This list by no means reflect the opinions of the entire list of contributors on Cinema Crazed, it’s instead a list by yours truly, Felix Vasquez, and what constitutes as a top ten of my favorite television shows of all time. True this may not be of interest to general readers, but I’ve been meaning to write this list and post it for a long time anyway, mainly because I’m such a fan of lists. And to give readers an idea of my general flavors of pop culture.
This list will by no means change in the immediate future, nor will it be altered, it’s instead a fun list I just felt the need to write once and for all. These are ten of what I feel are the best shows I’ve ever seen. They’re shows I re-visit time and time again and constantly meet with throughout different times of my life. These are shows that mean a lot to me, and I hope readers will enjoy this article and feel compelled to send me their own top ten.
10. Home Movies
There are a plethora of television shows about coming of age, but none that appeal to the modern age where it all has to be caught on a camera. “Home Movies” is hysterical and touching, a cult series that failed to strike mainstream audiences but won over cult audiences, and even after so many years off the air, it’s retained its appeal as a show about a young kid learning to deal with growing up and the adults he confronts everyday through his camera lens.
His movies are incredibly creative and often times absurdly original, but they reflect the premise of each episode and with sharp voice acting and improv from the entire cast, “Home Movies” is a laugh riot that touches on every issue of adolescence without diving in to pools of saccharine or PSA’s. “Home Movies” is brilliant in its simplicity and low tech production values, and it’s a show we re-visit constantly.
9. Firefly
I’m not by any means a Joss Whedon buff. I thought “Buffy” was an okay show, while “Angel” was just above average at best. But Whedon’s appeal to the science fiction opera is a success in spades as “Firefly” is a series that has touched me and kept me going through boredom time and time again. True, it’s famous for being cancelled after only one season on television, but that doesn’t matter in the heart of a Browncoat. After visiting the trailer for “Serenity” back in 2005, I fell for the series after purchasing the set online and have managed to re-watch it from beginning to end every six months for many years now.
“Firefly” is Whedon’s most sophisticated and complex series, a show that doesn’t focus on high schoolers and instead asks audiences to suspend disbelief and zero in on a world that sets down on a band of pirates who find themselves in no end of trouble when they take in two fugitives from the law. Packed with gun fights, fist fights, horse chases and hilarious one-liners, “Firefly” is a science fiction western fit for any fan of the sub-genre, and while it didn’t last more than thirteen episodes, it’s on a constant loop in your truly’s house whenever we feel like re-visiting our friends on Serenity.
8. The Office UK
Like an actual office, “The Office” is a show that’s managed to open up new branches not only in America, but in China, the middle East, and many more countries who are mimicking the success and brilliance of Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais’ hit dramedy about a small branch paper company office in England. “The Office UK” is a small and simplistic comedy about people, people learning to deal with their dead end lives and trying to find a way to keep their sanity. Along the way, Ricky Gervais features some of the most complex and richly drawn comedic characters of all time.
This is a show I originally sat down with my uncle to watch, and it sucked us in from minute one. The comedy is so based around painful awkward stares and silence, that it will make audiences laugh while cringing simultaneously. Basically it’s a mock documentary about a paper branch in Slough called Wernham Hogg, and within the walls of the small branch lie some of the most insane and unique people ever imagined. To this day it remains one of my all time favorite Brit sitcoms, and while the US version is okay, it’s a pale imitation of this brilliant study of human pathos.
7. Mystery Science Theater 3000
I spent hours and hours watching episodes of “Mystery Science Theater” back in the heydays of cable television here in the US. For a long time it was a mainstay on Comedy Central here in America, and then migrated to the Science Fiction channel in the late nineties. Cancelled after almost eleven years on the air, “Mystery Science Theater” remains one of the most influential and popular television series to air and that’s all due to its pure comedic brilliance that spawned many fans to look to it during the times of bad movies and bad movie making.
Initially it’s about a guy marooned on a space ship with a small group of robots, and is constantly terrorized by an evil villain back in a distant planet who subjects him and his friends Tom Servo and Crow to bad movies. They meet the bad movies with heckling, jeers and brilliant sarcasm, all of which is chronicled in every episode. For those unfamiliar with the format, the show is a change of pace from the usual sitcom doldrums, but it wins you over instantly with the top notch writing and the immortality it wins by lampooning some of the worst movies ever made. They don’t make ’em like this anymore, kids.
6. Roseanne
I’ve always connected with “Roseanne” the most out of my favorite shows of all time because it’s one of the rare instances of a hilarious show that manages to feature realistic looking individuals in working class America struggling to get by day after day after day. Life is tough and the early seasons of “Roseanne” show just how tough it can be for middle lower class families who work to get by and barely do. Focusing on issues like the economy and the government, “Roseanne” is a thick layer of comedy covering an even thicker layer of intelligent observational humor about the current state in America.
Thankfully it never clubs us over the head, and instead focuses on the characters of the series who are each trying to find their place in a world that’s crumbling around them financially. Brilliantly cast with folks like John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Ms. Roseanne Barr herself, “Roseanne” is that rare series that takes an honest glimpse at blue collared life, and doesn’t sugarcoat it for us. They don’t make shows like this anymore.
