My Favorite TV Sitcoms

TOP TEN TV SHOWS BLOGFEST SEPTEMBER 20

Dazzle the blogging world with your boob tube knowledge and fascination

 for cheap sitcoms, over-emoted dramas, and weakly programming.

Well, Alex and all you out there in the blogging world I don’t know if I will dazzle you with my boob tube knowledge and my fascination for cheap sitcoms, over-emoted dramas or weakly (yes I got it) programming, but as they say in show business, “Here goes nothing!” Here are my top ten favorite TV shows in the order of how I rate them.

1.         Burn Notice

This is a show about a former spy who was burned. In the first three seasons, Michael Weston (the burned spy) teams up with Sam Axe (his buddy who informs on him to the FBI), Fiona Glenanne (a trigger happy ex-girlfriend) and Michael’s mother (from Cagney & Lacey fame) to track down those who burned him so he can get back into the “company.” In the meantime he was dumped out in Miami with no job, credit, bank account, or record of existence. The team takes “odd-jobs” helping people who are in trouble and can't got to the police for money to live on while they figure how who “burned” Michael Weston. I love this show. Watch it religiously. I have bought the first three seasons.

2.         Frasier

Frasier was a spin off of Cheers. Kelsey Grammar played Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers who occasionally came into the bar, Cheers. This is still one of the most successful spin offs in TV history. This series followed Crane from Boston after his divorce from Lilith to a new job and condo in Seattle. Dr. Crane became a radio shrink in his old hometown. In the meantime his dad, an ex-cop who had been shot and medically retired moved in with him with his Jack Russell Terrier, Eddie. Crane’s brother, also a shrink falls in love with the housekeeper Daphne. The writing is brilliant in this series. The cast is excellent and hilarious. In this series, Maris, Niles' wife never appears on screen. The sad note to mention is one of the creators David Angel and his wife were on one of the planes that hit the Twin Towers in New York on September 11^th. In the series Daphne and Niles Crane finally marry and have a baby. The baby was named David after the deceased creator.

3.         Royal Pains

This is a new sitcom only in its second season. It is about a young E.R. doctor who, after being wrongly blamed for an important patients death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes a reluctant "doctor for hire" to the rich and famous. When the administrator of the local hospital asks him to treat the town's less fortunate, he finds himself walking the line between doing well for himself and doing good for others. He and his younger brother form “HankMed” and go about doing good. This sitcom is funny and well written. 

4.         Perry Mason

Who doesn’t remember Perry Mason? Mason was a LA defense attorney who never lost a case. Raymond Burr played the attorney who with his secretary Della Street and Private Detective Paul Drake would win cases by usually forcing a confession from the actual killer. Did you know that the creator of Perry Mason, Earle Stanley Gardner borrowed the name Perry Mason from the company in Boston, MA that published his favorite childhood magazine? It was the Perry Mason Company. Perry Mason is the longest running lawyer series. This run includes the time it was a radio show, TV show, 21 or more movies and the series that depicted an older Mason later in life.

5.         Seinfeld

This was another sitcom that was successful because of brilliant writing. Seinfeld  played himself as a New York based comedian and his life with his friends George and ex-girlfriend Elaine and the strange neighbor Kramer. Week after week this show that was all about nothing aired the daily lives of the primary characters as they went about doing nothing.

6.  CSI: Vegas

This series is about Las Vegas criminalists who use physical evidence to solve grisly murders on the night shift. This show has been highly successful and has led to two spin offs and a number of other genre related shows. Each week the team headed by Gil Grissom solves various murders that usually are bizarre in nature in the Nevada desert. The show has been criticized as being grizzly, gory, and too bloody for TV. This show has stayed popular despite the fact that they broke the golden rule of not changing the cast. Brown is dead, Grissom gone, Sarah left, but has come back and now the 11th season will be the last for Katherine. I liked the original cast and it remains on my top ten favorite list at least for the first nine seasons.   

7.         Gilligan’s Island

This show only ran for three seasons but it was funny, especially when I was a kid. The show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways as they attempted to survive and ultimately escape from the island where they were shipwrecked. The crew and passengers had planned on a short three hour cruise but found themselves shipwrecked on a deserted island. Gilligan was a bumbling deckhand that always seemed to “accidentally” and “innocently” foil all of the attempts to be rescued and get off the island. "The Professor An' Mary Ann..." I can still here the song today. God forgive me, but if the polls were revisited today I would vote for Mary Ann over Ginger.

8.  M*A*S*H  


This was also a very brilliantly written sitcom about a rebellious and rascallion Mobile Army Surgical Hospital team in Korea during the Korean conflict. The show revolved around "Hawkeye Pierce" a top-notch surgeon who against his will was drafted and sent to surgically stabilize wounded soldiers prior to being shipped to a hospital for recovery. The show was very funny but at times contained very serious moralistic tones of "preaching" against the establishment. The show often took liberties with the facts of the Korean conflict but was humorous and popular nevertheless.

9.   Rawhide  

Rawhide was a real favorite of mine. This series was set in the 1860s and it portrayed the challenges faced by the men of a cattle drive. Some 20-25 cowboys moved  3,000 head of cattle. The cattle drive begins in San Antonio, Texas, and makes its way along the Sedalia Trail as they headed to the cattle market in KC, MO.

Gil Favor was the Trail Boss who ramrodded the crew and cattle through all sorts of adventures, trouble, and real life situations. The Trail Boss  was a savvy and strong leader who always played "square" with his fellow men. Often Favor would be pushed into a fight and have to use his fist or guns to keep his herd, his honor, or his cowboys.

The weekly episodes were usually introduced by Gil Favor.. The episodes would revolve  the cowboys who would come upon people on the trail and getting drawn into solving whatever problem they presented or were confronting. Sometimes one of the members of the cattle drive or some of the others would venture into a nearby town and encounter some trouble from which they needed to be rescued.

Rowdy Yates was played by Clint Eastwood and was a wild cowboy that would get in trouble and Favor had to keep a tight rein on him.. Gunfights, fistfights, drinking sprees, cattle rustling, and stampedes were the mainstay of this popular western which by the way ran eight seasons. It was exciting for a kid to watch these cowboys in action. After the show I would go down to the basement and put on all the western gear I had and long with my six shooters I would be a cowboy. I still like the re-runs.

The Producer, Charles Warren used a diary written in 1866 by trail boss George C. Duffield to develop the character of Gil Favor.

10.  Combat

Combat would come on at 8:00 PM. The rule was if I wanted to see the show I had to take my bath, jammy up and brush my teeth by 8:00 PM. Then I got to watch the 30 minute program and then it was off to bed. Combat was about the lives of a squad of American soldiers fighting in France during World War II

 Even though the series ran for five seasons, King Company never fought its way out of France. The show centered around the platoon leader  

2nd Lt. Gil Hanley and platoon Sgt, Sgt Saunders who carried a Tommy Gun. saunders was played by Vic Morrow. I loved Combat and any cowboy show. 

Our instructions stated that we were to list our top ten favorites from both the past and present. This required me to leave several favorite shows off the list. I feel compelled to list them as my top ten honorable mentions:

The Andy Griffith Show
Leave it to Beaver
The Donna Reed Show
Bonanza
Father Knows Best
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Matlock
Daniel Boone
Law and Order