Favorites on the Small Screen

Last summer, during the dog days of heat and vacation, I began a countdown of my 25 favorite films of all time. It's lame, on sites, when people repeat themselves, so I won't be doing that again... this year. But with Faith in Film wrapped up for the summer, I've decided to dedicate the Monday and Tuesday slots on this site which were about course content to something else.

I may not look like the guy in that picture, but I do enjoy kicking back and watching TV. OK, I'll be honest, I don't kick back and do anything. I emotionally invest (way too much if you ask friends and family members) and I tend to analyze (fine, over analyze) the world view and message of just about everything. What can I say, it's my hobby.

Last summer I looked at my big screen favorites, so this summer I wanted to look at small screen gems. And the magical thing is, in the age of DVD and Blu-Ray releases for everything, you can actually go find and watch these shows.

The next question became how you rate shows. Of course, like with my film list, this is totally subjective. But how do you measure a show that got 13 fascinating episodes with something that had 14 years of quality? You don't.

So I've decided to attack this in two categories over the next eight weeks. That's right, I said eight weeks. This is, after all, summer. You need something other than Man V. Food and the Olympics to fill up your evenings, and based on June's offerings it's not going to be found at the theater. (Big exception for Christopher Nolan's Batman opus, "The Dark Knight Rises.")

So I have divided my list into two categories — shows that were great but cancelled way too soon, and my personal favorite shows of all time. Basically it's one-hit wonders against enduring classics (shows that got at least two full seasons (44 episodes)).

Tomorrow I will begin the list of shows killed too soon in reverse order (5 to 1). Then I'll dive into my 10 favorite series of all time. As this list rolls on, remember this is my list. Please feel free to leave comments, rant about choices, or rave about your personal favorites that I might have missed. After all, it's summer, we all need more fun things to watch!