Here is a list of the most important television programs of my life. These may not be the best television shows. Heck, I'm sure some of them are pretty terrible, but these are the shows that have impacted my life or major life events have circled around. Some have to do with the precious time my family and I have spent together watching these characters grow (or not grow, in one case). Or it could be that one particular episode of that one particular show that resonated with me so deeply that I watched it over and over and over again. Or it could just be those special moments, when trying to make new friends, you bond over the ridiculous lives of four New Yorkers just trying to make sense of their sex lives and friendship (and, no, it's not Girls).
After starting this post I realize how daunting it is describing 26 television shows, so I'm probably going to give up halfway through and just write titles for some of them. Parts of life are meant to be a mystery, afterall
26. Game of Thrones - Nerdy literature can be made into hypersexualized amazing television!
25. Pretty Little Liars - I admit that this once guilty pleasure morphed into an all out obsession. I am not proud of the fact that I was coerced into watching this by three college friends, and I am less proud of the fact that we have done readings via gchat of lengthy Television Without Pity recaps. (I play Hannah, among other characters.) This melodramatic teen drama brings us together across space and time.
24. Full House - I always thought this is what San Francisco life would be like. I'm sure it's not like this. All the time.
23. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - This is my least favorite of the Law & Order franchise shows which is sacrilege to the faithful of the show. The constant marathoning of this show during those very awkward first weeks of college with complete strangers morphed into a wonderful inside joke. Certain networks run SVU on what seems to be a loop. These people put up with me and, I think, kinda liked me despite writing cryptic "No more TBS, thanks, the TV" in window markers on the television. Thanks to my first college roommates, they introduced me to the idea of curling up in bed for hours and watching television without blinking.
22. Seinfeld
21. Sabrina the Teenage Witch - Melissa Joan Hart was the coolest when you were an eleven year old girl at a slumber party on a Friday night. And that animatronic cat was the bees knees. TGIF was part of being cool in elementary and middle school, and I finally felt like I could keep up because I didn't have to have cable to watch these shows.
20. New Girl - I hesitate to put this show on my list because, while I love it now, it's hard to say that I will want to watch it over and over and over again like I can do with other sitcoms on this list (#9 and #2 in particular). The characters are right on the cusp of too wacky and completely unrelatable, but the acting is great, I can't help, but empathize with all of them.
19. Barney - Obviously the best television show for toddlers. Dinosaurs are really amazing and loving. My little niece, B., knows what I'm talking about. After I got home from my half day of Kindergarten, I would run up our driveway, my mom would have lunch for ready for me so I could sit and watch Barney and eat my lunch.
18. Downton Abbey
17. Firefly - Changed my view of science fiction in television. And, I think, finally made me understand what a Space Cowboy is supposed to be.
16. Saturday Night Live
15. South Park - I spent about seven months of my bed time viewing on getting through the entirety of South Park. I had never seen an episode of it before started at the very beginning. Zeus-willing the creators/producer/whoever involved with the show in distribution capacities allows all the episodes to be available at any time (except for the very select few) at Southparkstudios.com. I knew enough about the show to be able to get by culturally, but it wasn't until a very bleak autumn night in Washington, DC, where a friend of mine may have just saved my life by inviting me in for a few beers and to watch a mindless movie -- South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. I doubt he realizes how important his attempt at a friendly, calm night really was. It got me to start watching South Park and to take myself a lot less seriously.
14. Late Night with Conan O'Brien - My own personal comedy taste and stylings came from watching Conan as a teenager. Before it was Team Coco, and before Jay Leno was a massive prick, there was just awkward Conan and the masturbating bear. Thanks Conan. I dyed my hair reddish-orange for you.
13. Recess - This was, hands down, the best cartoon of my childhood. My friends and I would pretend to be the characters from Recess during recess in fourth and fifth grade -- I was TJ, of course. We lived in terror of the kindergartners and we had a King Bob. The greatest thing for millennials of a certain age is that it seems like Recess is as universal as Sesame Street or The Rugrats. My friends and I dressed up as the Ashleys our senior year of high school (2005) and we used to debate the "hottest" cartoon character and at least three of us picked characters from Recess. Plus, there were good life lessons in the show, right?
12. Alias - Our first family dog died during an episode of Alias. But that's neither here nor there. I loved Sidney Bristow and her aloof father and her amazing best friend, Will. She was the toughest, coolest chick, and it seemed like every week the plot of the show would turn in on itself. It was the second, super-serial show that I actually found myself enthralled with, and it was guaranteed to score me at least a five minute conversation every week (in the eighth grade) with the cutest kid in homeroom.
11. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Like South Park, It's Always Sunny provided another bonding opportunity with some really awkward almost-adults in college. Heck, we had an It's Always Sunny themed Valentine's Day party and bought the only male in our household a Greenman suit for his 21st birthday. Two of us also attempted to wrestle him to the ground over a phone (which, if memory serves me, had a slightly embarrassing/harassing text message on it), but failed due to the slippery nature of the suit. Some of the only times all four of us would tolerate each other in a group over those seven or so months we lived together was while we watched It's Always Sunny... And they were some great times.
