empire top telly

[carmen_lj]

Just been flicking through Empire's 50 Greatest Telly Shows Ever and am alternately yaying and being dead judgey at teh public.

• Hurrah for DS9 being included! And then boo for it being beaten by TOS and, goodness sake, TNG, with TNG as the highest placed Trek at 37. Oh, the tedium.
  
  
• But Babylon 5's beaten all the Treks, heh, coming in at 32. But then they suggest the best episode is Into The Fire, bizarrely.
  
  
• But these Srs Sci-Fi Space Operas R Srs are all beaten by Red Dwarf. He. It's at 26 and they've correctly identified the best episode as Quarantine, hurrah!
  
  
• Contrary to every Best Telly Comedy poll ever run in this country, Empire's poll has Blackadder (20) beating Fawlty Towers (28), which brings me much of teh yay. Shame on them for insulting the first series of Blackadder though. BRIAN BLESSED. Dude.
  
  
• Doctor Who is at 16. This is clearly mad and wrong. But I am petty enough to be amused at The Auld Enemy (that would be Star Trek) being roundly beaten. It does, however, say 2005 to present, which is just booooo. Honestly. Denial of The Mighty Trought is madness indeed.
  
  
• Who fen are referred to as 'Who-ites' there. That's a new one to me.
  
  
• Spaced is at 10. Which is both wonderful and weird. Admittedly, I saw it some years after it was broadcast, but I didn't realise it was that popular.
  
  
• I think I can safely say that any poll of Greatest Telly which doesn't include I, Claudius is horribly, horribly flawed and wrong. Yes.
  
  
• Guess what won? It always wins these things. I was hoping to be surprised.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Who fen are referred to as 'Who-ites' there. That's a new one to me.

It was to me too - and annoying - Whovians is much more pleasing both aesthetically and etymologically !

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I'm not to keen on Whovian either but it's practically poetic compared to their strange new word.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm not keen on it either, but it makes more sense than "Whoite" which is a bit of a bastard construction and grates across my nerve endings like fingernails on a chalkboard !

[davidbrider.livejournal.com]

16?

16?

16?

Weird. And yeah, only including 2005 onwards is totally batsh*t. The folks at BIAS (the Babs & Ian Appreciation Society) have Empire's address...

Yeah, some really weird placings in that chart, although some stuff (like Spaced and Quantum Leap) it's kind of nice to see in there. And nice to see Firefly and BSG beating the Treks quite comprehensively. The high placing of The X Files is rather cute, in its way.

The absence of Press Gang is also noted, although they at least acknowledge one of La Moff's episodes as the best of NewWho.

David.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I'm quite glad old Trek was there really, to remind readers that there was telly afore the eighties.

[tree_and_leaf]

I think I can safely say that any poll of Greatest Telly which doesn't include I, Claudius is horribly, horribly flawed and wrong. Yes.

Indeed. And the omission of Old Who is baffling. Shame on them!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It's reader voted but dammit, if I said Doctor Who, I meant all of it.

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

I think this was at least the second of such lists which had me wailling, "nooo, BSG is clearly not better than Firefly, and Heroes obviously pwns Lost." And by 'clearly' and 'obviously' I mean "because I say so".

The omission of Old Skool Who is really bizarre, but I found it nice to see Life on Mars included.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I cheered at the BSG > Firefly, HURT ME NOT. I'm one of them people what is dead judgey at FF. *scarpers*

[fallingtowers.livejournal.com]

But ... but ... it's got cows. Onna spaceship! :)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I know. It pains me. Ahem.

[lotus79.livejournal.com]

I am thrilled on behalf of Red Dwarf. I can watch it over and over and over and never get tired of it. But excuse me, "nine series run"? Did I miss one? Sadly I doubt it, and they are v.mean to tease!

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I missed that. Bad enough they pretend series eight existed without inventing an even more imaginary year.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

What did come top? I always expect it to be The Singing Detective, but possibly I'm not understanding who was in charge of deciding.

Making it New Who only is just nonsensical. Turlough is not amused.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

The Simpsons. ALWAYS THE SIMPSONS.

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Oh. Um. See, that is a very good piece of television. But it is not the very best television ever by quite a long way.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I do like it. I like some of it quite a lot. I just don't think it should be allowed to win polls anymore.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

AH.

*gleeful squealing*

Far too attached for my own good. And I often even like the newer stuff. (I never said I wasn't strange.) But I don't usually see it placing on polls, so that's weird. Everybody takes it as that thing that was always there and runs as an undercurrent to everything else.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I thought Buffy would win. Because apparently it reinvented television and cured leprosy and was in no way less good than Angel or benefitted from the X-Files bringing sci-fi back to the mainstream.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It's somewhere obnoxious - high in the top ten.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

It's because they want to shag Buffy, isn't it?

[peeeeeeet.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't feel too judgey towards it. Obviously Spaced and Firefly don't deserve to be there, but they always sneak into these bloody things. But where on earth is House?

