Rolling Stone has published a list of the 100 best television episodes ever, and there's not much point arguing over it.¹ It's a matter of taste, right?
But there's one thing that bugs me. If your reviewers are all people whose TV experience goes back only to the '80s, that's fine. I get that it's pretty tough to find a 90-something who can tell you about the great TV episodes of the '50s.
But if that's that case, then don't pretend this is an all-time list. By my count, there are only a few '70s shows on the list and a grand total of six from the '50s and '60s—and only two in the top 50.
That's not very likely, is it? Nothing—not a single episode—from Gunsmoke, Get Smart, Gilligan's Island, Mission Impossible, My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Bonanza, The Addams Family, The Prisoner, Maverick, Dragnet, Bullwinkle, or Perry Mason?
This is really the Top 100 Episodes of the Past 50 Years. Why not just call it that?
¹Except for #3, that is. I liked The Leftovers, but there's no way any of its episodes, let alone the pointless, hallucinogenic one chosen, is the third best of all time. Come on.
these "best of" lists all suffer from the recency effect
Newton Minow would like a word...
A recency bias in TV criticism is justified. There's a reason people used to call TV "the vast wasteland". The fact that Drum lists Gilligan's Island, Gunsmoke, and Leave it to Beaver as worthy contenders just tells me that it's been a really long time since he has watched those shows.
Agreed. Most of that stuff really hasn't aged well.
I’m wondering which episodes of Gilligan’s Island he thinks are worthy contenders for a spot on the list. Maybe the one where the Professor almost figures out a way to get them off the island but Gillian somehow screws it up?
LOL! Yeah, I liked that one too
I don’t know that I would recommend whole episodes, but I really like some of the themes or running jokes from the old shows. Maxwell Smart was often quite funny when Buck Henry was one of the writers. (That’s the third time I’ve fallen for that one this month.) Ava Gabor was so beautiful and improbable in Green Acres. (Lisa!) Eddy Haskell was such a kiss-ass in Leave it to Beaver. (That’s a lovely dress you are wearing Mrs. Cleaver.) The Clampetts adapting to life in Beverly Hills (and the cement pond) was charming. Jim Backus really chewed the scenery as Mr. Howell in love with his money, so much so that he took a steamer trunk full of cash on a three hour cruise. Every teenage boy wanted to be marooned with Mary Ann. Of course there is the question of Ginger or Mary Ann? You could ask that question without even saying the name of the show. Mission Impossible was iconic. Everyone knows the tape recorder that self destructs, or the way that Barney could do anything with a tape measure and small box of tools. My dad, a Mr. Fix-it in our house, used to love that. Flip Wilson used to appear in drag all the time as Geraldine and no one complained. That was filmed in front of a live audience. I rewatched one recently where Geraldine had a bit flirting with Frank Sinatra who definitely looked quite nervous. (The devil made me do it!) The acronym WYSIWYG is from Geraldine’s tag line: What you see is what you get.)
I also like the theme songs they used to write. Green Acres, Gilligan, Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction and others had great songs that setup the theme of the show. (If not for the courage of the fearless crew the Minnow would be lost!)
Glad to see someone mention Green Acres. It was truly one of the greatest comedy series of all time once the writers went all in on the absurdist humor after the first season.
Those of us of a certain age cannot hear the Toreador song from Carmen without thinking of the musical version of Hamlet the castaways did.
Agreed, most TV through the 70s or so was not good and when you watch it now, it's like "yechhh" (or maybe "meh").
Not only have we learned what makes compelling TV over the years, but there is so much more of it available and there are so many more niches for genius to thrive because of the explosion of networks.
The whole idea of ranking individual episodes from TV series in completely different genres over decades doesn't really work for me. And it is probably unrealistic to expect that anyone, even professional TV critics, has seen enough of the whole corpus of television over seventy years to really be able to make this kind of judgement.
It seems that British TV has been mostly excluded from the list. My personal list would probably be two-thirds British.
The episode of M.A.S.H. that stuck with me all these decades is the one where Hawkeye implores an impoverished Korean woman to keep her toddler quiet so that the group wouldn't be detected by the North Koreans. Only later, after the threat had passed, did he realize that she'd done the unthinkable to save the group.
Right up there is the House episode that they used to explain Kal Penn's departure from the show when Obama asked him to join the White House. The choice of music with Pete Yorn's Lose You to close the scene was especially moving. Relistening his song brings back the emotions from that episode.
If I were to guess why there are no shows from the 50s and 60s, it's because most TV shows before the 70s were comedy or drama that lacked emotional attachment.
That was the series finale of M.A.S.H., so technically '80s.
Here's a pro tip: Any article that starts "Rolling Stone Magazine lists the . . ." can be skipped with no loss of information
Exactly. They don't even do a good job with music, which is supposed to be their bread and butter.
