Cmon, Seinfeld wasn't talking about our culture being about nothing in the 90s, it's about being a relatable comedy about people and situations that we see in our lives.
Mad men doesn’t fall off at all. Also, giving game of thrones S tier whilst providing the same argument for mad men falling off into B tier, when game of thrones has the biggest fall off ever?
The writing in Game of Thrones fell off, but I still think the story was pretty good throughout. Hit take, perhaps, but I think season 7 is worse than season 8. Say whatever you want about making Bran king, some of the dialog choices, and the rushed pacing, but after working my way through it again, I think the actual story is still low-key brilliant, albeit in spite of itself sometimes. People just got blindsided by Dany because the show up to that point had successfully manipulated their liberal biases into never questioning her previous actions and motivations for the entire show up to that point. Dany burning down King's Landing is only a shocker to the people who couldn't see her for what she always was.
South Park actually did make fun of Islam. They did this whole hilarious show not picturing Mohammed and kept pushing the boundaries in absurd directions to show what was acceptable and what wasn't.
He hasn’t watched a lot of South Park. They had a huge scandal like 15-20 year ago because they were trying to draw the prophet Mohammad. It was a huge scandal. Hell they even shot and killed Osama on tv a month before they actually killed him in real life. Also girls actually didn’t suck for the first season. At the time atleast it as about an ugly girl rich girl who got cut off from her parents money and it was about a spoiled girl facing reality at first. But after the first season it changed and became a girl boss show. The tone changed from season 1 to 2 and people tuned out
You said that feminism is the reason that all male leads were antiheroes, but I would argue everybody was just trying to emulate the success of the Sopranos. Vince Gilligan even said there is no Walter White without Tony Soprano.
I'm currently watching The Sopranos for the 1st time and I know it's extremely highly regarded but I can't say too much about it as I've only seen the first couple of episodes. My current all time top ten is as follows: 1. The Wire/Boardwalk Empire 2. Banshee 3. Rome 4. Tokyo Vice 5. The Night Of 6. Sharp Objects 7. Band Of Brothers 8. Top Boy 9. Succession 10. Breaking Bad
@@enterthebruce91my top ten is 1. The wire 2. Game of thrones 3. Six feet under 4. Mr robot 5. Dark 6. The boys 7. The shield 8. Breaking bad 9. Succession 10. Sons of anarchy Shows that were/are almost top ten but just miss it The Americans Attack on titsn Sopranos Handmaids tale Stranger things Yellowstone Fargo Barry Mad men Better call Saul Bojack horseman Hannibal Invincible Ozark Dexter
I'm bummed _True Detective_ (Season 1) wasn't mentioned. I wanted to hear Klavan's thoughts on that one... It seems like it would be right in his wheelhouse
Yes, that is my understanding too. And while it was interesting - what I would really like to see is Klavan talking about his personal TOP20 (or so) TV shows (or movies, or books).
Um...sir...? You forgot The Wire -- EASILY the greatest television series -- or H.B.O. series -- ever created. Its themes, characters, and plotlines are masterful.
Obviously missed a lot of shows but love the content. Would have loved to hear your thoughts on Lost, The Walking Dead, or Family Guy/Simpsons. Keep it coming.
Klavan, you’re wrong about breaking bad. Definitely S. The ending alone earned that. I have a couple of great options for the next video that I recommend. Hell on Wheels. Justified. Silicon Valley. The Boys. Dexter. Rick and Morty. Evil. Ash vs Evil dead.
Hell on Wheels - A (I really enjoyed it) Justified - S (epic show) Silicon Valley - ??? (I haven't seen it at all) The Boys - S (first two seasons), B (third season), D (4th season) Dexter - S (first 4 seasons) A (rest of the show) Rick and Morty - S (one of my favorites) Evil - A (at first), B (fell off and I stopped watching) Ash vs Evil Dead - A (for what I saw of it)
If Game of Thrones is S tier for him, what can you expect… Breaking Bad one of the best, most complete shows ever! And that’s how you end an amazing story… after his ranking of movies and books I actually expected some sense and reason in this, so this is quite shocking 😄
'24' would also be in S tier for me - 6 amazing seasons, 3 decent seasons, 1 amazing videogame, 1 decent movie, amazing soundtrack and main theme and one of the best main characters ever created, that's some legacy. You also had appearances from major stars the likes of Dennis Hopper, Rami Malek, Jon Voight, Cherry Jones, Robert Carlyle, Katee Sackhoff, Powers Boothe, James Cromwell, Arnold Vosloo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Wincott and Bob Gunton.
Klavan rightfully calls "The Wire" a conservative show, and I say "24" despite being accused of being the conservative/republican show is actually a liberal show. It was championing a black democratic president, it had a republican president on the show as the villain. The nuclear bomb storyline in season 2 actually has the people inside the US government responsible for it, with Muslim terrorists only used as pawns. To say this is in any way a republican/conservative show is insane.
Yeah, I'm currently watching Mad Men (now on Season 5) and it's just getting better and better. I have no idea what he's talking about-like, I can _tell_ there is a difference between the first season and the later ones, but they are in no way worse.
It's good tthat Andrew added the wire, *given that the wire is the only S+ tier show.* Don't know why he didn't like season 4 though. It was amazing. The wire falls off in season 5 a bit with the journalist plot, but the wrap up of the story is still very fine.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the first seasons of SNL, Second City TV, Black Adder, Have Gun Will Travel, Sharpe’s Rifles, Horatio Hornblower, Foyle’s War, The Man In The High Castle, The Expanse, Better Call Saul.
Yeah, I love the Sopranos-which you can probably tell by my profile picture-though it has some inconsistencies at times, but there is one thing I will always stand for and that's that the acting of the Sopranos is the best ever. It's just so good.
Solid A, no question about it. Iconic. They missed a couple other solid A sitcoms though. Parks and rec, which basically became a live action Simpsons, and also Cheers which is arguably S tier.
No mention of Married With Children? Klavan, not even in your 150 years have you been able to insult more people, especially women than Al Bundy. He also scored four more touchdowns than you.
The Dick Van Dyke show was ahead of its time. It had the traits of a show of its time, but also could lean on its comedic writing and did not use situation comedy as a crutch.
@@meltingkrayons5830 Did you actually watch the show? It was situation comedy show about a comedy writer for another TV show. That is one of the oldest themes in Hollywood. Many films were made about producing plays, musicals, and even some about producing dramas. The acting was typical of many of Bob Hope's movies and the I Love Lucy show.
@@stevelenores5637 I have watched it and still watch it today. Obviously it is a situation comedy. My point is that the show uses situations, but unlike many contemporary shows, it's strength is the actual comedy writing and characters (and actors) rather than being dependent on "props and gags."
Great point about the immasculation of Walter White. I have a good friend who successfully lived outside the law- peacefully, and nondestructively- during the nineties through the 2000s, in order to preserve his autonomy and dignity. What can I say, against the odds, my guy pulled it off. I oddly admire that, and the activity involved is now legal in California. I’ll leave it at this- my friend would have NEVER stooped to peddling meth. The Wire was taken off the list? Sin!
I was already an adult when Pee Wee Herman came around. Paul Rubins was a much underrated actor, turned out cellar work in every thing he did. And his dad is a founding member of the Israeli Airforce!
I know it was probably never considered a popular tv anthology, but I would love to hear Klavan’s opinions on all of the miniseries in the Lonesome Dove universe. I just finished watching all of them with my parents and maternal grandparents, and we loved them.
Overrated. Recycled each season. He gets behind needs to cook it falls apart recycled only on a bigger scale. Lot to love about the show for sure though
If you say its the only show that ended on top, you're very limited. Multiple of the shows he mentioned ended on top and were great the whole time. Sopranos, The Americans, The Shield, The Wire...all equally good to breaking bad
@gregdrake5069 By ending on top, I mean the show never even plateaued. No way did Sopranos end on top. It had a controversial and somewhat dossapointing ending IMO. I never watched The Wire, but I hear it's one of the best, so you might be right. And The Shield definitely went down hill.
It started to go south after they hit the end of Martin’s published material. Martin is a great storyteller but a complete pr**k of a person. We’re never going to see the end of that tale in print unless old George lives to be a hundred which I find extremely unlikely. He tried any number of suggestions to try to get HBO to put off the last half of the tale. I think there was even reporting he was trying to get a full length feature done. He seems to have just lost interest in the whole affair at that point once they ran out of established material and HBO had other fish to fry as well. The last episodes were bunk and the end of it was epically bad and insulting to the fans.
I absolutely loved Klavan until he gave Seinfeld a B. What they were able to pull off within the constraints of 1990’s prime time network television is a miracle. Every episode of Seinfeld was like watching Pulp Fiction. It was a perfect show. Timeless.
This is a list of greatest American shows only. Hence no I Claudius, Fawlty Towers, Callan, The Prisoner, Brideshead Revisited, Monty Python's Flying Circus, etc
I don't often disagree with Andrew on entertainment and arts-related commentary - but this list is a little too modern-centric for me. But I admit my bias towards the classic vs. the modern. I just could never leave out Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, the origiinal Star Trek, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show and Leave it to Beaver - all masterpieces in their own right. The most modern shows I'd throw in are The Rockford Files and particularly Magnum P.I. - both were wonderfully written with great character development. Probably would be best to do a "classic era-only list." But .. fun stuff....enjoyed the commentary as always.
@@oldmovieman7550 Not for me but I think the first two seasons of AD were really strong and season 3 was decent but AD was awful after it got picked up by Netflix.
The Andy Griffith show never gets old and it is funny every single time you watch it, until it goes to color and then it is one of the worst of all time. If you wrote it off long time ago for flimsy reasons, give it a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.
My mother is a huge fan of I Love Lucy. I never really liked it that much. In its defense, I haven't watched it since I was a teenager. Seinfeld seems like a B tier for me now as well. So many other shows are better, in my opinion. I would have said A tier in the early 2000's, though.
