In honor of our current campaign to raise funds for a TV series, we attempted a definitive list of the greatest shows in history, with a few guidelines in place.

First guideline: “math.” To try to be as objective as possible, we applied a score to each show using an aggregate of critic and audience ratings, plus total number of ratings across multiple review sites. (It’s very similar to the system used in our yearly DYT TOP 40 list of favorite movies and shows. The difference is, for this list, we weighted total number of ratings - which basically means how many people have watched over time - higher than critic or audience ratings. A show has to have good ratings to qualify, but when talking about all-time favorites, in the end, what matters most is how many people have engaged with it, full stop.

Second guideline: eras. We’re dividing the list into four eras. Why? Because you just can’t compare shows across generations. It’s like sports. If Babe Ruth and Bill Russell played baseball and basketball today, would they dominate like they did in the old days? Most likely not. But, in their time, they were the greatest and that in some way should be upheld. … The parameters of television in the 1950s was wildly different. TV then was chlorine-clean; it was pre-civil rights and before a myriad of technical innovations. So, we’re doing eras and shows make Mount Television by dominating within their time. The eras start in 1946, when “Pinwright’s Progress became the first ever, ongoing, TV series to air.

Era 1, 1946 - 1964 … aka The Black(s) and White(s) Era.

Era 2, 1965 - 1983 … aka The Get Funky, Get Loose Era.

Era 3, 1984 - 2002 … aka The Never Really Went Away Era.

Era 4, 2002 - 2021 … The Everything Is Everywhere Era.

Third guideline: types. In film and television there are four, overarching types of pictures. More or less, they are Drama, Comedy, Action and Fantasy, but we’re relabeling types to potentially house more formats within them. The types are:

Drama. Oops, okay, this one stays the same. But, it doesn’t just mean “serious.” Drama means a show that’s primarily about the people - the humanity - whether in a light tone or a heavy one and it does not hold the “hooks” that the other three types hold.

Genre (formerly comedy). When someone says a “genre” movie or show, they usually mean ‘not standard’ or ‘not pure’ in a way, like drama. It means there’s something offbeat or farcical about the show to a pretty high degree that takes it outside a standard story about people.

Stunt (formerly action). Most obviously something becomes ‘stunt’ when you expect an action set piece and when there are multiple per episode or season. It can be both dramatic or comedic in tone, but there is some kind of consistent (larger) action involved.

Fable (formerly fantasy). Any kind of magic or heavy sci-fi for the protagonist turns a show into fable. Stunt and fable can overlap, just like drama and genre. If the protagonist is a “normal” person, even if fighting something supernatural, it’s closer to stunt. But, if the protagonist is supernatural, and thus the story begins there, it moves toward fable. Also, fable does not need set pieces like stunt.

So, four eras and four types. To put together the list - or The Mount - each era will have a winner from each type, based on score, and in total we’ll have 16 shows on Mount Television. … Just picture them, sitting in a circle on top of the tallest building on the studio lot, facing inward toward a shrine built of iterations of TV cameras and recycled set designs over the decades. Mount Television - these are them, baby.

TOP DRAMA: THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW

— Right off the bat, we have (maybe) some category confusion. Andy Griffith is a half-hour series and for sixty years has more or less been labeled as a sitcom, and thus, comedy. We have it here, in Drama, because though the show has its share of hi-jinks and slapstick, mostly attributed to the antics of Barney Fife, it is more so about a man and his family and the humanity of the small town of Mayberry.

TOP GENRE: I LOVE LUCY

— While Andy Griffith has its comedic moments, Lucy takes it to a whole, other level. Lucille Ball, arguably, is Michael Jordan for television. A figure that looms over any great performance (not just comedic) that has happened since. And the innovative format in which she performed — in a studio, with multiple cameras, on 35mm film — became the standard for just about every sitcom after in the 20th century and even still today.

TOP STUNT: GUNSMOKE

— Talk about longevity. For twenty years, Gunsmoke remained a top show. It took the mantle of most-watched show after Lucy ended in 1957 through 1961 and remained a top 20 show for almost the entirety of its run. The series still holds the record for most live-action, prime-time episodes at 635 and even more incredibly, James Arness, who played the main character of Marshal Matt Dillon appeared in every episode.

TOP FABLE: ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN

— This is why you shouldn’t judge across eras. There were only two series that qualified for Top Fable in this time, the other being My Favorite Martian. There were a few, other fantasy or science fiction series but they didn’t qualify in total number of ratings, meaning, over time, they just didn’t last. What’s more, Superman in 1952 feels like it could be a standard drama compared to the steroidal stunt and fable shows today.

TOP DRAMA: MASH

— Another “sitcom” holding place as Drama, but this one is even easier to identify as such. Set against the backdrop of the Korean War, MASH regularly featured weighty plot lines or motifs on death and the atrocity of war. Even the banter and the jokes were often biting criticisms on government and morality. The series stayed in the zeitgeist for eleven years and its finale is still the most watched episode of television in history.

