Unopened Boxsets that I liked the look of from the Pilot: The ILX Television 51 Show Countdown Extravaganza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

last ep of Friends was awful. It was interesting to contrast it with the Frasier finale from the week before, which was much better and actually funny.

if u want forgotten shit, i was into this for about 6 episodes

http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/Invasion_S1.jpg

with Peggy!

we should do a poll of the post-Lost sci-fi/fantasy serials

or not.

Once again, an ILX poll has underscored the vast amounts of entertainment which have passed me by & which, given time, I would like to investigate. My two main sentiments:

01. More of you should check out The Shield & Breaking Bad. TS does take patience, esp during its middle seasons, but o how your patience will be rewarded.

02. I need to acquaint myself with like the last 20 years of British comedy.

Shows added to my Netflix queue in the last two days because of this thread (in order of how high in the queue the first episode of each is, though that could change, and I promise to give up quick on whatever doesn't grab me right away, since there's so much competition):

- Breaking Bad
- State Of Play
- Once And Again (thanks Scott!)
- The IT Crowd
- Deadwood
- Skins
- Peep Show

Saved:

- The Inbetweeners

1. The Wire
2. Buffy
3. Deadwood
4. How I Met Your Mother

5. The O.C.
6. Band of Brothers
7. Firefly
8. Veronica Mars
9. Undeclared
10. The Unit

11. The West Wing
12. generation kill
13. Dawson's Creek
14. battlestar galactica
15. Top Chef
16. Dead Like Me

17. Angel
18. Oz
19. Sports Night
20. Six Feet Under
21. Mad Men
22. Jackass
23. Gossip Girl
24. Friday Night Lights
25. Chappelle's Show

i can't believe how many ppl don't have The Sopranos on their ballots.

Peep Show is one that should grab you (or not) by episode one, Chuck. I recently rewatched some of the first series and it was the rare instance where the first episodes were just as strong and self-assured and funny as the show was as a whole.

xpost

I kinda can. I rated it rather low on my own ballot. After The Soup. Its strengths were epic, but it definitely had its share of flaws.

sure, but seeing some of the stuff ppl chose instead of it is just...wtf

anybody watched Sons of Anarchy? - I'll rep for this. At its start, it seemed a pale imitation of The Sopranos cept w/ bikers in place of the mafia. But it has a stellar cast & the writing has come into its own as of late. The second season (it is about 2/3 through at this point) has been esp. good. I started watching it b/c of the generally high quality standard of recent FX series & b/c Ron Perlman (hey now) plays the lead, but I almost ducked on it midway through the 1st season. I'm glad I didn't.

Love that Samurai Jack did exactly as well as Friends!

mad men beating lost = ilx voters like being bored
VMars beating US Office is probably my favorite meaningless little victory this poll has produced so far

― solangedarobot (some dude),

^_^
Although I have to say that I felt VM was pretty pedestrian after I rewatched the first season, but I still hold s2 in high regard.

I probably overranked Doctor Who -- above F&G! -- because I am impatient for the next installments.

Never cared for Deadwood. Arrested Development was aite but never felt compelled to watch the second season. Sopranos rarely worked for me.

I am actually quite disappointed that Top Model didn't make it to the top 100!!! Tickled that SYTYCD made the 100, though.

Lost and 24 were two shows that made me want to punch my tv thru its screen the most. Lost was either terminally boring or fatally terrible from s2 to s4, and I hate all the characters except Desmond. Though, uh, it gets props for uh reminding me of Bai Ling. 24 had one awesome season total between s1 and s2 and was just some of the most inane narrative idiocy thereafter. I still voted Lost -- GRUDGINGLY -- because s5 was castrated me with twists.

I don't know what to think of a poll conducted by someone who so easily dismisses Pynchon. j/k excellent job vote man.

I've rewatched the first four seasons of The Wire and oddly, season 4 was almost a complete miss for me even though I loved it the first time I watched it. No idea why. But season 3 was immense as was the second. It's still my #1 because I guess I am a "Stanley" for it.

