As a kid growing up in the 60s/70s/80s, I've witnessed the transition of television from 3 fuzzy channels (sometimes a 4th local channel if the weather was good) to 1000+ channels so crisp you could sharpen a Ginsu knife with the resolution. (If you know what a Ginsu knife is, you likely grew up in the same era!) Though subscription channels became available in the 80s/90s, I was at first too poor to afford them and then, later, too preoccupied with other things to seek them out. As a result, I grew up on a diet of network television - awful pabulum for the most part (cheesy sitcoms, soap operas, talk shows & variety shows), but there are a few shows I still remember with great fondness.
Note that this list is NOT a list of critical favorites. There are plenty of those lists out there if you're interested. Mine represents a much more pedestrian taste, omitting - for instance, shows like All in the Family, Seinfeld, and the Mary Tyler Moore show. I get that they were groundbreaking, but for me all three of them share a fatal flaw: too whiny. Feel free to suggest shows that I've omitted but that would have made your list.
- West Wing. The show had everything: brilliant writing, superb acting, and often-gorgeous cinematography, overlaid over the inherent tension generated by setting the show in a milieu in which people are forced to make decisions that impact millions. Though the show had a definite liberal bias, it never shied away from moral, ethical, or political complexity. And somehow it managed to do all this without losing its sense of humor. Once Aaron Sorkin left the writing staff the quality of the scripts somewhat declined, but a bad episode of West Wing is still far superior to a great season of most other shows.
- 60 Minutes. While I watched Meet the Press when I could, 60 Minutes was my preferred news show in my younger years. Loved that the show's long-story format which gave the anchors time to explore issues in more depth and from different perspectives. This is the show that taught me to mistrust headlines, to be alert for bias, and to appreciate that news stories are inevitably more complex than the media has time to represent. Though 60 Minutes and Meet the Press both persevere (at least as of this writing), the best cutting news coverage these days seems to have been ceded to cable channels and shows such as The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
- M*A*S*H. For once, the critics and I probably agree. In retrospect, it seems extraordinary just how much biting social commentary this show got away with by adding gags, brilliant acting, and a laugh track. At its heart, though, M*A*S*H was a ruthless anti-war screed delivered with a side of wicked cynicism for all "establishment" - especially the political and military hierarchy. It's not improbable to imagine that shows like these indelibly shaped the attitude of my generation towards war, politics, and humanity.
- Star Trek. It was cheesy. It was melodramatic. It was poorly acted. And yet, it still managed to explore universal themes that no other TV program was addressing. Star Trek made me ask myself questions I otherwise wouldn't have considered, such as 'Is it ethical to interfere with another race, even if your motives are noble?', 'Is there any way to safely travel back through time without jeopardizing the future?' and 'Will life on other planets look like humans with prosthetic ears - or does the universe have a bigger budget for special effects?' I still think of the show every time someone opens a flip-phone, makes a note on their ipad, or doors whooosh open at my approach. Still waiting for someone to invent the transporter: it can't be long now, can it?
- Mission Impossible. You knew that every show would have the following: a basic caper/heist plot, things that weren't what they seemed to be, a moment when you thought everything was going to blow up in the team's face, and a happy ending that featured the members of the MI team converging on a car/boat/plane for their successful escape. And yet you still watched it, because what the writers/actors did, they did well: kept you thinking and entertained for an entire hour. Also, the show had the best television theme song ever.
- Law & Order. So many cop shows to choose from! From Dragnet and Adam-12 to more recent additions to the canon like Cold Case and New Amsterdam. What set Law & Order apart was the "order" part: the way the show forced its audience to understand the interrelationship between crime solving and prosecution, and the compromises that both sides are all too often forced to make in order to keep the system notionally functional. Though the cast has changed over the years, the acting has generally been quite good, and the writers of the show continue to produce scripts "ripped from the headlines" that defy pat, sitcomly solutions. (Before I move on, however, I feel compelled to give a shout-out to Perry Mason, another show that focused on the "order" part of "law & order": the episodes were sexist as all get out, but the theme song rocked!)
- Hill Street Blues. If I did have to pick a single favorite cop show, though, this is the one I'd pick. Sure, I enjoyed Magnum and Miami Vice, The Rockford Files and Starsky & Hutch, Hawaii 5-0, Dragnet, and NYPD Blue - but in my mind Hill Street Blues stands apart as the first show that slapped me in the face with the reality and complexity of what it really means to be a law enforcement agent: the violence, the damaged lives, the moral ambiguity, the ethical compromises. The show was raw and riveting, and spawned a host of followers (Homicide, In the Heat of the Night, NYPD Blues, The Shield, The Wire) that probably show up on other lists - but I'm giving the nod to the one that initially inspired them.
- The Simpsons. And now for something completely different ...! Simply put, no show produces laughs as consistently as this animated series, and what makes it better is that the laughs are usually at our expense. The show has an equal-opportunity approach to satire, sparing neither easy marks (sci-fi fans, fast food, disco) nor issues of political/social sensitivity (immigration, racism, global warming). My personal favorites are the episodes featuring Sideshow Bob, but asking someone to name their favorite episode of The Simpsons is like asking them to name their favorite flavor of ice cream - they're all good.
- The Wonder Years. Of all the family-based sitcoms (The Cosby Show, The Brady Bunch, The Andy Griffith Show, Roseanne, Full House, etc.), this was my favorite because it was the only one that actually resembled real life as I knew it. The plots were seldom exceptionally memorable - but then, it's not exceptional moments that make childhood memorable: it's the sum total of all the summer days, first loves, dogs, bicycles, snowstorms, favorite teachers, broken bones, best friends and life lessons that one accumulates during those first 12 years that forms the memory you carry with you for the rest of your life, a concept that this show seemed to get.
- The Wonderful World of Disney. This was event TV in our house - meals, homework, and long distance phone calls were all scheduled to ensure that there would be no interruptions during The Wonderful World of Disney. The fun of this program was that you never knew more than a week ahead of time what you'd be getting: an episode of Davy Crockett? a "behind the scenes" look at the making of a Disneyland ride? A cartoon? A documentary? An actual full-length live action movie? One thing network television did not offer back then was the element of surprise, except for this one hour every Sunday evening.
- The Twilight Zone. Before X-Files, Twin Peaks, Pickett Fences, or Lost, Twilight Zone challenged viewers to disbelieve the obvious, consider the improbable, and accept the impossible. Some episodes were chilling, some were thought-provoking, some moralizing, some just plain weird - but they all made you think.
- The Carol Burnett Show. I understand those critics who automatically pivot to Saturday Night Live or Laugh In when talking about "important" television comedy. But SNL back in those days came with a side of edgy, and Laugh In with a side of sarcasm, both of which often left a sour taste in the mouth, something that you never had to worry about when tuning into The Carol Burnett Show. Carol Burnett skits weren't "laugh because otherwise you'd have to cry" funny, or "laugh if you get it" funny. They were just plain funny funny, and her movie parodies in particular still stand the test of time. Doesn't everyone remember where they were the first time the saw Carol Burnett flounce down the stairs of Tara as Scarlett O'Hara, with that curtain rod balanced atop her shoulders? You know you do.
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