101 BEST WRITTEN TV SERIES OF ALL TIME!!! See if you Agree...

 

   

Here's a list of the 101 best written TV series of all time... well that's just according to the good people of the Writers Guild of America, though I can honestly say I agree with some of them others however are shocking as well as where they appear on the list. Have a look and see if you agree, I do have my doubts...

 

 

1.

THE SOPRANOS Created by David Chase "A mobster in therapy, having problems with his mother," was how The Sopranos initially sparked, according to creator David Chase, though he was thinking about the premise for a feature film...

2.

SEINFELD Created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld At the end of Seinfeld’s run, Jerry Seinfeld commented that one of the more underrated aspects of his show was the number of its locations and sets, creating a sense of indoor-outdoor movement...

3.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE Season One writers: Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson, Robert Presnell, Jr., Rod Serling No show in the history of television has lingered in the imagination quite like Rod Serling’s anthology series...

4.

ALL IN THE FAMILY Developed for Television by Norman Lear, Based on Till Death Do Us Part, Created by Johnny Speight Asked how he’d been able to be so controversial on All in the Family, creator Norman Lear said in 2009: “I don’t really know how to explain it...”

5.

M*A*S*H Developed for Television by Larry Gelbart M*A*S*H remains the only long-running series, comedy or drama, set around a war zone...

6.

THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW Created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns The MTM brand, under Moore and then-husband Grant Tinker, was responsible for an iconic run of comedies (and dramas) in the 1970s, beginning with The Mary Tyler Moore Show...

7.

MAD MEN Created by Matthew Weiner Matt Weiner wrote the Mad Men pilot nearly a decade before it found a home as the first scripted drama at AMC, where the series debuted in the summer of 2007...

8.

CHEERS Created by Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows The qualities that made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a seminal sitcom in the 1970s gave Cheers the same importance to the ’80s...

9.

THE WIRE Created by David Simon No series, arguably, is more responsible for the novelistic ambitions possible for television writers now...

10.

THE WEST WING Created by Aaron Sorkin “The people who get angry at us on one Wednesday night will be standing up and cheering the next Wednesday night,” Aaron Sorkin wrote in Written By before The West Wing premiered...

11.

THE SIMPSONS Created by Matt Groening, Developed by James L. Brooks and Matt Groening and Sam Simon The Simpsons is as ineffable as American humor gets. Among the show’s landmarks (hitting 100 episodes, then 200, then 500)...

12.

I LOVE LUCY "Pilot," Written by Jess Oppenheimer & Madelyn Pugh & Bob Carroll, Jr. Though the show won an Emmy as Best Comedy, the writers were never so honored...

13.

BREAKING BAD Created by Vince Gilligan Creator Vince Gilligan said he was joking with Tom Schnauz that the two former X-Files writers might have to rent an RV and cook crystal meth if their stalled Hollywood careers didn’t turn around...

14.

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW Created by Carl Reiner Carl Reiner has said he based his first sitcom on his experiences as a writer on Your Show of Shows, working for temperamental star Sid Caesar while also trying to be a husband and father...

15.

HILL STREET BLUES Created by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco Low-rated in its infancy, Hill Street Blues broke as many TV storytelling rules as its ultimate success helped establish for cop shows...

16.

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Created by Mitchell Hurwitz Mitchell Hurwitz offered a glimpse into his take on the family sitcom when he spoke of his own parents’ refusal to “quietly disappear into their middle age...”

17.

THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART Created by Madeleine Smithberg, Lizz Winstead; Head Writer: Chris Kreski; Writers: Jim Earl, Daniel J. Goor, Charles Grandy, J.R. Havlan, Tom Johnson, Kent Jones, Paul Mercurio, Guy Nicolucci, Steve Rosenfield, Jon Stewart It began as The Daily Show (hosted by Craig Kilborn) in 1996...

18.

SIX FEET UNDER Created by Alan Ball Alan Ball pushed dramatic television into uncharted territory with his series about the Fishers and their Los Angeles funeral home...

