100 Most Popular Shows of All Time

[icecream]

This is according to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, it's updated through the 2006-2007 season. Shows were given points based on the number of seasons it was telecast and its audience size ranking each year.

1. 60 Minutes
2. Gunsmoke
3. The Red Skelton Show
4. ER
5. Bonanza
6. All in the Family/Archie Bunker's Place
7. Walt Disney
8. The Ed Sullivan Show/Toast of the Town
9. Friends
10. The Lucy Show/Here's Lucy
11. Murder, She Wrote
12. M*A*S*H
13. Cheers
14. Dallas
15. The Cosby Show
16. Frasier
17. The Andy Griffith Show
18. Roseanne
19. Home Improvement
20. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
21. Law & Order
22. The Jack Benny Show
23. Three's Company/Three's a Crowd
24. I Love Lucy
25. The Danny Thomas Show
26. 20/20
27. The Beverly Hillbillies
28. You Bet Your Life
29. Everybody Loves Raymond
30. Happy Days
31. Survivor
32. I've Got a Secret
33. Dragnet/Dragnet '67
34. Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
35. The Jeffersons
36. Seinfeld
37. Hawaii Five-O
38. The Jackie Gleason Show
39. NYPD Blue
40. One Day at a Time
41. The Golden Girls/The Golden Palace
42. American Idol
43. Laverne & Shirley
44. The Milton Berle Show
45. Sanford & Son
46. Murphy Brown
47. Gomer Pyle, USMC
48. Alice
49. Dynasty
50. Wagon Train
51. Candid Camera
52. A Different World
53. My Three Sons
54. Bewitched
55. Who's the Boss?
56. CSI: Miami
57. The Love Boat
58. Fireside Theatre
59. Little House on the Prairie
60. Coach
61. The Waltons
62. Have Gun, Will Travel
63. Touched by an Angel
64. Without a Trace
65. General Electric Theater
66. Falcon Crest
67. Arthur Godfrey and His Friends
68. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
69. Maude
70. Family Ties
71. Marcus Welby, M.D.
72. Magnum, P.I.
73. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
74. Ironside
75. The Colgate Comedy Hour
76. Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
77. Full House
78. Knots Landing
79. December Bride
80. America's Funniest Home Videos
81. Primetime Live/Primetime Thursday/Primetime
82. Family Affair
83. Night Court
84. The Dean Martin Show
85. Growing Pains
86. The Dukes of Hazzard
87. Will & Grace
88. The Virginian
89. The Dick Van Dyke Show
90. Newhart
91. Lassie
92. The Real McCoys
93. Perry Mason
94. Simon & Simon
95. The Perry Como Show
96. Matlock
97. Empty Nest
98. Charlie's Angels
99. Desperate Housewives
100. L.A. Law

[Zoneboy]

Plenty of good shows but overall that list is another joke.

[dakert]

Where is Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman? Planet Of The Apes?
Charlie's Angels at #98 hahahhaha
Where is Leave it To Beaver?
Where is Cannon!!

etc etc...

[tiredmike59]

It doesnt say the best shows of all time,
it says the most popular.
there is a big difference.

[GQ28]

that list is B.S. , what about The Bob Newhart Show ,The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Honeymooners,???

[Adamantium]

Originally Posted by GQ28

that list is B.S. , what about The Bob Newhart Show ,The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Honeymooners,???

MTM is number 68 on the list. Maybe The Honeymooners counts for The Jackie Gleason Show, which is 38 on the list.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by tiredmike59

It doesnt say the best shows of all time,
it says the most popular.
there is a big difference.

Yea exactly. Alot of the shows that are being mentioned weren't really top 20 hits all that much.

The Honeymooners only lasted one season and was ranked #19.

MTM was ranked 1971 (22); 1972 ( 10); 1973 (7); 1974 (9); 1975 (11); 1976 (19)

Bob Newhart was ranked 1973 (16); 1974 (12); 1975 (17); 1976 (26)

Although they were hit shows they were not monster hits.

As for the six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic woman, They weren't in the top 20 that long.

Six Million Dollar Man 1974 ( 11); 1976 (9); 1977 (7)

The Bionic Woman 1976(5); 1977 (14)



Planet of the apes was a flop show. I don't know why that was mentioned.

Leave it to Beaver was never in the top 20.

Charlies Angels was ranked 1977 (5), 1978 ( 5); 1979 (12); 1980 (20)

Cannon was ranked 1972 (29); 1973 (14); 1974 (10); 1975 (21)

[jimpickens]

They also left out Married With Children.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by jimpickens

They also left out Married With Children.

MWC was never ranked in the top 20. I don't think they were even ranked in the top 50. It was the most popular of Fox's early shows but all of them were ranked at the bottom of the rankings.