5. All in the Family
“All in the Family” is not just about cultural clash and generational clash, but it’s a turning point in television where sitcoms didn’t always have to be about entertaining. Sometimes it could actually teach its audience something. Sometimes you could tune in to mindless fluff like “Three’s Company” or tune in to “All in the Family” which is one of the few sitcoms about a working class family struggling to get by day by day. Except this family takes the time out to examine the political undercurrent of their times and how it manages to affect them and their standard of living.
Caroll O’Conner is brilliant as working man Archie Bunker, a man set in his ways who has to deal with a son in law who is a liberal and is taught to question everything, a daughter who is developing in her femininity, and a wife who is adapting to the new generation of upright citizens who question authority as he merely tries to find a way to get by by keeping his job and remaining loyal to the country in spite of its flaws and inherent corruption. “All in the Family” is that show that stuck with a public who was conscious of the changes all around them and wanted to do something about it. Also, my favorite actor of all time Henry Fonda, did a clip show for the anniversary of the series, so there’s that plus.
4. I Love Lucy
I’m not one who was ever actually a Lucille Ball buff, but “I Love Lucy” has stayed with me throughout the years as a consistent source of laughter and heart based around two single couples living in New York who constantly try to outwit and outmatch one another. Basically about the war of the sexes, “I Love Lucy” is a classic example of the concept in which the bratty Lucy is given to horrible mishaps and chaos while her long suffering husband Ricky tries to foil her at every turn.
A classic comedy team, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez are wonderful on screen as the bickering couple of newlyweds who attempt to match brains while wife Lucy tries to constantly seek fame at the cost of her husband Ricky who blazes a trail as one of the first hispanic leading men in a television show ever. Arnez is a classic foil who tries to keep up with wife Lucy at every turn, and “I Love Lucy” is the classic comedy in every sense of the word featuring stunts and sketches that would forever be mimicked by future television series. “I Love Lucy” is a wonderful couple’s comedy that dabbles in slapstick and mayhem at every turn and it’s charming.
3. The Honeymooners
For many years in New York City, the channel eleven station would often play Honeymooners every Sunday night, and for almost thirty years, I spent every Sunday night watching this fantastic show. I was literally raised on this series by my parents, two people who spent years mimicking the show and memorizing every line, and through that I became a hardcore fan of “The Honeymooners” as well. Based around a working class man and his wife, “The Honeymooners” is about the quintessential blue collar man as he tries to find ways to make it big in the real world while dealing with his life as a bus driver in New York City.
Jackie Gleason’s portrayal of Ralph Kramden is genius and his consistant work on the scripts deliver a healthy delivery of laughter and brilliant one-liners. “The Honeymooners” is pure comedy gold and as a series from the fifties it touches on every man’s desire to be rich while forced to come to the admittance that wealth is a far off wish. Gleason’s portrayal of Kramden is immortal and “The Honeymooners” is a rich tapestry of comedy I continue to re-visit throughout my life.
2. Seinfeld
Even years after its official ending, “Seinfeld” remains one of the most influential voices of pop culture, popularizing terms like festivus, yadda yadda, and master of my domain. “Seinfeld” is that show about nothing that demonstrates comedy doesn’t always need a formula to rely on to completely succeed in entertaining audiences, and with every masterful episode, Jerry Seinfeld and his friends explored their thirst for pure chaos and idiocy, getting in to all sorts of trouble. “Seinfeld” is a series that almost skirts the top spot of my top ten list, but it’s a comfortable close second thanks to its top notch comedy writing and excellent one-liners that keep it immortal in pop culture buffs hearts like my own.
Basically it’s a show about nothing as four characters, friends of Jerry Seinfeld, knock around the real world making everyone’s lives miserable and finding themselves knee deep in muck that they may have caused thanks to their own sense of selfishness or narcissism. While I won’t accuse any of the characters of being saints, they’re still one of the most likable cast of characters I’ve seen in a sitcom in years, and no new sitcom has managed to bring together a trust of comedy this sharp, yet. Jerry is of course my favorite character. I’m aware I’m in the minority in that regard.
1. The Simpsons
This is a show I literally grew up with, a fictional family I know more than my own family (I jest, of course) and spent many a years getting comfortable with as the series grew. An American dynasty, the Simpsons grew from one holiday special in to a cultural juggernaut, and I managed to grow with the juggernaut and watch as my favorite show went on to influence millions of other people just like me. I’ve been a big fan of the show since its inception, and whether or not it’s still relevant, it’s still a show that’s stood unmatched in its success and originality. It’s not just a family sitcom, but one that revolves around intelligent humor that skirts the realm of pop culture while also dabbling in the irreverent.
While it had its appeal to me as a kid watching an animated show, “The Simpsons” grew on me as an adult comedy, and one that didn’t have to subject itself to sexual and drug based humor to make its audience laught all the time. Sometimes you’d have to really dig deep to understand the subtle pun and comic poetry the Simpsons would inject in to its series, and as such it remains my favorite television show of all time. I spent many hours learning the fine tuned chaos of the Springfield family, and will continue to support it long after it’s come off the air and lives on in syndication here in America. Filled with brilliant acting, and even better writing, “The Simpsons” popularized the celebrity cameo, and the random sight gag long before it became stylish to mimic it on “South Park” and “Family Guy.” I remain a full supporter of this series as its been a consistant source of laughs in my life.