[calapine.livejournal.com]

But peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, I know that you are Quite Wrong about telly All The Time!

[yuxonomei.livejournal.com]

I hate The Simpsons. It makes me cry for there is nothing good about it, apart from that one time where Sideshow Bob's brother was Niles Crane in disguise.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I used to love it, and now it just keeps on getting less and less watchable and I am sad.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No I, Claudius is horribly flawed indeed.

"Into the Fire"? Huh. I'd have gone for "Coming of Shadows" or "The Fall of Centauri Prime" myself. Not that "Into the Fire" was bad, but...

[calapine.livejournal.com]

...but it rather pales in comparison to episodes like those.

(Oh, icon!love, yes.)

[pointytilly.livejournal.com]

I actually like TOS the most of the Treks for nostalgic reasons, but DS9 deserves more love. Lots more love.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

TOS is rather awesome in many many ways, and there are some bits in the movies that are nothing less than squeefully joyous, but my true Trek!love is DS9. *nods*

[uncanny-rman.livejournal.com]

Quarantine is the best Red Dwarf episode? What of Back to Reality? What of it???

Old-school Who isn't included? Blasphemy!

To be fair, the first series of Blackadder wasn't as good as the later three even if you do include the most blessed of Brians.

Lots of love for Spaced.

'I'm not supposed to eat Twiglets.'

'Why not?'

'They make me violent.'

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Who-ite is so horribly forced sounding. Whosier, people, Whosier! (Yes, I made it up. I likes it better than Whovian.)

OMG but the first series of Blackadder was lovely! I mean, I love Baldrick no matter how inbred he gets, but first series Baldrick!!! <333333 Fawlty Towers is also gorgeous, though. *pets box set*

Wait, why the hell would you do a "Best Ever" list and not include the original run of Doctor Who? And then include the revival? It seems a terrible gap in knowing wtf you're doing.

I dunno who won. I'm sad, because I'm lazy and weak at guessing.

[owl]

SF really did rather well on that, didn't it? It shows that things that people are fannish about make the long run. I mean, is it even possible to be fannish about Emmerdale?

Yeah, yeah, if you make it, they will fic it.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes it is. I believe the fandom's got several comms on LJ. (I've got someone fannish baout that particular soap on my flist, yes.)

[owl]

It seems to me an unrewarding experience. All the soaps ever do is break up 'ships and hve violent character deaths. :)

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I think I can safely say that any poll of Greatest Telly which doesn't include I, Claudius is horribly, horribly flawed and wrong. Abolutely yes. And The Singing Detective. And Porridge, dammnnitt!!!

I agreed with about... nine, and even them not with where they were placed :(

I think it should be called less "Best Shows Ever" and more "Some Great Cult TV Shows Loved by People with Narrowly-focused Interests and Long-Term Memory Problems". Not that I'm grumpy or anything...

{grump}

[calapine.livejournal.com]

There was no good telly before 1980, after all.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

But clearly, TNG should beat all other Star Treks because it is the only one with PATRICK STEWART in it and thus is risen above everything EVER. (disclaimer: has never seen ANY other Star Trek because she watches it with her mother and her mother goes "PATRICK STEWART!" and then goes floaty)

Yay for Red Dwarf!

sfoijadsfoasifa regarding saying 2005 - present for Doctor Who. NO. NO. NO. Doctror Who IS A COLLECTIVE OF YEARS OF AWESOME.

The Simpsons won, didn't it? WHHHHHY MUST IT ALWAYS WIN? *cries*

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Patrick Stewart is the BRIGHT LIGHT OF THE TEDIUM OF TNG OMG.

[lycoris.livejournal.com]

I AM GLAD TO HEAR IT COZ OTHERWISE, I'D HAVE HAD TO SEND MY MUM OVER TO CRY ON YOU!

(and Q. NOTHING with Q in is tedious ...)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

THE Q AND THE GREY. BUT EVERYTHING ELSE IS WIN.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

In The Pale Moonlight alone pwns all of the other Treks. IT JUST DOES.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

THERE ARE MAD CAMERA ANGLES AIMED AT BENJIE.

...

It is brilliant though, yes.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

HE CAN COPE WITH ALL CAMERA ANGLES. BECAUSE HE IS THE SISKO.

[sabra-n.livejournal.com]

They included Heroes but not House, which is just silliness. They said "Not Pictured" is the best ever episode of Veronica Mars, which is also silliness. I'm not sure what the best episode of VM is, but it ain't that. "Leave it to Beaver", maybe. For the love of all that is holy, they put CSI above Life on Mars. And not to harp on the Heroes point, but #15? For serious? And then putting Firefly between that and the infinitely better Battlestar Galactica? Oy.

But other than that and the sad lack of Our Friends in the North, the list was perfect. Totally. :P

-blue, who has too many opinions