View Full Version : My Top CBS Shows


icecream
08-30-2020, 04:49 PM
1. Early Edition- the best TV show of all time, has been my favorite since I started making my top 100 TV shows lists
2. WKRP in Cincinnati- fantastic all four seasons
3. $25,000 Pyramid (Dick Clark)
4. I Love Lucy/The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
5. Family Affair (1966)
6. The Waltons- First five seasons were excellent with Richard Thomas and both grandparents. Seasons 6 and 7 were still good while dropping off some. Seasons 8 and 9 were terrible in several ways: Rose’s family replacing Olivia, John-Boy being recast, Curt’s honorable death being taken back with Mary Ellen divorcing him, and Ike being made an adulterer. Its #6 rank here is obviously just including the first 7 seasons.
7. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour/Alfred Hitchcock Presents- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour part CBS aired 2/3 of its three seasons. Alfred Hitchcock Presents was all CBS.
8. The Andy Griffith Show- First five black and white seasons with Don Knotts were the best.
9. Newhart
10. Touched by an Angel
11. Petticoat Junction
12. Hostages- best one season drama of all time
13. Blue Bloods
14. M*A*S*H- All 11 seasons were high quality. M*A*S*H handled cast changes well with all the series regulars being good at their roles.
15. Murphy Brown (1988)- First 9 seasons of the original run were pretty good. Season 10 was too depressing for a comedy with Murphy’s cancer storyline lasting most of it. Although even that season was easily better than the awful revival recently.
16. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
17. The Dick Van Dyke Show
18. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
19. Diagnosis Murder
20. Without a Trace
21. The Munsters
22. Scorpion
23. FBI: Most Wanted
24. The Jack Benny Program
25. Green Acres
26. BrainDead
27. The Nanny
28. Million Dollar Password
29. Lou Grant
30. NCIS- It is mostly a good show. But I can’t stand Wilmer Valderrama, he is easily the worst and most annoying actor who has been a series regular. Too bad Torres wasn’t killed off in that accident episode from last season…
31. Double Dare (Alex Trebek)- This deserved a longer run like Alex’s other game shows.
32. Everybody Loves Raymond- The adult supporting cast is great here. But Ray Romano has such an irritating, whiny voice.
33. The Beverly Hillbillies
34. Young Sheldon- TV’s best current sitcom
35. The Twilight Zone (1959)
36. Under the Dome- First two seasons were great. But the writers totally destroyed Under the Dome in its 3rd and final season.
37. Joan of Arcadia
38. The Guardian
39. Christy
40. Promised Land
41. Gilligan’s Island
42. CSI: Cyber
43. Criminal Minds
44. Limitless
45. Now You See It (Jack Narz)
46. The Lucy Show
47. Candid Camera (Peter Funt and Suzanne Somers)
48. Life in Pieces
49. Dogs in the City- With all the dog lovers the US has, I was surprised this did so poorly.
50. Murder, She Wrote- Until recently I could never get into this. But now I say it is worth watching.
51. Jericho (2006)
52. Welcome to New York
53. The Mentalist
54. Man With a Plan
55. The Neighborhood
56. Hawaii Five-O (1968)
57. FBI (2018)- Season 1 was good. Season 2 was less interesting with Missy Peregrym’s role being reduced and too many new characters.
58. Zoo
59. Password
60. All Rise
61. Broke
62. The District
63. Burns and Allen
64. The Big Bang Theory
65. S.W.A.T. (2017)
66. The Code
67. Still Standing
68. Carol’s Second Act
69. Listen Up
70. Fam
71. Vegas (2012)

Just like my ABC and NBC threads, Bachelor Father is a triple network favorite of mine that is not ranked here since they all shared custody of it.

Old School
09-01-2020, 08:35 AM
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/d4/34/c7d434da79f9dabdeaf0bcbfbf9f6a9f.jpg

biffbronson
09-01-2020, 08:46 AM
My Three Sons is definitely worth considering here: 7 seasons on CBS, following 5 on ABC. Most sitcom historians consider the series to be a front-runner amid lots of also-rans. More significant than sister-series Family Affair, way up at #5 on the list.

icecream
09-01-2020, 09:30 AM
I like My Three Sons some but have always preferred Family Affair. It has gone under the radar compared to more famous 60s sitcoms like The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Those are all great shows, but Family Affair is very underrated and could top them all.

icecream
09-01-2020, 09:35 AM
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c7/d4/34/c7d434da79f9dabdeaf0bcbfbf9f6a9f.jpgI have heard about The Dukes of Hazzard but have never seen it. And with today's climate I doubt it suddenly becomes popular in syndication either for me to try.

icecream
09-01-2020, 09:43 AM
My Three Sons had a big advantage for longevity starting 6 years earlier than Family Affair. By the end of Family Affair was when the access law went into effect. Networks lost the 7:30PM half hour and had to cut more than they used to. Rural purge was also then, but Family Affair was set in the city.

biffbronson
09-01-2020, 04:11 PM
One thing about My Three Sons is that there were major changes going on beginning with the intro of Charley and on to Mike's wedding, Ernie's adoption, Rob's wedding, triplets, Steve's and Chip's weddings... By contrast, until the intro of Emily at the end, Family Affair remained basically unchanged, aside from the children's growth.

The sitcom on which, IMO, the ABC TV network basically was built was The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet. My Three Sons was important to both ABC and CBS. Personal preference is fine, but I think you pretty much need to at least acknowledge those series if a list is to be taken seriously (and you did list O & H for ABC).

icecream
09-01-2020, 07:30 PM
It really isn't anything against My Three Sons not being on this list. I just have barely seen it. Ozzie and Harriet I have seen 44 episodes of since I started keeping track of things with a combination of some episodes I have on DVD, when it used to air on ION where infomercials were listed, and its pilot movie aired on TCM a few months ago.