Top 10 TV Dramas of All Time | The Boneyard

Top 10 TV Dramas of All Time

nelsonmuntz

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My opinion. Comedies is a separate category for a later time. No news, variety or documentary shows, and anyone that puts a reality show on a list like this deserves a permanent banning.

1) Mad Men - brilliantly acted and written. Captures the industry and the era, and tells a great story.

2) Sopranos

3) West Wing - brilliantly written and very original. Sorkinesque, both good and bad. The good is that no one does dialogue better than Sorkin. The bad is that he loses interest and this show went through a lull until it closed incredibly strongly.

4) Hill Street Blues - this show is stunningly original for its era. TV went straight from Starsky and Hutch and Colombo to this. From the corruption to the brutality to the drug abuse to the inter office sexual escapades, there had not been a police department like this on TV before HSB. The Pilot is one of the best episodes of any show in TV history.

5) Game of Thrones - It is amazing that a show based on a hopelessly complex and unfinished series of novels, set in a fictional, medieval world, has become one of the greatest shows in the history of television.

6) ER - a little melodramatic and preachy at times, but one of the best broadcast television shows in history.

7) Breaking Bad - dark and unapologetic. Needed Gus Fring to achieve greatness.

8) The Wire

9) Homeland - No top show flirts with completely coming apart more than Homeland, but it is awesome and will go down in history as one of the best.

10) Boardwalk Empire - i would have rated it higher if it had a different star. I like Buscemi, but he wasn't the right guy for the role.

Honorable Mention

NYPD Blue - HSB with Dennis Franz's butt, although I thought the format with the bad guy always confessing was a bit contrived, and David Caruso chewed the scenery.

Law and Order - too many silly episodes to crack the top 10, but at times this show was incredible thoughtful.

Justified - I have heard good things. On my list for binge watching.

Big Love - fell apart when Harry Dean Stanton left the show.

Deadwood - Incredible first season, then kind of jumped the shark.

Miami Vice - Started so strong, and the guest stars were awesome (Phil Collins and Bruce Willis episodes stand out). Became a hot mess at the end.

Rockford Files - Garner carried one of the best anti-hero cop/PI shows. Leaned on a lot of clichés, but one of the few shows from the era that holds up.

I could not find anything else from the 70's that is in the same league as these shows. There were some good comedies from that era, but the dramas were either prime time soaps like Dallas or silly cop shows like Kojak. Baretta was nominated for Best Drama multiple times, which gives you an idea of how bad TV was in the 70's.
 
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I loved Hill St Blues too. Be careful out there guys.


Rockford Files, Garner was one of a kind.
 

Waquoit

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Deadwood did not jump the shark the 2nd year, that was the best year. Belongs in the Top 10.

I think St. Elsewhere surpassed HSB for it's time and should be Top 5.

My HM's not mentioned are Northern Exposure and the 1st season of Wiseguy.

My '70s choice for just plain enjoyment is Banacek. For the 60s it's The Avengers.
 
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First 3 seasons of Picket Fences. One of them even beat NYPD at the Emmy's.

The show is David E Kelley at his moral mostness, and wonderful in every way.
 
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You guys are old. Here's my top eight:

8. Parenthood
7. Weeds
6. 24
5. Friday Night Lights
4. Sopranos
3. Lost
2. Battlestar Galactica (2000's reboot)
1. Game of Thrones
 

meyers7

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Moonlightlighting, first glimpse of wise guy Bruce Willis. One of my all time favorites.
Loved it, but would probably consider it a comedy.
 
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I am a little surprised to see Mad Men on top of the list. I have never watched a single second of it, but have also never heard a single bit of water cooler buzz about "last night's episode".
 
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In no particular order....

Mad Men

Sopranos

Game of Thrones

Battlestar Galactica (if this show debuted 3-4 years later than it did, it would have been even bigger)

Dexter

Breaking Bad (Never watched it, but it must be good)


After that, there a bunch of shows that had their moments. But really weren't as good.
 

Waquoit

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About the Soprano's. Really? Looking back, doesn't it have an "Emperors New Clothes " effect to it. Like eating your vegetables? For all the artsiness attributed to it, weren't the best episodes the one's where someone got whacked?
 
