I really enjoy watching TV, and I always have. I am sure I have watched way too much TV over the years, but I don’t care. I gain enjoyment from watching TV. Here are 11 of my favorite TV shows as of right now.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Farscape
- Doctor Who
- The Wallace and Ladmo Show
- The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Castle
- Firefly + Serenity
- X-Files
- The Orville
- Top Gear / Grand Tour
What a list. There are 2 international shows, 2 that only lasted a single season, 1 local kids show, 2 from the same universe, 2 starting Nathan Fillion, 8 Science-Fiction, 1 a better version of Star Trek then some other versions of Star Trek, and 2 that lasted (or are lasting) multiple decades.
I love all these shows. Both Star Trek series I have watched and rewatched many times. In fact I have seen most of these shows more than once through. Regretfully not The Wallace and Ladmo Show since it wasn’t something that was archived really. I have seen the highlight shows they have made with the snippets, but that is about it.
What do I like about these shows is that they tell a story. Well, most of them do. Again, The Wallace and Ladmo Show was a local morning kids show so it didn’t. In some shows the stories were great and really pulled me in, and other times they were fun, and others are totally forgettable. I love good writing on a TV show. That is what keeps me coming back for more. When I was younger, I don’t think I appreciated that as much. I just wanted to be entertained. And there are many shows I watched that did that, but I never go back to them.
The Wallace and Ladmo Show was the first TV show I would say I became a fan of. It was a kids show in the Phoenix area. It started in 1954 as “It’s Wallace” and then grew from there. It starred 3 main people: Wallace, Ladmo, and Pat McMahon (who played many characters). This how was on before school started, and I watched it every day. They did sketches and showed short cartoons from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. It was great. They had fun with each other and made jokes that I didn’t always get, but my parents would get. They also never talked down to kids. They didn’t treat their audience as “little kids”. They treated us as people. I realized that as a kids, and I really saw it later in life as I watch highlight shows of it. I think that added to its appeal as a kid, and why it lasted as long as it did. They did time machine sketches where things weren’t quite right, but they still taught us something. They had a bully character, Gerald, that tried hard to cause trouble but never ended up getting what he wanted. They may have made fun of each other a little, but they still taught respect. They showed me that we should care about others that we don’t agree with or treat us poorly. They had a superhero (Captain Super) that was a mediocre superhero. He tried his best, but always seemed to be just a step behind or just not strong enough. But he was still a hero. The Wizard would show up and tell us random/silly “facts” like “The presidents seal isn’t an animal, and shouldn’t get confused with the president’s walrus” Who knew… or “A quarter pounder is a person that beats up loose change.” It made me laugh, and I remember them 30+ year later. There was Aunt Maud that told messed up stories from her storybook. I own a copy of that book (and is signed). They had Boy/Girl Scouts on the show, they had celebrities from Phoenix and across the nation like Muhamad Ali. It was the longest running kids show with same cast for a long time. It ran for 35 years. It ended when I was 10. My dad watched it as a kid too. It made an impact on me and others like Steven Spielberg who grew up watching it as well. This show impacted people. How many kid’s shows can say that.
Star Trek: The Next Generation was my real introduction to Star Trek. I had seen some of the Original Series before TNG, but TNG got me hooked on Star Trek. I loved the characters, and the hopefulness of the future that was portrayed on that show. I can remember when the “Best of Both Worlds Part 1” ended and I had to wait over an entire summer for the conclusion. That was my first real cliff hanger. I recorded every episode onto VHS and rewatched them. I would pause out the commercials so I could get 8 episodes on a single tape, and I hated myself when I messed it up and had to watch the second airing of the show later in the week. This show brought me together with my friends that became my best friends. I threw a series finale party for “All Good Things…” and we watched it on a large projected screen at my church. We had pizza, drinks, etc. and it was great. And because of that show I have watched most of all the other Star Treks since (I haven’t seen all the newer ones that are paid online yet).
And then Star Trek: Deep Space Nine came out, and things changed. I was in junior high when DSN came out. At first the show was a bit campy, but once it found its legs it became a great show. I loved how the writers had recurring characters, and concepts that kept coming and going throughout the show. And when they started writing episode arcs that lasted not just 1 but 4 seasons that was amazing. They still had episodic shows intermixed and they never left you completely clueless if you missed something (which I never did), and some of those random episodes are the ones that still jump out as great episodes. This was a darker show, and that was great. It made things feel more real, and even when I knew the bigger picture was about a better future, it showed me that there were still issues like today in the future. This was important to me as a high schooler that was dealing with life, and DSN gave me something that brought me joy and allowed me to see more of how not all things are perfect.
Farscape was a show that came out when I was in college and was just the right show for me at that time. It was a sci-fi show for sure. It had a interesting story base about a human being flung somewhere far off in the universe. But the thing that was different was that it incorporated Muppets into the mix. At first it seemed like an odd idea but having the Jim Henson Company running the show made it work. It wasn’t like “The Muppets” though. It was real looking. But the thing that drove the show was the writing. It was fantastic. The concept pulled me in but the writing kept me coming back for more each week. The arc that went through the entire show from beginning to end kept building and growing in a good way. The characters grew and changed as time went on. Some good characters left and other came in. When the show was prematurely canceled, I contributed to the write in to get it back. I splashed social media with pleas to others to watch the show and write in. The campaign worked, for one season and a mini-series at least, but the show was canceled too early. It had so much more it could have done and I do miss the show. But it is a show that I feel can still be rewatched well (true of most shows on my list), and I can learn new things when I watch it.
