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Best year for TV?

Jubenhimer

Member
There's a lot of debate about the best or favorite year for various mediums such as Movies, Music, Video Games, etc. But what about Television shows? What year did you think was perhaps the best and biggest year for TV? I think 1999 is a contender for perhaps one of the most defining years in TV with many critically acclaimed and successful shows and seasons coming out.

1999 Highlights:

* SpongeBob SquarePants debuts on Nickelodeon
* HBO premieres The Sopranos, regarded as one of its best original shows, and one of the greatest shows in television
* Courage The Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd, n' Eddy premiere on Cartoon Network
* New dubbed episodes of Dragon Ball Z, now produced exclusively for Cartoon Network, premieres on Toonami, cementing the show's status as a TV powerhouse
* FOX premieres both Futurama, and Family Guy
* Sci-Fi Channel re-brands with a new focus on original programing, including the Jim Henson produced cult classic, Farscape
* Downtown and Mission Hill, cult classic and short lived young adult cartoons on MTV and The WB debut and are swiftly cancelled.
* Pokemon gets picked up by Kids' WB!, which cements the craze of the franchise for the next few years.
* Fox Kids Network strikes back with their own answer in the form of Digimon: Digital Monsters
* UPN acquires WWE SmackDown! which brings Attitude era wrestling to a whole new audience
* Freaks & Geeks, a cult-classic teen series, debuts on, and is swiftly cancelled by NBC.
 
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I second 1999.

You forgot debuts of:
West wing
Batman beyond
Angel
Law and order SVU
House Hunters
Steve Harvey hosting Family Feud


Frasier, Friends, ER, Raymond, Buffy, XFILES!, Arli$$, Simpson’s, South Park, we’re all in their Prime.

WWE, WCW were winding down the Monday Night Wars.

Monday Night football was good then!

Sportcenter was in its Prime.

Late night talk shows!

And this little known MTV actor took over this talk show on Comedy Central. Jon Stewart Daily Show!

Sassy Oh No GIF by Nickelodeon
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member

I had to google this but I just bee-lined to the late 80s when a lot of good Fox shows came out. But here's some key shows that all came out that year:

- Married with Children
- Tracey Ullman
- 21 Jump Street
- Full House
- ST TNG
- TMNT
- A Different World
- Unsolved Mysteries (my mom loved these kinds of shows)
- Thirtysomething (I never watched one episode but I remember people talking about it)

- And second best to MWC.... Captain Power!
 
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Happosai

Hold onto your panties

I had to google this but I just bee-lined to the late 80s when a lot of good Fox shows came out. But here's some key shows that all came out that year:

- Married with Children
- Tracey Ullman
- 21 Jump Street
- Full House
- ST TNG
- TMNT
- A Different World
- Unsolved Mysteries (my mom loved these kinds of shows)
- Thirtysomething (I never watched one episode but I remember people talking about it)

- And second best to MWC.... Captain Power!
That'd cover about 1987 - 1991.

For me, 1972. The top 10 alone here. Although it needs Columbo to be complete.

 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
That'd cover about 1987 - 1991.

For me, 1972. The top 10 alone here. Although it needs Columbo to be complete.

My bro loved watching detective shows. He loved Hunter and Columbo. I was too young at the time to care as I preferred watching comedy shows, Fox shows when they became popular, Jays games etc...

But as I got older, I watched some old Columbo shows and ya they were pretty darn good! Never cared for Hunter, except Stephanie Kramer was a milf. Just like Markie Post in Night Court.

He also loved Get Smart. That was when I was even younger. Didnt care one bit. Then I watched some it later in life and it was hilarious!
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
My bro loved watching detective shows. He loved Hunter and Columbo. I was too young at the time to care as I preferred watching comedy shows, Fox shows when they became popular, Jays games etc...

But as I got older, I watched some old Columbo shows and ya they were pretty darn good! Never cared for Hunter, except Stephanie Kramer was a milf. Just like Markie Post in Night Court.

He also loved Get Smart. That was when I was even younger. Didnt care one bit. Then I watched some it later in life and it was hilarious!
Columbo is one you should give a shot but patiently. The seasons / episodes seemed lengthy but never gets old. I felt Columbo went next level too in the 80's with the spin-off ABC series too. Detective shows are okay and Hunter wasn't bad. However, I never found anything which compared to Columbo.

Whoa, then mentioning Night Court there...almost had to switch my choice to 80's. Get Smart would be difficult for someone younger to get into in our time but it's certainly classic too. Makes me want to watch some of these as it's been awhile.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Today you could have 9 different streaming services on your tv and in theory pretty much every tv show ever.
 

Aesius

Member
2006 is up there.

At the time you had:

The Wire
The Sopranos
Lost (before it went off the rails)
The Office
Battlestar Galactica
24
Deadwood
Weeds (before it went off the rails)
Friday Night Lights
Entourage
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
30 Rock

Plus sports/late night shows/local news were just starting to air in HD.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
This is a tricky topic because "in the old days" you could have older and new shows all airing together across a couple channels.

But for me it was probably 1988 with:
Freddies Nightmares
Friday the Thirteenth
Something is Out There
War of the Worlds
MST3K
Werewolf
Headbangers Ball
Captain Power (the show that shot at your toys!)

all on the air.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
2006 is up there.

At the time you had:

The Wire
The Sopranos
Lost (before it went off the rails)
The Office
Battlestar Galactica
24
Deadwood
Weeds (before it went off the rails)
Friday Night Lights
Entourage
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
30 Rock

Plus sports/late night shows/local news were just starting to air in HD.
May you be blessed for making this post.
 
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