What, no Gilligan's Island?
FOXNews.com - Mensa Picks 10 Smartest TV Shows of All Time - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment: "The head of genius organization Mensa has picked the 10 Smartest TV Shows of All Time —sparking debate in the blogosphere, especially over the inclusion of the 1990s sitcom 'Mad About You.'"
23 comments:
MAD ABOUT YOU started well.
COSMOS was a weak attempt to recapitulate CONNECTIONS.
All told, another good argument against IQ scores measuring much more than the ability to take IQ tests. No sour grapes here...I am Very good at these, and am frequently and in some ways consistently as dumb as a Bush.
Sometimes I'm even dumber than that.
Aack!
the trouble with these number crunchers is that it is assumed they have aesthetic and artistic intelligence. this is a real bad assumption. as this list proves.
More like, this is the top 10 of Smug, We-Just-Think-We're-Smart shows. Where are The Prisoner and (no pun intended) Get Smart?
i been reading the thing. i really like the analysis of the shows picked. it's like the analysis of a song that one of the drooling zombies on american bandstand would utter as a kind of justification for his idiotic judgement. "well, it wuz, ya know, reely good. and it wuz, ya know, something i liked." this "picker" is clearly someone who worships show business, and not intelligence. because bill nye the science guy was clearly more "intelligent" than any of these shows. so what he's talkiing about isnt intelligent tv shows. what he's talking about is prime time crap that made an effort to "appear" intelligent so that it could squeeze in some "justified" titillation. which is what really grabs prime time viewers. it just has to be disguised. so these shows probably did or do that successfully. i wonder if this mensa dude looks anything like the comic book store owner on the simpsons. which show wasnt on the list, as i recall.
I saw this on Ken Levine's blog and replied there, but I'll repeat that I thought "All In the Family" sucked. I'm reminded of Frank Denton's latest posting about Charlie Chan movies and how a plan to show a bunch of them on TV was halted by objections from our Chinese-Americans. Ditto the blacks complaining about Amos and Andy with the all black cast. But show a white male as an ignorant bigot and it's hunky dory. I also didn't like it because I thought the characters were caricatures and the jokes broad and obvious. And that shrill Edith, gak! Then again, I'm smarter than most Mensans.
So, sit-coms that are only funny because of the political statement they make hit the list, but those that are funny because someone took the time to actually write funny dialog don't. Go figure.
gonna go with the captain whole hog here for once. all in the family was a smug, pompous norman lear assault on the bible belt and any opinions that might be held by any white american unbrainwashed by a college state "education." the reason it got great ratings was becasue most of america held the same views as archie bunker. which norman lear and the liberal tribalists he adored considered Unacceptable opinions.
mash was practically a marxist manifesto. this mensa guy, like all liberals, gives intelligence a bad name
Disappointing not to see “The Andy Griffith Show” in there somewhere.
JTD
Except for Mad About You, thought this was a pretty good list, but you could easily make another top ten list and it would be as accurate. All In The Family was one of the greatest of all time, hands down,especially in context of its times and what was going on in the world. Joe
Oh, I wasn't a big fan of Mash though because I thought it was written around the one liners. I would have liked it better if it had been a Marxist manifesto. At least it would have been more interesting. It was against stupid wars though, and so am I. The movie version was great. Joe
The first three seasons of M*A*S*H were even better than the film, and certainly better than the series after Alda's ego was allowed to run wild and all the characters had to become blandly likeable.
ALL IN THE FAMILY was pretty sharp, if also often overstated, in the first five or six seasons, but I've thought THE BOB NEWHART SHOW was the best sitcom of its decade. But, hell, the Saturdays with ALL IN THE FAMILY, M*A*S*H, MTM SHOW, BOB NEWHART, and THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW were almost as good to juvenile me as the 1975 Saturdays with MTM, NEWHART, BURNETT, MONTY PYTHON and SNL in a row in the neck of CT I was living in. Didn't get another night even nearly that good till Fridays in DC in 1995: BABYLON 5, X-FILES and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET all at their height. But I was no longer a kid, and not as utterly swept away.
That CBS line-up was killer. Somebody needs to do a "Top Ten TV Nights of All Time" list.
http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2008/02/best-nights-of-televisionin-usover-last.html
I might just tease a list out of this yet. There was the night ca. 1966 when you could go from WILD, WILD WEST to I SPY to, if so inclined, TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH...but you'd've missed TARZAN, which I rather enjoyed as a kid...
