Rolling Stone Top 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time

[The Barber]

There are a lot of shows from the new millennium on there and there shouldn't be (well, at least not yet).

[Dan Royal]

At first I was like "wtf is fleabag?". Then realized I had watched 2 or 3 episodes a few months ago. It was alright. But one of the best shows ever? Not even close.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

I did enjoy Squid Game but feels like one of those shows years from now is not going to even be considered by a lot of the voters

[Toilet Paper Roll]

I think anything in the top 20 with the entirely of shows we’ve had in the past 70+ years of television needs to be iconic and something you can mention to almost anybody and have them had seen so of the shows or know certain references to the show. They have a few like “Atlanta” which is a good show and all but. Top ten all time show? Not a chance

[nickcave]

Nathan for You should have made the list. Watchmen being so high is ridiculous as well

[Friday Night SmackOwn]

I would’ve switched Simpsons and Sopranos for the top two, if only because of how much of a massive pop culture landmark The Simpsons is. It’s that one show you’ll find yourself suddenly quoting without issue.

[Perd]

I’m glad Justified and The Leftovers made the list. They’re both a bit of a hidden gem, that got lost in the shuffle. So it’s good to see them get some love.

[pinja]

If the social aspect of being a show's fan is a factor, I wouldn't rank Simpsons particularly high, although it's easily a top 5 show of my childhood. But talking Simpsons nowadays includes a lot of content that I don't care for at all. If talking X-Files, I can talk about every season with some degree of joy. If talking Simpsons, I need to disclaim that my enjoyment for the show died when the German voice of Marge died, so I'm excluding myself from a massive chunk of the discourse. The later seasons don't invalidate the earlier ones and never will, but they taint it for me as a cutltural reference point.

[Ben Wyatt]

This list is ass.

Example: Freaks and Geeks was a great show. It being on there and say, 90210 being excluded, is silly

[carp (SPC, Itoh Respect Army)]

Sesame Street should be number 1 and I'm not kidding. Impact, longevity, and outright quality.


The omission I'm angriest about is Soap. The best sit-com ever, and it actually works as a soap opera, too.

[Gravedigger's Biscuits]

I like that despite it being a US-dominated list I'm Alan Partridge still somehow made it on there.

KISS MY FACE!

[Magnus the Magnificent]

No Xena, no buys.

[tirtefaa]

I mean it's a subjective list, something that has been done probably hundreds of times already, with varied results, but..

Sept 27, 2022 22:14:03 GMT -5 wildojinx said:

I've never even heard of Fleabag.

like...this right here. I too have never heard of it. I looked it up. Oh, it's a UK show that lasted all of 12 episodes.

Okay. Whatever.

But shouldn't there be a little more to latch onto? To me, a show should be a cultural event that everyone is talking about. People got invested in MASH and compared it to what was currently going on Vietnam. Seinfeld reshaped how people thought of sitcoms. The Simpsons made it clear that animated shows weren't just for kids. Fleabag? I don't doubt it could be good, but I would think word of mouth would be a little more prevalent even if it's a British show. Again, I know nothing about it, so maybe there *is* a cultural shift there, but I would expect it to be more apparent.

As far as The Sopranos being number 1. I don't see it. I was a fan of the show, but it really lost direction in the last couple seasons, especially where they went with Christopher, who was the only central character they focused on who didn't have the last name Soprano. There could have been more done to justify where they wanted to go with him, yet they decided instead to kill him mod season at the beginning of an episode. Typical HBO for ya.

Also...South Park is in the 60's? Like...I love shows like Larry Sanders and Twin Peaks, but those were way more niche than SP ever has been.

It's also amazing Star Trek didn't break the top 10 considering how many other shows were influenced by it, and how it has been a mainstay in the public's eye for 60 years.

[BlackoutCreature]

The Simpsons at number two completely invalidates the list to me. I don't care how good the first eight seasons were, the fact is it has been, at best, mediocre and, at worst, a flaming dumpster fire, for more then two decades now and that needs to count for something. Any show could be the greatest show of all time if you ignore 3/4ths of its body of work and only cherry pick the good stuff.

[Renslayer]

Sept 28, 2022 8:31:03 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Sept 27, 2022 20:49:10 GMT -5 Sigma: Current SRW Champ! said:

Speaking of shows that changed the game: No Law and Order on that list, no The Price is Right, no Married with Children, no Millionaire, no Survivor, no thirtysomething. This is kind of a crap list.

No Married with Children is blasphemy.

And no king of the hill! 😡😡😡

[Nr1Humanoid]

No Dallas?

It is probably why we even have serialized TV shows and there most likely would not be anti-hero show leads like Walter White and Tony Soprano without it.

[tirtefaa]

Sept 30, 2022 13:47:19 GMT -5 pinja said:

But talking Simpsons nowadays includes a lot of content that I don't care for at all.

I'll say this much, before it was streaming, the only way I could watch it was either through syndication or by owning the DVDs. So they did at least got me to shell out money for those because at the time I wasn't going to run the roulette of watching a bad episode of the show, especially since they were on season 25 at the time. That meant a random episode was one in three shot of the episode being good.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

I dont see how Simpsons can be that high when its been shitter for much longer than its been good.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Sept 30, 2022 15:37:19 GMT -5 BlackoutCreature said:

The Simpsons at number two completely invalidates the list to me. I don't care how good the first eight seasons were, the fact is it has been, at best, mediocre and, at worst, a flaming dumpster fire, for more then two decades now and that needs to count for something. Any show could be the greatest show of all time if you ignore 3/4ths of its body of work and only cherry pick the good stuff.

I agree. Like, people dont put GoT as highly as it otherwise would because it fell off a cliff at the end. Fair enough. The last 2 seasons were bollocks. Edpecially Bran being king.



But Simpsons being shit for 15 years gets a pass.

[I'm Team Bayley and Indi]

this made the list worth it