One of those TV lists we like to banter about.

This one is the 101 Best Written TV Series, according to the Writers Guild of America.

http://wga.org/content/default.aspx?id=4925

Sopranos is No. 1; Simpsons at No. 11 is a traveshamockery considering a ton of the shows that trail it on the list. And Friends is 24th, hatahs!

 

Too bad they can't include a specific season because the first season of The White Shadow was written beautifully.

 

Also glad to see Absolutely Fabulous on the list.

 

Heresy alert: while I loved the Sopranos when it originally aired its now a parody of its reputation. The characters are almost all shallow, incapable of growth and cartoonish. Outstanding premise, mob boss sees shrink. But Tony is essentially the same person the last season as he was the 1st. Carm lacks self awareness, junior is a clown. The best part of the series is that central characters are killed off, intentionally. The one thing about movies and pre Soprano TV is you could always count on the fact that central characters live. That changed with this show. But The Sopranos were nothing more than The Real Sociopaths Of New Jersey.

The Wire was exponentially better.

Barney Miller is too low and the Tracy Ullman Show and In Liiving Color need to be on the list. The latter 2 while not consistently great had enough home runs to out weigh the Ks. More Al kaline than Dave Kingman

 

'Seinfeld' ranked nine spots higher than 'The Simpsons,' as if we needed anymore proof.

 

I thought Homicide should have been much higher, but I'm also pleasantly surprised that My So-Called Life made the cut.

 

Good to see Deadwood pretty high up, and love Justified as well.

 

I was surprised Deadwood was so low.

The list's parameters don't quite line up for me. How much of the writing are we taking to mean dialogue? For instance, I don't think Breaking Bad is that remarkably well-written. I think it's remarkably well shot and thought out. The dialogue often is the weakest link for the show. (Well, second-weakest behind Skyler. Hi, dreunc1542!)

House, meanwhile, is not as good a show because the macro plots were so horrible over the second half. But the writing was very difficult and very well-done, making the medical cases so much more interesting than any show had done before or after. And the show was clever on top of it. House, to me, is a well-written show that was steered in the wrong directions. If you're going to make a list like that, why not build off those types of shows?

It's also ridiculous to see shows known for high levels of ad-libbing up so high on this list, specifically I Love Lucy, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Friends.

 

Numbers 4 (All in the Family), 5 (MASH) and 6 (MTM) all ran consecutively on the CBS Saturday night schedule in 1973-74, followed by Bob Newhart (#41) and Carol Burnett (#37). The other networks may as well have run a test pattern that night.

 

What's the point of all those ties? Strange in a list like that.

 

I'd guess a Writers' Guild of America vote determined the order.

 

Well, I think Northern Exposure, The Muppet Show and Lonesome Dove were too low.

I also think it's odd they've lumped mini-series in with regular ones.