This took quite a while, certainly not as easy to make as records or films ones.
Television seemed more ephemeral, watched one you’d never see it again. Now of course it’s ready available to rewatch even some of those programmes you’d missed years ago and thought you’d never see.
Honourable mention to Hiram Holliday the first programme I recall seeing, Hiram fighting a suit of armour with an umbrella.
Have I stirred any recollections?
That was a lot harder that I expected…..
No room for so many – Hitchikers, Upstart Crow, Psychoville, Gotham,…. The list goes on
5 there on my list – hesitate to post as I may be accused of copying
(First draft has 38, may need to do some editing)
Oh go on then.
Netflix series
Fanny and Alexander nearly got a second run out as it was the TV version that I really loved but as it had already made an appearance in my films list it had to make way.
Pre-streaming world,.Got an extra image by mistake second last. Let’s say it’s The Tube that goes there instead.
Damn, forgot about Porridge. And Hill Street Blues.
Sharpe so good it’s included twice?
Well spotted, I was doing it at four in the morning that’s my excuse.
Updated how could I have missed Postgate and Firmin?
thanks to @pencilsqueezer for the reminder and @vulpes-vulpes for the check. Actually noting others posting has reminded me of other stuff I’d forgotten especially The Owl Service.
Great idea for a thread. This is going to be lots of fun.
Trying to compress together different stuff like The Woodentops, 24, Panorama and SNL into one list won’t work for me so I am going straight to specific genres and starting with sitcoms.
There are many intersections on the Afterword Venn Diagram of TV, here’s my humble offering
(realising I’ve probably overlooked some obvious choices)
Here ‘are 25 more British comedy shows with one Kiwi show thrown because it was wonderful.
Racking my brain cells and thinking back about and remembering show that we enjoyed was a great joy.
Hours of fun ahead!
You must have been ‘Spaced’ when compiling this, like me you’ve listed one twice.
Forgotten loads and some otherwise excellent shows have missed out due to weaker later series
Just looked at the ones above. How did I forget Edge Of Darkness? It’s on the shelf behind me!
Not the only one
I’m more annoyed by the fact I didn’t squeeze TV Burp into my selection
Off the top of my head:
Noting that, with the exception of the 3 cartoons, all of the above come from these islands, it strikes me that we’ve all been spoiled this last lifetime of television; so many to choose from, so many of them right up there at the top of their game, whether its comedy, drama, satire and comment, cartoons or whatever.
Has anybody voted for Callan?
No Simpsons?
A disgrace, etc!
I was just about to comment on the lack of The Simpsons. Is it being airbrushed out because of the fall off in quality?
The original (12, 13, 14?) seasons are consistently brilliant IMHO.
The Simpsons is the primo example of what I was referring to by “otherwise excellent series”. (Community is another, and if I could have picked just series one of True Detective I would have done so..)
I am not a telly addict, as you can probably tell.
I left out a lot of absolute classics that are completely obvious, to make room for these.
Omissions, to make room for other selections:
Blackadder
Line of Duty
Steptoe and Son
Dad’s Army
A Very Peculiar Practice
Spaced
The Two Ronnies
The Innes Book Of Records
The Phil Silvers Show
Rab C. Nesbitt
Top Cat
Bugs Bunny
Tom & Jerry
Some in my final selections suffered from a dropoff of quality towards their ends. This does not bother me much, if the good outweighs the bad.
Spooks was great for the first couple of series.
Got a bit slow and lost the longer it went on. Still good, but an awful lot of filler sub-plotting as I recall.
The film version was pretty good though.
Appointment tv for me across the ages