My 10 All Time Favorite TV Shows

What are your favorite TV shows - past, present, comedy, drama?  What shows will you always stop to see if you spot them as an unexpected rerun?

My list is more or less chronological, but the first show happens to also be my all-time favorite.  I love I Love Lucy.  When I was a little girl, I watched this in reruns with my mother, who also loves the show.  Lucille Ball was such a gifted comedienne, and the cast is absolutely perfect.  I love everything about this show.  As well as being so funny and so well written, the 1950's NYC period details are fabulous!

If I had to spend a month in a TV show, it would be The Andy Griffith Show.  There is something so sweet and appealing about Mayberry.  I love the Taylor family with Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bee.  Barney Fife is one of my all time favorite tv characters (I even named my late, beloved dachshund after him!).

The Dick Van Dyke Show is another show that so perfectly captures a time and place.  From early 1960's suburbia to work as comedy writers on a sketch comedy show ... what a fun show!  Rob and Laura Petrie (Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) are my favorite TV couple. 

The Brady Bunch is the ultimate show of my childhood.  I grew up with this show.  The house, the clothes, school life, friends all remind me so much of my childhood.  This is tv "comfort food" for me.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show was a great favorite in my family.  My parents loved all the MTM produced shows, so I have happy memories of watching these with my family when I was growing up.  I think Mary Richards was a great role model as a single career woman ... but this whole cast was perfect.  I love the newsroom scenes and also Mary's interactions at home with friends Rhoda and Phyllis.

The Bob Newhart Show was my father's favorite show.  It is such a smartly written show, and another great cast.  Bob and Emily Hartley (Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette) are another of my favorite TV couples.  The juxtaposition of Bob's work life as a psychiatrist and his home life is also fun, with another strong cast.

Rhoda was one of my favorite shows as a young teenager.  I remember thinking that Rhoda's life as a NYC window dresser was very exciting ... and of course there was also her romance with handsome Joe Girard.  I also loved her family.  (Any scene with Nancy Walker is great.)

I was young to watch Upstairs Downstairs, but I watched it anyway!  It was my first period piece drama, my first Masterpiece Theatre obsession, and I love it to this day.  As a young girl I remember looking for books inspired by the show and reading about Edwardian England.  It really captured my imagination.

The Vicar of Dibley is my favorite Britcom.  I did not see it in first run, but my best friend gave me the series on DVD because he said it was the ultimate "Trish show."  He was absolutely right.  Dawn French plays a vicar in a small town in England.  The tone of the show is gentle and heartwarming (with occasional earthiness).  I love the way Geraldine Granger (played by Dawn French) is written, as a character of faith, kindness, and good humor.  This show was created by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary). 

If you read my blog often, you will know that Downton Abbey is my favorite current show.  (I recap it weekly on the blog.) It reminds me a lot of Upstairs Downstairs.  I love everything about this show - life upstairs, life downstairs, the relationships, the social mores, the costumes and sets.  It is absolute perfection!

And a few runner up shows!

It was hard to make a list of just 10 shows.  The following shows just barely missed the list:

That Girl - I loved the story of a single woman pursuing an acting career in NYC in the 1960's.  Donald Hollinger (played by Ted Bessell) is my favorite tv boyfriend ever - handsome, smart, and funny!

Columbo - Columbo (Peter Falk) is my favorite detective, with his rumpled raincoat, Basset Hound, and VW Beetle.  A TV world with Columbo solving mysteries is a very good place.

Felicity - Felicity's college years in the 1990's remind me so much of my life in the 1980's.  I related to Felicity's romances, friendships, and debate about career (in her case, art vs. medicine).  This is my favorite J.J. Abrams show.

Veronica Mars - Veronica Mars is a modern day Nancy Drew meets young adult fiction.  I loved the mysteries, her relationship with her father (who is a detective), the high school, the little town of Neptune ...

Sex and the City - I go back and forth on this show.  I absolutely loved the stories of friendship and romance.  However, I was not a fan of the consumerism presented in this show.  (I have never waxed rhapsodic over designer shoes!)

So there you have it ... my list of favorites, plus a few runner ups.   What are YOUR favorite tv shows?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments, below.