I have no idea what he meant with Mad Men ending with the Kennedy assassination. The Mayer seasons evolved with the history and mirrored their storylines with so many post assassination events and it had character examinations on par with the sopranos. Guess I just have to cope though 😂
Seasons 4&5 of are the peak of Mad Men. 6 is great too. 7 is a mixed bag, that last episode was so cringe. I can't believe a guy like Weiner would shit the bed like that.
I see it as one continued masterpiece along with El Camino. Kim Wexler is possibly the greatest TV character of all time. Both shows are absolute perfection.
"Silhouette - showing the outline of goodness with the darkness" My favorite series along these lines just has to be _The Flashman Papers._ It seems that only through Flashy's badness (and humor), can you survive the sort of horrors he witnessed, without what today would be called "serious trauma".
Going to say something obvious. Andrew Klavan is a smart and witty man. P.S. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was so different and fun. I would watch it with my then, young daughter. I even got pretty good at imitating the Pee-We voice.
Gervais’ The Office was S tier. I thought David Brent was still a sympathetic character - you still feel bad as things unravel for him. Quite a heartbreaking show. Still, he made an album with some real bangers!
@@Holycurative9610 he left for about two seasons at the end, when Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish came onboard. They’re not bad, per se, but I couldn’t get into those episodes without David.
The first 5 seasons were amazing and even the 1998 movie was pretty good. Seasons 6 and 7 were also watchable. Sadly, everything after that including the two revival seasons were trash.
@@EddieHenderson92 once I got past my hatred of the show attempting to move on without David Duchovny, I actually came to like John Doggett a lot. He had a good rapport with Scully. Monica Reyes, however, was just a joke. She had all the bizarre notions of Mulder, with none of the earnestness that made Mulder's character so endearing despite his kooky theories. (Although even I didn't think she deserved to have her character thrown under the bus in the revival seasons.)
Klavan youre a beautiful man. But i disagree strongly about Seinfeld. I didn't grow up with a tv. Then went to uni and watched seinfeld on my laptop all through the nights, guffawing and keeping everybody up while everyone else had sex. Its pure genius. As was the first season of true detective.
I agree. I'm in the middle of the audio book, and it's one of the most compelling adventures ever. Unlike some other stories, there are no extraneous details. Every little detail comes back around to serve a purpose in moving the narrative forward.
I love The Office, but it does have a black eye on its legacy with those last two seasons without Michael. Also, Parks didn't have a very good final season but most of the seasons were great.
I was disappointed that Andrew left out "Turn - Washington's Spies". It has awesome writing and acting and I am curious to see what he thinks about it.
Breaking Bad should be on the S tier. Game of Thrones at its peak was amazing but it ended horribly so it’s not a complete show. Breaking bad is a complete masterpiece from the first episode to the last.
@@raymondsims7042 Most people drop it by a bunch because of the later seasons. Early ones are definitely S tier but it drops off really hard and ruins the whole show.
I love Seinfeld! I think it's really fun and it's just light-hearted goofy fun. I can't handle depressing shows like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead, I just want something happy to play in the background while I work in my shop or whatever.
@@into_play3226so true I loved Dexter so much only thing that satisfied me after watching breaking bad… but ngl Dexter last few seasons idk why they were thinking
Before watching: All in the Family, Cheers, MASH, The Waltons, Star Trek (consider the impact); He may go back to Honeymooners or I Love Lucy, but I doubt it. He certainly isn't going to mention Firefly (A show so popular that after its cancellation, it created a successful theater movie). Well - let's see it now.
I was hoping you'd review Yellowstone. Taylor Sheridan is a writer with a talent for dialogue. Every episode has memorable lines. That said he seems to have forgotten the need for an actual plot.
It’s hard to gauge shows by average. Because their seasons are all over the place a lot. Example Stranger things Season 1, S tier Season 2, B+ Season 3, B- Season 4, A How do you average that? It’s not an S, season 3 keeps it from that alone, and it keeps it from an A. But it’s better than a B because of season 1. Idk it’s kinda hard to rank shows like this.
This video gets a B for not including Better Call Saul. This show was more consistent, the cast ensemble acting was far better, it was more well written and more consistent. And although it didn’t say anything new about the human condition, it didn’t need to. It was the funniest crime drama to come to television, ever.
Loved it at first, but eventually I struggled with the convoluted storylines. The characters began to vacillate between good and evil, as if they were confused about how to behave. And it featured one of the worst endings in TV history.
@@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment Eh... No, Picard was always the best Captain. I'm open to other future Captains being better, but I don't think anyone has exceeded Picard yet.
Left out Band of Brothers, From the Earth to the Moon, the original Star Trek, ST:TNG, the first 4 seasons of Babylon 5, the first 8 seasons of Stargate: SG-1, and (of course) Batman: the Animated Series.
How could you leave out “The View”?
You want Klavan to die?? 😂
@@jonathanbowling2904Maybe if he did worst tv shows ever.
😂
For Real
@@jonathanbowling2904 May Klavan live forever!
Frasier doesn't get the acclaim it deserves. It's smart and funny and one of the best sitcoms ever made.