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NYPD Blue was great, but went downhill when Sharon Lawrence's character Sylvia Costas was killed off. Bochco had a way of knocking off characters. Dennis Franz's character really was the only one with any longevity.
 
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I agree with much of the list. A few that I might add, at least to the Honorable Mention list include:

Lost
LA Law
The Practice

Each of these had relatively long runs and devoted fans.
 
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I don't think the Sopranos has aged well in a short period of time. Not so much the technology (like The Wire), but that the way it was done seems a little hokey or silly now. But, I think it was one of the first premium series that created a big wave and buzz and blazed a bigger trail for the other ones that have followed. I've tried rewatching it and I can't get through it though.
 
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Not sure if technically a drama but have to add Columbo from the 70s somewhere...maybe honorable mention. White Shadow too...

Parenthood was very good recent drama.

Is The Walking Dead a drama? If so it is top ten.
 

Waquoit

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Good call on White Shadow. I remember the tag line to a print ad for that weeks show about a hot teacher who liked them young "Teacher Seduces Salami ".
 

nelsonmuntz

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About the Soprano's. Really? Looking back, doesn't it have an "Emperors New Clothes " effect to it. Like eating your vegetables? For all the artsiness attributed to it, weren't the best episodes the one's where someone got whacked?

HBO was running reruns of the Sopranos at 11 pm every night for almost a year after Gandolfini's death. I think it holds up incredibly well. One of my favorite episodes is when the FBI spends a full day breaking into Tony's house to plant a bug on a lamp, and then the next episode, Meadow casually grabs it and takes it to school. It was the genius of the show that showed how luck as much as anything was keeping Tony out of harm or jail.

Tony's mother was one of the best characters ever on television. She orders a hit on her son, and then when it fails, throws Junior under the bus, and it all seemed completely reasonable and credible.
 
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The Wire was good, but not consistently so, season to season

True Detectives. Excellent. Period.

Lost interest in The Soprano’s after about the third season.

Breaking Bad was good, if inconsistent.

The Walking Dead lost me after season three. Boring.

Law & Order was of consistently high quality, over a very long run.

Deadwood was excellent, then it just went away.

Justified is excellent…this is the last season.

Pleased someone mentioned Northern Exposure. Very, very good first few seasons.

Positively Battlestar Galactica (2000’s reboot). Best Sci Fi series on TV. Ever.

Mad Men never did it for me. Good, but not my taste.

One season of Rubicon, on AMC. Canceled. Well-written, well-acted, no viewers.

Boardwalk Empire. Buscemi was not the wrong choice, but the unconventional choice.

The first year and a half of Six Feet Under. Quite good.

Notwithstanding all the flack, The Newsroom was pretty darn good.

On FX now, The American’s is noteworthy.

Low Winter Sun. One and done, but very good.

The Leftovers on HBO. Compelling.

The Bridge on FX(?). Well done.
 
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My opinion. Comedies is a separate category for a later time. No news, variety or documentary shows, and anyone that puts a reality show on a list like this deserves a permanent banning.

Waylon, (may I call you Waylon?), away from the Cesspool you actually have something of a pleasant personality. Interesting.
 

temery

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House was my top show for a while, but it really went down hill when the subplots took over the show.
 
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1- Hill Street Blues
2- Game of Thrones
3- Band of Brothers
4- The Wire
5. West Wing
6- Oz
7- The Walking Dead
8- Dexter
9- Rome
10- Sopranos

Honorable mention
Sons of Anarchy, NYPD Blue, Justified, ER, CSI (the original), Law & Order (the who,e franchise). And probably many more I'm forgetting.
 
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House was my top show for a while, but it really went down hill when the subplots took over the show.

House had some dips season to season, in terms of the various plot arcs, but the individual episodes always held up. Hugh Laurie played my favorite a--hole of all time. Just a few of his d-ckish comments made every hour worthwhile.

The only other drama I've enjoyed more is Mad Men. I watch Game of Thrones religiously too, but that's because of my love-hate relationship with the novels.
 

whaler11

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The Americans is better than half the shows on Waylon's list with absolute ease.

Yet nobody watches it but me and Andy Greenberg I think.
 

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