BS: Some of the best TV ever

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: RangerSteve
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 05:40 PM

Burns and Allen was, in my opinion, one of the finest shows ever.
I enjoyed Green Acres as a kid, and surprisingly, found it still entertaining, mostly because it was just plain dopey and the writers knew it. There's a kind of surreal feeling about the whole show.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a quality show.
A few modern shows that I got hooked on: Alias, Boston Legal, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives.

Thanks to the British, we've been treated to a few gems: To the Manor Born, Keeping up Appearances, Good Neighbors, Mapp and Lucia, Jeeves and Wooster, a few dozen detective series.

And when I just want to watch pleasant people being pleasant, the Brits gave us Monarch of the Glen and Ballykissangel. Mulberry is also sort of fun, but only available through Netflix here in the States. Same with The Darling Buds of May, At Home with the Braithwaites and Doc Martin (first season only).

And the BBC news is the best available, although the other day they spent the first ten minutes talking about that Jackson guy. I'll forgive them just this once. Nobody's perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 06:16 PM

Yeah, Burns and Allen was great.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: gnu
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 06:22 PM

http://www.cbc.ca/22minutes/

Canuck comedy that was GREAT.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: robomatic
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 08:15 PM

From the 50's: "Your Show of Shows " with Syd Caesar and Imogene Coca

From the late 80's "Wiseguy" (Kevin Spacey had a guest role as an extremely weird criminal boss)

From the early 90's "I'll Fly Away" starring Sam about life in the U S South during the early days of Civil Rights movement.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Neil D
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 10:37 PM

Guest at 3:54 was me, cookieless and absentminded. BK thanks for that link. The CBC Cohen interviews were fantastic. Those early ones hearken back to a time when intellectualism was something to be aspired to, not scorned. Nowadays you can skim through 80 channels od TV and not find any thing nearly as fascinating.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Amergin
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 12:07 AM

father ted....

the wire

sopranos

rome

black adder

the office, uk and american

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: DMcG
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 02:24 AM

It is very difficult to have good shows lasting several series: it demands peak performance for a long time. As a result many of the best shows are short series or one-offs.

"Cathy Come Home" deserves a special mention as a program that literally changed the world for the better.

The Jim Henson series "The Storyteller" is less familiar traditional stories told and acted to a high standard.

The BBC did a series of new writing deliberately using the same plots as Shakespeare plays and some of the Canterbury tales. Most of those were excellent.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: robomatic
Date: 04 Jul 09 - 02:49 PM

Television:

"Young Indiana Jones"

Radio:

"This American Life"

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 10 - 11:28 PM

Just watched the first in a series made on location in British Columbia called "Dead Like Me: Life After Death" starring Mandy Patinkin and Ellen Muth. Intelligently and engagingly written, we both really liked it and plan to continue watching it via netflix. Our son recommended it.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 May 10 - 01:16 AM

I'm hooked on the BBC nature series - Planet Earth and Blue Planet were terrific, and I just watched a wonderful BBC program on Yellowstone.

And West Wing, and the Star Trek series (all of them)

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Stu
Date: 25 May 10 - 04:48 AM

Saw the Yellowstone programme - incredible apart from the miserable narrator. All BBC nature series are brilliant, any with Attenborough's involvement become timeless masterpieces.

I'd like to add to my list:

The Wire - utterly brilliant in every way.
Deadwood
The Office (American version)
Farscape
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Time Team
Every Looney Tunes ever made but especially Wiley Coyote

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 25 May 10 - 09:13 AM

My favorite current shows on U.S. TV are "The Middle","Modern Family", "FlashForward" and "Fringe".

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 May 10 - 10:37 AM

The thing I didn't like about Wile E.'s adventures was that the show was rigged so the Roadrunner always won out. That really annoyed me. I wanted to see the coyote catch that smartass Roadrunner and destroy him utterly. That would have ended the show, of course, but what a lovely way to end it. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Bettynh
Date: 25 May 10 - 10:57 AM

Kat, Dead like Me is fun. If you don't want to pay for netflix and have the bandwidth for streaming, it's available on Hulu. There will be commercials, however.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Gweltas
Date: 26 May 10 - 04:32 AM

Unfortunately Hulu is only available to US residents !

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: michaelr
Date: 26 May 10 - 11:16 AM

Nurse Jackie!

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 May 10 - 04:58 PM

If you liked "The Wire," and you like music, you should certainly like David Simon's current HBO series "Treme."

I'm probably just a bit prejudiced because I see familiar faces and places in every episode, but from what I understand, plenty of folks in the larger world outside New Orleans also give the series high marks.

This production is the first and only film or TV effort to actually "get it right" about New Orleans ~ none of the usual phony accents, tone-deaf interpretations of local culture, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Gurney
Date: 27 May 10 - 01:33 AM

'The Braden Beat' was fairly ordinary, apart from having Jake Thackray write a song for each episode. That was outstanding.
Open All Hours.
The Two Ronnies.
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
Barney Miller.
Waiting for God.
Last of the Summer Wine.
'Allo 'Allo.
Maverick.


It is noticable here that old British comedy DVDs cost anything up to six times as much as American comedy. Perhaps that is the criterion. Would you buy it on DVD!

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 27 May 10 - 09:01 AM

Little Hawk, I have just what you need. I'll see if we can post it.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 27 May 10 - 09:07 AM

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3454468/die_die_roadrunner/

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Stu
Date: 27 May 10 - 09:23 AM

Looking forward to Treme when it arrives on this side of the pond!

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: GUEST,CrazyEddie
Date: 27 May 10 - 10:12 AM

Trials of Life (Nature Programme)

Get Smart ( 60s Spy spoof) & it's illegitemite descendant:
Sledge Hammer (80s Cop Spoof)

Old Tricks (UK Cop show)

Hill St Blues- reinvented the TV cop-show genre.

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Little Hawk
Date: 27 May 10 - 04:14 PM

LOL!!! Kendall, that was wonderful! Thank you very much. I feel that I have reached closure now on an emotional wound that had troubled me for a lifetime, and I owe it all to you..... ;-D

For anyone who needs the blue clickie, here it is:

Die, Roadrunner! Die!

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 28 May 10 - 07:07 AM

I sent that to one of my Bible pounder friends and she went ballistic! Failed to see the humor and concentrated on "Blasphemy".

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Amergin
Date: 28 May 10 - 07:10 AM

Being Human is a great quirky show with a touch of darkness....

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 May 10 - 11:15 AM

Your not the only one Little Hawk -

I'd like to see the coyote eat the road runner

Taken from this song

:D

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Bert
Date: 29 May 10 - 04:07 AM

Steptoe and Son
'Allo 'Allo
Dad's Army
The Two Ronnies
Early Dr Who
Last of the Summer Wine
Red Dwarf
The Rogues
Invasion
The Vicar of Dibley

Subject: RE: BS: Some of the best TV ever
From: Amergin
Date: 16 Jun 10 - 04:28 AM

Ive been watching this fabulous Aussie show called Underbelly....the characters are all based on real people....in fact the first season was about the Melbourne gang war that lasted for ten years involving the Carlton crew and Carl Williams.

The second season is about a kiwi and an Aussie, both are involved with the heroin trade.

It is like the Goodfellas meet the Wire.