Dept. of Sunday and TV Memes

[kaffy_r]

Oh, RLY? Yah, RLY

I am indeed going to do that television meme that everyone else is doing. First, because, like giving birthday greetings to wonderful people, this is enjoyable. Second, because it's nice and shallow fun (the birthday greetings are heartfelt, so they don't count as shallow.) And third, because this may give me an idea of how much television I actually watch.

Here''s the basic information.

Bold all of the following TV shows of which you've seen 3 or more episodes.
Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode.
*Asterisk if you have at least one full season on tape or DVD*
If you want, add up to 3 additional shows (keep the list in alphabetical order.)

The embarrassing thing is that because of the "bold where you've seen 3 or more episodes" - which is actually a very small amount for any given show, and doesn't reflect whether those were scattered across years or actually reflected serious destination tv - this falsely appears to show that I spent many of my formative years glued to the idiot's lantern. Which I totally did didn't.

Into the Void!!!

21 Jump Street
24
Alias
American Gothic
America's Next Top Model
Angel
Are You Afraid of the Dark
Are You Being Served?
Arrested Development
Ashes to Ashes
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)*
Baywatch
Being Human - UK
Being Human - US
Beavis & Butthead
Beauty and the Beast
Beverly Hills 90210
Bewitched
Black Books
Blackadder
Blake's 7
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Legal
Boston Public
Boy Meets World
Breaking Bad
Brideshead Revisited
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Caitlin's Way
Carebears
Catweazle
Chappelle's Show
Charlie's Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Chicago Hope
Clarissa Explains It All
The Colbert Report
Cold Case
Columbo
Commander in Chief
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop*
Criminal Minds
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dallas
Damages
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci's Inquest
Dawson's Creek
Dead Like Me
Deadwood
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
Dinosaurs
Different Strokes
Dirty Jobs
Doctor Who (1963 - 1986)*
Doctor Who (2005)*
Downton Abbey
Dragnet
Due South
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
Farscape*
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly*
Flash Forward
Forever Knight
Fraggle Rock
Frasier
Freaks and Geeks
Friday Night Lights
Friends
Futurama
Game of Thrones
Get Smart
Ghostwriter
Gilligan's Island
Gilmore Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Greek
Green Wing
Grey's Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gummy Bears
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hardcastle & McCormick
Heroes
Highlander
Highlander: The Raven
Hogan's Heroes
Hill Street Blues
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House
Hunter
I Claudius
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Instant Star
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Invasion
JAG
Jackass
Jeeves and Wooster
Jem
Jericho
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me
Justified
Keen Eddie
Knight Rider
LA Law
Land of the Lost
Laverne and Shirley
Law & Order
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Lexx
Life on Mars (UK version)
Life With Derek
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
MASH
MacGyver
Mad Men
Magnum PI
Malcolm in the Middle
Mama's Family
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Married... With Children
Melrose Place
MI:5 (Spooks in the UK)
Miami Vice
Millennium
Miracles
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Murphy Brown
My Life as a Dog
My Little Pony
My Name is Earl
My So-Called Life
My Super Sweet 16
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
News Radio
NCIS
Night Court
Nip/Tuck
North Shore
Northern Exposure
Numb3rs
NYPD Blue
One Tree Hill
Oz
Paranormal Witness
Perry Mason
Phil of the Future
Pinky and the Brain*
Pokemon
Popular
Power Rangers
Primeval
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
QI
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Relic Hunter
Remington Steele
Rocco's Modern Life
Rescue Me
Road Rules
Robin of Sherwood
Robotech
ROME
Roseanne
Roswell
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
SeaQuest
Seinfeld
Sex and the City
Silver Spoons
Six Feet Under
Skins
Sliders
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
So Weird
South Park
Spaced
Space 1999
Spongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1*
Starsky and Hutch
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor
Taxi
Teachers
Teen Titans
Tenth Kingdom
That 70's Show
That's So Raven
The 4400
The Addams Family
The Adventures of Pete and Pete
The Andy Griffith Show
The Apprentice
The A-Team
The Avengers (UK 1960s show)
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Bionic Woman
The Brady Bunch
The Closer
The Cosby Show
The Daily Show
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
The Dead Zone
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dresden Files
The Famous Jett Jackson
The Flintstones
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
The Golden Girls
The Goodies
The Honeymooners
The Invisible Man
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
The Kindred
The L Word
The League of Gentlemen
The Love Boat
The Lucille Ball Show
The Magnificent 7
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Muppet Show
The Mythbusters
The Nanny
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
The Pretender
The Real World
The Sentinel
The Shield
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Sopranos
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
The Tribe
The Tudors
The White Queen
The X-Files
3rd Rock from the Sun
Third Watch
Three's Company
Thunderbirds are Go!
Thundercats
TJ Hooker
Top Gear
Torchwood*
The Twilight Zone
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Two and A Half Men
UFO
Ugly Betty
Under the Umbrella Tree
Veronica Mars
The Vicar of Dibley
The Waltons
The West Wing
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
White Collar
Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)
Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Wiseguy
Without a Trace
Wolf Lake
WKRP in Cincinnati
Xena: Warrior Princess
X-Men
X-Men: Evolution
You Can't Do That on Television

Comments

comments on looooong posts

[bibliofile]

geez, your email notifications are going to be really, really annoying I bet.