1. The Wire
2. 30 Rock
3. Doctor Who
4. Freaks & Geeks
5. Sports Night
6. Justice League Unlimited
7. Generation Kill
8. America's Next Top Model
9. Bones
10. Friday Night Lights
11. Teen Titans
12. So You Think You Can Dance
13. Project Runway
14. Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles
15. State of Play
16. Da Ali G Show
17. Survivor
18. Undeclared
19. Lost
20. The Amazing Race
21. The West Wing
22. The Simpsons
23. Veronica Mars
24. Battlestar Galactica
25. Futurama

Btw, All Of The Wire > 30 Rock S2 > America's Next Top Model S6 >>>> everything else.

Samuel, where did ANTM end up?

1. The Wire
2. The West Wing
3. The Daily Show
4. How I Met Your Mother
5. The Venture Bros
6. The Soup
7. 30 Rock
8. Lost
9. Planet Earth
10. American Idol
11. Home Movies
12. Freaks & Geeks
13. Veronica Mars
14. Saturday Night Live
15. Chappelle's Show
16. Futurama
17. Two And A Half Men
18. CSI
19. Late Night with Conan O'Brien
20. Pushing Daisies
21. Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends
22. Meerkat Manor
23. Party Down
24. True Blood
25. Damages

Sopranos was my number one. Obviously I'm outraged, but only at these two things, really:

1) Lost over The Sopranos? Dumb.
2) Mad Men over The Sopranos? A show that owes so much to, and borrows so much from, that show placing above it? I voted for MM, but it has so much less humor and great acting (I love a lot of that cast but Gandolfini, Falco, Imperioli, etc are tops) and sheer entertainment value, and is way more "up-its-own-ass" than Sopranos ever was, despite having less dream sequences. I know we were all disappointed by season 6 (part 1), but let's think straight here.

TV Burp lost out to The Wire? Lighten up people.

1. The Wire
2. 30 rock
3. Freaks and geeks
4. The Daily Show
5. Mad Men
6. Arrested Development
7. How I met your mother
8. Friday Night Lights
9. Party Down
10. Nevermind the Buzzcocks
11. The office (UK)
12. The office (US)
13. Extras
14. It's always sunny in philadelphia
15. Chappelle Show
16. The Colbert Report
17. Curb your enthusiasm
18. Da Ali G show
19. Flight of the conchords
20. Generation Kill
21. Andy Richter controls the universe
22. Spaced
23. The Joe Schmo Show
24. America's Next Top Model
25. The OC/Family Guy

I have the same top 6 as the poll. I AM ILX

Can't believe I forgot to send my ballot in:

Top 20

1. Roobarb and Custard
2. Bobinogs
3. The Least Of All Worries
4. No One Was Hurt
5. Housing Show (Bungalow season)
6. Kitchen Bin
7. Ask Batman
8. Battlebore Britannica
9. Ship Shape and Bristol Temple Meads
10. My Family
11. Castle of the Lovely Girls
12. Kitchen Bin II: Not In My Bin
13. Call My Bluff
14. Mickey and Goofy's Puzzle Corrections
15. The Wir
16. 11 Rillington Place
17. An Audience With Joe Bugner
18. Crimson Flapps
19. The Hoobs
20. Dynamito

I dreamt about this thread last night. I went to bed after Arrested Development, realising that boring old Wire was taking the top slot, but in my dream an online Japanese puzzle cartoon called Wierdgan (I am not making this up) won. It was an usual programme in that you had to watch each programme and work out the clues to get a code to download further episodes. It's main character was a giant bird like a multicoloured Big Bird.

wow.

is it too late to change our votes?

nope, i'll re-do the whole thread for you iatee.

and then we can spoon and listen to steve wright's sunday love songs.

k keep my votes the same but put Wierdgan at #1

now if only darragh were here to be complaining like a motherfucker, it would all be complete.

― Samuel (a hoy hoy), 06 November 2009 00:15 (9 hours ago)

uh, sorry to both you and blueski, i guess.

Weirdgan totally jumped the shark after they replaced the multicoloured bird with a self-jumping shark.

no, i liked the charming yiddish dismay you bought. :)

v v happy with the top 10, tbh. friends!

omg u racist btw

(well, anti semitic)

11. Castle of the Lovely Girls

went to shit after they killed off Esperanza

not a complaint, shurely?

i have heard of none of those shows

some of them are made up e.g. "The Hoobs"

show about the puppeteers on The Hoobs on Channel 4 now, GOOD SHIT.

haha yeah i figured it was that or british, or a combination of the two

xp

can't believe you fucking caved on the early top ten, that's my Friday afternoon entertainment fucked

UK office above Sopranos are you all fucking mental?