19.

TAXI Created by James L. Brooks and Stan Daniels and David Davis and Ed Weinberger Post-Mary Tyler Moore Show, James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, Ed Weinberger and David Davis left MTM, formed their own company...

20.

THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW Created by Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein Having lampooned himself – and sitcoms generally – on the meta It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Shandling this time trained his comedic radar onto the fear and self-loathing backstage at a late-night talk show...

21.

30 ROCK Created by Tina Fey Tina Fey’s canny take-off on her former life as head writer on Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock was initially viewed as “too inside” for a mass audience...

22.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Developed by Television by Peter Berg, Inspired by the Book by H.G. Bissinger Peter Berg wrote and directed the pilot of a show that was the second adaptation of H.G. Bissinger’s non-fiction narrative about the impact of high school football on the hearts, minds and lives...

23.

FRASIER Created by David Angell & Peter Casey & David Lee, Based on the character "Frasier Crane" created by Glen Charles & Les Charles The Grub Street Productions team of Casey-Angell-Lee furthered the work they’d done on Cheers by moving psychologist Frasier Crane from Boston to Seattle and giving him a radio call-in show...

24.

FRIENDS Created by Marta Kauffman & David Crane Co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane met in the theater program at Brandeis; by the time they created Friends, they had added a third partner, Kevin Bright...

25.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Season One writers: Anne Beatts, Chevy Chase, Al Franken, Lorne Michaels, Marilyn Suzanne Miller, Paul Mooney, Garrett Morris, Michael O’Donoghue, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Rosie Shuster, Alan Zweibel In his 2009 memoir, writer-performer Tom Davis conjures the small gang of writers standing outside Lorne Michaels’ office...

26.

THE X-FILES Created by Chris Carter Fox’s signature drama for most of the ’90s, The X-Files, created by Chris Carter, was one of primetime television’s all-time great hit science-fiction series, although to call it sci-fi requires qualifying...

27.

LOST Created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof A pastiche of genres – sci-fi, James Bond movies, action, adventure, thriller, even reality TV – co-mingled to intoxicating effect on Lost, which owed a debt to The Twilight Zone...

28.

ER Created Michael Crichton The show that launched George Clooney’s career had a 20-year gestation period between the time Michael Crichton first wrote the pilot in 1974 and John Wells guided it to the top of the ratings in the mid-1990s...

29.

THE COSBY SHOW Created by Ed Weinberger & Michael Leeson and William Cosby, Jr., Ed. D. Bill Cosby’s return to network television caused a new vogue for sitcoms based closely on the act of a stand-up comedian, a trend that dominated primetime into the ensuing decades...

30.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM Created by Larry David Having co-created Jerry Seinfeld’s roman a clef of a sitcom, Larry David has turned himself inside out on Curb...

31.

THE HONEYMOONERS* Season One writers: Herbert Finn, Marvin Marx, A.J. Russell, Leonard Stern, Walter Stone, Sydney Zelinka The standard by which all working-class sitcoms are still measured had a fitful beginning...

32.

DEADWOOD Created by David Milch After a dozen years as the bard of NYPD Blue, David Milch’s first created series was a strange, brilliant and rococo Western set in a Gold Rush town in the Dakota territories, circa the late 1800s...

33.

STAR TREK Created by Gene Roddenberry As creator Gene Roddenberry wrote to science fiction author Isaac Asmiov two months after the first Star Trek series premiered in 1966: “Star Trek almost did not get on the air because it refused...”

34.

MODERN FAMILY Created by Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd The sweet spot on Modern Family, done as a mock documentary, is in exposing the growing pains for a culture confronting the fluid meaning of the mainstream family unit...

35.

TWIN PEAKS "Pilot," Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch “When Blue Velvet Meets Hill Street Blues,” read the New York Times headline in 1990, describing Twin Peaks...

36.

NYPD BLUE Created by David Milch & Steven Bochco Steven Bochco made more creative elbow room on network television with NYPD Blue, which debuted amid “viewer discretion” hype before settling into what it was – one of the last important primetime cop series...