How'd you come up with this particular list? It's a pretty interesting selection of shows from the past 50 years, reminding me of certain shows where due to timing I never saw them (e.g., Fraggle Rock, when I didn't own a color TV or have cable).

(FYI, MI5 was called "Spooks" in the UK, but I'm not sure how to indicate that in this list)

Re: comments on looooong posts

[kaffy_r]

Actually, for those folks who answered over on LJ, the notifications weren't large at all; they come with the the actual list under a cut. It's one of the few places LJ has it over DW. The list I got ... oh dear, I forget from which person on my friends' list, and I should have credited them.

The list did prove to me that, while I watched entirely too much TV at certain points in my life, there are a remarkable number of hit shows that I didn't watch (i.e. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, even Game of Thrones, although I watch it at a remove by reading the books, and also by reading recaps of each episode. Obsessively. What does that say about me?)

And yes indeed, I knew "Spooks" as that name, rather than MI5, but figured out quickly that someone must have put the American name in. I'm guessing that people will figure that one out, but one could probably simply put its British title in parentheses. I should probably do that.)

[shanghaied]

Hmm. I am almost surprised by the number of shows I've seen at least three episodes of, but it should be noted that the bulk of those that were pre-21st century were mostly down to 'long-term bedridden and too weak to hold a book so my husband bought us a telly'. Rather than do the whole list, most of which I either never heard of or wouldn't watch if you waterboarded me, here's mine...

Seen all:

Angel (own it entirely) *
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (own it entirely) *
Doctor Who (2005)
Fawlty Towers (own it entirely) *
Firefly *
Heroes (have s1 and s2, intend to complete the set) *
I Claudius
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Primeval (but ONLY the original UK series)
QI
Red Dwarf *
Roswell (own it entirely, still haven't unwrapped it yet though) *
Star Trek (TOS)
Stargate Atlantis (own it entirely) *
Stargate SG-1 (own it entirely) *
Surface (not very good, but I put up with it because my husband brought it home as a d/l)

Seen at least three (and in many cases, almost all):

Doctor Who (1963-1986)
Blackadder
Blake's 7
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Charlie's Angels
Charmed
Dallas
Due South
Futurama
Highlander (would love to buy the whole series someday)
Hill Street Blues
Jeeves and Wooster *
Just Shoot Me
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
MASH
MacGyver *
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Mission: Impossible
Mork & Mindy
Quantum Leap
Remington Steele
Robin of Sherwood
Space 1999
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Starsky and Hutch
The A-Team
The Avengers (UK 1960s show)
The Bionic Woman
The Dead Zone
The Monkees
The Muppet Show *
The Mythbusters *
The Simpsons
The Six Million Dollar Man
Top Gear *
Torchwood
The Twilight Zone
Xena: Warrior Princess


Special 'I was forced by social circumstance to sit through up to four episodes of these. At least it ?felt like at least four. Bleeeeeag!!!h' category:

Bones
Dark Angel
Dexter
Flash Forward
Lexx
Sliders
The League of Gentlemen (eeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww)
Loss (note spelling)
Smallvile (note spelling)



...and finally, two that should be on that list because they were wonderful and among the very few sitcoms I've ever been able to stomach:

Barney Miller
Taxi

[kaffy_r]

OOOooo - Barney Miller was wonderful! It was my first introduction to the idea that American humor could, upon occasion, be dry and understated, and the cast was so talented and in synch with each other!

Never got into either Smallville or Lost, have no desire to; liked the first season (at least I think it was the first season) of Sliders then lost interest, and for some reason loved Lexx despite knowing it was terrible. Still can't figure it out.

[shanghaied]

Oh yes, Barney Miller was so deliciously dry it was hard to credit it as a USA production! All the main characters so dyspeptic and yet weirdly charming. (And speaking of weird charm, that's what won me over about Taxi - there was a sweetness even to Andy Kaufman's character Latka and to Christopher Lloyd's Reverend Jim, and it was also possibly Danny De Vito's finest hour.)

Since we neither have nor want access to broadcast telly (FTA, cable, or capture), the way we do suck-and-see is either via someone at the office ~cough~ whohasaforeignserver ~cough~ or via files-on-USB from a friend who suffers from a severe case of FTA, cable, and capture. And of course if teh interwebs say there's a new series or special programme that sounds promising. My Dearly Beloved, who is not known for an excess of discriminating taste (insert evil grin here), mostly brings home stuff that is either out-and-out rubbish (e.g. The Cape) or not-quite-worth-wasting-life-hours-on (e.g. Fringe); my friend has a good record, having brought Galactica As It Was Meant to Be, Heroes, and Arrow into our life. OTOH, said friend also tried to foist a season of The Vampire Diaries on me (eurrrgghh!), and DB sometimes hunts and collects gems of awesome awfulness...

