TV (The Book)

TV (The Book):
Two Experts Pick the Greatest
American Shows of All Time
Paperback edition
AuthorAlan Sepinwall
Matt Zoller Seitz
SubjectArt, media, pop culture, television, television criticism
GenreEssay
PublisherGrand Central Publishing
Publication date
September 6, 2016
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePaperback
Pages432 pp
ISBN978-1-4555-8819-0 (Paperback)

TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time is a collection of essays written by television critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz. It was published in 2016. The main purpose of the book was to provide a canonical list of the top 100 greatest television programs in American history.[1]

Background

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Seitz and Sepinwall began as colleagues at The Star-Ledger, where they spent ten years together working on a column in the newspaper titled "All TV."[2] Since then, both had gone their separate ways. At the time of the book's publishing, Sepinwall was a television critic for HitFix, while Seitz was a television critic for New York and the editor-in-chief for RogerEbert.com. Sepinwall has since gone on to become the chief television critic for Rolling Stone.

Criteria

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According to the book, Seitz and Sepinwall considered a television series for their ranking if it matched the following criteria:

Once a television series passed these criteria, they were ranked on a ten-point scale by either one of or both of the critics in six categories:[5] "Innovation" (whether or not it did stuff that had been seen in the medium before), "Influence" (how a show served as inspiration for those that came after it), "Consistency" (whether or not the show's quality fluctuated season-by-season), "Performance" (how good the actors/performers were on the show), "Storytelling" (the quality of the writing on the show), and "Peak" (how great the show was at its best compared to the rest of American television's history).[6] Shows which aired for only one season were slightly penalized, receiving a maximum of nine points for most categories except for "Consistency", where they were only given a seven as a maximum. The series which were among the 100 highest placed in the points tally were counted in the rankings.[7]

Top 100

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Rank Name of television series Year of premiere Year of latest episode Network Total Score
1. The Simpsons 1989 present FOX 112
2. The Sopranos 1999 2007 HBO 112
3. The Wire 2002 2008 HBO 112
4. Cheers 1982 1993 NBC 112
5. Breaking Bad 2008 2013 AMC 112
6. Mad Men 2007 2015 AMC 110
7. Seinfeld 1989 1998 NBC 110
8. I Love Lucy 1951 1957 CBS 109
9. Deadwood 2004 2006 HBO 107
10. All in the Family 1971 1979 CBS 106
11. M*A*S*H 1972 1983 CBS 105
12. Hill Street Blues 1981 1987 NBC 104
13. The Shield 2002 2008 FX 102
14. The Twilight Zone 1959 2020 CBS (1959–64, 1985–89), UPN (2002–03), CBS All Access (2019-20) 101
15. Arrested Development 2003 2019 FOX (2003–06), Netflix (2013–19) 100
16. The Larry Sanders Show 1992 1998 HBO 100
17. The Honeymooners 1955 1956 CBS 99
18. Louie 2010 2015 FX 99
19. The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1970 1977 CBS 98
20. The X-Files 1993 2018 FOX 97
21. Curb Your Enthusiasm 2000 2024 HBO 96
22. SpongeBob SquarePants 1999 present Nickelodeon 96
23. Twin Peaks 1990 2017 ABC (1990–91), Showtime (2017) 96
24. Lost 2004 2010 ABC 95
25. Buffy the Vampire Slayer 1997 2003 The WB (1997–2001), UPN (2001–03) 94
26. Freaks and Geeks 1999 2000 NBC 94
27. My So-Called Life 1994 1995 ABC 94
28. Oz 1997 2003 HBO 93
29. The Dick Van Dyke Show 1961 1966 CBS 92
30. Friday Night Lights 2006 2011 NBC (2006–08), The 101 Network/NBC (2008–11) 92
31. NYPD Blue 1993 2005 ABC 91
32. Frasier 1993 2023 NBC (1993-2004), Paramount+ (2023-present) 90
33. Homicide: Life on the Street 1993 1999 NBC 90
34. Battlestar Galactica 2004 2009 Sci-Fi 89
35. In Treatment 2008 2021 HBO 89
36. South Park 1997 present Comedy Central 89
37. The West Wing 1999 2006 NBC 89
38. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman 1976 1977 Syndication 88
39. The Andy Griffith Show 1960 1968 CBS 87
40. The Cosby Show 1984 1992 NBC 87
41. Moonlighting 1985 1989 ABC 87
42. Taxi 1978 1983 ABC (1978–82), NBC (1982–83) 87
43. East Side/West Side 1963 1964 CBS 86
44. Hannibal 2013 2015 NBC 86
45. ER 1994 2009 NBC 85
46. Parks and Recreation 2009 2015 NBC 85
47. Roseanne 1988 2018 ABC 85
48. 30 Rock 2006 2013 NBC 84
49. The Bob Newhart Show 1972 1978 CBS 84
50. Malcolm in the Middle 2000 2006 FOX 84
51. Miami Vice 1984 1990 NBC 84
52. The Office 2005 2013 NBC 84
53. St. Elsewhere 1982 1988 NBC 84
54. Community 2009 2015 NBC (2009–14), Yahoo! Screen (2015) 83
55. The Golden Girls 1985 1992 NBC 83
56. Police Squad! 1982 1982 ABC 83
57. 24 2001 2014 FOX 82
58. The Defenders 1961 1965 CBS 82
59. Gunsmoke 1955 1975 CBS 82
60. Sex and the City 1998 2004 HBO 82
61. Star Trek 1966 1969 NBC 81
62. Firefly 2002 2003 FOX 80
63. Law & Order 1990 2022 NBC 80
64. Maude 1972 1978 CBS 80
65. The Rockford Files 1974 1980 NBC 80
66. China Beach 1988 1991 ABC 79
67. Enlightened 2011 2013 HBO 79
68. Everybody Loves Raymond 1996 2005 CBS 79
69. The Wonder Years 1988 1993 ABC 79
70. Barney Miller 1974 1982 ABC 79
71. Frank's Place 1987 1988 CBS 78
72. It's Garry Shandling's Show 1986 1990 Showtime 78
73. The Jack Benny Program 1950 1965 CBS (1950–64), NBC (1964–65) 78
74. Justified 2010 2015 FX 78
75. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show 1959 1964 ABC (1959–61), NBC (1961–64) 78
76. thirtysomething 1987 1991 ABC 78
77. Columbo 1968 2003 NBC (1968–1978), ABC (1989–2003) 77
78. Friends 1994 2004 NBC 77
79. Futurama 1999 2023 FOX (1999–2003), Comedy Central (2008–2013), Hulu (2023-present) 77
80. The Outer Limits 1963 1965 ABC 76
81. Northern Exposure 1990 1995 CBS 76
82. Batman 1966 1968 ABC 75
83. King of the Hill 1997 2010 FOX 75
84. Veronica Mars 2004 2019 UPN (2004–06), The CW (2006–07), Hulu (2019) 75
85. Cagney & Lacey 1982 1988 CBS 74
86. EZ Streets 1996 1997 CBS 74
87. Gilmore Girls 2000 2007 The WB (2000–06), The CW (2006–07) 74
88. Six Feet Under 2001 2005 HBO 74
89. Sports Night 1998 2000 ABC 74
90. Wiseguy 1987 1990 CBS 74
91. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 1993 1999 Syndication 73
92. Batman: The Animated Series 1992 1995 FOX 72
93. Boardwalk Empire 2010 2014 HBO 72
94. NewsRadio 1995 1999 NBC 72
95. Picket Fences 1992 1996 CBS 72
96. Scrubs 2001 2010 NBC (2001–08), ABC (2009–10) 72
97. WKRP in Cincinnati 1978 1982 CBS 72
98. How I Met Your Mother 2005 2014 CBS 70
99. Soap 1977 1981 ABC 70
100. Terriers 2010 2010 FX 70

