johnbook

I would have to say that the 70's IMO were the greatest times for T.V. shows, here are my favorites from that time, especially nice since all of these shows have been given some sort of DVD release.

All in the Family
Rockford Files
Welcome Back Kotter
Fantasy Island
The Waltons
The Jeffersons
Dukes of Hazzard - Started in the 70's
Barney Miller
Columbo - technicality started in the 60's, but so damn good in the 70's
Sanford & Son
Chips
Eight is Enough
Six million dollar man

starving dvder

The 70's without a doubt.

Mountain Biker

80's by far.

Damfino

60s

Star Trek, Lost in Space, Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, The Addams Family, The Munsters, The Man From UNCLE, Wild Wild West, The Fugitive, Rowan And Martin's Laugh In, The Smothers Brothers, and others I'm forgetting right now.

zombiezilla

I'm not voting because I'm equally torn between the 60s and the 70s. Sure, I watched TV in the 80s and 90s, but it (mostly) sucked, comparatively. I won't talk about the current TV stuff, because I know nothing about network TV since I got satellite TV around 2001 (I watch movies almost exclusively now, except for a few reruns & cable network shows).

nemein

Since this is more about the shows than the DVDs I'm moving it to TV Talk...

Ayre

Growing up in the 60's and 70's might cause me to favor those era's.

I am not looking at this topic with nostalgia clouded eyes. Back then, those shows were great. Now, the same shows reveal their lack a of maturity. The acting, writing and production were poor by todays standards and of course technology has given us much more sophisticated production techniques.

I voted 2000's. Even the worst of todays shows exhibits a maturity that is not found in any of the previous decades. As banal as Everybody Loves Raymond may have seemed, it was an amalgamation of every family sitcom before it. It certainly didn't break any new ground, but instead perfected the same old same old. It was better than the family comedy shows before it.

Look at the OP's list. I loved most of the shows when they aired, but I doubt I could sit through more than a couple episodes now. We have many shows available on DVD and their sales pale in comparison to new shows. Many posters/voters haven't even watched any of those shows, so they are new to them, but the truth is they aren't watching those shows. Major networks are not re-airing them for new generations. They are the legacy of growth, like a bad haircut on school picture day.

Of course if you meant the best decade during the time that they aired, that would be kind of silly. Since many/most posters were not even born in the 70's

Wasn't there a similar poll a couple months ago.

rw2516

Ditto.
Add:
Hogan's Heroes
Beverly Hillbillies
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
Time Tunnel
Thriller
Green Hornet
Batman
Route 66
Outer Limits
Twilight Zone(except first season)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents(last 5 seasons or so)
Dick Van Dyke Show
Bewitched
I Dream Of Jeannie
Flintstones
Jonny Quest
Mission Impossible(first four seasons)
Jetsons
Hawaii Five-0(first three seasons)
Wonderful World Of Disney
The Prisoner
Secret Agent/Danger Man
The Avengers
The Saint
The Untouchables
Andy Griffith Show
The Invaders
Shindig!
Hullabaloo
Ed Sullivan Show
Tonight Show with Carson live from N.Y.
Dean Martin Show
Jackie Gleason Show(including Honeymooners skits)

creekdipper

Sixties by a long shot for two reasons: the variety (every type of show you can imagine...where are the variety shows, war shows, & westerns today?) and the high production values (an era when color was actually 'color'...the highly saturated kind that resulted from shows being filmed instead of merely shot on video).

There's not a genre on tv today (outside of "reality programming"...and I don't think anybody's going to realistically argue for that commodity representing the best of television) that didn't exist in the '60's. On the other hand, there were quite a few types of shows then that have become extinct.

The Sixties gave us The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Today we get Clay Aiken on American Idol. 'Nuff said.

boc4ever

It is really hard to say because each decade had it's merit. Since I was born in 1969 I can't really discuss the 60's, so:

1970's - I love the cheese factor ie: "Bionic Woman" "Charlie's Angels" "Three's Company" "Fantasy Island"

1980's - Fox Shows broke new ground ie: "In Living Color" "21 Jump Street" "Married with Children"

1990's - Decade of great comedies ie: "Seinfeld" "Friends" "Brisco County Jr." "Futurama" "Family Guy"

Overall I'd have to say I think from 1985 to 1995 was probably the most compelling era of tv.

Tscott

I love what the hour long drama evolved into in the 90s. Homicide, Buffy, X-Files, Twin Peaks, Xena, My So-Called Life etc. Various mixes of humor and drama, episodic and serial, that rewarded the viewer for watching week after week with characters that evolved and changed.