11. Castle of the Lovely Girls

went to shit after they killed off Esperanza

You're not kidding. Remains the only occasion I've ever spat at my television.

Catching up, now that I'm over Sam's capitulation to America :)

25. Battlestar Galactica - watched the original as a lad, couldn't get into this
24. Futurama - good stuff, about where I'd expect it to be
23. Flight Of The Conchords - this falls flat for me more often than not but sometimes is proper laugh out loud funny
22. The Thick of It - Viz's "Rude kid" filtered through a Zingomiser or something. Wins me over with pure crudeness rather than any actual good comedy writing
21. The West Wing - meh political drama, I know loads of people who really can't get enough of WW. Mostly bores me.
20. The Office U.S. - never got round to paying too much attention to this, looks to have found its own voice after starting as a poor rewrite.
19. Veronica Mars - never seen it
18. Peep Show - thought the UK contingent would have boosted this higher.
17. Spaced - agreed with all the posts about it dating badly but I absolutely loved it first time round.
16. Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Loved it up to Graduation Day (S3 finale), where I thought it should have ended, then it lost its way for me and I stopped watching. Looks like it picked up again from what people are saying.
15. Six Feet Under - one of those shows I watched the first couple of eps of then forgot about.
14. The Colbert Report - never seen it
13. South Park - 13th in the decade? Really? To me it seemed a bit tired by the time the 2000s came around. Still makes me laugh occasionally but if this is top 15 it was a pretty shit decade.
12. Doctor Who - voted for this based on overall fondness for Doctor Who since I was a kid but if I'm to be honest only a handful of the nuWho episodes have been proper good telly.
11. Deadwood - hatred for Lovejoy has prevented me watching Deadwood but I keep hearing good things. It might join a few others off this list in my "to see" list.
10. Curb Your Enthusiasm - the nature of the show makes it hit and miss but when it hits it's among the funniest things on TV. Worth its place.
9. The Sopranos - This was my #2, though I have to admit the last couple of series didn't live up to the earlier ones. I know this board if full of Wire stans and I new that would be #1 but I honestly thought big Tony would make the podium.
8. Lost - my #1, even if it is increasingly infuriating to watch. I love that it drives even its biggest fans nuts. The first couple of series were an absolute joy and (like early Sopranos) no-one else was making anything quite like it at the time. I thought the ILX Lost contingent might have been big enough to get this in the top 5.
7. The Office U.K. - funny show, but no way did I see it ranking this highly - top UK show! I had it 12th on my ballot and decided afterwards that that was generous.
6. The Daily Show - US thing, quite like some of the wee clips I see on youtube or w/e
5. Mad Men - Thought this would be battling it out with Sopranos for #2, given the volume of mentions it gets on here, really surprised at the shows above it
4. Freaks and Geeks - Americans have bossed this poll eh? Never seen it.
3. 30 Rock - I should maybe watch more TV eh?
2. Arrested Development - oh I've seen this. Good stuff, didn't see it coming this high for a moment
1. The Wire - an obvious winner from the outset, I need to get round to finishing off watching it (i.e. seasons 2, 3, 4 and 5...)

Thanks for all your hard work Sam. From this fifty there's a good list of stuff I will make an effort to check out.

Surprised Band of Brothers only got 4 votes, I thought that was generally well thought of?

Heroes didn't even make the 100? Really tailed off after that first series eh?

Looks like one more vote could have got Terminator: SCC into the top 100 :(

Others I voted for and am disappointed not to see make the 50:

Life On Mars, TV Burp, Shameless, Ideal, Have I Got News For You, Spongebob Squarepants, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends

i was pretty sure from the onset Life On Mars, Spongebob and Invader Zim were to never appear here. all three i enjoyed alot - althought LoM didn't last very long.

Would me tentatively offering to run a 90s TV poll be insanity? I don't have much work on at the moment.

It would be insanity. Go for it!

i think i'd prefer a 00s film poll. 90s too long ago to remember whether i liked sabrina or clarrisa more.