Huh? That show won like 30 Emmys when it was on the air. It's a great show but it got plenty of acclaim and hype in general.
My favorite.
The writing for that show was amazing.
Oh I agree, one of the few times the Emmys got it right, it was better than Seinfeld and every other comedy of that era
I never could get into it all the while knowing it really was great but I was the one missing something
I could say the same about several videogames
Frasier has the quippiest writing of any sitcom
AMEN BROTHER
Cheers was better.
@@EddieHenderson92 The first five seasons, but when Shelly Long was replaced with Kristi Alley it sucked.
@@oshemer5066 That would be Cheers; Frasier was the spinoff
Cmon, Seinfeld wasn't talking about our culture being about nothing in the 90s, it's about being a relatable comedy about people and situations that we see in our lives.
@@KeithGreenBiopic some people are so serious. Seinfeld referencing the culture??? That’s just nonsense!! 😂
Top Gear is one of the all time greats. Funny and never made an attempt to be politically correct.
Top Gear was great when Clarkson, Hammond and May were presenting, it went downhill fast when they left.
@@Holycurative9610yeah, people don’t even consider it Top Gear after they left. When someone says Top Gear, they mean Clarkson, May and Hammond
Top Gear is the most popular show of all time. It has the most viewers of all time: hundreds of millions of people tuned in each week.
Glad Amazon kept it going, well sort of.
Where's the Good Wife?
Mad men doesn’t fall off at all. Also, giving game of thrones S tier whilst providing the same argument for mad men falling off into B tier, when game of thrones has the biggest fall off ever?
Yeah I’m with you that mad men never fell off. Imo it’s actually in a three way tie for most consistent show ever with the Americans and the shield.
The writing in Game of Thrones fell off, but I still think the story was pretty good throughout. Hit take, perhaps, but I think season 7 is worse than season 8. Say whatever you want about making Bran king, some of the dialog choices, and the rushed pacing, but after working my way through it again, I think the actual story is still low-key brilliant, albeit in spite of itself sometimes. People just got blindsided by Dany because the show up to that point had successfully manipulated their liberal biases into never questioning her previous actions and motivations for the entire show up to that point. Dany burning down King's Landing is only a shocker to the people who couldn't see her for what she always was.
South Park actually did make fun of Islam. They did this whole hilarious show not picturing Mohammed and kept pushing the boundaries in absurd directions to show what was acceptable and what wasn't.
I remember the Muslim cab driver episode 😂
South Park regularly roasts Islam and Muhammad
Yeah I was confused about that one.
Yeah I believe they had a fatwa out on them, or at least the threat of one.
@@deanbean317they absolutely *have* a fatwa out on them.
He hasn’t watched a lot of South Park. They had a huge scandal like 15-20 year ago because they were trying to draw the prophet Mohammad. It was a huge scandal. Hell they even shot and killed Osama on tv a month before they actually killed him in real life.
Also girls actually didn’t suck for the first season. At the time atleast it as about an ugly girl rich girl who got cut off from her parents money and it was about a spoiled girl facing reality at first. But after the first season it changed and became a girl boss show. The tone changed from season 1 to 2 and people tuned out
People who don’t watch the show know about their history with Islam. Klavan faking it for this video.
Why didn't The Wire make the list? Its legitimately the best TV show in history? Its a masterpiece
Not really
One of the best, not the best
Because it's the most boring show ever
@@EddieHenderson92imo the wire is hands down the best show ever. No question about it
@@lifeisberserk9566 Bad attention span, I guess.
Regarding The Wire, "One of the most conservative shows written by one of the most left wing, radical people ever and he didn't know" is spot on
Where's Fraiser!?
The GOAT
Sitcoms are not worth ranking.
Thank you!
@@stevelenores5637I completely disagree. How can a show about every day life not have value?
@@johannastromberg1224 Your life is like Frasier?
Old school actors who had to learn their lines. They didn't have technology Green Acres was genius. I mean, there's a lot of them
Mad Men and X-files rating change because "they ruined the show" but Game of Thrones is S tier the entire way?
You said that feminism is the reason that all male leads were antiheroes, but I would argue everybody was just trying to emulate the success of the Sopranos. Vince Gilligan even said there is no Walter White without Tony Soprano.
Breaking Bad is an S-plus, not an A. No-brainer.
Sopranos has always been, and always will be, the best tv show.
I'm currently watching The Sopranos for the 1st time and I know it's extremely highly regarded but I can't say too much about it as I've only seen the first couple of episodes. My current all time top ten is as follows:
1. The Wire/Boardwalk Empire
2. Banshee
3. Rome
4. Tokyo Vice
5. The Night Of
6. Sharp Objects
7. Band Of Brothers
8. Top Boy
9. Succession
10. Breaking Bad
@@enterthebruce91Great list
@@enterthebruce91my top ten is
1. The wire
2. Game of thrones
3. Six feet under
4. Mr robot
5. Dark
6. The boys
7. The shield
8. Breaking bad
9. Succession
10. Sons of anarchy
Shows that were/are almost top ten but just miss it
The Americans
Attack on titsn
Sopranos
Handmaids tale
Stranger things
Yellowstone
Fargo
Barry
Mad men
Better call Saul
Bojack horseman
Hannibal
Invincible
Ozark
Dexter
I'm bummed _True Detective_ (Season 1) wasn't mentioned.
