Without giving it a lot of thought, I will say the 90's...

Twin Peaks,
Law And Order,
NYPD Blues,
Homicide, and
ER...

and to your 90's I would add:

Seinfeld
Friends
X-Files
Cheers (for a few years)
Newsradio
Freaks & Geeks

70's by far

M*A*S*H
All In The Family
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Newhart
Sanford & Son
The Jeffersons
All of Aaron Spellings shows (Charlie's Angels, etc)
Happy Days
Laverne & Shirley
Maude
Wonder Woman

...and many others

I have to go with the 90's. The shows I liked the most:

Simpsons
X-Files
Batman Animated Series
Spin City

Since I love so many TV shows from every era it would go in this order:

1. The 90's-The golden years hands down so many & i mean piles & piles of great shows came out of this great decade of tv.

2. The 70's-The Norman Lear era/The Alan Alda decade

3. The 2000's-really the 2000's have produced alot of shows i watch but they have really only produced one & maybe the greatest TV show of all time, Scrubs.

3. The 80's-the late 80's were really started some of the best comedies ever-Coach, Roseanne, Married with children etc....

4. The 60's -A few really good gems came out of the 60's including Bewitched!

5. The 50's -This is really the start of were TV became a big hit and althrough there were a few classics there really wasn't that much due to the fact that TV was just getting to be a solid format.

Hard to say. If you are talking comedy, the 70s or 90s.

If you are talking drama, I'd say we're in it.

And add....
Night Gallery
ABC Movie of the Week
Mannix
Longstreet
Streets of San Francisco
Rookies
SWAT
Starsky and Hutch
Love American Style
Columbo
McCloud
MacMillan and Wife
Night Stalker

70's Kung Fu and The Rockford Files.

excellent choices also

For me?

90's. DS9, Xfiles, Beverly Hills heh.

The 1940's marked the premieres of the following:

Howdy Doody
Meet the Press (still going strong today!)
Candid Camera (still airing, but not nearly as good)
The Ed Sullivan Show

And I say that's the correct answer, Red Dog.

For Sci-Fi, without question it's the 1960s:

Star Trek
Dr. Who
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits

I'm bias, since I didn't really start watching TV til the late 90s (though I've numerous shows that predate it (obviously, hell I grew up on Get Smart)). But the '00s have had a great track record, imo:

The Sopranos
Six Feet Under
Entourage
House
Boston Legal
Lost
The Wire
The Shield
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Arrested Development
24
Stargate SG-1/Atlantis
Dr. Who/Torchwood
The Office (Both)
Spaced (started in 99 and was only two seasons so it's a tough call, though it didn't air in the US until 2005/6)
Family Guy
The Simpsons (enjoyed most of the post-90s Simpsons, not all though)
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
30 Rock
...etc;

2000's had/has:

Buffy
Angel
Firefly
Veronica Mars
Lost
Alias
Smallville
24
The Shield
Supernatural
Dark Angel
Heroes
Futurama
Family Guy
South Park
The Simpsons
Malcolm in the Middle
King of the Hill
Drawn Together
The X-Files
Sopranos
Deadwood
Carnivale
Sex and the City
Friends
Battlestar Galactica
The Wire
American Dad
Curb Your Enthusiasm
House
The 4400
Jericho
Roswell
The Lone Gunmen
Dead Like Me
Dexter


This is no contest. It's an annihilation.

During the 70's a lot of the critics said that there was a lot of junk on t.v.
The 70's were considered junk t.v. by the t.v. critics remember this was the start of sex & violence on t.v. I remember these shows being put down: 3'S COMPANY, SOAP, CHARLIES ANGELS, WONDER WOMAN, LAVERN & SHRILEY, DALLAS. Only like the shows that were on CBS were acclaimed by critics.

The 60s
Dick Van Dyke Show
Star Trek
Wild Wild West
Fugitive
The Prisoner
The Avengers
Thriller
I Spy
Batman
Green Hornet
Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Addams Family
Munsters
The Saint
Mission Impossible
Flintstones
Jonny Quest
Space Ghost
Rocky and Bullwinkle
The Untouchables
Twilight Zone
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Secret Agent
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Wonderful World of Disney
Combat!
Andy Griffith Show
Beverly Hillbillies
Bewitched

I'll say the 60's and add the following shows to rw's list:

Car 54 Where Are You?
The Westerner
The Defenders
Armstrong Circle Therater/Playhouse 90/The DuPont Hour/The Lloyd Bridges Show (all dramatic anthologies)
Tales of the Vikings

I would guess that most people are selecting the decade that they were adolescents.

1920's

1980s

matlock
dynasty
dallas
family ties
different strokes
knight rider
dukes of hazzard

Don't forget The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

The 2000's has had a bankruptcy of fresh ideas.

I mean, remake after remake. Reality shows and multiple incarnations of CSI and Law & Order. No fresh programming on Saturdays....


How can you assess that the 2000's were the best?

Jericho? Malcolm in the middle?

If you're just looking at network shows that might be a valid point (although there have been some kickass network shows this decade too). Throw in Sci-Fi, USA, f/x, HBO and a few other cable networks and there have been numerous fresh and innovating ideas the past 7 years.

I also think that television writing and directing has naturally evolved and matured over time. While the stories of many older shows are timeless, the pacing and dialogue leaves a lot to be desired at times. I can more easily watch a mediocre show from the past 5 years than a good show from 40 years ago.