• 6Jul 08

  My Top 100 TV Shows Of All Time - 90 To 81

  First, a TV.com update of sorts. I have now reached Level 41, which scares me when I think how much time I've spent on this site. And over the last few days I have been named trusted on a few guides. Firstly to the show Love Hina, a Japanese anime show I used to watch, and three three extremely talented actresses - Sonya Walger (Penelope Widmore in Lost), Australian Rose Byrne (from Sunshine, Troy and the series Damages) and finally the one I'm most proud of, Amanda Bynes (The Amanda Show, What I Like About You, Hairspray, She's The Man and Big Fat Liar) who actually appears twice in my banner. So my thanks to the four editors in question to appointing me as trusted.

  Anyway, it's been a while since I made the first post of this list (about 6 or so weeks now). Had I known how busy I would have been over the last couple of months I would have waited until now to post the first part of my list. Finishing off my semester of uni was hectic, and involved me staying up to 3, 4, 5, once even 6 am finishing off essays and other projects. I'm just so happy I'm now on holidays. Anyway, Part 2 of my list of My Favourite 100 TV Shows Of All Time:-

  90. Dancing With The Stars (Australia)

  

  A mega-hit all over the world, the Australian version has run for seven seasons, and is currently on a break as they search for a new host after Daryl Somers decided to call it quits. As someone who can't dance (saying I had two left feet would be an insult to people with two left feet) it may be odd to see I watch this show, but I enjoy the format, and I can admire the achievements of the others.

  89. At The Movies

  

  First a long running series on the SBS, before moving across to the ABC in 2004, and I show that I am editor for here at TV.com. This show is essentially a movie review show, whereby each week the new release films are critiqued, discussed, and rated, as well as containing some interviews with directors/stars/writers/producers. The show is hosted by Australia's two most renowned film critics, Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, who have been working together on this show for 22 years, making it one of the longest running shows in Australia. It is always good fun to watch them when they disagree with their opinion of a film - always entertaining.

  88. Out Of Practice

  

  An extremely short-lived comedy about a family of doctors, starring Henry Winkler, Stockard Channing and Ty Burrell. While not brilliant in any stretch of the imagination, I always had a laugh when I watched it (which meant finding it - as Channel 10 changed the day and time for it almost every week).

  87. Saturday Disney

  

  Ah, the memories. Every Saturday morning for about 8 years I would watch Saturday Disney, which would show Disney cartoons, run contests, conduct interviews, and other such things. It was pretty much taken as a given that everyone about my age watched this and it should be a requirement to pass childhood.

  86. Invasion

  

  A show that is quite capable of climbing 40 or 50 places on my list, but as it currently stands, I have only seen one episode. Yep, just one. Throughout our summer of 05/06 Channel 9 heavily advertised this show in almost every ad break, claiming a February launch. Well it never launched in February. But in about April or May Channel 9 once again began advertising the show extensively, listing it as Coming Soon, and hinting at a June/July launch. Well it didn't launch in June. Not even in July. Not even in 2006. Not ever. I was hooked as soon as I saw the first trailer for it, and I was so disappointed when it was not even given a chance here in Aus. But then skip ahead a bit, and in early 2007, the DVD of this series was scheduled for release in April 2007. Anyway, April came, and it was pushed back to June. Then June came, and it was pushed back to Unknown Release, where it has been ever since, until two weeks ago when it was listed as a September 10, 2008 release. Fingers crossed it will be released then.

  Anyway, over the last few years I managed to get my hands on episode one, which I've seen and I loved it. I just wish I could see the other 21 episodes.

  85. Medium

  

  My opinions of this show have always been varied. While I enjoy it as I'm watching it, I have never gone out of my way to see it, and if something else is on I would watch that show over this. That being said I have only seen the first two seasons as Season 3 clashed with Prison Break, though I will buy the third season on DVD when it eventually comes out. My main criticsm of the show is with the lead, Patricia Arquette. I just don't think she is a good actress, and her character gets on my nerves quite a bit. It's the husband in the show I feel sorry for - I have no idea how he puts up with her behaviour.

