Mensa Chairman picks his top 10 TV shows of all time
 

MENSA Big Brain Picks Ten Smartest TV Shows of All-Time

By Jason Perry


Jim Werdell, chairman of MENSA International - an elite worlwide organization for people with an IQ that falls into the top 2% of the population - selected his top 10 smartest television shows of all-time after being posed the question by Fancast.com.

How does one decide whether a television show is smart or not? Werdell shares his criteria.

“They weren’t pure comedy, mystery or action,” he says. “They tended to be shows that dealt with issues in the world, and from my perspective that’s considered smart. Some sitcoms reach a higher level of intellect than others, and you can say the same about some of the dramas. The stories may be cliché, but the characters and dialogue are smarter.”

Here's the list complete with Werdell's comments:

1. M*A*S*H – It had smart repartee and was so much more than a comedy.
2. Cosmos (with Carl Sagan) – Sagan was able to communicate something extremely complicated to the layman and do it well, and that’s unusual for a scientist at his level.
3. CSI -- The way they use science to solve their programs is intriguing to viewers.
4. House – Again, it’s high level type of show; it’s the personality that makes it a winner, plus it deals with science.
5. West Wing – you had to pay attention to stay up with it. The repartee was fast and furious and you needed a fairly high level intelligence to keep up with it.
6. Boston Legal – It’s primarily because of the characters. The story lines are okay, but the characters are incredible and the writers give them great dialogue.
7. All in the Family – The show dealt with social issues before its time and was on the forefront of trying to show people’s feelings, beliefs and the complexities of personality, in both a serious and comedic way.
8. Frasier – The repartee was sensational; the main characters were very good. Even though they portrayed people who were likely of high intelligence, they also showed their weaknesses.
9. Mad About You – It’s a personal favorite, I loved the characters and the back and forth. It was very smart.
10. Jeopardy – It’s about the only game show that really tries to test people’s intelligence. There’s very little luck involved, and there are few game shows like that. I don’t watch it all that much honestly, but from what I’ve seen it tests more than knowledge, it tests intelligence too.

Dear MENSA,

Watch <i>The Wire</i> (and countless other shows that fit your criteria perfectly) before releasing a list that shows you don't know WTF you're talking about.

Sincerely,
das Monkey

P.S. <i>Wisdom</i> is not paying an annual fee to confirm you're <i>smart</i>.

Mad about you? WTF?

Only 3 out of those 10 shows actually deserve to be on that list, IMO.

M*A*S*H, Frasier and All in the Family.

I gotta agree with Jeopardy...love that show!

This proves MENSA is useless.

So it really isn't MENSA that picked the list... it's just the chairman's list. :down:

What I love is that the brain trust couldn't get a concept as simple as counting down from ten figured out. Who puts out a top 10 list and starts by listing the top show first?

I fixed that in the subtitle, but dont know how to fix it in the title thread. That's why I dont belong to mensa.

Doesn't seem to watch much tv, quite offensive list really.

3. CSI -- The way they use science to solve their programs is intriguing to viewers.
6. Boston Legal – It’s primarily because of the characters. The story lines are okay, but the characters are incredible and the writers give them great dialogue.

LOL @ both of these. CSI is about as scientific as Doctor Who; and Boston Legal is one of the most pretentious self-important shows I've ever seen (I was a fan for a few years until it hit me one night how unoriginal the show was).

no Simpsons....but Mad about You????? :hscratch:

MENSA are too busy doing equations than watching TV. What do they know?

More nominees: Homicide: LOTS, Star Trek: DS9 and the Twilight Zone

Doesn't jeopardy give all their contestants a big book of questions/answers beforehand and everything on the show comes from the book?

MENSA is just the 98th percentile, big freaking whoop. 1 out of 50 doesn't mean that much.

That's the list? That? I had the same thought as das when I didn't see the Wire even mentioned. Did the guy not have time to even watch TV, and therefore doesn't know what shows are even good?

Science + CSI :lol:

WHAT no x-files

No. The questions on Jeopardy! are not pre-selected from one book. You may be thinking of the book How to Get on Jeopardy!... and Win, which includes an answer/question section, but is in no way definitive.

The surest way to prove you are not a genius is to spend money on a MENSA quiz book.

I thought uber geeks were all about xfiles.

No Wire. No Six Feet Under. No win

Arrested Development would have been a better candidate than Frasier or Mad About You. They could have also considered a good talk show like Charlie Rose.

This is what I think of MENSA:

A few years ago, when I was working in Columbia House's Video Customer Service department, a customer called and, demonstrating himself quickly to be quite irate, told me to cancel his account. Since it's our job to, I asked him why. He stated he couldn't understand our Dividend Dollar savings program, and I asked if there was something I could explain about it to him. He said he's a member of MENSA, and if he couldn't understand it, it wasn't worth understanding (or something to that extent...it's been several years, after all). I told him I understand it just fine, and asked him how I could sign up. He didn't care for that.

CSI :lol: