iPlayer? What's an iPlayer? ILX's top 50 TV shows of the 90s!

yes

7. The State

forgot about this being in the running, have to get ready to be annoyed if it's in the top 10 and apoplectic if it's higher than KITH

I'm beginning to think The State might very well sneak into the top ten, but I will be with you in losing my shit if it's above KITH.

what on my excellently-rendered breakdown (well, deric's excellently-rendered and now rejigged breakdown) is possibly not gonna be here?

Yes, now I understand why I need to stop watching TV and living. It's...all so clear to me now.

well yw then

I'm proud that my #1 was Beavis and Butthead, so I'll just share that with you all right now.

The State deserves to place.

My #1 was Quantum Leap.

10 - The Kids in the Hall (CBC, 1988-94)
- 2900 points, 19 votes, 3 first place

http://neroanima.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/plastickith.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPLWbTh9_Nk&feature=related

I'm going to be doing the top ten at a fair old speed I'm afraid. Places to be.

need to see more of this, remember it from late night C4 but didn't get most of it aged 14.

I've got a spike through my head!

Oooooh. That was close. Should've placed higher, obvs, but I will content myself with its top ten placing.

9 - South Park (Comedy Central, 1997-present)
- 3010 points, 21 votes

http://newsrealblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/south-park-posters.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDmoDs8TXLE

From the movie I know, but it's surprisingly hard to find decent SP clips. Plus it's one of the funniest things ever.

can't believe its still going

The first couple seasons and the movie are golden. This decade, not so much.

new SP is still better than approx 98% of what's on TV, and every now and again they produce something truly jaw-dropping

I dont think it hit its peak until the middle of this decade tbh

first season is pretty bad

"Every now and again" is the key bit for me. Though you're right in that it is still better than most of the dreck on tv.

The movie is the peak for me. Unfettered brilliance.

The SP Lord Of The Rings parody was golden, and mostly because the script rested on re-creating the atmosphere of the movie rather than five fart gags a minute.

the movie is what converted me on south park. i'd seen scattered episodes up to that point and was skeptical, but the movie was so good it made me go back to the series and find the good ones, of which there are plenty.

dere american voters, heehee @ u for underestimating us and our knockabout satirical/farcical lulz

south park is brilliant obv

the manga WOW episode is as good as anything produced for TV this decade.

the script rested on re-creating the atmosphere of the movie rather than five fart gags a minute.

I think there's a bit of a misconception that SP is all crude jokes, when the best episodes are properly good comic storytelling.

8 - The Day Today (BBC, 1994)
- 3370 points, 20 votes, 2 first place

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/08/15/chrismorris3_396x222.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjx2pclJQew

wtf @ the day today before brass eye, you are all wrong, and you're also grotesquely ugly freaks

assuming brass eye places

oh wait did it place already? my bad.

anyway this is pretty much the funniest shit ever and it is the birthplace of so many comedy legends, also it is endlessly quotable. be thankful the whole thing's on youtube otherwise i'd indulge.

i only really like the stuff involving Morris i think

and Partridge obv

and jacques 'jacques' liverot and the swimming pool security dude and and and and etc

"this is my bureau de change!". brilliant and at times very stupid show

South Park is brilliant, btw. Probably better this decade than when it started, but I say that without ever really knowing whether I'm seeing something new or an old repeat (I don't go out of my way to watch it, but if I see it I'm often in hysterics, most recently one where Cartman thought he was dead).

7 - I'm Alan Partridge (BBC, 1997-2002)
- 3430 points, 17 votes, 1 first place

http://www.dominonations.com/uploaded/alan%20partridge.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa291zWzz3A&feature=related

as a treat, here's alan partridge having a great moment ON the day today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EPjUfQ9j1M

never got it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQNzLBTCEDI

tbph from what i've seen he's funnier in the parole officer

...but he really came into his own on his own show, a show described by dom passantino late of this manor as the finest 3 hours of television britain or maybe the world has ever aired

it's up there

and i've met him and he's tiny

Fun fact! Partridge is the character who appears in the most top 50 shows in this poll (three).

This is my favourite Partridge moment, how Linehan and Matthews kept a straight face I don't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QRlR0ctjNE

this show deserves to be in the top 10 for COOK PASS PARTRIDGE alone, and the top 7 for the hotel attendant who cannot actually stop laughing at alan

or maybe JURASSIC PARK covers them both

"Not my words, the words of Top Gear Magazine!"

I just love how informal, how low-budget, how improvised IAP S1 feels, even if it was fairly meticulous in its execution. It feels like a dirty and joyous secret you've fallen into, a fly-on-the-wall characterisation of one of the great British losers/heroes. Oh god I've remembered the county fair....

Mysterious Cities of Gold would probably take my no. 1 spot in a hypothetical 80s poll. I was so deep into that.

― Communi-Bear Silo State (chap), Thursday, December 10, 2009 2:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I loved that show when I was 7. Last year I was watching Avatar: The Last Airbender re-runs and I all of the sudden remembered the show. I've been wondering lately if it was as good as I remember it.

The only highlight that sticks in my mind though is that the team runs into these people with torches, and the people tell them that the torches are fueled by llama dung. Then one of the kids has a thought bubble featuring a llama taking a dump. Am I thinking of the right show?

ahhhh ayayiyaaaa someday we will fiiiyyyind the citteeee of gooooold