I wanted to hear Klavan's thoughts on that one... It seems like it would be right in his wheelhouse
Dexter
For everyone complaining about missing shows, I think he was personally rating someone else's list.
You can still complain about the shows missing from that list, but we can't blame Klavan for it.
Yes, that is my understanding too. And while it was interesting - what I would really like to see is Klavan talking about his personal TOP20 (or so) TV shows (or movies, or books).
"Lost" is the genesis of modern television, it could have been a lot better but it was still riveting.
I wasn’t huge on Seinfeld either but Curb your enthusiasm is very funny
I've seen all the classic shows, and The Shield finale is still my favorite finale ever.
OK WHERE IS CHEERS?!?!
There’s only so many shows dude
There’s only so many shows dude
How do you give Mad Men a "S / B" but GOT a straight "S"? Is at best a "S / C"
Love both shows but yeah I agree with the video that game of thrones is better than mad men. Mad men is still incredible though
Um...sir...? You forgot The Wire -- EASILY the greatest television series -- or H.B.O. series -- ever created. Its themes, characters, and plotlines are masterful.
Obviously missed a lot of shows but love the content. Would have loved to hear your thoughts on Lost, The Walking Dead, or Family Guy/Simpsons. Keep it coming.
Klavan, you’re wrong about breaking bad. Definitely S. The ending alone earned that. I have a couple of great options for the next video that I recommend. Hell on Wheels. Justified. Silicon Valley. The Boys. Dexter. Rick and Morty. Evil. Ash vs Evil dead.
Justified and Dexter were great. The boys turned into dog 💩 in season 3.
Breaking Bad certainly has a FAR better ending than Sopranos....😏
Hell on Wheels - A (I really enjoyed it)
Justified - S (epic show)
Silicon Valley - ??? (I haven't seen it at all)
The Boys - S (first two seasons), B (third season), D (4th season)
Dexter - S (first 4 seasons) A (rest of the show)
Rick and Morty - S (one of my favorites)
Evil - A (at first), B (fell off and I stopped watching)
Ash vs Evil Dead - A (for what I saw of it)
@@dustinwilson4815 Silicon Valley is a Mike Judge show. Worth the watch
If Game of Thrones is S tier for him, what can you expect… Breaking Bad one of the best, most complete shows ever! And that’s how you end an amazing story… after his ranking of movies and books I actually expected some sense and reason in this, so this is quite shocking 😄
The Shield at its peak was ridiculously good television.
Vic met be the greatest TV character of all time.
@@EddieHenderson92Rust chole and Ragnar lothbrok are better but I respect that opinion
@@EddieHenderson92vic Mackey is definitely a legend
'24' would also be in S tier for me - 6 amazing seasons, 3 decent seasons, 1 amazing videogame, 1 decent movie, amazing soundtrack and main theme and one of the best main characters ever created, that's some legacy. You also had appearances from major stars the likes of Dennis Hopper, Rami Malek, Jon Voight, Cherry Jones, Robert Carlyle, Katee Sackhoff, Powers Boothe, James Cromwell, Arnold Vosloo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Wincott and Bob Gunton.
Klavan rightfully calls "The Wire" a conservative show, and I say "24" despite being accused of being the conservative/republican show is actually a liberal show. It was championing a black democratic president, it had a republican president on the show as the villain.
The nuclear bomb storyline in season 2 actually has the people inside the US government responsible for it, with Muslim terrorists only used as pawns.
To say this is in any way a republican/conservative show is insane.
Mad Men not being pure S is a crime. It was great all the way through.
Yeah his analysis of it was pretty garbage
Yeah, I'm currently watching Mad Men (now on Season 5) and it's just getting better and better. I have no idea what he's talking about-like, I can _tell_ there is a difference between the first season and the later ones, but they are in no way worse.
It's good tthat Andrew added the wire, *given that the wire is the only S+ tier show.* Don't know why he didn't like season 4 though. It was amazing. The wire falls off in season 5 a bit with the journalist plot, but the wrap up of the story is still very fine.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the first seasons of SNL, Second City TV, Black Adder, Have Gun Will Travel, Sharpe’s Rifles, Horatio Hornblower, Foyle’s War, The Man In The High Castle, The Expanse, Better Call Saul.
Sopranos was the best ever. When Tony backed Carmella up like he was going to hit her…I actually flinched. Just superb!!
Yeah, I love the Sopranos-which you can probably tell by my profile picture-though it has some inconsistencies at times, but there is one thing I will always stand for and that's that the acting of the Sopranos is the best ever. It's just so good.
Alright, sopranos, Seinfeld, now we're talking the same language
Ozark?
He lost me at Seinfeld.
Seinfeld is at least an A c'mon all the sitcom lovers.
Yeah, but it’s a show about nothing
No, Seinfeld sucked
@@bobsmith5185 You misspelled your mother.
