Name Time's 100 Greatest TV Shows (1)

[B] Arrested Development | Layered jokes rewarded repeat viewing, pioneering binge-watching before streaming services existed in any capacity.

[A] Dallas | "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger obsessed America for eight months, creating television's first true water-cooler phenomenon.

[D] A Charlie Brown Christmas | Schulz insisted on real children's voices and biblical scripture, defying network executives who predicted disaster.

[B] CBS Evening News (Walter Cronkite) | Cronkite removing his glasses to announce Kennedy's death remains television journalism's most devastating moment forever.

[B] Brideshead Revisited | Irons's Sebastian Flyte drinking from his teddy bear stunned audiences with unapologetic homoeroticism and alcoholism.

[D] The Day After | Nuclear apocalypse footage traumatized 100 million viewers, sparking Reagan-Gorbachev disarmament talks almost immediately afterward.

[A] Buffy the Vampire Slayer | Gellar staked vampires while juggling trigonometry homework, giving teen girls an unprecedented action hero template.

[D] All in the Family | Archie Bunker's bigotry sparked dinner table arguments nationwide, politicizing sitcoms like never before in America.

[C] The Dick Van Dyke Show | Van Dyke tripping over the ottoman in credits became television's most iconic pratfall through syndication.

[D] The Ed Sullivan Show | Sullivan introduced Elvis, The Beatles, and The Doors to mainstream America despite personally despising rock music.

[A] The Beavis and Butt-Head Show | MTV banned episodes after critics blamed the show for children setting fires across suburban America.

[C] American Idol | Kelly Clarkson's coronation launched reality television's stranglehold on network primetime scheduling for fifteen years.

[A] An American Family | Cameras captured Lance Loud coming out on national television, shocking PBS audiences unprepared for reality.

[A] The Abbott and Costello Show | Vaudeville routines translated perfectly to television, capturing live audience energy missing from most early sitcoms.

[B] Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Hitchcock's macabre introductions turned anthology drama into appointment television every Sunday evening nationwide.

[B] Deadwood | McShane's Shakespearean profanity elevated frontier violence into poetic meditation on civilization's brutal birth pangs.

[A] Cheers | Sam Malone's womanizing bartender defined 1980s sitcom masculinity before sensitivity training entered corporate vocabulary anywhere.

[C] The Daily Show with Jon Stewart | Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity drew 215,000 people, cementing comedy's political influence beyond entertainment.

[A] Dragnet | Webb's "Just the facts, ma'am" catchphrase entered American vocabulary, though he never actually said it.

[D] Buffalo Bill | Coleman's narcissistic host predated Larry Sanders by a decade, but audiences rejected sitcom antiheroes then.

[C] ABC's Wide World of Sports | McKay's "agony of defeat" ski crash became television's most replayed sports moment across four decades.

[B] The Cosby Show | Huxtable affluence shattered stereotypes, proving Black families could dominate ratings without poverty storylines whatsoever.

[D] Battlestar Galactica | Cylon sleeper agents mirrored post-9/11 terrorism paranoia, updating camp space opera into philosophical drama.

[C] The Carol Burnett Show | Burnett's Tarzan yell and ear tug created television's warmest connection between performer and home viewers.

[C] The Bob Newhart Show | Newhart's stammering psychologist pioneered deadpan reaction shots, influencing Jim from The Office decades later.