My Favorite 25 TV Shows of All-Time

Multicultural, urban, smart, incredibly funny, and warm. This was the most influential media of my childhood, with Richard Scarry a close second.

The Decline of Western Civilization began at the end of the airing of the skit called Philosopher's Soccer Match. That was the peak of Western Culture and we've been in a decline ever since.

This was the first show that I chose by myself. It was subversive, uniquely New York, and no one in my family understood it. I showed up for my 4th Grade class picture in a Sweathogs t-shirt and no relatives got copies of pictures that year.

This blew my mind from the first time I saw it. I would sleep over at a friends house every Saturday night in order to watch it, and the entirety of my sense of humor, love of New York, and subsequent college choice stemmed from these origins.

I was in Middle School and would get up early to watch when I could, and would VHS everything else. Chris Elliot and Rich Hall were awesome and Dave was just getting started.

SNL was transitioning and Fridays was rebellious AND from the otherside of the country. This show introduced me to LA culture more than anything, and the Andy Kaufman stuff was mind-blowing. Also, a lot ofvery early Larry David and Michael Richards genius. But the kicker for me was this was the show that hosted the Clash's American TV debut.

Once we all got to college this was the only show we continued to watch - school nights at 12:30 AM. It was the only show that mattered.

Pure genius from day one. Everyone in Generation X has a little bit of Peter Pan Syndrome, and Pee-wee was the Prince of our Id.

Improves on the original and set standards for intelligence and science fiction on TV.

In SF, in the mid-90s, during the first few seasons people would collect every Thursday night at the Toronado in Lower Haight to watch in big public groups. This show started out as an Underdog because Matt G. was best know as the cartoonist in all of our hometown alternative weeklies.

Still amazing after all these years.

I think this is somewhat under-appreciated. It's not dumb, it's just pretending to be dumb in a really smart way.

Baltimore. Great dialogue. Eventually set up The Wire, so it's influential beyond what it gets credit for usually.

Consistently good and a farm system for a lot of genius comedy.

It's from a genre but it breaks a lot of rules. It's simply well written and enduring.

Sorkin's best - witty, fast paced, political and slightly chaotic. It got a lot of people through the years when we didn't have a very good real president, and so a fictional one had to do.

It's funny because it's real.

The list is chronological but this is #1. The language, the settings, the characters and the acting is all the best it's ever been on TV.

Out of control and funny as hell.

Mad Men is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. The series premiered on July 19, 2007, on the cable network AMC. After seven seasons and 92 episodes, Mad Men's final episode aired on May 17, 2015.[1]

Greg Daniels is a great. He's been a huge part of a number of great shows listed in my top 100 including: Not Necessarily the News, Saturday Night Live, King of the Hill, The Office and the Simpsons.

Steve Buscemi is awesome but the supporting cast are all great as well.

I also liked Lucky Louie on HBO a couple years prior but it was pretty sparse and depressing for a comedy.

Tomoaki Hamatsu, better known as Nasubi , is a Japanese comedian who was locked up in an apartment for " Susunu! Denpa Shōnen" (January 1998-March 2002), a Japanese reality television show on Nippon Television after winning a lottery for a "show business related job".