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Writers Guild of America - 101 Best Written TV Series

3 Jun 2013

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If character is destiny, then character has also long been the backbone of great TV writing. The list of the WGA’s 101 Best Written TV Series is a testament to this, as true for a series on which the main character is ostensibly a version of the star (The Cosby Show, to give but one example) as a show featuring a Vulcan aboard an exploratory space ship or a serial killer flitting across both sides of the thin blue line.

Close to half of the 101 Best Written TV Series aired within the last decade. Not coincidentally, this was a period that coincided with a sharp growth in original programming on both basic and pay cable television when writers were given more latitude to explore the moral complexities of the worlds they created.

From this recent blossoming of TV anti-heroes came characters asking audiences to not so much root for them (though they suggested this too) but to reckon with their actions and beliefs. The Sopranos received the most votes, and no show has been more responsible for TV’s storytelling renaissance, in which writers use character both as engines for commenting on the contemporary world and for teasing out the ways in which action reflects psychology in the troubled inner lives of real people. This deeper pursuit of character is evident everywhere on the list, whether via a chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin or a dashing ad man in the 1960s who has literally stolen the identity of someone else.

And yet, as much as you probably couldn’t have done a show about a mob boss in therapy during TV’s first Golden Age, shows from the medium’s previous epochs are well-represented here. These shows are all the more impressive considering the relative creative constraints under which previous generations of TV writers labored. And maybe that wasn’t exclusively a bad thing, since they now shine a light on what is still possible. How exciting would it be to see a network today attempt a live anthology series of teleplays, featuring prominent writers, directors and actors à la Playhouse 90?

Then, as now, it comes down to character—from Lucy Ricardo and Archie Bunker to Andy Griffith and Andy Sipowicz. There are kinships across generations—from The Honeymooners to Roseanne, say, or from The Twilight Zone to Lost. Regardless of the year, or genre, what emerges is a common dynamic between show and audience, the kind of lasting intimacy that writers telling episodic stories are uniquely able to achieve.

Television came into being as a miraculous mass medium, done live—the miracle was you didn’t have to leave the house to see it, and all of America could watch the same thing at once. Now the miracle involves being able to take the content everywhere, on demand, and in your pocket. The audience is not the community it once was, but many different ones, discovering great shows incrementally, and on a multitude of devices. But on this list, at least, a show like M*A*S*H, for whose finale the nation tuned in en masse, exists in the same conversation as a short-lived, rediscovered gem like Freaks and Geeks. Because both shows represent the same question—not how many watched but how deep did the writing go?

1. The Sopranos
2. Seinfeld
3. The Twilight Zone (1959)
4. All in the Family
5. M*A*S*H
6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
7. Mad Men
8. Cheers
9. The Wire
10. The West Wing
11. The Simpsons
12. I Love Lucy
13. Breaking Bad
14. The Dick Van Dyke Show
15. Hill Street Blues
16. Arrested Development
17. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
18. Six Feet Under
19. Taxi
20. The Larry Sanders Show
21. 30 Rock
22. Friday Night Lights
23. Frasier
24. Friends
25. Saturday Night Live
26. The X-Files
27. Lost
28. ER
29. The Cosby Show
30. Curb Your Enthusiasm
31. The Honeymooners
32. Deadwood
33. Star Trek
34. Modern Family
35. Twin Peaks
36. NYPD Blue
37. The Carol Burnett Show
38. Battlestar Galactica (2005)
39. Sex & The City
40. Game of Thrones
41. (tie) The Bob Newhart Show; Your Show of Shows
43. (tie) Downton Abbey; Law & Order; Thirtysomething
46. (tie) Homicide: Life on the Street; St. Elsewhere
48. Homeland
49. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
50. (tie) The Colbert Report; The Good Wife; The Office (UK)
53. Northern Exposure
54. The Wonder Years
55. L.A. Law
56. Sesame Street
57. Columbo
58. (tie) Fawlty Towers; The Rockford Files
60. (tie) Freaks and Geeks; Moonlighting
62. Roots
63. (tie) Everybody Loves Raymond; South Park
65. Playhouse 90
66. (tie) Dexter; The Office (US)
68. My So-Called Life
69. Golden Girls
70. The Andy Griffith Show
71. (tie) 24; Roseanne; The Shield
74. (tie) House; Murphy Brown
76. (tie) Barney Miller; I, Claudius
78. The Odd Couple
79. (tie)Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Monty Python's Flying Circus; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Upstairs, Downstairs
83. Get Smart
84. (tie) The Defenders; Gunsmoke
86. (tie) Justified; Sgt. Bilko (The Phil Silvers Show)
88. Band of Brothers
89. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
90. The Prisoner
91. (tie) Absolutely Fabulous (UK); The Muppet Show
93. Boardwalk Empire
94. Will & Grace
95. Family Ties
96. (tie) Lonesome Dove; Soap
98. (tie) The Fugitive; Late Night with David Letterman; Louie
101. Oz

Source: WGA

38 comments:

  1. Jonathan_Andre3 June 2013 at 12:21

    oh dear. i haven't seen anything from this list (except for friday night lights where i've only seen the first two episodes)...

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  2. where the f*** is Fringe? -.-

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  3. InvestedInYourFuture3 June 2013 at 12:34

    A lot of great shows in the list, although some of them (like BTVS) should be way higher.

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  4. I thought Gilmore Girls would make that list, but otherwise? Great collection!

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  5. The invalidity of this list is proven through the higher ranking of an inconsistent show like Lost above series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica over even The Wonder Years, which all have a more consitent mythology.

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  6. Panos Nestoras3 June 2013 at 13:02

    It's an ok list. Most of my favourite shows are included, however personally i would have placed The Wire first without a doubt...

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  7. Lost made the list, but Fringe didn't even make the Top 101 over shows like Sex & the City? This list makes me really sad. =(

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  8. Could be worse, but some of the ranking doesn't really make sense (Modern Family 34? GoT 40? I would have been surprised with them cracking the list).
    The Wire and Breaking Bad probably too low, but considering how almost unknown they are it's a good ranking I guess.

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  9. Modern Family, Sex & the City, SNL & Lost are better written than GoT!?! What is this crap?

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  10. For a sci-fi show, Fringe was commonly scientifically inaccurate and the last season wasn't so good.

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  11. Why all these stupid shows? And NCIS is not even mentioned while it's way better then several of these shows combined!

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  12. I find it very disturbing that Breaking Bad isn't in the top 5.

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  13. It's a procedural and it's no better than other CBS police crap.

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  14. just because a 13-episode final season wasn't so good, doesn't mean anything. season 2-3-4 were amazing.

    and additionally, where's The Walking Dead, Supernatural and most importantly SouthLAnd. A very realistic and highly-praised show about L.A cops

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  15. The last season of The X-Files wasn't so good, and the same could be said about Lost. Actually, I enjoyed the last season of Fringe more than Lost and X-Files, and those two were #26 and #27.

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  16. Lilith Hellfire3 June 2013 at 15:07

    wow, OZ sitting at 101 (really much lower because of all of the ties), smh, actually shaking my head at the whole list really

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  17. who cares if it's scientifically inaccurate, since when has Fringe become a documentary?

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  18. "The Defenders" -- is it the short-lived quirky lawyers show that aired in 2011/2012 with the guy from Crossing Jordan and his older, balder, fatter pal?

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  19. I rarely comment on lists, but this time I had to. The Wire only ninth? SFU in 18th place? Are you kidding me? And where are House of Cards, Utopia and Luther?

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  20. You haven't seen any of these? Not a single one from this list (not counting Friday Night Lights since you only saw two episodes)? Wow, I have never ever talked to a person before that has never watched any of these shows. There are so many shows on the list above, I thought it covered almost any TV enthusiast out there. Now I'm really curious, what's your favorite series of all-time?

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  21. I wish they'd do a list of shows just from the last 10 years or so. I'd be curious what other shows would be included. There are several shows from recent times that I think deserve to be on the list.

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  22. So big surprise...Fringe gets the snub again by elitist Hollywood AKA the Writer's Guild. God forbid Fringe get any recognition by any academy in Hollywood.

    So let me get this straight...LOST, a show that admittedly LOST track of it's original plan, and went on to drag us, the constant viewers through the muddy mess that ended up being its storyline for six years, then took us to an asinine NON-ENDING, that left virtually all the mythological questions unanswered got to be on this list as good writing, but Fringe, a show that continually answered its questions for the most part, and had a concise believable ending, that fit the rest of the series as a whole, and did it while still showing us the characters redemptive arcs, without the help of an imaginary, and arbitrary afterlife, gets the snub. And don't get me started on some of the other "works of so-called-art" on this list.

    ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!

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  23. Even "Sex & The City" made the list over "Fringe". Did these judges even watch the show? And well said Ricky, I can't believe it was snubbed when "LOST" made #27. =(

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jonathan_Andre3 June 2013 at 22:17

    well here are a few tv shows that i watch:

    One Tree Hill (CW)
    Monk (USA Network)
    Castle (ABC)
    Chuck (NBC)
    Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes (BBC)
    Packed to the Rafters (Channel 7)
    Being Erica (CBC)
    Royal Pains (USA Network)
    Once Upon a Time (ABC)
    Person of Interest (CBS)
    Hart of Dixie (CW)
    Psych (USA Network)
    Sherlock (BBC)
    White Collar (USA Network)
    Rizzoli and Isles (TNT)
    Continuum (Showcase)
    Eureka (Syfy)
    Suits (USA Network)
    Switched at Birth (ABC Family)
    Kyle XY (ABC Family)
    Lie to Me (FOX)
    Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
    Fairly Legal (USA Network)
    Perception (TNT)
    Rookie Blue (ABC/Global)
    Necessary Roughness (USA Network)
    The Newsroom (HBO)
    The Mentalist (CBS)
    Parenthood (NBC)

    Orphan Black (BBC America)
    Elementary (CBS)
    Arrow (CW)
    Veronica Mars (CW)
    The Glades (A&E)
    Longmire (A&E)


    as you can see, none of the shows cross over.


    based on these shows that I watch on a regular basis, are there any shows that any of you like to recommend? I'm open to suggestions... :)

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  25. This is the cross we Fringies will have to bare! We always faced an uphill battle,it was never easy keeping this show in the spotlight but we did it,even if the WRA didn't recognize it.

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  26. Where the hell is Southland? I don't even have to ask about Fringe,god forbid it should be included..

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  27. Nicolás Caballero Mühlbach4 June 2013 at 01:08

    indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I'm surprised, besides that I enjoyed Mr. Wyman's episodes, David Fury's are always a treat no matter what show he is writing for! So sad for Fringe, but I'm sure we'll keep it alive!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Haha, OK, I guess I can't complain on your TV watching, since you watch more shows than I do. Glad to see we at least have The Newsroom on HBO in common, besides that, none of the shows listed here are the ones I watch. But I would strongly recommend for you to watch the show called "24". Edge-of-your-seat suspense and turns and twists you can't see from 30 miles or 3 millimeters away, and especially considering it got revived for airing in the Summer of 2014 after an initial cancellation back in 2010 (I think it was 2010), then the show has proven to be a hit. So, yeah, go watch the 8 seasons of "24" before 2014 and then enjoy the revival when that comes on! :P

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  30. OH OH, and watch The Big Bang Theory as well! It's not like extremely funny in every single scene, but it has its moments that are so funny that it manages to get me to actually laugh and fall out of my seat (no other show on this planet has been able to do that, I don't laugh easily)

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  31. Jonathan_Andre4 June 2013 at 10:56

    sad to see we only have one show in common. i'll try out 24 only if you check out some of the shows I watch :). i guess if there's a show you gotta watch from this tv season, it'll have to be orphan black. it's on bbc america and has gained quite a fan following since it's 1st season start in march 2013. could be up your alley, very sci-fi/action. one of my favourite new tv series this 2012/13 season.

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  32. Jonathan_Andre4 June 2013 at 10:57

    dunno about that. i'm not really that keen on comedies with laugh tracks... sorry, it's just too painful to watch something and then at strategic points, laughter erupts... :( but i am going to watch some new comedies this 2013-14 tv season. definitely the crazy ones and the michael j fox show, as well as back in the game, trophy wife and the goldbergs. unsure about brooklyn 99 yet...

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  33. I'm sure you have never seen NCIS so why call it crap? At least watch it first!

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  34. Alan Martins Rodrigues4 June 2013 at 18:05

    "I've checked out a lot of them"

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  35. Wow Fringe not in list...... no accounting for taste :(

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  36. I have to agree that Buffy needs to be a lot higher. It's a cult classic, and will always be around just like some other classics that are top 10. Proud Six Feet Under is listed high, such a well written show.

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  37. That is an excellent list!!!

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