Solid A, no question about it. Iconic. They missed a couple other solid A sitcoms though. Parks and rec, which basically became a live action Simpsons, and also Cheers which is arguably S tier.
Where was The Simpsons by the way? That's one of those S tier\C tier situations
Missing: Twin Peaks and The Prisoner with Patrick McGoohan. Two shows that cleared a path for a lot of shows that followed.
The Prisoner was incredible, agreed.
No mention of Married With Children? Klavan, not even in your 150 years have you been able to insult more people, especially women than Al Bundy. He also scored four more touchdowns than you.
The Dick Van Dyke show.
I saw reruns in late childhood. Conspicuous to me: how dated it was, and how giddily, self-consciously modern everyone involved felt.
One of thousands of sit-coms. I would classify most of them as typical and formulaic.
The Dick Van Dyke show was ahead of its time. It had the traits of a show of its time, but also could lean on its comedic writing and did not use situation comedy as a crutch.
@@meltingkrayons5830 Did you actually watch the show? It was situation comedy show about a comedy writer for another TV show. That is one of the oldest themes in Hollywood. Many films were made about producing plays, musicals, and even some about producing dramas. The acting was typical of many of Bob Hope's movies and the I Love Lucy show.
@@stevelenores5637 I have watched it and still watch it today. Obviously it is a situation comedy. My point is that the show uses situations, but unlike many contemporary shows, it's strength is the actual comedy writing and characters (and actors) rather than being dependent on "props and gags."
Great point about the immasculation of Walter White. I have a good friend who successfully lived outside the law- peacefully, and nondestructively- during the nineties through the 2000s, in order to preserve his autonomy and dignity. What can I say, against the odds, my guy pulled it off. I oddly admire that, and the activity involved is now legal in California. I’ll leave it at this- my friend would have NEVER stooped to peddling meth. The Wire was taken off the list? Sin!
The Wire is the greatest of all time. Underrated Opus.
I love how in the midst of these great shows, Girls was included. One of these things is not like the other.
Token show. Just like black panther in the movie video.
Peewee and Daily Show also are garbage.
I was already an adult when Pee Wee Herman came around. Paul Rubins was a much underrated actor, turned out cellar work in every thing he did. And his dad is a founding member of the Israeli Airforce!
I didn't know that.
I know it was probably never considered a popular tv anthology, but I would love to hear Klavan’s opinions on all of the miniseries in the Lonesome Dove universe. I just finished watching all of them with my parents and maternal grandparents, and we loved them.
The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show lol
Breaking Bad is definitely an S show. Better than all he rest. Only show that ended on top. It didn't even plateau.
Overrated. Recycled each season. He gets behind needs to cook it falls apart recycled only on a bigger scale. Lot to love about the show for sure though
If you say its the only show that ended on top, you're very limited. Multiple of the shows he mentioned ended on top and were great the whole time. Sopranos, The Americans, The Shield, The Wire...all equally good to breaking bad
@gregdrake5069 By ending on top, I mean the show never even plateaued. No way did Sopranos end on top. It had a controversial and somewhat dossapointing ending IMO. I never watched The Wire, but I hear it's one of the best, so you might be right. And The Shield definitely went down hill.
@@sothrow5462this is the worst take I’ve ever heard
@@sothrow5462Garbage take
What a weird ranking system: "S" = best, "A" = second best, "B" = third best....
Game of Thrones seasons 1-4 is some of the greatest TV ever. 5 and 6 are pretty good, then 7 and 8 went down the hole.
It started to go south after they hit the end of Martin’s published material. Martin is a great storyteller but a complete pr**k of a person. We’re never going to see the end of that tale in print unless old George lives to be a hundred which I find extremely unlikely. He tried any number of suggestions to try to get HBO to put off the last half of the tale. I think there was even reporting he was trying to get a full length feature done. He seems to have just lost interest in the whole affair at that point once they ran out of established material and HBO had other fish to fry as well. The last episodes were bunk and the end of it was epically bad and insulting to the fans.
@@jill7759 Exactly
Season 6 is the best season of the show you Supercuts delight worshipers.
@@iammiller5478 Nah it’s like the fifth best maybe
@@jerrys1 best by far. You must be on drugs
I absolutely loved Klavan until he gave Seinfeld a B. What they were able to pull off within the constraints of 1990’s prime time network television is a miracle. Every episode of Seinfeld was like watching Pulp Fiction. It was a perfect show. Timeless.
I still watch some of the old black-and-white episodes of Dragnet.
This is a list of greatest American shows only. Hence no I Claudius, Fawlty Towers, Callan, The Prisoner, Brideshead Revisited, Monty Python's Flying Circus, etc
I truly doubt he ever sat down and actually watched a couple of seinfeld seasons. An automatic S for me
I don't often disagree with Andrew on entertainment and arts-related commentary - but this list is a little too modern-centric for me. But I admit my bias towards the classic vs. the modern. I just could never leave out Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, the origiinal Star Trek, Rawhide, The Andy Griffith Show and Leave it to Beaver - all masterpieces in their own right. The most modern shows I'd throw in are The Rockford Files and particularly Magnum P.I. - both were wonderfully written with great character development. Probably would be best to do a "classic era-only list." But .. fun stuff....enjoyed the commentary as always.