37.

THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW Season One: Written by Bill Angelos, Stan Burns, Don Hinkley, Buz Kohan, Mike Marmer, Gail Parent, Kenny Solms, Saul Turtletaub; Writing Supervised by Arnie Rosen The kind of beloved series that television executives abandoned long ago – comedy-variety, with an infectiously multi-talented comedian...

38.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (2005) Developed by Ronald D. Moore, Based on the Series Battlestar Galactica, Created by Glen A. Larson Having written for the series Star Trek: TNG and Star Trek: Voyager, Ronald Moore arrived at his remake of Battlestar Galactica determined...

39.

SEX AND THE CITY Created by Darren Star, Based on the Book by Candace Bushnell Is the show over? Because the movies aren’t. Creator Darren Star based his series on Candace Bushnell’s book, adapted itself from her columns in the New York Observer...

40.

GAME OF THRONES Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, Based on A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin Medieval (or thereabouts) fantasy is not a TV genre with a particularly exalted tradition, which is why Game of Thrones, in its lavish production values and depth of mythology, feels so unprecedented in television...

41.		THE BOB NEWHART SHOW - TIE Created by David Davis and Lorenzo Music Talking about the success of The Bob Newhart Show on the podcast “Bullseye” recently, Newhart told a story about Jack Benny...
		YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS* - TIE Season One: Written by Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Max Liebman If you journeyed from Vaudeville to Saturday Night Live, you’d want to stop awhile at Your Show of Shows...

43.		DOWNTON ABBEY* - TIE Created by Julian Fellowes Series creator Julian Fellowes’ lavish period piece is also a pace-driven soap opera, set on a spectacular estate out in the English countryside of Yorkshire, home of the aristocratic Crawleys and their staff...
		LAW & ORDER - TIE Created by Dick Wolf The son of an advertising executive, Dick Wolf went into the ad business himself before moving into film and television...
		THIRTYSOMETHING - TIE Created by Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick Since this sensitive ensemble drama burst onto the scene at the end of the “greed is good” ‘80s, many have tried and just as many have failed to replicate a show about…well, ennui-riddled, upwardly mobile strivers...

46.		HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET - TIE Created by Paul Attanasio, Based on the Book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon Homicide was based on the book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, written by David Simon from his time as a crime reporter...
		ST. ELSEWHERE - TIE Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey, Developed by Mark Tinker/John Masius Like other important shows from the 1980s MTM stable, St. Elsewhere, which twice won Emmys for its writing, featured a writing staff whose future series appear elsewhere on this list...

48.

HOMELAND Developed by Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa, Based on the Original Israeli Series Prisoners of War by Gideon Raff Homeland is a more humanist and psychologically disturbing version of 24, a show on which co-creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa were writers...

49.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Created by Joss Whedon Part of the fun, and influence, of Buffy was in the way it mixed and matched genres while maintaining the integrity of its comedy and its heart...

50.		THE COLBERT REPORT - TIE Season One writers: Mike Brumm, Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Eric Drysdale, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Laura Krafft, Allison Silverman “Anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news at you.” That was Stephen Colbert’s mantra when The Colbert Report debuted...
		THE GOOD WIFE - TIE Created by Robert King & Michelle King Leading roles for women on TV don’t grow on trees, much less leading roles as layered as Alicia Florrick, played by Juliana Margulies...
		THE OFFICE (UK)* - TIE Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant Early on in the 2000s, the buzz began moving west across the Atlantic: There was this quirky and very funny faux-documentary comedy series out of England called The Office...

53.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey The series’ classic fish-out-of-water premise involved Joel Fleischman, a New Yorker fresh out of Columbia Medical School who is sent to run a clinic in frigid, off-the-grid Cicely, Alaska...

54.

THE WONDER YEARS Created by Neal Marlens & Carol Black Created by Neal Marlens and Carol Black, this sweet, intelligent confection of a half-hour comedy functioned as a looking glass into a late ’60s suburban childhood... READ MORE

55.

