Your Top 5 Desert-Island TV shows?

GWC Community Off-Topic/Other
#1

We wuz just talkin’ about this on the Twitters:

If you were going to be stuck on a desert island, with a functional TV & DVD/Blu-ray/streaming device, which five TV series would you pick to watch over & over again for the rest of your days?

Mine:

Community

The Wire

Deadwood

Rescue Me

Then either King of the Hill or Battlestar. Or Buffy or Firefly.

Not saying those are the best shows ever (well, The Wire & Deadwood & Buffy are), but they’re my favorites, and they have that hypnotic, hard-to-define quality of rewatch-ability.

You?

#2

If the show is still running would we get all new episodes that were released after we ended up on the island? :stuck_out_tongue:

Definitely Firefly and Stargate Atlantis. Probably either SG-1 or Smallville just for the number of seasons, but not sure on the other spots yet.

#3

Hmmm…interesting, forced to watch 5 shows over and over… here is my what and why:
[ul]
[li]Arrested Development. COME ON! Complex. Nuanced. Hilarious. I have already watched the first three seasons three times and always find something new in it. I will happily come back for more. I love this show a little too much.[/li][li]Doctor Who: What is there to say? This show has everything, including variety of cast and creators. Serious. Witty. Brilliant. This one is a one brainer[/li][li]Firefly: Shockingly in my first pass I cut Firefly out of my top 5 for the simple reason that if I could only choose 5 series then pound for pound the limited number of episodes made it a liability. I was being pragmatic. Then after I finished my list I started describing why I left it off and realized I was being a fool. The sheer quality of this show outweighs everything else. I would rather watch Objects in Space 100 times than have all of Scrubs (which I adore).[/li][li]Archer: If this comes as a shock then I will give you a tip…just the tip. This show is so dense in jokes both visual and verbal one half hour probably constitutes two hours of content[/li][li]Whose Line is it Anyway: If you want me to laugh, I mean really laugh put this show on. It brings together everything I admire: people who are funny, clever and quick. There are times when watching this show that it seems impossible they are improvising…but they are and it is amazing[/li][/ul]Honorable mentions: The Muppet Show, Scrubs, Loony Tunes, Sherlock and Monty Python’s Flying Circus

#4

Oooooooo.

I think we’ve had a similar discussion like this before but I can’t 100% remember where it was. I think it may have been Twitter. If so I’ll have to caveat my answer today in that it may differ from what I said before and that I reserve the right to change this list and/or merge the two lists at a later date when I have more complete interest access (and access to my historical Twitter feed).

I’ll go with SG-1, Star Trek TNG, Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who right off the bat for my top four positions. I’m struggling with number 5 but for timeliness sake I’ll go for Futurama.

Are their better TV shows out there? Absolutely. But these are the ones that appeal to me. These are also ones with a LOT of content so I’ll be less likely to get bored watching them over and over and over again.

I will also throw in the fact that I dismissed all mini-series right off the bat without a follow-on TV show. So Band Of Brothers or Sherlock did not qualify for me whereas Battlestar Galactica would qualify.

I also threw out any currently airing series like Big Bang Theory because I don’t know how it ends. I was really pissed at Chuck for how it ended. Great series, just ended so badly I have no desire to ever watch it again. Of course I took the liberty to break this rule for Futurama and Doctor Who because they are so awesome and I cannot imagine them ending badly.

I did consider MASH and Friends and West Wing (loves me some good walk and talk) and Seinfeld and Cheers and Family Ties and Mad About You and Frazier and Friday Night Lights and Scrubs and Fringe and History’s The Universe and Seseme Street and The Muppet Show and a hundred other shows but for my personal entertainment value and quantity of content those are the 5 shows that appeal to me today.

I’ll revisit this one later on tonight and see if I still agree with myself.

#5

[/li]
This is one of the shows I was toying with instead of Futurama. Great stuff indeed. Definitely a better show (but not by much) in my opinion!

#6

…perchance you are recalling my famous Space Voyage iPad thread?

#7

LOL. That’s the one.
Sometimes the GWC Forum feels to me like a haunted house full of ghosts.

Just have to close our eyes, and hold hands and we can conjure the ghost conversation from the past. :smiley:

EDIT: Hmmmm…the Space Voyage iPad thread was about movies. There was one about TV too… It’s haunting us from the ether.

#8

Well yes, but that was for movies, not TV shows. I love that thread BTW.

I’m sure I’ve tweeted my answer to this before…or maybe it was just my top(n) TV shows of all time.

#9

You guys, if we keep up this rate of posting we might break the Forum.

#10

Hmm let me see…
In no order

Star Trek: Voyager
Lost
Gilligan’s Island
Lost In Space
For the ol’ Saturday Morning Cartoon fix… Blackstar

Oh wait, I think I read the forum topic wrong…

#11

(1) Rockford Files ( especially episodes with Gretchen Corbett guest starring )
(2) Star Trek ( original … there can be only one)
(3) Columbo ( Peter Falk represent! )
(4) Californication ( Hank Moody drinking buddy)
(5) Sex and the City ( Don’t judge … the island is deserted )

OB

#12

I used to love this show but I haven’t seen it recently. Does it hold up at all (obviously as a time piece before cell phones, though)?

Yes I went back and forth on this one. I’m currently rewatching TOS on Netflix and then listening to the Mission Log podcast. fascinating stuff. This was a much tighter show than I remembered. But I went for TNG instead because of the great 7 total seasons (more content) and the fact that I got to see the show live when it was airing. Either is a great pick though!

#13

Two shows for sure would be Stargate SG1 and Buffy. Stargate has 10 seasons so lots of material, and it has lite and dark episodes; cast changes and lots of variety. And it has been a long time since I have watched the series so it would still be fun to revisit… Buffy has action, sex appeal, great character arcs and great humor. If I was alone on an island I would need all the humor I could get…

#14

I’ll definitely agree with SG-1.

I’m still only in season 2 on Buffy so I can’t comment on it but did you see the last 2 episodes of Warehouse 13? Rupert and Spike were on.

#15

Scrubs, Babylon 5, Star Trek TNG, Deep Space Nine, and The West Wing. I’ll need a lot of space station related entertainment on this island.

#16

I’m leaning toward something like:

Firefly
Stargate Atlantis
Chuck (I don’t have as much issue with the ending as some people do)
Star Trek: DS9
Smallville (thought about SG-1, but didn’t want to include 2 Stargate shows and Atlantis is my show)

#17

Not everybody does. Some people loved it. I have a personal issue with losing one’s memories and therefore the reason that made the individuals relationships special - their shared time and experiences together. So to me it invalidated the entire series.

#18

Fair enough. Maybe it’s just that I don’t have much experience with that level of relationships, but I thought they did a good job of indicating that the memories were coming back, whether slowly or quickly. I had an idea for a fanfic kind of thing with the characters writing journals to try making the memories come back more quickly and dealing with certain memories coming back, but that type of writing isn’t really my strength.

#19

It’s about to get SO much better.

#20

I may or may not have sprayed water all over my screen reading this. Hi-larious.