"mash was practically a marxist manifesto. this mensa guy, like all liberals, gives intelligence a bad name "
No. You know what gives intelligent people a bad name? How about people who make sweeping generalizations against certain groups of people just because they believe in one thing and not another, even though some members of that group aren't necessarily as militant as others in enforcing that belief and don't show quite as much disdain to those who believe in something other than what they support? Don't even get me started, either, on your apparent inability to use capitalization in the sentences you write or the over-the-top lingo you choose to use.
Seriously, you and "jjs" BOTH are every bit as condescending and despicable as the "pompous" liberal "tribalists" the two of you love to bash so much, and you should BOTH be ashamed of yourself for posting such hot-blooded ignorance on the World Wide Web. You can have your opinions and openly disagree with what you read, but for the love of humanity, pick and choose your words more carefully next time, else get off the Internet completely.
"Seriously, you and "jjs" BOTH are every bit as condescending and despicable as the "pompous" liberal "tribalists" the two of you love to bash so much, and you should BOTH be ashamed of yourself* for posting such hot-blooded ignorance on the World Wide Web. You can have your opinions and openly disagree with what you read, but for the love of humanity, pick and choose your words more carefully next time, else get off the Internet completely."
*Excuse me. I meant to say "yourselves." My apologies for that.
My original point, however, still stands.
"gonna go with the captain whole hog here for once. all in the family was a smug, pompous norman lear assault on the bible belt and any opinions that might be held by any white american unbrainwashed by a college state "education." the reason it got great ratings was becasue most of america held the same views as archie bunker. which norman lear and the liberal tribalists he adored considered Unacceptable opinions."
Um, excuse me, madam, but you do know that there are CONSERVATIVES who go through the same educational system as any liberal "tribalist" you may know to enter their professional field, right? You know, the same conservatives who fight for the interests of people like you who broadcast your hyperbolic and hypocritical ignorance and spite on the Internet for all the world to see? One can easily accuse THEM of being "brainwashed" as well, even though THEY, unlike YOU, actually know how to spell such simple words as "because" as well as use contractions (i.e., "I've been" vs. "i been") AND use proper capitalization in the sentences--FULL sentences at that, too--that they write.
Honestly, think whatever you want, but that doesn't always mean you have to share it with the world and show the masses just how immature and uninformed you really are. I thus hope that the next time you decide to post anything on the World Wide Web, you'll actually think before you act and not resort to such childish measures as name-calling, lest you want to paint yourself with the same kind of intolerance that will forever characterize the likes of Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden.
"Um, excuse me, madam, but you do know that there are CONSERVATIVES who go through the same educational system as any liberal "tribalist" you may know to enter their professional field, right? You know, the same conservatives who fight for the interests of people like you who broadcast your hyperbolic and hypocritical ignorance and spite on the Internet for all the world to see? One can easily accuse THEM of being "brainwashed" as well, even though THEY, unlike YOU, actually know how to spell such simple words as "because" as well as use contractions (i.e., "I've been" vs. "i been") AND use proper capitalization in the sentences--FULL sentences at that, too--that they write."
Actually, I think you mean to say "broadcast THEIR" instead. Still, I agree; political extremists (as well as religious ones, for that matter) tick me off as well with their ceaseless ignorance.
gomer said...
"mash was practically a marxist manifesto. this mensa guy, like all liberals, gives intelligence a bad name"
This coming from a guy who can't even capitalize people's names or the first word he uses in a sentence...
Yeah, I'd talk about how inclined I am to believe you, but honestly, such words would be out of sheer sarcasm. Oh, and the whole "Marxist manifesto" bit makes me wonder if you're one of those "truthers" who believes in ever conspiracy theory you've ever read and/or heard. Honestly, I weep knowing that idiots like you exist in our world and weep even harder with each one whose uneducated opinions I happen to hear or read.
For varying reasons, I was not allowed to turn on the TV and see DIFF'RENT STROKES, and FAT ALBERT AND COSBY KIDS, and the TV was switched if I happened to catch a little of ALL IN THE FAMILY.
On the one hand, what was Norman Lear, producer, aiming at -- Archie Bunker was a complete bigot and he always said what he meant to say. On the other hand, Archie Bunker was uninformed and he seemed to think HIS way was right and NO-ONE else was entitled to know more than him. Even as a kid I should have gotten it, maybe, possibly; at our church they simply brought up the subject and said "It may not be a good idea to enjoy this, Bunker does not give an example of an ideal man" or something and I see that can be possibly true, today, 36 or 38 years on (in 2016).
--
-Cap'n Bob Napier- -- I also didn't like it because I thought the characters were caricatures and the jokes broad and obvious. --
I thought the show was funny at the time, but it was often too loud and screamy. For several years, though, it was don't-miss TV at our house.
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