As opposed to, say the 70s, with Charles Angles, or Three's Company which wrapped everything up neatly by the end of each episode and had revolving casts but characters that never changed except for one blonde actress replacing another blonde actress.

Jimmy James

I think the question is whether we're just looking at the cream of the crop or the strength of the field overall. There is more TV now than ever, and I think that makes the best of it a stronger group of shows than at any other time in the past. That's why I voted for the 2000s. If we're looking at the overall field of TV, I think it has to be one of the earlier decades. It would probably then be the 70s, just before the advent of dozens of cable channels that the 80s brought.

wm lopez

I don't know how old you are , but back then in the late 70's all the t.v. critics and family groups said t.v. in the 70's was junk. They called it the "BOOB TUBE","JIGGLE T.V" because of all the sex on t.v. at the time. And of course the violence that also started in the 70's on t.v.
Movies were praised from the 70's , but no way was t.v. back then.

JohnSlider

Television just keeps getting better and better if you ask me... if game shows and reality shows remain at the size that they are and quit taking over the rest of prime time I think television can still reach new heights... we have/had recently, the greatest comedy and greatest dramas to date! Heroes, Lost, 24, The Office, My Name Is Earl, The Shield, Rescue Me, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, the list goes on and on television and its quality continues to get better in my honest opinion.

das Monkey

No love for the 50s? Texaco Star Theater, Kraft Television Theatre, Ford Theatre, Magnavox Theater, Prudential Family Playhouse, Colgate Comedy Hour, Philco TV Playhouse, Goodyear TV Playhouse, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, and my favorite: Robert Montgomery Presents Lucky Strike Time!

das

Red Dog

It's obviously this one what with far more choices when you factor in cable programming, and what cable television allows.

However, for comedies alone, it is most certainly not this decade.

Michael Corvin

I swear we've done this before but anyway...

Don't leave out the dramas, NYPD: Blue, ER, Law & Order, & X-files to name a few.

hiccup

and how can one forget Star Trek TNG, DSN, etc., Babylon 5, Buffy/Angel, etc.

If I had to say, then I'd go with the 90s for the sheer amount of awesome sci-fi shows. That decade has the most shows that I enjoy and the most entertaining ones for me.

The 00s have Firefly and lots of shows that got one-offed seasons, but then they also have and brought me the likes of Dead Like Me which really pushes it up into contention in my view.

GenPion

I voted for the current decade. Though I might have picked the 90's if it wasn't for my insane obsession with LOST.

Michael Corvin

That's why I said to name a few.

more sci-fi?
- Quantum Leap
- Stargate: SG-1 (began in 97)

More comedy?
- Cheers was still going strong through 93.
- Mad About You
- Frasier
- Wings

More drama?
- LA Law
- Northern Exposure

SexualPudding

I'd definitely have to classify LA Law and Cheers as 80's shows, even though they both ran into the early 90's.

I would be tempted to go with the 90's as well, but this decade has had some truly top drawer shows. The glut of reality programming sometimes makes it harder for me to be cognizant of it, though.

I will always have a soft spot for the 80's, as that is when I was growing up, but there were a lot of truly heinous shows in that decade. Even a lot of the ones I look back on fondly really weren't that good. The nostalgia factor will always be there for me, though.

lordwow

The 90s were the pinnacle for feel good TV, as well as some creative stuff (Twin Peaks, QL (which aired primarily in the 90s), and the last legs of the great sitcoms (Seinfeld, Friends, Cheers, etc). Plus one of the greatest and revolutionary dramas of all time, ER.

The 90s will probably be looked back upon as the Golden Age of TV.

leeta

the 90s

bigjim25

The 70s for sure (I watch way to much TV):
Little House on the Prairie
B. J. and the Bear
Dallas
The Incredible Hulk
WKRP in Cincinnati
Vega$
Partridge Family
Bionic Woman
Six Million Dollar Man
Eight Is Enough
Diff'rent Strokes
Here's Lucy
The Facts of Life
Happy Days
Laverne & Shirley
Mork & Mindy
Three's Company
Rockford Files
Welcome Back Kotter
All in the Family
The Jeffersons
Maude
Good Times
Dukes of Hazzard
Sanford & Son
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Newhart
M*A*S*H
Brady Bunch
CHiPS
Muppet Show
Odd Couple
Taxi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...evision_series

thedrizzle

I voted for the 00's because we were blessed with 2 of the greatest shows of all time in this decade, The Wire and Arrested Development.