Rolling Stone has really gone down hill IMHO, as has Mother Jones
But, it is an unfair comparison - todays TV versus TV shows of long ago. Technology has changed and we have changed which has resulted in MANY of us saying things like the best TV show (or music) of that era - NOT of all time.
In 20 years will we be rating the best AI generated novel? Music? Or photography?
Being 78 years old I remember much of 50's and 60's television but there aren't many people my age working for Rolling Stone so I don't expect them to be well versed in it. But I look forward to other commenters reminding me of much that was good back then. I remember Playhouse 90, and Dick Powell Theater and a nice half hour comedy called Hennesey which had no laugh track and had a whole different feel because of it. Production standards are much better today and much has been learned about tv and life in the ensuing years so some of those old shows can seem banal. Still, I'm surprised I Claudius and probably many other PBS shows didn't make the list.
I had to check again to be sure, but yes, there is not a single episode from the original cult series, "Star Trek" (only one from The Next Generation). The episode most often cited as the best, or at least fan favorite, is "The City on the Edge of Forever."- you know the one with Joan Collins.
Although I usually tend to be a contrarian, The City On the Edge of Forever is the best Star Trek episode. Any series. I watched it when it was first broadcast (on a B&W TV); I was 13. I've seen all the sequel series and there is only one I really like--Deep Space Nine, which is the best of them by far. Though they all have their moments, even the current Brave New Worlds (I like it though its constant rape of canon can be annoying) and the animated Lower Decks is actually pretty good. But there is one exception: Discovery is not just awful Star Trek, it is perhaps the most awful TV I have ever seen. I managed to get through the first four seasons but when I recently tried to watch the final season, I realized that I hated every single character on the bridge so intensely that I turned it off even before the cold open was finished. (Well, OK, the early episodes with Michelle Yeoh are worth watching just for her.)
Buncha odd choices with Discovery. Set it in the "past" of star trek--ok, fair enough--then catapult it centuries into the "future"--why? Since the essence of trek is competency porn and scifi riddles/ethical dilemas in space, it doesn't matter which fictional year it takes place in.
A minor quibble of mine was that showrunners appeared to have no understanding as to *why* on a teevee medium the different fictional types of fictional starfleet officers had different primary colored uniforms (hint: so the audience can quickly tell who's a doctor/scientist, who's a command officer, and who is a grunt). Choosing to go from blue-red-yellow jumpsuits to barely distinguishable bronze-gold-silver (I think?) bits on otherwise-identical costumes underscored to me that the Disco showrunners don't know much about visual storytelling.
The City on the Edge of Forever is #72 on the list. The problem is that there are two separate links for the article - one link goes to 100-51, the other to 50-1 (Kevin linked to the 50-1 list). Here's the link to the first part:
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-lists/best-tv-episodes-of-all-time-1235090945/fargo-bisquik-season-5-episode-10-1235090951/
You know, they have I Love Lucy on their list, also The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Honeymooners. And these are solid picks. I'm not all that disturbed by Gilligan's Island not making it. Though Bob Denver. Man, that guy was funny.
My big complaint is that they do not have the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati. I mean, everybody knows that, and plays it every year because it is so, so funny. Easily more remembered than many of the listed ones (which are quite good).
OK, its a different series, but I actually still often say "Work!?!" with the same line reading as Bob Denver's catchphrase in Dobie Gillis. I liked Gilligan's Island and can still sing the theme song (both the original version and the slightly altered second version). But then again, I liked The Beverly Hillbillies too. (Ditto on that theme song too. And F Troop, and the Addams Family and many others. I was very young.)
The Beverly Hillbillies’ theme was done by the great bluegrass team of Flatt and Scruggs.
"As God is my witness..."
Don't forget the wholly inappropriate, Johnny Fever's response time getting faster as he drank more. (which doesn't seem to be available anymore?)
As it happens, I am currently streaming several of the shows mentioned by Kevin (slowly, I wouldn't call it binging). I'm on Season 4 (of seven) of Mission Impossible (which just entered the 1970s); it's still fun but the format gets sort of repetitious by this point and the show lost a lot when Martin Landau and Barbara Bain (BTW, still with us at 92) left the show after Season 3. I've loved Leonard Nimoy, a direct replacement for Landau, since 1966, but his character just doesn't work for me.
I'm also watching Perry Mason, very slowly; I'm a little past half way of Season 1--which has 39 episodes! This was one of the first regular drama series and it just has not aged very well. The production values are bad and the plots and acting are often wobbly. The legal aspects are pretty risible (I'm a retired attorney) and Perry should be disbarred in almost every episode. Though as a movie buff, I was surprised and interested to learn that the executive producer of the show (very unusual for the time) was Gail Patrick Jackson, who, as Gail Patrick, had had a fairly successful career as an actress during Hollywood's Golden Age. An attractive, lanky brunette, Patrick was never a star but specialized in playing the unpleasant second billed female character (notably in screwball classics My Man Godfrey and My Favorite Wife).