L.A. LAW Created by Steven Bochco & Terry Louise Fisher Over its eight seasons, L.A. Law racked up 15 Emmys in various categories (including two as outstanding drama)...

56.

SESAME STREET Created by Joan Ganz Cooney Simply put, the show’s continual inventiveness and impact as an educational tool – forged via the runaway popularity of the Muppets – changed the landscape of children’s television...

57.

COLUMBO Created by Richard Levinson & William Link As a writing team, Richard Levinson and William Link were an anomaly, given that they started writing together in junior high...

58.		FAWLTY TOWERS* - TIE Written by John Cleese & Connie Booth In a TV interview, John Cleese called Fawlty Towers “just little 30-minute farces that start very, very low-key and finish up absolutely frantic...”
		THE ROCKFORD FILES - TIE Created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell As smooth as Columbo was rumpled, private eye Jim Rockford, an ex-con, lived and worked out of a trailer at the beach in Santa Monica...

60.		FREAKS AND GEEKS - TIE Created by Paul Feig The title itself was an ironic statement about the pejoratives that get attached to those kids who don’t quite buy into the aspirational idea of fitting in...
		MOONLIGHTING - TIE Created by Glenn Gordon Caron Nominally a comedic detective series, the show’s originality came from the electrifying chemistry between stars Bruce Willis and Cybil Sherpherd...

62.

ROOTS Written by William Blinn, M. Charles Cohen, Ernest Kinoy, James Lee; Based on the Book by Alex Haley Roots, from executive producer David L. Wolper, and produced by Stan Margulies, was more than a miniseries...

63.		EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND - TIE Created by Philip Rosenthal There was always something deceptively simple on display, in both its straightforward concept and skillful execution...
		SOUTH PARK* - TIE Created by Matt Stone & Trey Parker From “The Spirit of Christmas,” an animated holiday card made for Fox executive Brian Graden that got passed around Hollywood like comedy samizdat, to The Book of Mormon, no comedy writers...

65.

PLAYHOUSE 90 Season One writers: Edna Anhalt, Edmund Beloin, Harold Jack Bloom, Marc Brandel, George Bruce, James P. Cavanagh, Whitfiled Cook, Helen Doss, Scott Fitzgerald, Devery Freeman, Frank Gilroy, Helen Howe, Speed Lamkin, Ernest Lehman, Herbert Little, Jr., Don Mankiewicz, Elick Moll, Paul Monash, Dean Reisner, Norman Retchin, Selma Robinson, William Sackheim, Rod Serling, Leonard Spigelgass, Leslie Stevens, Brandon Thomas, David Victor, Charles M. Warren, Hagar Wilde, Cornell Woolrich "One cannot imagine the joy one had as a professional viewer...”

66.		DEXTER - TIE Developed for Television by James Manos, Jr., Based on the Novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay The movement toward dark characters on TV had grown dark enough to make possible a series, albeit on pay cable, about a Machiavellian serial killer whose targets are other serial killers...
		THE OFFICE (U.S.) - TIE Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant, Developed by Greg Daniels, Based on the BBC Series The Office Adapting the British comedy by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, Greg Daniels gathered around him writer-performers B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, and Paul Lieberstein...

68.

MY SO-CALLED LIFE Created by Winnie Holzman “I cannot bring myself to eat a well-balanced meal in front of my mother. It just means too much to her,” the searching teenager Angela, played by Claire Danes, says in voice-over in the pilot of My So-Called Life...

69.

THE GOLDEN GIRLS Created by Susan Harris The sitcom that stormed the gates of prevailing wisdom about TV and the over-50 set...

70.

THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW Episode 1, "The New Housekeeper," Written by Jack Elinson and Charles Stewart Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle upon the death of Andy Griffith, David Wiegand pointed out that Sheriff Andy and the good folks of Mayberry, N.C., found wide appeal in primetime in an era...”