Oh oh oh ohhhhhh! I forgot The Sarah Connor Chronicles! And Sanctuary! Both of which I own entire on DVD :-)

And on the subject of gems of awesome awfulness, 'twas my birthday last week, and DB bought me one of my most beloved early Attenboroughs, which he brought home along with a d/l'd film of such towering, eye-popping, brain-melting awfulness that it hardly bears thinking about. So that night we watched several episodes of the first, followed by as much of the second as we could get through without dying of violent groans plus hysterical laughter. And the event will forever more be remembered in our household as Life on Battlefield Earth :P

Re Lexx - I think I get what you mean, but my personal 'so awful it's brilliant' sci-fi will always be Cleopatra 2525!

[kaffy_r]

Oh my lord, Battlefield Earth! Is it safe to watch it? I've heard so much (AWFUL) about it that it tempts me, but ... Scientologists ... gah ....

Cleopatra 2525 seems to ring a bell, but I don't think it ever made it to any of my local television screens. As for The Vampire Diaries? I agree. I watched precisely one episode and it was so very, very mediocre.

[shanghaied]

Define 'safe' :P

Seriously? Imagine that someone's child's school's AV department loaned out a knackered Super 8, and then got some of the parents to dress up and do really, really cringe-makingly awful panto. Now imagine that the most astonishingly talent-free and delivery-incapable of those parents was a John Travolta lookalike (because to be fair, Travolta has done a few acceptable bits of acting in other films). Is it even worse than that? I'd have to say yes.

Seriously-seriously, I've seen some stinkers over the years, but Battlefield Earth displays no-none-zero-nil signs of even the most basic professional film-making competence.

But ultimately, it's up to you. Muhahahahaha...
;-)

Cleopatra 2525 is cheap cheerful daft low-grade sci-fi, but it's funny (sometimes even intentionally) and stars an utterly gorgeous youngish (pre-Firefly) Gina Torres doing kungfufightingstuff. What's not to like, eh?

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

OMG, it's going to be totally embarrassing for me to do this meme. Just scanning down the list quickly makes a joke of my self-identity as someone who doesn't watch much TV. I even need to add Covert Affairs and Downton Abbey, and probably one other show. Heck, I'll probably have more than 3 additional shows to choose between. Heck, the current list doesn't even have Captain Kangaroo! (Speaking of one's formative years....)

Okay. Work first, then the meme.

[kaffy_r]

Whups, I just added Downtown Abbey, since I've watched at least a season's worth of it, close to obsessively. Gah. Does that make me rude, for not letting you put it into the list? Oh, internet manners, how I've lost track of you ....

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

There's no rudeness to my eyes. Then again, I'm about to be guilty of what passes for fannish manners (specifically, the practice of correcting someone to be polite): there's no second "w" in Downton Abbey.

And, hey, by adding it yourself, you've opened up a spot for me to add another show, since the meme sez "up to 3."

Good grief, how can the list not include Phineas and Ferb?! Or Pinky and the Brain! And it lumps both the US and UK versions of "Top Gear" together. That's just Wrong. Thank Ghu it's got The Mythbusters.

Oh, my dear. You haven't seen Mad Men? You will plotz. (This is me, not imagining you could see one or two episodes and stop there.) Start at the beginning. I'm a few seasons behind at this point, but it's one of those shows I'll be able to put in italics someday.

Back to work,
Signed "the woman who thinks she doesn't watch much TV"

P.S. There's no Antiques Roadshow, either. And cooking shows? I don't even see Iron Chef.

P.P. S. Yikes. Glee is missing. How can I possibly choose which three shows to add to my list?

[thisbluespirit]

I'm about to be guilty of what passes for fannish manners (specifically, the practice of correcting someone to be polite): there's no second "w" in Downton Abbey.

Heh, I also instantly noted that and was wondering whether or not to say. So many of us are pedants, really... :-D

[kaffy_r]

As soon as gerisullivan pointed it out, I slapped my forehead. Because I'm a pedant, too. :p

[kaffy_r]

AAAAAAAAAaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee!!

I know how to spell Downton Abbey! I don't know why I added the "w"! AAAAAauuuuggghh!

(Also, if you want, I'll add Pinky and the Brain, which should free you up a bit. Heh.)

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

I love you...

*Squishes you and your list*

[kaffy_r]

And I you ... but you know that. Heh.


*squishes you back*

[laurel]

I once attempted this meme a couple years back and it was truly epic and scary.

[kaffy_r]

But see, you're a pro. *g*

[thisbluespirit]

It's basically just a scary meme. But fun. :-)

[kaffy_r]

Scary, but fun - I like that.

[namarie24.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't let a few of the shows they've left off just sit there, neglected!

[kaffy_r]

Well, I can't let a few of the shows they've left off just sit there, neglected!

Heh; I don't imagine you can. Shall I be on the lookout for your next post to see what shows you added? *g*

[namarie24.livejournal.com]

Sure, if you'd like! :)

[kaffy_r]

*hastens over to see*