Reportedly the first hour-long drama on TV, the first season, and the first season of every show, is always a shakedown into the elements that make it long running. I watched it on MeTv during morning coffee and web-crawling. The attraction was seeing very young Robert Redford or James Coburn playing guest villains, and I'm a total soft touch for Ray Collins in anything. Then there's Paul Drake, all that is man--snazzy sport coats, the latest ragtop, champion chowhound and babe magnet.
Painful to see them always lighting up at the beginning of any exposition. I guess that's the cigarette companies' mandate to keep pushing coffin nails.
I agree--one of my main pleasures in watching something like Perry Mason is spotting subsequently well known actors (I haven't seen Redford or Coburn yet) or some character actor who most people would miss. Actually, I'm a little surprised that after watching twenty-ish episodes, I've only spotted a handful in either category. Though as a huge Golden Age Hollywood fan, I get a kick out of seeing Ray Collins, too.
I haven't seen the Naked City TV show in a long time (though I rewatched the movie recently), but it was great for this. I believe it was filmed in New York and the episodes were just crammed with subsequent stars who were trying to make it in theater in the late '50s/early '60s.
I’m in my 70s as well. I’ve been watching a lot of Perry Mason lately while I do my evening exercises and stretches for various pains. It’s not that the show is so great but it is tolerable and interesting to see life in the 50s - the old cars with soft suspensions, everyone smoking cigarattes everywhere, no cell phones, just landlines and pay phones.
I think the idea of Perry Mason was as sort of a noirish, tough guy attorney practicing on the edge of the law. Sort of a Sam Spade with a law degree. They don’t pull it off very well as there are so many contradictory ideas there. Also, as you point out, it is amazing how prolific they used to be. 39 episodes in the first season! No wonder the writers had trouble with the plots. This might have worked for one or two good movies, not for 271 episodes. It is interesting to spot the now-famous stars that appeared on that show when they were young.
I like how Perry Mason starts off immediately, often with a car pulling to a stop and someone getting out. Then one guy acts like an asshole to four or five people and you know who will be found dead and who the suspects will be. The Hamilton Burger character auditioned for Mason, and Raymond Burr for the DA. Earle Stanley Gardner, who wrote the books, like Burr for Mason. Perry and detective Paul Drake drove nice cars. Everyone in those days kept a gun in their (unlocked) glove compartment. The court scenes taught much of America about the dynamics of criminal trials. No doubt many corners were cut to fit the time slot.
Speaking as one of the millions exploded into puberty by Emma Peel . . .
https://youtu.be/tUy_4M8_ZJI?si=9wxSJKO49bOi2A9k
The Avengers was a very good show. Better than most mentioned so far.
The list was clearly focused on American TV only, or it might have had something from, for instance, On the Buses or Fawlty Towers or perhaps Absolutely Fabulous. Possibly even Monty Python. But maybe that's too nerdy.
While I kind of agree that Rolling Stone biased its results against shows older than the people compiling the list, I don’t think there’s much value in ranking shows that are unstreamable at all. I mean, if the #1 or #10 or whatever show has been lost to future viewers, what’s the point of rubbing that in their face?
Although you can argue that The City On the Edge of Forever should be higher, I'm glad TNG's "The Inner Light" is on there. I still think about that episode, ever since I first watched it when I was about 13.
I'm not a big fan of TNG (I enjoy Worf and Data--oh, and Michelle Forbes as Ro Laren, wish she hadn't turned down DS9--and disliked or hated all the other characters, but that episode was a pretty good one. But God, Picard looked like a dork in a couple of subsequent episodes when he played that little flute.
I’ve been a devoted fan of the original series since I was a kid in the 70s. I never warmed up to TNG though. Seeing the Inner Light on this list, I thought, OK I’ll give that one a chance as it must be the best of the series. I just finished watching it and I’m sorry, but it was awfully lame. The whole Picard story on the dying planet was simply sophomoric. Not offensive of anything, just barely a step above teenage fan fiction. The twist at the end was not bad, but hardly better than a typical Twilight Zone story.
Mary Tyler Moore- Chuckles the Clowns funeral. He went to a parade dressed as a peanut and got shucked by a rogue elephant.
I laugh out loud just writing this
Sue Ann Nivens' (Betty White) bedroom was ... interesting (different episode)
i've watched a good bit of 50/60s tv in reruns. it did kinda suck for the most part.
I think anything before 1990 was cribbed from a TV Guide or Entertainment Weekly 1990 Best 100 episodes article. It's obvious that the reviewers missed out on shows that didn't reach syndication on streaming or cable.