TOP GENRE: ALL IN THE FAMILY

— If Lucy invented the sitcom, Family changed it forever. The subject matter of the show can still be jarring today and, at the time, was absolutely radical. They talked (no, yelled) about race and politics and sex in the funniest ways possible. All that arguing was widely watched. Family spent five years as the number one program, scripted or otherwise, on television. A record it still holds, tied with The Cosby Show.

TOP STUNT: THE AVENGERS

— No, no. Not the Marvel posse. This is the sexy, campy, James Bond-y team of British spies. It was one of the few shows to join in on the New Wave taking place in movies with its direction. In its time, it was well watched, though not on the scale of some of the western (stunt) shows, but over time its cult status grew and its progressive style afforded it higher ratings that sent it to the top here.

TOP FABLE: STAR TREK

— It’s Top Fable as much for its legacy as it is for its initial run. There have been many (many, many) iterations of Star Trek in television and film since the original. At the time, it was a bastion of not just fable television, but for all types. It was diverse and insightful and weird with an outstanding production design for 1966. Truthfully, it was not a big hit in its day, but, like Avengers (in fact much more so) its status grew over time.

TOP DRAMA: THE SOPRANOS

— Sopranos (1999-2007) straddles the line between eras, literally and figuratively. If we were to take the guidelines of specific years off the eras and define them more metaphorically, Sopranos would go in Era 4. That’s because it influenced everything after it. You’ve heard it before: Sopranos is when TV became “movies” - more layered, complicated and cinematic. It was the biggest pioneer in the medium since All in the Family.

TOP GENRE: FRIENDS

— This was the closest race: Friends vs. Seinfeld. Both were significant in their day and remain surprisingly significant now. Seinfeld reached greater heights - being the number one show twice and receiving more awards but Friends did stay in the top five for twice as long. Both were on NBC but it was Netflix that gave Friends the victory. Its early time there introduced it to a new generation, and thus, raised its score.

TOP STUNT: THE X-FILES

— Time for a category check-in. X-Files has aliens and supernatural shit, so, why isn’t it in Fable? There’s a couple reasons. One, the protagonists are still real people, doing real action, in the real world, even if its with supernatural elements. Second, the times changed. Maybe in 1960, Files would be a blockbuster, fable series, but today its fantasy elements are small scale compared to what else is out there.

TOP FABLE: THE NEXT GENERATION

— There was a gang of Star Trek and Star Trek-inspired series during this era. Deep Space Nine, Stargate SG-1, Babylon 5 and more were all competing with Next Generation. Interestingly, the show never had a home network. After getting a disappointing commitment from networks, the creators decided to license the show to different, local stations instead. It worked and the series ran for ten years in such format.

TOP DRAMA: BREAKING BAD

— Another reason Sopranos moved to Era 3 is because it was first there but second here. Bad became a poster child for how the era of streaming and having just about any thing at any time could elevate a show. Running on AMC, Bad was a modest show, but it was hitching a ride on the early Netflix rocket that grew the show’s popularity and positioned its final seasons as arguably the last drama with monoculture status.

TOP GENRE: THE OFFICE

— Another beneficiary of streaming. It’s as if The Office ran through its nine seasons twice. First, traditionally on NBC where it was an acclaimed but modestly (very modestly) watched series. Then, a few years after its end on NBC in 2013, the show was discovered all over again on streaming, this time as a essentially a number one series (per total viewers), even against newly produced shows during that same time.

TOP STUNT: STRANGER THINGS

— I wasn’t sure whether or not to include Stranger Things on this list. On one hand, it feels like we should wait for a series to end before placing it atop “Mount Television.” Let it have its full life, you know? But, on the other hand, if it’s been so dominant in the seasons it’s had that it qualifies already, then just do it. And dominant it has been, from surprise hit to TV juggernaut.

TOP FABLE: GAME OF THRONES

— We end with a blowout. If we moved Stranger Things to Fable (And, I mean, even though it’s “real” kids the scale has gotten pretty fantastical) there would be a little competition but Thrones would still win. It took television to new heights, pushing it from not just cinematic but to truly blockbuster. It was the last thing people of all ages tuned in for at once. And to think, the original pilot was considered a total failure.

01. Breaking Bad

02. MASH

03. Friends

04. I Love Lucy

05. Game of Thrones

06. Star Trek

07. The Sopranos

08. The Andy Griffith Show

So there you have it, Mount Television. Looking at the ranked list it’s interesting how the dramas and genres take most of the top slots. In fact, if we had removed the “types” and just done eras it would have been Star Trek, Thrones and all drama and genres. But, in the end, we wanted a “greatest of” list to feature shows from all across the format spectrum. Plus, this way, it really highlights the top series in a category. Shows like the The Wire, Dick Van Dyke, The West Wing and Mary Tyler Moore are great - outstanding even - but in here, there can only be one winner (per category).

We’ll see how it all shakes out again in early 2026 as the eras shift slightly and more things get rediscovered in the a la carte era we’re in. Maybe, soon, fable and stunt shows move up the overall list. Maybe it’s just that the execution of stunt and fable series didn’t get consistently good until the ‘90s. Or, maybe it’s true that while fantasy and big action draw you into a moment, it’s often the more standard stories that we keep going back to or hold most dearly. Time will continue to tell. *