  84. 'Allo 'Allo

  

  Great irreverent British comedy about cafe owner Rene in occupied France, who constantly serves food to the German troops, while hiding a couple of British airmen upstairs, putting up with his wife, and worried that she will find out about his many affairs with the waitresses. This is political incorrectness at its finest and an absolutely cla$$ic show that I would reccommend to anyone.

  83. Home Improvement

  

  Tim "The Toolman" Taylor is a complete walking disaster, and something goes wrong every time he touches a piece of equipment. This was a usually funny show to watch, if perhaps a little dated today. Tim Allen was great in the lead, and the rest of the cast, including a much smaller Pamela Anderson (and I'm not talking about her height) were good in support. The show probably went a little bit longer than it should have, and some of the episodes did seem similar, but I always got a kick out of it - aided by the fact that my father is even more pathetic at fixing things around the house.

  82. The IT Crowd

  

  This British show is about the nerds working in the IT department (located in the basement) of a large company building. Enter Jen, a career woman looking to move up in life, and as such, lies on her CV, and lands the post of manager of the IT department. Problem is, she barely knows how to turn a computer on, littleown manage the IT department. And for the geeks working in the department, they become too distracted to work due to the presence of a woman in their department. Good fun, but not hilarious.

  81. Heartbeat

  

  An extremely long-running British drama/soap, which has gone through countless cast changes over the years. It's set in the 1960's and focuses on the local police force, and the many issues surrounding the small country village of Aidensfield, where everybody knows each other's private business.

  • Posted Jul 6, 2008 8:08 am PT
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• 12May 08

  My Top 100 TV Shows Of All Time - 100 To 91

  The other week after stumbling across someone's top 50 television show list, my father and I decided to develop our own top 100 shows list. While doing my list, I came to realise it was a real struggle to reach 100 shows, and as such there are a number of shows at the tail end of my list that really shouldn't be there. The other day I compared my list to my father's and was surprised that 19 of the shows in my top 30 were also in his top 30 (and 8 of his top 30 are shows made before I was born). I never realised how similar our tastes were.

  Anyway, I decided to share this list by adding it to my blog here, by placing 10 shows at a time. Of note here is that these are my favourite shows of all time. There are shows on my list I would not watch today, but I judged them based from what I thought of them at the time.

  Now to the part of the list I'm not proud of, 100th to 91st. Don't judge me on these shows, I do have better taste - honest!

  100. The Sunday Roast

  

  A Rugby League talk show hosted by Andrew Voss, Phil Gould, Matthew Johns and Matt Geyer. I love my rugby league and I always find this an interesting watch as they analyse the matches and complain against the rulings.

  99. Micallef Tonight

  

  Short-lived Australian variety show. While being a proper variety show, it also parodied the format. Highlights included the musical acts whereby Shaun Micallef insisted that the performers add a word to the song to prove they weren't lip-synccing. One episode he gave an extremely long introduction to Jamie Durie, only to dismiss him as soon as he came on set. Its cancellation came from the 'controversial' 13th episode, when in an interview with Ricky Martin, Martin uttered the f-word, before then asking if he could. Micallef said he could, and proceeded to say it a few times over the episode. This episode also took the mickey out of radio shock-jock Alan Jones, who was good friends with Channel 9 boss Kerry Packer, who instantly cancelled the show after the episode aired.

  98. Firefly

  

  Great sci-fi show with brilliant characters. Joss Whedon is a genious. Its low ranking comes from the fact I have only seen the movie and three episodes - but I will be buying the DVD to see the show properly.

  97. Blue Water High

  

  This is only on this list as I know one of the current stars. The show itself is cringe worthy, but as I didn't have 100 great shows, I decided to give it an honourary mention at the bottom of the list.

  96. The Don Lane Show

  

  Bert Newton at his absolute best. While I have never properly seen this popular variety show from the 70's and 80's, I have seen many highlights over the years. The funniest segments are when Bert Newton is 'road-teating' a new product, much as you would on an infomercial, but with one small difference - he never wanted to know how it worked, just how it didn't work which he would then exploit making for comedy gold.

  95. Babar

  

  One of my favourite shows when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I used to love coming home from school, flicking the television on, and watching Babar. I haven't seen it in about 13 years.