Doctor Who is an interesting show. It is from the UK, and it has been around for 60 years (on and off). I watched it as a kid on PBS and it was fun and campy. I never really dove into the show when I was a kid, but I vaguely remember watching it. When it was brought back in the early 2000s I started watching it right away, and I loved it. It was fun, it was science fiction, it was well written, and it was still campy at times. Over the next 5 year I really enjoyed it, and made sure to always watch the newest episodes. I really enjoyed the David Tennent version of the doctor. He portrayed a character that I could connect with. He had fun and had heartache. He fell in love and had to destroy people’s lives. When they changed doctors to Matt Smith the show lost a little for me. I didn’t enjoy the acter as much but the writing was still good and so I kept watching. I continued to watch regularly until recently. I felt the show has gotten a bit to “preachy” for me and that the show has lost some of its fun and love for life. I still watch it when I can rent it from my local library, but I don’t feel I am missing anything when I don’t see it.
The X-Files started when I was in high school and again I loved the overall story. The fact that there was a section of the FBI that was looking at the weird things that take place around the country and trying to cover it up was great. The actor and actresses on the show really fit the roles the show was trying to show the viewers. The “cigarette smoking man” was a great bad guy that lasted throughout the show, and always seemed to pop up when you didn’t want him to. The “Lone Gunmen” added a needed comedic spark that helped the show add to it quirkiness. But the key to the show was good writing and the interplay between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. The writers always did their best with the shows; whether it was a monster of the week or something related to the overall arc of the show. They rarely let their viewers down. And David and Gillian filled the main roles so perfectly. David with his sense of wonder you could see on his face and in his eyes, and Gillian with her exactness and scientific knowhow that grounded the show so often. The recent seasons of the show (after 15 years) were ok. They tried to extend the story arc, but I felt they fell a bit flat overall. It seemed a bit forced at times, and I really think the show would have been better without those seasons in the cannon of the show.
The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. was a single season show that started Bruce Campbell. It was a comedy-science fiction-western. I can remember not being so sure of the idea when I first heard about it, but once I watched it I was hooked. It made me laugh because they didn’t take themselves too seriously. It was a western with bad guys and good guys like you would expect. And it was a sci-fi show with a weird time travel element that I wasn’t expecting. I felt that the show was cut short, but at the same time I think the writers did a great job finishing the entire shows story arc. It is an easy show to watch and you can always pick it up, put it down and then pick it up again without much issue.
Show like Castle and Firefly are the straight up fun shows that I enjoy watching. I think that Firefly had more to tell and even with the movie Serenity there just wasn’t enough time to tell the story that needed telling. Castle had a great run, and even toward the end it still made me laugh at the right times and feel for the characters at the right time. I always enjoyed when Castle would have someone from Firefly on it because the show would do something that only someone who knew both shows would get. To me that was wise and fun writing.
Next on my list is The Orville. This show is what Star Trek was. It is great characters telling great stories. When the show first came out it was clear that this was a new Star Trek that didn’t have Star Trek in its name. It was like how Galaxy Quest was a great Star Trek movie without being a Star Trek movie. I think Seth McFarlane has done a fantastic job portraying a captain, man, and friend, and at the same time his writing and directing on the show is also top notch. The show is doing a good job of telling futuristic stories that are about current topics of interest without being preachy but getting a point across. That is what Star Trek did so well in its past. I find myself wanting to see the next episode and when it was not being produced during the pandemic I missed seeing it. That tells me it is a good show. The characters are funny and serious. The interplay is well written, and the actors do a great job conveying what the writers want said (at least it seems that way to me). I hope more seasons are in store for The Orville.
Last on my list (for now) is Top Gear / Grand Tour. I like cars. I like banter. I like adventures (well sort-of). So, watching Top Gear has always been entertaining for me. I started watching Top Gear on BBC America probably 20 years ago. I came across it one day and I was hooked pretty fast. I really enjoyed the cars they showed. I knew I would never own anything they talked about on the show, but I still loved watching the cars. And the adventured the guys would do to “test” cars was by far my favorite part of the show. Seeing the guys travel across the middle east, Vietnam, the South in the US, up a volcano, through Europe, and more always was entertaining. There was never anything profound in the show. This was just mind-numbing fun. I have even used clips from the show in my physics classes to show projectile motion and conservation of momentum. Hearing the hosts make fun of each other, play off each other, and just have fun together always added to the shows appeal to me as well. I will admit that I haven’t watched Top Gear since Clarkson, May and Hammond left for Amazon and the Grand Tour. I stuck with those guys since I enjoyed their interplay I mentioned before. The show is certainly not for everyone and I would say that you need to enjoy cars to enjoy the show, but boy is it a fun car show.
Let me know what you think? Likes on the list? Dislikes on the list? Things you think I should watch to possibly add to the list? What are your favorite shows?