My Top 5 Shows
Submitted by AJDaGreat on Mon, 07/29/2002 - 06:24
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- 5. Clerks: The Animated Series - I was really burned up when ABC cancelled this after 2 episodes. I thought it was hilarious, and I think the 7 other people that watched it did too. I didn't even know there was a movie called "Clerks" at the time! Luckily, all 6 episodes came out on video eventually.
- 4. Friends - Okay, so the writing of this show isn't always that great, but what the show excels at is creating memorable characters. The situations of all the quirky characters are often hilarious, often touching, but always interesting. I can't wait to find out what happens in its last season.
- 3. 3rd Rock from the Sun - When this show is at its worst, it's decent, but when it's at its best...God is it funny. I love watching the misadventures of the male aliens Tom, Dick, and Harry, along with their female alien Sally. I thoroughly enjoyed this "fish millions of miles away from water" sitcom.
- 2. Seinfeld - While it's obviously only my second-favorite show, this is probably the most popular show of the nineties. In fact, I don't think I know anyone that doesn't like "Seinfeld." The writing is always clever, and of course the characters are memorable. When, oh, when will they release the episodes on VHS or DVD?
- 1. The Simpsons - I admit it: I am a Simpsoholic. While the show has gotten worse in the past few seasons, I still watch the episodes faithfully. It's such a hilarious show. When my friends and I start conversations about it, we could quote the show for hours. However, as the show has gotten worse recently, "Seinfeld" has a chance to usurp power as my favorite show. I wouldn't bet on it though. Homer will keep me laughing no matter how bad the writing is.
Author Comments:
You may notice that, despite watching plenty of old movies, I am not as well-acquainted with old TV shows, except for "I Love Lucy" and "Get Smart", which are close to making my top 5, but not quite (it may be because I've seen mostly the newer episodes of "Get Smart", which I've heard are worse).
There is supposed to be an Clerks feature film called Clerks: Sell Out (2002) but I don't know what the current status is.
Yeah, actually, I heard about that one, and I await its release. I've heard it's going to be only the second movie that's based on a TV show that's based on a movie, the first one being "Highlander: Endgame."
As for my other favorite shows, there WILL be a "Simpsons" movie, and maybe more than one, but not until they stop making new episodes. I haven't heard about a movie based on the other 3 shows.
Thanks for the info.
Ya know, I had declared that Friends jumped the shark after Joey started getting a crush on Rachel. But I read an article saying that Marta Kauffman and David Crane had high ambitions for this final season, and that got my hopes up. They're living up to it so far; IMHO, the first two episodes have been hilarious. Especially Ross - he's been more neurotic lately and I'm loving it.
That doesn't mean I have any even remotely high hopes for the spin-off "Joey." Well, maybe one hope that it gets cancelled in the middle of the season...
On watching the season 5 "Friends" DVD set, I wrote:
"After everyone found out about Chandler and Monica, the jokes became more sparse, not to mention just plain worse. The last half of season 5 still beats the pants off anything in season 9, but I still think this was the beginning of the downfall of Friends."
Now I'm beginning to think that "Friends" is just always better in the first half of the season. Maybe the writers come up with a lot of great ideas over the summer but consistently run out of steam midway through the season.
Look at my above comment here, where I'm raving about the first few episodes of season 10. It seems so anachronistic now that I've watched the episode that was on last Thursday (I taped it). It was simply atrocious. Monica and Chandler looking for a house outside the city could have been handled well in so many different ways. Instead, we get forced jokes, maudlin sentimentalism, and worst of all, flashbacks.
It started off poorly with some very lame jokes before the credits had even begun. The first few minutes, where Rachel and Phoebe think Chandler is having an affair, were ripe with comic possibilities. Unfortunately, this was just a diversion to extend the running time of the episode; it was abruptly abandoned after a few minutes, and we got a lot of boring talk, talk, talk. Which, I concede, was still better than those stupid flashbacks.
The sequence under the closing credits could have been handled so much better. It was pretty nonsensical and really, a bit of a cop-out.
Can the writers pick things back up for the end of the season? Or will the series finale be one of the lamest episodes ever? Only time will tell...
