Since we've had a favourite music thread just now (and I am bored) why not do one for TV shows (any genre)?

bonus points for including a quote.

"Kick reason to the curb, and go beyond the impossible! That's the team DaiGurren way!!!"

- Kamina

Obviously my favourite show is the incredibly Over the top Gurren Lagann.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
ESPN
King of the Hill
The Boondocks
Metalocalypse

if these were the only shows broadcasted to television worldwide, there would be no wars.

The answer is, and forever will be, Firefly.

Hat said:
The answer is, and forever will be, Firefly.

Just finished watching the series and movie again.

Also,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAZzCFPcLoo

Babylon 5
Cosmos
Storm Chasers

If these were the only shows broadcasted to television worldwide, not only would there be no wars, but we'd be colonizing Mars by now.

what's a tv? this thread is dildos

Trailer Park Boys
The Littlest Hobo
Holmes On Homes
Sanford and Son
Roseanne
American Pickers
Ice Road Truckers
Pawn Stars
Modern Marvels
Pitchmen

"Shit flowers, Randy. From a distance they look like ordinary flowers, but when you get right down and stick your nose in them you realize they're shit flowers, and there's a whole fucking bouquet growing down there right in front of Ray's trailer." ~Jim Lahey

fanboy & chum chum
icarly
jonas
hannah montana
victorious
the fairly oddparents

if these were the only shows to be broadcast worldwide, the world would be too stupid to start a war.

Dexter
Criminal Minds

The Colony was pretty interesting while it was still airing.

american idol

Battlestar Galactica

House
The Walking Dead

Only shows that need to be broadcast are these.

"Everybody lies" - Dr. House

Dexter, The Walking Dead, and Californication for the win.

Hat said:
The answer is, and forever will be, Firefly.

SHiiiii.. How could I forget about the greatest show ever x.x Bee watching other shit too much heh -pops in Firefly DVD- >:3

Metalocalypse

King of the hill

Pawn Stars

Modern Marvels

Anderson Cooper

Pyke said:
House
The Walking Dead

Only shows that need to be broadcast are these.

"Everybody lies" - Dr. House

Walking Dead. Fucking. Rules. 'Nuff said

walking dead's pretty good, i havn't finished watching it but i got it in high quality on my failstation 3, so i'll get around to it

Famiily Guy
Dexter
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
House
The Office
The Boondocks
The Venture Brothers

Family Guy
The Simpsons
The Cleveland Show
Scrubs
Futurama
Good Game
Chaser Non-Stop News Network/Chaser's War on Everything
Pure Pwnage
My Name is Earl

Farscape - "Crackers don't matter!" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t5AAW0L9bw )

Also The Venture Bros.
Daily Show/Colbert Report
ST:TNG

Okay, fine, I give up.

Farscape (I loled at that clip, watching it, Ratty XD)
Stargate: SG-1 (no opinion on atlantis or universe, haven't watched them yet.)
Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and VOY (though especially DS9)
Babylon 5

I don't actualyl watch a whole lot of TV... no cable out where I am ;_; I love good sci fi though XD

SnowWolf said:
Okay, fine, I give up.

Farscape (I loled at that clip, watching it, Ratty XD)
Stargate: SG-1 (no opinion on atlantis or universe, haven't watched them yet.)
Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and VOY (though especially DS9)
Babylon 5

I don't actualyl watch a whole lot of TV... no cable out where I am ;_; I love good sci fi though XD

Yeah, Farscape is an extremely innovative and important show. Proving for the first time you could have movie-quality writing AND effects on weekly television. But it is sadly overlooked and under-appreciated today.

I think largely because the first season was such a dud, due to an episodic format and the characters being initially introduced as the stereotypes ("no-nonsense action girl" "proud alien warrior" etc.) they would later so gloriously transcend. Plus some of the best, most fun and unique characters weren't introduced until very late in the first season. (No Scorpius and no Chiana makes Farscape a dull boy.) And that season just had most of the weakest episodes in general, most people don't bother to look beyond it when they try the series I think.

