I don't know if you think that TV series are cheap entertainment, since they are on the telly and therefore free (I'll come to cable and Sky in a minute, hang on) and also because they are the most popular form of entertainment. Popular televised entertainment of course embraces anything from soap operas to reality TV (a form of entertainment I pretty much loathe), GMTV, talk shows, music videos, shopping channels, you name them. But it's mostly TV series that stick with us in the years, that define us, set trends, fashion, a way of thinking, and in some cases affect its big brother, the movies, too. I don't think TV series are cheap entertainment other than because they are fairly readily available to us, if not on telly itself, now through streaming or on DVD. If you pay for Sky or other digital boxes that bring home entertainment directly to your own tube, then you must be really spoiled for choice. I barely manage to keep up with what's on regular TV. But if we forget how many ways to enjoy TV there are today, and if we take a step back to, say, 10 or 15 years ago, we can see what a different animal was TV back then. I'm not a romantic in the sense that I think TV was better then, I actually hated having to run home to watch something, and even in the age of VHS, when you could set the timer to record your favourite shows, it still wasn't all that great, but creativity ran high, didn't it? As far as broadcasting goes, of course I prefer how things are today, watch when you can, while you can, if you have a computer at hand it's there, on iPlayer or on DVD or your USB stick or on iTunes or the various pirate streaming channels on the web. Creativity is still running strong, thanks to TV's many outlets. New technologies allow a higher volume of request, and also of outlet. Amen!
The way we watch TV has always affected the way TV-makers made shows. In the 70's and part of the 80's producers simply ruled. If they had a production company they'd make the show and sell it to the broadcasting companies or networks. I am explicitly referring to the USA as for example in England channels like the BBC had its own way of doing things, commissioning series that they'd broadcast to the public, all hands on from beginning to end, pretty much. When in the USA, which we must say was the biggest producer of TV shows, networks became allowed to make their own shows, a lot of the then big production companies that made the series, sold what they had and went into retirement. And from that moment on the networks took over, to this very day.
So this is my list of 10 favourite TV series EVER. It's not an easy chart to do, but hopefully it'll give me an idea of what I consider top notch TV and maybe it'll show if the best was then or now...
1 - Millennium
2 - X-files
3 - Twilight Zone
4 - Deadwood
5 - The West Wing
6 - Life on Mars (and Ashes to Ashes)
7 - Mork and Mindy
8 - The Greatest American Hero
9 - Twin Peaks
10 - The Streets of San Francisco
5 - The West Wing
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