[TV_on_the_Porch]

I first saw this list in the 1988 edition of the book. Obviously there's been a lot of updating since then. For instance, it was noted at the time that Gunsmoke was #1 by a huge margin, but 60 Minutes eventually surpassed it and is only becoming #1 by a wider margin as time goes on, I don't expect any show will dislodge its place at the top of the list in our lifetime.

I see that nobody has succeeded in persuading them that The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy are two different shows. The book not only combines them for the purpose of this list, it only gives the two series a single heading, with a start date of 1962 and end date of 1974. I find that as irritating now as I did then.

The criteria they use of assigning points for rating strength and longevity obviously produces strange results. Mayberry RFD only lasted three seasons, but was top rated for two of them and still strong in the third, so it hung on toward the bottom of the list in 1988. Petticoat Junction was also on the list into the early 90s thanks to its longevity, but its marginal ratings couldn't keep it from being knocked off later.

[GQ28]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

Yea exactly. Alot of the shows that are being mentioned weren't really top 20 hits all that much.

The Honeymooners only lasted one season and was ranked #19.

MTM was ranked 1971 (22); 1972 ( 10); 1973 (7); 1974 (9); 1975 (11); 1976 (19)

Bob Newhart was ranked 1973 (16); 1974 (12); 1975 (17); 1976 (26)

Although they were hit shows they were not monster hits.

As for the six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic woman, They weren't in the top 20 that long.

Six Million Dollar Man 1974 ( 11); 1976 (9); 1977 (7)

The Bionic Woman 1976(5); 1977 (14)



Planet of the apes was a flop show. I don't know why that was mentioned.

Leave it to Beaver was never in the top 20.

Charlies Angels was ranked 1977 (5), 1978 ( 5); 1979 (12); 1980 (20)

Cannon was ranked 1972 (29); 1973 (14); 1974 (10); 1975 (21)

BNH and HM WHERE VERY POPULAR AND MTM..this list is based on some bodies opinion ...BS

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by GQ28

BNH and HM WHERE VERY POPULAR AND MTM..this list is based on some bodies opinion ...BS

It isn't based on anybody's opinion. Ratings and longevity are given the most weight in this system. The Honeymooners lasted one season. It is a classic but as an independent series, it was a flop. Bob Newhart was never a top 10 hit. MTM was a hit show and it was ranked through much of it's run. It was not ranked as high as some might have thought though. Actually Rhoda was ranked higher than MTM a few times during it's run. What I will agree on is The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy and AITF and ABP. They should be listed as different series. Maybe a few shows should be up or down a few places but it is pretty accurate. I don't like many of today's shows but I know that AI will be really highly ranked on the next list. I think the show is junk but there's no doubting how popular the show was in its own time. I think most of the people are confusing which shows are true classics with how popular they really were in it's original run. If I made a list of the best sitcoms of all time, I'd put MTM and Honeymooners on it.

[JT]

Originally Posted by GQ28

BNH and HM WHERE VERY POPULAR AND MTM..this list is based on some bodies opinion ...BS

No. This list is based on numerical data: ratings and seasons.

[GQ28]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

It isn't based on anybody's opinion. Ratings and longevity are given the most weight in this system. The Honeymooners lasted one season. It is a classic but as an independent series, it was a flop. Bob Newhart was never a top 10 hit. MTM was a hit show and it was ranked through much of it's run. It was not ranked as high as some might have thought though. Actually Rhoda was ranked higher than MTM a few times during it's run. What I will agree on is The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy and AITF and ABP. They should be listed as different series. Maybe a few shows should be up or down a few places but it is pretty accurate. I don't like many of today's shows but I know that AI will be really highly ranked on the next list. I think the show is junk but there's no doubting how popular the show was in its own time. I think most of the people are confusing which shows are true classics with how popular they really were in it's original run. If I made a list of the best sitcoms of all time, I'd put MTM and Honeymooners on it.

I agree with you with most of the things that you are saying except for the BNH info. According to idbm.com, it has been in the neilson top ten at one point. If you go on youtube, watch Sammy Raps with Suszan Phlsete,Sammy Davis Jr. show from the 70's. Suszan , talks about the show being in the top ten at one point and she even said that it was number one at one point .....

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by GQ28

I agree with you with most of the things that you are saying except for the BNH info. According to idbm.com, it has been in the neilson top ten at one point. If you go on youtube, watch Sammy Raps with Suszan Phlsete,Sammy Davis Jr. show from the 70's. Suszan , talks about the show being in the top ten at one point and she even said that it was number one at one point .....

I know that Idbm isn't very realiable because anyone can post information. The highest The Bob Newhart Show was ranked was #12 during the 1973-74 season. It's possible that the show landed in the top 10 several times during that season. I don't know if an episode ever finished at #1. If Suzanne said it did, then I'd have to believe her. I do know though that the show was never ranked #1 for the whole season. During the years that TBNS aired AITF was the #1 ranked show in America. It was #1 from 1971- 1972 until 1975-1976.