  94. What's Up Doc?

  

  A children's show which played Looney Tunes cartoons, as well as running competitions (which I reguarly entered, though never won) as well as interviews and the like. Good fun viewing when you are 7 years of age.

  93. It Takes Two

  

  Does to singing what Dancing With The Stars does for dancing. After tuning out in the first season, I have come to really like the show, and I closely followed the recent third season, as well as becoming editor for it here on TV.com. I have always been impressed by the great singing talent the show secures for its professional singers.

  92. Sooty

  

  Ah, now this brings back some great memories. I loved this puppet show when I was 4 to 7 years of age. I even owned life-size puppets of most of the characters. Sad, I know.

  91. SeaQuest DSV

  

  While I have no real memory of what actually happened in any of the episodes, I do remember enjoying watching the show. That and whenever I watch one of my favourite shows (which were recorded on VHS many many many years ago) there are so many advertisements for this show in the ad breaks and it always makes me reminisce about the show - and it always brings back fond memories.

  • Posted May 12, 2008 8:15 am PT
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• 2Apr 08

  One Disaster After Another...

  In my last blog I promised to explain how my uni was screwing me over, and I know that you have been waiting intently to hear about it. No? Oh, well, you're going to hear about it anyway!

  This semester, as part of my media degree, I have to do one prac and one theory media course. For the prac I could choose from Beginner Video, Advanced Video, Web Design or Sound. I had already done Beginner Video last year, and I don't think I'm good enough for advanced, and I loathe web design. So that really left me no choice; Sound. Not that it bothered me, I'm really interested to do it and I've really enjoyed working on sound designs for the videos I have made in the course. However, there was one little problem. I went to the class in the first week to discover that only one other student was doing it. Neither of us knew much about sound and thus on that basis I would have a fairly good chance of getting the top score in the subject. What's wrong with that? The uni won't allow a subject to continue with only two people.

  That weekend I received an email from my teacher stating words to the effect that it will continue if we still want to do it (and there was a third member in the class too!). Relieved, I began to work on my project due for week two, only to then receive an email on the Monday night that the sound class had been cancelled, and I had to do either Beginner Video or Web Design as Advanced Video was full. And I had already done Beginner Video and couldn't pick it again. The thing that annoyed me the most was that on that Monday I had a lecture in that subject with the teacher who sent me the email (and she sent it only two hours after the lecture ended). It would have been so much better if she had informed us in the lecture as there was no way it was cancelled in those two hours and we could have spoken to her in person to discuss our options after the lecture (and if it was she would have known there was a high possibility and still could have asked us to the front at the end to discuss our options).

  As you can imagine I was upset and angry by this and so wrote a rather scathing email to the lecturer (on reflection probably not the best thing to do as she teaches the Web Design component, the only one I'm able to do, and thus she will be marking my assignments...). Strangely, after reading my email suddenly she informed me that she had misread the information, and there was one place left in Advanced Video. Some coincidence, huh?! And I was also given the option of redoing Beginner Video. I chose to do the latter.

  This just continues my run of luck that I haven't once ended up taken all the subjects I initially enrolled in in all five semesters at uni due to a stuff-up on the university's part.

  On a TV.com note, I have gained four more editorships, the TV shows The Pinky And The Brain and its spinoff Pinky, Elmyra And The Brain as well as the Australian actress Yael Stone (All Saints) and the British actress Emilia Fox (Coupling, Silent Witness, Fallen Angel, Keeping Mum and Gunpowder, Treason & Plot).

  And finally a shout out to all Australian users. After picking up today's The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) and reading the Seven Days segment I discovered that one of the girl's in my year in highschool is set to star in the new series of Blue Water High. The girl, I suppose you'd call her actress now, is Amy Beckwith and she is playing the role of Lauren Grove. So I ask all of you, if you can, to support her and watch the show (even though I've never seen it before, but I will watch it now). The show begins Thursday (yes, this Thursday) evening on the ABC at 5.30pm and runs for 30mins. I have included a picture of her below taken from the newspaper to help identify her in the show if you do watch it.

  

  • Posted Apr 2, 2008 5:59 am PT
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