Would you say that friends,Got Worse, now i liked pretty much every series, This is how i would rate them:
OUT OF 5 Stars
Series 1 *****5
Series 2 *****5
Series 3 *****5
Series 4 *****5
Series 5 *****5
Series 6 **** 4
Series 7 *** 3
Series 8 ** 2
Series 9 **** 1/2
Series 10 **** 1/2
I do think that series 7 & 8 were really poor but its one my favourite shows and has been for many years (only Recently Knocked off top spot by "Scrubs")
but do you think it went down hill? i'd say yes but it was nver "Horrile" or "Terrible"
and it didnt do what is refered to in TV-Terms as "jump the shark", which is a reference to a Scene in "Happy Days" which is met do be a point where shows get bad, They "Jump The Shark"
Do you think Friends "Jump The Shark"?
I actually liked the seventh season more than you did, but I would rate the 9th and 10th seasons a lot lower than you did. There were some diamonds in the rough, but I would say that the average quality of the show was not very good in the last three seasons. I wouldn't call any season "horrible" or "terrible", but I could think of plenty of episodes that I would label as such.
I can tell you the exact moment when I think Friends jumped the shark: when Joey started having a crush on Rachel midway through season 8. For three reasons: (1) It is totally against Joey's playboy character to have such a long-lasting crush on a woman. Especially a pregnant woman. And ESPECIALLY one of his closest friends, whom he jokingly comes onto all the time. Joey gets PLENTY of action - why is he getting so hung-up over a pregnant woman? (2) Since Ross and Rachel were obviously destined to be together, and you always knew that the series would end with them together, the Joey-Rachel subplot would obviously just turn into a very long, drawn-out obstacle. I mean, I never believed that Joey could ever end up with Rachel. (3) What it led to. The inevitable forced drama when Ross finds out about Joey's crush; a hokey, contrived season 8 closing moment; another long, drawn-out plotline in season 9 where Rachel has a crush on Joey after he's gotten over her; the ninth season finale's lamest cliffhanger ever; and an abrupt ending to all this nonsense in the tenth season, after which they just never speak of it again.
yeah, the joey - rachel thing just seemed stupid. it seemed like they were trying to go for something deep and meaningful but ended up cheesey and pointless. your right they Dragged the whole thing out from season 8 -10 and they ended up only going on 2 dates in the beginning of S10 and then it was over. Also that was at the start of Series 10, for about 3 episodes they were a "couple" then they splt up and on the following episode the "Birthday Cake' episode (The Highlight of S10) they didnt even mention it!! It was A Bad attempt at something that should have been left well alone.
I agree with your comments and although the Joey / Rachel thing made for rubbish Storyline (joey / Phoebe would have been more Believable, because the fans i think were expecting them to get together) I Still think that friends is great, and ive been into it for sooo long that it would of had to do Sometihng Amazingly bad for me to not like it, and now its over they dont get a chance, but they walked with danger once and well..less said about that the better.
Clerks animated series was fantastic, the writing staff was really talented for that one. It sucks it was cancelled but I guess it does at least get the award for most consistant show ever made :)
Good list, I can't argue with anyone who lists Seinfeld and the Simpsons as 1 and 2. My favorite is Sledge Hammer, have you ever heard of it? Just came out on DVD a few years back. Hell of a cult show, something this politically incorrect probably couldn't be shown on TV today. It's kind of like House - good writing made great by a fantastic lead actor. Probably had the best pilot episode ever made too.
Thanks! This list was made over five years ago and I doubt it would look the same today, but I do still love all these shows. You're right about Clerks's consistency.
Sledge Hammer looks awesome - I may have to check it out on DVD!
If you get it, let me know what you think. You should be able to pick up Season 1 fairly cheaply, I think it's the better of the two. So many great moments there - there's one where he finds out he's been poisoned and will die without a cure. When he finds out, he tries to take the news well, trying not to show the anger on his face. Instead, he calmly gets up and walks around the room, pulling things off shelves and breaking everything he can, except for the American flag, which he salutes! And the episode ends with him punching a snake in the face after telling it, "You've had this coming for a long time!" Huh? Brilliant stuff that seemed to lampoon a lot of action movie cliches (especially action comedies - a parody of a comedy scene seems weird, but they do a lot of them). If you found humor in Dirty Harry, you'll definetely enjoy this.
But you could have a steam train.
...if you'd just lay down your tracks.