Additional book material

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In addition to providing their Top 100 ranking, Seitz and Sepinwall provided a section titled "Works in Progress," highlighting some of their favorite current shows, as well as a section honoring shows that were not good enough to make it into the rankings titled "A Certain Regard." There were also several essays noting of TV's best miniseries, movies, and televised plays.[8]

Reviews

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The book has received positive reviews from other television critics. Jacqueline Cutler of The Star-Ledger described the book as "a great reference tool," with the main top-100 list possessing "enough reflection, knowledge and tidbits that even if you don't care about a show, you will wind up reading." For Cutler, the one negative aspect of the book was the inclusion of the "Outlier Classics" and "Works-in-Progress" sections, which felt like "kiddie sports teams where everyone gets a trophy."[9] Bill Carter, writing for CNN, was also fond of the book, appreciating its effort to stimulate argument and pointing out that even if you were to disagree "it only means you care more about television now more than ever before, which is really the reason to write and read a book like this."[10]

References

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  1. ^ Rosenberg, Alyssa (September 6, 2016). "Alan Sepinwall on the 100 best shows in american television- so far". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  2. ^ Wellen, Brianna (September 8, 2016). "Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz wrote the book on TV". Chicago Reader. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  3. ^ Sepinwall, Alan; Zoller Seitz, Matt (September 23, 2016), TV (THE BOOK): What Shows Are In The Book, Grand Central Publishing, retrieved January 23, 2024 – via YouTube
  4. ^ Sepinwall, Alan; Seitz (2016). TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing. pp. xv–xvii. ISBN 9781455588190.
  5. ^ Sepinwall, Alan; Zoller Seitz, Matt (August 31, 2016), TV (THE BOOK): How They Decided To Rank the Shows, Grand Central Publishing, retrieved January 23, 2024 – via YouTube
  6. ^ Champagne, Christine (August 31, 2016). "Two Critics Pick the All Time Best TV Shows. And They Already Know You Hate Their List". Fast Company. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  7. ^ Sepinwall, Alan; Seitz (2016). TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time (First ed.). New York: Grand Central Publishing. pp. xvii–xviii. ISBN 9781455588190.
  8. ^ Sepinwall, Alan (2016). TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time. New York, NY: Grand Central Publishing. pp. xviii. ISBN 9781455588190.
  9. ^ Cutler, Jacqueline (September 4, 2016). "Ledger's former critics reunite, pick 100 top TV shows". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  10. ^ Carter, Bill (August 30, 2016). "TV finally gets the book it deserves". CNN. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
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