Like "Frank's Place", which missed out because of the usual music licensing issues, or "I'll Fly Away" which . . . I don't know. Too Black I guess, just like "Frank's Place"
Certain entries notwithstanding, survey taker’s got some splaining to do …
My quick count was 13 for the number of series among the top 50 from that list that I ever watched a single episode of. I don't feel like I missed a thing.
All lists are telling about the people who make the list. About the actual entries and their rankings, not so much.
I think the final episode of Northern Exposure should have been on this list. There were probably other episodes of NE that deserved consideration, but that last one, with "Our Town" as the soundtrack at the end was memorable.
That show was good.
Maggie's fiancee died--a satellite landed on him (replete with what looked like Sputnik sticking out of the coffin).
They broke the bottle of very expensive wine--so re-create it. Earthy overtones? Throw in a little peat moss.
What do you mean "Monty Python" did cow tossing already?
Sorry. The last episode of Newhart is the greatest episode of all time and it isn't even on the list. Beat the snot out of anything from Seinfeld, Frasier or The Office. And Star Trek TNG was good and all but not City on the Edge of Forever good.
I'm with you. This is a millenial list.
And seriously. Not a single episode of The Expanse?
Truly epic! The call back to his earlier show, and total mocking of Dallas's "dream season". But if you're not aware of those...
Hard to argue with that. Except maybe the Mary Tyler Moore episode.😉
"Not a single episode of The Expanse?"
The Expanse is a great show, but is there a particular standalone episode that is "the best"? There are amazing scenes and sequences, but I'd be hard pressed to name a particular episode that is a particular gem (as compared to, say City on the Edge of Forever, Inner Light, Far Beyond the Stars etc. if we are going to make a comparison to Trek).
Downside of solid long-form drama. The Expanse is essentially a 20-hour movie; it's not really episodic in the way that some of the other stuff that made the list is.
Very good observations and I strongly agree.
I am that guy
Original Series was formative but TNG and DS9 are just higher quality. Shot better, lit better
acted better.
Not to be a Luddite, but I can't think of a better argument against social media than the final scene of Newhart. (Yep, I saw it on original broadcast.) No way that would have been kept secret today and it would have lost much of its impact.
One factor worth considering is how much TV each decade has produced. I'd venture a guess that more TV shows come out every year these days than came out in all of the 50s and 60s combined.
Shows can be great for their time, but not age well. Or they can be tied into their current events, so may not seem relevant now. MASH was on forever--but try watching the early episodes now.
I'll send clips out to the youngsters of older shows...but try to view them first. Some are not as good as I remember, some really aged badly, and some may still be really funny, but totally not safe for work--think Monty Python and 'We've come for your liver" (wait until they get to the big bang) or "every sperm is sacred".
Those scenes were from The Meaning Of Life which was a movie with an "R" rating.
Go ahead and leave any show with a laugh track off the list.
Old fashioned television with its 500 lines of resolution is a completely different medium from modern HD television. And in addition, the fact that we saw it in fuzzy black and white made it even more different. Marshall McLuhan had a lot to say about such things. All that having been said, The Fugitive worked pretty well in that format. But the limits of the medium meant that the director and DP always had to put the main character fairly up close and right in the center of the frame so that the viewer could see him at all. I would choose any 3 episodes of ER as better than any television show from the earlier era. We are getting old reruns of Laugh In, Ed Sullivan, 77 Sunset Strip, What's My Line? and so forth on late night broadcast television, and they aren't all that good artistically or in terms of the writing.
Whenever Groucho Marx was on Whats my Line it was legendary.
Good to see Hill Street Blues make the list. It is of it's time, but it's one that has aged pretty well for the most part.
That was a quality show
We broke the TV in the 60's as the children were learning to read. Radio tube based TV's were easy to break.
Omitting the Maverick episode, "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres" is a capital offence.
John Dehner was superb.
Roy Huggins, who wrote it, said that he got a call much later from Max Baer asking him if he'd see "The Sting"---that it was "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres", and would he sue? So it was, but Huggins knew better than to sue a big studio.
I was born in the 80s and watched a lot of those shows on nickatnite as a kid. Certainly the Mary Tyler Moore finale was one of the best. Probably some I love Lucy. And I think a few Dragnet episodes like one about MLK or where the kid shoots himself by accident are up there.
But a lot of those shows are forgettable just like tv now.
Oh also, I definitely agree that Ozymandias is probably the best episode of tv ever made.
They cited the "Henry Dies" episode from MASH.
You know, the father-to-his-men gets his dream assignment and they throw a big party for him and off he goes and then they get word he's been killed.The end.
Which is the plot for "Mr. Roberts". Which was a best-selling novel, a hit play and a hit movie of the 50's.
I guess 20 years is long enough to excuse such a bit of blatant plagiarism in Hollywood, but not by me. Always thought the show was a pale B list reflection of the movie, but after that I actively despised it.