Everyone knows The Andrew Klavan Show is the standard by which all shows are judged.
Your IQ must hover around 70.
Seinfeld is A tier.
Perhaps even S tier just because it's so uniquely good among sitcoms.
Seinfeld is a triple S+ show. The best of all time.
One of the truly greats
💯
Best sitcom for sure and never had a bad season. I love the American version of The Office but the last two seasons without Michael were bad.
@@EddieHenderson92 the first few seasons of Arrested Development are better than any season of The Office also.
@@oldmovieman7550 Not for me but I think the first two seasons of AD were really strong and season 3 was decent but AD was awful after it got picked up by Netflix.
The Andy Griffith show never gets old and it is funny every single time you watch it, until it goes to color and then it is one of the worst of all time. If you wrote it off long time ago for flimsy reasons, give it a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.
CITIZEN’S ARR-AY-EST! CITIZEN’S ARR-AY-EST!
Seinfeld and I Love Lucy???? B tier??? And, no Simpsons??? Good luck with this video.
My mother is a huge fan of I Love Lucy. I never really liked it that much. In its defense, I haven't watched it since I was a teenager.
Seinfeld seems like a B tier for me now as well. So many other shows are better, in my opinion. I would have said A tier in the early 2000's, though.
Hopefully we'll get a video of Andrew ranking the greatest albums
Joshua Tree #1
You didn't mention my favorite show of all, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Funny, lighthearted, but also poignant. The entire cast was phenomenal!
I have no idea what he meant with Mad Men ending with the Kennedy assassination. The Mayer seasons evolved with the history and mirrored their storylines with so many post assassination events and it had character examinations on par with the sopranos. Guess I just have to cope though 😂
Seasons 4&5 of are the peak of Mad Men. 6 is great too. 7 is a mixed bag, that last episode was so cringe. I can't believe a guy like Weiner would shit the bed like that.
Better Call Saul was even better than Breaking Bad.
How!?! Loved Breaking bad but could barely get into BCS. Expected much more
It was good, but not iconic
@@anacc3257 better characters. There's no Skylar White in Better Call Saul.
I see it as one continued masterpiece along with El Camino. Kim Wexler is possibly the greatest TV character of all time. Both shows are absolute perfection.
Agreed.
"Silhouette - showing the outline of goodness with the darkness"
My favorite series along these lines just has to be _The Flashman Papers._ It seems that only through Flashy's badness (and humor), can you survive the sort of horrors he witnessed, without what today would be called "serious trauma".
Going to say something obvious. Andrew Klavan is a smart and witty man. P.S. Pee-Wee's Playhouse was so different and fun. I would watch it with my then, young daughter. I even got pretty good at imitating the Pee-We voice.
Gervais’ The Office was S tier. I thought David Brent was still a sympathetic character - you still feel bad as things unravel for him. Quite a heartbreaking show. Still, he made an album with some real bangers!
1:50 i realized how much they look alike. 😂
Breaking Bad is an S Tier and the Greatest Show of All Time with the Sopranos
Better Call Saul also belongs in the S tier IMO.
Homicide -Life on the Street
The Xfiles was absolutely phenomenal. The seasons without David I pretend don’t exist! 👽🛸
I didn't even know they made seasons without him and I watched most episodes back in the day. Amazing what you learn on the internet eh!
@@Holycurative9610 he left for about two seasons at the end, when Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish came onboard. They’re not bad, per se, but I couldn’t get into those episodes without David.
The first 5 seasons were amazing and even the 1998 movie was pretty good. Seasons 6 and 7 were also watchable. Sadly, everything after that including the two revival seasons were trash.
@@EddieHenderson92 once I got past my hatred of the show attempting to move on without David Duchovny, I actually came to like John Doggett a lot. He had a good rapport with Scully. Monica Reyes, however, was just a joke. She had all the bizarre notions of Mulder, with none of the earnestness that made Mulder's character so endearing despite his kooky theories. (Although even I didn't think she deserved to have her character thrown under the bus in the revival seasons.)
I love that several of the top comments are about Frasier. Great show.
Klavan youre a beautiful man. But i disagree strongly about Seinfeld. I didn't grow up with a tv. Then went to uni and watched seinfeld on my laptop all through the nights, guffawing and keeping everybody up while everyone else had sex. Its pure genius. As was the first season of true detective.
Thank you for including South Park! In the next video please add Sex and the City and Star Trek, I want to hear Drew's opinions of them as shows.
Andrew, thank you so much for recommending The Count of Monte Cristo. Love the story.
I agree. I'm in the middle of the audio book, and it's one of the most compelling adventures ever. Unlike some other stories, there are no extraneous details. Every little detail comes back around to serve a purpose in moving the narrative forward.
I feel like there should be categories.
Sit coms:
Dramas:
Crime shows:
Medical shows etc
_Battlestar Galactica_
We're rewatching it after 20 years. Great show.