Top Ten after the jump.
10. The Office (U.S. Version) - I'm not sure how to explain my often vacillating feelings for The Office. I love so many of the episodes and have come to adore the actors and actresses on The Office that it dictates further life choices -- best new TV show from last season was definitely The Mindy Project. The Office dictated much of my college life. Packing a dorm lounge full of friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers-soon-to-be-friends and later our living room every Thursday to catch a new episode was the group experience in college.
9. 30 Rock - Much like Arrested Development (#2). Just a wonderful absurdist sitcom. It is pure joy.
8. ER - ER started its run when I was quite young, but I still remember my mom letting me stay up to watch it on Thursdays. I became so enthralled with their lives. It was the first drama that I learned to love even though, now, I realize how melodramatic it really was. That doesn't mean I can resist rewatching some of the older episodes and doing the Eric LaSalle fist pump.
7. Parks & Recreation - In an era of television where gritty, nasty men are so often the focus, enter Leslie Knope and her band of misfits. A refreshingly bright-eyed and optimistic woman in small town government making the small changes for her town, falling in love, and making friends. Parks & Rec is so refreshing when you see all these bad men on tv in this "second golden age of television". Every character is exaggerated, everyone has their faults, but like most people in my life, these are decent people who just want to do nice things for one another. And be hilarious along the way.
6. Sherlock - Each episode of Sherlock runs like a movie. It is visually stimulating, the performances are amazing and it really changed what I thought television should be like. See my disappointment: Elementary.
5. Ugly Betty - Average girl. Big dreams. Nutty characters. And the pictures below. 'Nuf said.
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| Cupcakes my roomies and I made for the Ugly Betty series finale in 2010. |
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| I did my best to dress up like Marc. His wardrobe is infinitely more stellar than mine. (We made cupcakes to look like the different characters from the show.) |
4. Sex & the City - If it wasn't for the edited, syndicated version on the CW during the infancy of my college years, I would probably not be as close to at least two of the most important people in my life. Freshman year at AU, I would shamble across the dorm to sit with three girlfriends and catch-up on the television phenomenon that had been off the air for over two years. While Liz thought our adoration of the Manhattanites was rather pathetic and despicable, we adored Carrie and her nympho, ultra-successful, and super fashionable friends. To this day, we can at least get a smile from each other if we say or write, "And that's when I realized ..." (And you actually have to say 'dot-dot-dot'.) This show is the foundation of some truly great friendships. "The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don't. But, in the end, they're the people you always come home to. Sometimes it's the family you're born into and sometimes it's the one you make for yourself."
3. Doctor Who - Of the shows on my list, this is both the oldest and the newest. The longest running show (the Doctor made his debut nearly fifty years ago), but the television show that I started watching most recently, August 2012. It may be needless to say that I have found little not to love about the Doctor and his traveling companions. I cannot describe the way I feel when I watch these very different men take on the same role with so much enthusiasm, and bring something truly unique every time. I started by watching the reboot, as so many who are new to adventures of the Doctor and his companions do, and found myself struggling with the idea of regeneration and a new actor replacing my beloved Christopher Eccleston... and then David Tennant ("NO ONE CAN BE AS GOOD AS TENNANT"), and now, as we get ready to bid farewell to Matt Smith, I will go out bawling and upset and I will probably throw a tantrum, but I'll get over it. Because the Doctor is the Doctor, and no matter what he looks like, he is wonderful. To quote Tim Latimer in the episode "Family of Blood," He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and can see the turn of the universe and... he's wonderful."
2. Arrested Development - I was a late comer to AD, but never doubt devotion by my lack of early attention to possibly the best sitcom that has ever been on television. My friends and I have chicken sounds shirts, we make lists of our favorite episodes and guest stars, and we constantly speak in only AD quotes. ("That's not a Volvo," is a favorite of mine even though it has nearly no use in everyday conversation.) And the wonderful thing about AD is that if you come across someone who hasn't watched it, we don't judge, we just want to spread the joy, so we run and grab our nearly worn out copies of the DVDs or share our Netflix login, just so they can share in the bliss of moments like this.
1. The Simpsons - No television show is more important to my family than The Simpsons. I like to say we watched it from my birth. We were three siblings that fit the molds of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie, and our dad is actually a nuclear operator. We lived in a town with the charms of Springfield, and we speculated all summer, as did the rest of the country, as to who shot Mr. Burns. At least once a year my brother says, "You sure do suck tonight." And one of us responds, "Yeah, suck like a fox." The bantering that comes with being a lifelong Simpsons viewer is a staple in the cool social circles of the world. If you can sing the Stonecutter's Song, you truly belong in the coolest group in the world. The spark you see on someone's face or the disappointment present on your own when someone does or doesn't get a Simpson's reference can make or break friendships.
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