71.		24 - TIE Created by Joel Surnow & Robert Cochran Heading into its debut, the challenges facing this intriguing new thriller were narrative ones – namely, the ability to attract, and hold, a large audience through a story that unfolded by the hour, in weekly installments...
		ROSEANNE - TIE Created by Matt Williams, Based on a Character Created by Roseanne Barr In 1985, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, America met a comedian named Roseanne Barr...
		THE SHIELD - TIE Created by Shawn Ryan You could argue that no series in the history of television left a greater imprint on its network than The Shield, which enabled FX to branch out into grittier, R-rated dramatic fare while also keeping its dignity intact...

74.		HOUSE - TIE Created by David Shore Creator David Shore’s series came along a decade after ER and gave the medical drama a jolt, basing a show on a physician who didn’t have a God complex so much as a complex that was vociferously godless...
		MURPHY BROWN - TIE Created by Diane English Series creator Diane English left after four popular and award-winning seasons to create new shows, just as Murphy Brown’s decision to become a single mother was blasted as morally irresponsible...

76.		BARNEY MILLER - TIE Created by Danny Arnold & Theodore J. Flicker The air of world-weary sadness that hung over the denizens of the 12th Precinct made Barney Miller feel different from other sitcoms, quieter in personality and more off-beat...
		I, CLAUDIUS* - TIE Written by Robert Graves and Jack Pulman ‘Twas the year of the miniseries: In January of 1977 Roots premiered on ABC; in March the network’s scandalous hit Rich Man, Poor Man concluded, and in November, public television’s Masterpiece Theater...

78.

THE ODD COUPLE Episode 1, "The Fight of the Felix," Written by Peggy Elliott & Ed Scharlach Neil Simon’s hit Broadway play was directed by Mike Nichols and starred Walter Matthau and Art Carney...

79.		ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS - TIE Season One writers: Gwen Bagni, Samuel Blas, Robert Blees, Ray Bradbury, Richard Carr, James Cavanagh, Eustace Cockrell, Francis Cockrell, Marian Cockrell, John Collier, Robert C. Dennis, Mel Dinelli, Stanley Ellin, Fred Freiberger, Irwin Gielgud, Gina Kaus, Terence Maples, Richard Pedicini, Louis Pollock, Joseph Ruscoll, A.J. Russell,  Stirling Silliphant, Andrew Solt, Harold Swanton, Victor Wolfson, Cornell Woolrich Some of Hitchcock’s most memorable films came out while he was hosting his anthology TV series...
		MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS* - TIE Conceived and Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Terry Jones, Michael Palin Greatest comedy in the history of television? You wouldn’t get an argument in some quarters...
		STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - TIE Created by Gene Roddenberry For his follow-up to a sci-fi series phenomenon roughly the size of the cosmos, Gene Roddenberry wanted to demonstrate, as he put it in a 1991 Los Angeles Times Magazine article, "that TV need not be violent...”
		UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS* - TIE Created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins Long before the sotto voce buzz and chatter at Edwardian era Downton Abbey, there was 165 Eaton Place, London, and the Bellamy family...

83.

GET SMART "Pilot," Written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry Not having seen Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove – or Woody Allen in What’s Up, Tiger Lily, for that matter – I didn’t read Get Smart as a take-off on Cold War-esque, mutually assured destruction; I’m just now realizing the C.O.N.T.R.O.L. v. K.A.O.S. dichotomy...

84.		THE DEFENDERS - TIE Created by Reginald Rose Reginald Rose won two Emmys for his writing on The Defenders, which continued in the vein of the work for which he was most known for writing, Twelve Angry Men...
		GUNSMOKE - TIE Episode 1, "Matt Gets It," Written by Charles Marquis Warren & John Meston Already a hit on radio starring William Conrad as Marshall Matt Dillon, Gunsmoke, starring James Arness, became the most popular Western in TV history and one of the longest running shows ever...

