Top 5 animated and/or live-action TV series?
Top 5 Animated Shows:
1. Animaniacs: This was my childhood. We watched videos of it constantly. Such sharp humor, good characters, amazing animation, excellent songs.
2. Recess: This was also my childhood. The top-level slice-of-life children’s cartoon. Loved its down-to-earth school plots, over-the-top setting, sharp humor and memorable characters. I’d love to watch it again and see what references I missed as a kid.
3. Arthur: Also my childhood. (Seriously, this top three gives you a pretty good idea of my formative influences). The first 100 episodes are uniformly pretty amazing (give me a quote, and there’s a very good chance I’ll know the episode and the exact intonation it should be delivered in), everything after that is much lower quality.
4. Phineas and Ferb: Sharp writing that shows just what wonders can be created by sticking to a strict, strict formula. That framework is the skeleton that supports so much off-the-wall humor and outlandish plot.
5. Kim Possible: Hilarious spy-fi fun with good characters and outlandish worldbuilding.
Top 5 Live-Action Shows:
1. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Top-tier character-based comedy. I own all the seasons (even though I haven’t watched all of them because halfway through Season Six I realized that I was going to run out of episodes soon and stopped).
2. Doctor Who: This was my major fandom for so many years. So much scope for the imagination and excellent characters.
3. Psych: Utterly hilarious. Combines character, mystery and comedy better than anything else out there.
4. Corner Gas: Newest thing (to me) on the list. It’s low-key absurd, slice-of-life rural humor. I’m always amazed at the tiny things they can create plots out of, and the different dynamics created by pairing different sets of these weirdos together.
5. Cheers: Look, there is an awful lot of Not Good Content here, but the characters are excellent (except for Rebecca) and the ensemble humor can’t be beat.