@@thx01138 - I’ve watched it probably ten times 😑
…the remake, to be clear 👌
The original with Lorne Green or the remake??
Fantastic show
Up to the writer's strike was A. After was a C.
Could Klavan please explain to me why the Wire is conservative?
Nice to see The Shield on there. Brilliant show with an absolutely perfect ending.
Top ten show ever imo
You talked about NYPD blue, but then didn’t rate it. Best series I’ve ever seen.
The office and Parks and rec are the two greatest shows ever made. Nothing can ever top their comedic genius.
Office > 30 Rock > Parks & Rec
The office was pure genius
I love The Office, but it does have a black eye on its legacy with those last two seasons without Michael. Also, Parks didn't have a very good final season but most of the seasons were great.
I was watching Parks and got thru 2 seasons think, waiting for the great show to appear
Parks and Rec is dripping with leftist propaganda. Terrible evil characters. I just rewatched and cringe that I used to like the show.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Best show to watch after 1AM.
I was disappointed that Andrew left out "Turn - Washington's Spies". It has awesome writing and acting and I am curious to see what he thinks about it.
Breaking Bad should be on the S tier. Game of Thrones at its peak was amazing but it ended horribly so it’s not a complete show. Breaking bad is a complete masterpiece from the first episode to the last.
Agreed!
@@signs9587both breaking bad and game of thrones are S tier imo
@@raymondsims7042 Game of Thrones S tier? No, dude, not even close.
@@rullvardi wait is that now a crazy take?🤔lol how is game of thrones not S tier? Honest question
@@raymondsims7042 Most people drop it by a bunch because of the later seasons. Early ones are definitely S tier but it drops off really hard and ruins the whole show.
Game of thrones: A
Breaking bad: S
Nobody did the "lie to another actor so the character is believable, but the audience can read the lie" better than Vic Mackey in the shield.
NYPD Blue was not about dirty cops. Is about the redemption of Zipowitz. I didn't come up with that myself.
I love Seinfeld! I think it's really fun and it's just light-hearted goofy fun. I can't handle depressing shows like Breaking Bad or The Walking Dead, I just want something happy to play in the background while I work in my shop or whatever.
I never really liked I Love Lucy or The PeeWee Show.
Am I the only one who loved the "Barry" Klavan intro?
Dexterrrrrr
One of the many shows that started out great and then deteriorated to garbage.
@@into_play3226true but it’s still a top 25 show imo
@@into_play3226so true I loved Dexter so much only thing that satisfied me after watching breaking bad… but ngl Dexter last few seasons idk why they were thinking
In watching through The Twilight Zone I'm amazed at how consistently good the episodes are. For me only like 1 in 5 are a bit more dull.
Before watching: All in the Family, Cheers, MASH, The Waltons, Star Trek (consider the impact); He may go back to Honeymooners or I Love Lucy, but I doubt it. He certainly isn't going to mention Firefly (A show so popular that after its cancellation, it created a successful theater movie). Well - let's see it now.
I should have put in NCIS - never heard of Girls or Fleabag. I might have thought about his tastes - dark, evil, gritty, no likable characters
Anyone notice how K loved shows with bald men?
How about Perry Mason and the Carol Burnett Show?
I was hoping you'd review Yellowstone. Taylor Sheridan is a writer with a talent for dialogue. Every episode has memorable lines. That said he seems to have forgotten the need for an actual plot.
Top twenty show easily imo I love yellowstone
It’s hard to gauge shows by average.
Because their seasons are all over the place a lot.
Example
Stranger things
Season 1, S tier
Season 2, B+
Season 3, B-
Season 4, A
How do you average that?
It’s not an S, season 3 keeps it from that alone, and it keeps it from an A. But it’s better than a B because of season 1. Idk it’s kinda hard to rank shows like this.
This video gets a B for not including Better Call Saul. This show was more consistent, the cast ensemble acting was far better, it was more well written and more consistent. And although it didn’t say anything new about the human condition, it didn’t need to. It was the funniest crime drama to come to television, ever.
What about Monk/Psych?
Solid 5/10
First 4 seasons of Fraiser are probably the greatest American comedy series ever.
No Lost?
Loved it at first, but eventually I struggled with the convoluted storylines. The characters began to vacillate between good and evil, as if they were confused about how to behave. And it featured one of the worst endings in TV history.
@@davidmusicmakercompletely agree lost is a wasted potential show
You forgot Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
No idea where this list comes from, but usually the consensus is: 1-TNG, 2-TOS, 3-DS9, 4-Voyager, 5-Enterprise.
TNG all the way
THIS!!! DS9 is best Trek, and Sisko is best captain!
@@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment Eh... No, Picard was always the best Captain. I'm open to other future Captains being better, but I don't think anyone has exceeded Picard yet.
@@dustinwilson4815 Best captain? Kirk and Sisko for sure
Left out Band of Brothers, From the Earth to the Moon, the original Star Trek, ST:TNG, the first 4 seasons of Babylon 5, the first 8 seasons of Stargate: SG-1, and (of course) Batman: the Animated Series.