHTIES

 

MINDER 1979-94

Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann

 

YES MINISTER/YES PRIME MINISTER 1980-7

(L to R) Paul Eddington as James Hacker, Nigel Hawthorne as 

Sir Humphrey Appleby, Derek Fowlds as Bernard Woolley

 

FAMILY TIES 1982-9

Michael J. Fox as Alex Keaton

 

LONESOME DOVE 1989*

Robert Duvall as Augustus McCrae & Tommy Lee Jones as

Woodrow Call

Diane Lane as Lorena Wood

Chris Cooper as July Johnson

 

Frederic Forrest as Blue Duck

 

THE GOLDEN GIRLS 1985-92

 

 (L to R) Estelle Getty (Sophia), Rue McLanahan (Blanche),

Betty White (Rose) & Bea Arthur (Dorothy) at front. 

 

 NINETIES

 

HOME IMPROVEMENTS 1991-9 

 Tim Allen as Tim Taylor

 

PRIME SUSPECT 1991-2006

Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison

 

FRIENDS 1994-2004

Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay

Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green

Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing

 

THE WEST WING 1999-2006

Allison Janney as C J Cregg

Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman & John Spencer as Leo McGarry

 

THE SOPRANOS 1999-2007

 James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano

 

NOUGHTIES

 

BOSTON LEGAL 2004-8

William Shatner as Denny Crane & James Spader as Alan Shore

 

ROME 2005-7

Ray Stevenson as Titus Pullo & Kevin McKidd as Lucius Vorenus

 

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT 1999-

Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson & Christopher Meloni as

Elliot Stabler

 

THE FORSYTE SAGA 2002*

Damian Lewis as Soames Forsyte & Gina McKee as Irene Forsyte

 

BREAKING BAD 2008-13

Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman & Dean Norris as Hank Schrader

 

Anna Gunn as Skyler White

Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman

 

TEENIES

 

DOWNTON ABBEY 2010-15

Hugh Bonneville as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham

 

THE GRAHAM NORTON SHOW 2007-

host Graham Norton

 

WOULD I LIE TO YOU? 2007-

David Mitchell, Rob Brydon, Lee Mack

 

HAVEN 2010-

Eric Balfour as Duke Crocker

 

FARGO 2014-

Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard & Billy Bob Thornton as

Lorne Malvo

4 Comments

  1. I never had any interest in “Friends” or “Seinfeld”, which is probably
    like saying you don’t believe in god. Never cared much for American
    comedies, although some “Mash.” “Law and Order” for Ice T. Wish I’d
    seen more of Helen Mirren’s “Prime Suspect.”

    • Seinfeld never interested me either for some reason, and I did not get into Friends a lot, although that which I have watched was quite engaging. They released a ‘Prime Suspect’ box set a few years ago and I devoured the entire thing inside about a month. Very enjoyable. I still watch the occasional episode of M.A.S.H. on re-runs, but I lost quite a bit of interest after Henry Blake was killed off. Law & Order SVU is still very popular in our house.

  2. Fawlty Towers: Maybe my all time favorite, each time it was available
    on PBS. As I repeatedly watched it, I found new things to chuckle about.

    • Really? I am surprised it made it to America. Apparently, Basil Fawlty was based on a real life proprietor of a hotel/boarding house in southern England. Cleese’s real life wife at the time, Connie Booth, played Polly the maid.

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