100 best TV episodes of this century

Here's the top 10 on the TV Guide list from 2009, courtesy of Wikipedia:

1. Seinfeld—"The Contest"
2. The Sopranos—"College"
3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show—"Chuckles Bites the Dust"
4. I Love Lucy—"Lucy Does a TV Commercial"
5. Lost—"Pilot"
6. ER—"Love's Labor Lost"
7. The Honeymooners—"Better Living Through TV"
8. Mad Men—"Nixon vs. Kennedy"
9. All in the Family—"Cousin Maude's Visit"
10. 24—"Day 1: 12:00 a.m.–1:00 a.m."

 

I like Chardee MacDennis (and the sequel), but it's not A+ Sunny. And if you're going to pick a representative episode, that's not it.

Two things before I list better Sunny episodes:
- Their 30 Rock pick was spot fucking on, right down to the moment of Dr. Spaceman running down the hall in slo-mo with his cape flapping in the wind
- If you like Sunny, watch Letterkenny on Hulu. It's a weirder, Canadian version.

And now, Sunny episodes that would have been better selections, in no particular order:
- The Nightman Cometh
- Frank Reynolds' Little Beauties
- The Gang Runs for Office
- Charlie Goes America All Over Everybody's Ass
- Sweet Dee's Dating a Retarded Person
- Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender
- The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis
- Who Pooped the Bed?
- Dennis Reynolds: An Erotic Life
- The Gang Gets Extreme: Home Makeover Edition
- The Gang Exploits the Mortgage Crisis
- The Gang Gives Frank an Intervention
- The D.E.N.N.I.S. System
- The ANTI-Social Network
- Charlie Rules the World
- Mac and Dennis Buy a Timeshare
- The Gang Group Dates

 

I am very very partial to the Generlissimo episode.
Generalissimo (30 Rock) - Wikipedia

So many good lines - including Jack hiring the former Wall Street investment bankers who were laid off by the economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused.




And the fireworks over NY episode, which I believe introduced Wil Arnet's character

 

Your list is fantastic. Everyone of these you listed is so much better than Chardee.

Hell, I'd throw in the episode from their last season (whenever the hell that was) where Dee became a standup comic

 

I appreciate the work that went into the list. Obviously mine would be different, but at least they put a lot of time and effort into this. Say what you will about The Ringer, but they do care deeply about this truly pointless shit. This is the first list where I saw an episode of "The Wire" picked where I was like "Ok, I appreciate the thought that went into that selection."

A few quibbles/omissions:

-Once More With Feeling, IMO, is not actually a great Buffy episode. It might have been daring and launched the whole "let's do a musical episode!" craze, but it's nowhere near as good as "Hush" or The Zeppo" or "The Body."

-The Friday Night Lights "Pilot" is also very good, but it's not nearly as good as "The Son" or "It's Different For Girls" or "Hello Goodbye." Can't argue too much with it because it does set the tone for the whole series, but still.

-I have been — particularly on this site — anti "Pine Barrens" for a lone time, particularly when people say it's the best episode of The Sopranos because I think it's a total rube pick. But I've come around on it. Fuck, it's a very good episode. I still think you're kind of a a tool if you think it's the absolute best episode or if you are pissed The Russian's fate was never revealed (that's the point!) but it's great TV. Still not as good as Whitecaps, Sopranos Home Movies, College, University, Longterm Parking or some others, but it's good. I concede this now.

-Scrubs "My Life In Four Cameras" deserved a spot, particularly over some of the reality garbage that made it onto this list.

-I still think the episode of "The Office" that best captures the mundanity and tragicomedy of The Office the best is "Office Olympics" because it's not overly slapstick, but I think I'm in the minority.

 

To come up with a list of the 100 best episodes, the entire Ringer staff was asked to submit their favorite episodes of the century.


How big is the entire staff of The Ringer?

 

I completely agree with you on Pine Barrens. It's not in the top half of Sopranos episodes for me. Whitecaps is one the finest episodes of television ever with the best scene in the entire show. In the 2000s, Mr. and Mrs. John Sacrimoni Request, Employee of the Month and Whoever Did This are way better

 

This highlights something else underrated: Fourth Season of the Sopranos.

 

Another curious omission: Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, probably the one with Garry Shandling, but there are several good ones.

 

One other "philosophical" quibble with this list: It seems to me there's a difference between being a great standalone episode of TV and being a great episode within the context of a particular TV show. And I'm not sure the list has a cohesive view as to what it's ranking. This is particularly acute w/r/t to series and season finales, of which there are quite a few. I love Parks and Rec and the finale was great, but would you appreciate it if you'd never seen the show? I don't think there's anything "wrong" with evaluating episodes based on the entire series, but it does make for some inconsistencies in terms of the episodes they chose for different shows.

 

Beyond asking "the entire staff" for their favorite episodes and then cobbling everything together, I'd like to know what other kind of methodology they used, perhaps even the demographics of the staff members who participated. I realize this is a nothingburger presentation in grand scheme of life but Simmons is a details guy so it would be nice to know the details of this extravagant list.

 

Some of my favorite episodes of shows are "bottle episodes" where producers try and shoot something small and save money for a bigger episode later in the season. Breaking Bad's "The Fly" qualifies.