86.		JUSTIFIED - TIE Developed by Television by Graham Yost, Based on the Short Story "Fire in the Hold" by Elmore Leonard Graham Yost, after working on two major miniseries for HBO, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, segued into something entirely different in Justified...
		SGT. BILKO (THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW) - TIE Created by Nat Hiken In a New York Times article in 1996, when the movie version of Sgt. Bilko was to be released, David Everitt, author of the book King of the Half Hour: Nat Hiken and the Golden Age of TV Comedy, paid homage...

88.

BAND OF BROTHERS Written by Erik Bork, E. Max Frye, Tom Hanks, Erik Jendresen, Bruce C. McKenna, John Orloff, Graham Yost; Based on the Book by Stephan E. Ambrose The television miniseries had traditionally gone to war, but Band of Brothers did so with a budget that reportedly stretched to $120 million...

89.

ROWAN & MARTIN’S LAUGH-IN Season One: Written by Chris Beard, Phil Hahn, John Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London, Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Digby Wolfe Unlike other landmark comedy variety series, most notably Saturday Night Live, it’s impossible to talk about Laugh-In without viewing it...

90.

THE PRISONER* Premiere Episode: Written by George Markstein and David Tomblin A strange, psychedelic amalgam of Cold War spy fiction, sci-fi and Kafka-esque anti-authoritarianism, The Prisoner starred Patrick McGoohan as Number Six...

91.		ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS (U.K.)* - TIE Episode 1, "Fashion," Written by Jennifer Saunders, Based on an original idea by Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French Jennifer Saunders was already known in England as part of the comedy double act French and Saunders when she created “Ab Fab,” which featured the besotted exploits of middle-aged gal pals...
		THE MUPPET SHOW - TIE Season One: Written by Jack Burns, Jim Henson, Jerry Juhl, Marc London Behind Jim Henson’s genius and generosity of spirit were writers who shared his vision for puppetry that could tickle kids while delighting adults...

93.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE Created by Terence Winter, Based on the Book Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson As a writer on The Sopranos, Terence Winter’s name is on some of the show’s most iconic episodes, including “Pine Barrens,” and “Long Term Parking,” in which a mobster’s fiancé was taken out...

94.

WILL & GRACE Created by David Kohan & Max Mutchnick The season prior to Will & Grace’s debut had seen TV history, when Ellen Degeneres’ sitcom alter ego came out as a lesbian in a two-part episode of ABC’s Ellen...

95.

FAMILY TIES Created by Gary David Goldberg In 1986, The Washington Post reported that at a White House ceremony honoring 141 high school students selected as presidential scholars for achievement in academics, the arts and leadership, President Reagan called Family Ties...

96.		LONESOME DOVE - TIE Teleplay by Bill Wittliff, Based on the Novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry “It was so big, and at that moment, Westerns were dead,” Bill Wittliff, who adapted Larry McMurtry’s novel into the acclaimed miniseries, told the San Antonio Express-News in 2007...
		SOAP - TIE Created by Susan Harris What more could you want from a primetime satire of daytime soaps? The comedy, centered around the extended family circus of the wealthy Tates and the middle-class Campbells, hit all the soapy plot points...

98.		THE FUGITIVE - TIE Episode 1, "Where the Action Is," Written by Harry Kronman The series finale set a ratings record with a 72 percent share, and went down as history-making for the way it gave audiences a climax to all the tension it had built up over four seasons...
		LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN - TIE Season One: Writing Supervised by Merrill Markoe, Writers: Andy Breckman, Tom Gammill, David Letterman, Richard Morris, Gerard Mulligan, Max Pross, Karl Tiedemann, Steve Winer The sort of irony that David Letterman popularized on his show involved, for starters, calling attention to the fact that he was doing a talk show...
		LOUIE - TIE Season One: Written and Directed by Louis C.K. The show, about a bemused comedian and divorced father of two girls, has the feel of honest autobiography.

101.

OZ Created by Tom Fontana Before The Sopranos, or The Wire, there was Oz, the first dramatic series produced by HBO (HBO had produced comedies, including The Larry Sanders Show, but not a drama)...