This combined with the fact that for the later three seasons the show's greatest strength was also it's greatest weakness, at least for general audiences. In that the complex overarching storyline and evolving characters meant you couldn't just jump in at any point and instantly understand everything that was going on; like you can with most (if not all) Star Trek series, which have a rigid status quo. Which was what people expected of science fiction shows at the time.

So true, so true. when I started watching I was kind of 'meh' about it at first. Yay it's a scifi show, i'ts not bad.... but soon I realized that I was desperately trying to ration the episodes out so there would still be more to absorb.

And... almost all star trek can be picked up on the run. Excluding, perhaps, parts of DS9... perhaps explaining why it's didn't do as well as the others.

Babylon 5

Merlin

Ghost Hunters

O'Reilly Factor

Ratty said:
Yeah, Farscape is an extremely innovative and important show. Proving for the first time you could have movie-quality writing AND effects on weekly television. But it is sadly overlooked and under-appreciated today.

I think largely because the first season was such a dud, due to an episodic format and the characters being initially introduced as the stereotypes ("no-nonsense action girl" "proud alien warrior" etc.) they would later so gloriously transcend. Plus some of the best, most fun and unique characters weren't introduced until very late in the first season. (No Scorpius and no Chiana makes Farscape a dull boy.) And that season just had most of the weakest episodes in general, most people don't bother to look beyond it when they try the series I think.

This combined with the fact that for the later three seasons the show's greatest strength was also it's greatest weakness, at least for general audiences. In that the complex overarching storyline and evolving characters meant you couldn't just jump in at any point and instantly understand everything that was going on; like you can with most (if not all) Star Trek series, which have a rigid status quo. Which was what people expected of science fiction shows at the time.

Wait, what? Farscape is innovative? It may be interesting, but in no way is it innovative. It was all I could do while watching the series to keep from cringing at all of the cliches.

Prison Break
Simpsons
Mythbusters
Overhaulin'
90s Cartoons like Animaniacs or Freakazoid
I don't watch TV much. :\

FurZ said:
Wait, what? Farscape is innovative? It may be interesting, but in no way is it innovative. It was all I could do while watching the series to keep from cringing at all of the cliches.

Farscape often used cliches as a way of introducing characters and concepts which it then expanded on and reinterpreted as time allowed. This is particularly in evidence for the first season as I mentioned. The characters all grew and changed as the series went on.

The simple fact that there was no military structure to the show was a major departure from the norm of the time. The crew of Moya were not explorers or soldiers following orders but a band of runaway misfits all with minds and goals of their own.

D'Argo, who as I've said was originally very much a "proud alien warrior"/Klingon clone, would later in the series respond to a question about his warrior status by wistfully saying it was "An accident of birth. There are better things to do with your life." Both he and Aeryn Sun (orig. a "no-nonsense action girl") went from being stone faced cliches to two of the most sarcastic and affectionate characters on the show.
Originally a standard fish-out-of-water, John Crichton also received a lot of fleshing out after he was established. In the 2nd and 3rd seasons we see him struggle to remain sane episode by episode. As he deals with the effects of the psyche shattering brain manipulation and torture he is subjected to, combined with the isolation of being the only human for billions of miles.

I could go on about the other characters but I'll stop there, to be fair one or two of them sadly remained pretty flat and static, most notably Zhan. It wasn't perfect, but once Farscape came into it's own (the second season) one thing it wasn't was a retread. Throughout it all ran a perverse brand of humor, warmth and enthusiasm hidden amongst dazzling creativity you're not likely to see the likes of again.

We could debate back and forth about this since all art is subjective, but what I specifically meant by innovative in that statement was innovations in the technical and business aspects of making SF for television. You probably wouldn't see shows like the recent Battlestar Galactica (which syfy directly replaced Farscape with) or any other high budget, movie-quality ongoing science fiction series if Farscape hadn't been the first to demonstrate that it could be done and that it could be profitable back in 1999.

Got to loooooooooove the Sein! :)