Magnum Mania!

At first, I wish a poll like this was not proposed before.

Among these series (recent series and good old ones), what's your favorite serie ?

Difficult to answer but interesting to know if the Magnum fans prefer brand new TV series or good old series of the 80's ... ?

As far as I'm concerned, I hesitated among many series of the 80's ...
I answered the Dukes.
Well, it's a shame I could not have choices enough to mention some other good ones like Riptide, the incredible Hulk, The Wild Wild West, etc..

No doubt Donald P. Bellisario, Stephen J. Cannel and some others made the best ones during the 70's / 80's !

I have to pick one so I'll go with Colombo. That's my older self speaking of course. I'll stop and watch that more than any other show on the list nowadays.

If you asked my ten or fifteen year old self then it would probably be Macgyver. Any episode with Macgyver in the great outdoors is still exciting (can you say Bigfoot? ). The A Team and Dukes of Hazzard would be close behind. All three of those are still fun to watch but not as engaging as a good Colombo for me now (which I don't even remember knowing about when I was a kid).

Murder She Wrote I always remember having to watch before bed when staying at my grandma and grandpa's place (my grandma owned the controller and I didn't dare ask her to change the channel). Funny thing is now I'll occasionally watch an episode even though I don't have to, I guess I'm getting old.

As far as new television goes, the last show on network tv that I watched was Seinfeld, which demonstrates how I feel about the current state of network tv.

The A-Team, also a very good show. I have all the dvd's Great serie.

Columbo.... never disapointed.

I voted for Columbo also. If my husband had voted, he would have voted for Star Trek, hands down.

Knight Rider, baby!

That is a touch choice because many of these are from different decades (60s, 70s & 80s) and different genres, but I would have to say Star Trek. Some other good series to inculde would have been: Baa Baa Black Sheep; Quincy, M.E.; Hawaii Five-O; Matt Houston; Vega$; Six Million Dollar Man; Scarecrow & Mrs. King; Hill Street Blues; Streets of San Francisco; and Rockford Files. Anyway, good topic.

Murder She Wrote - but only when it took place at Cabot Cove.

Oh boy, I did not like any of these series at all, except for Star Trek and Simon and Simon. AND, while I thought Simon and Simon was a likable show (especially in its first season) I would not put it in my top ten list. Even Magnum was not a preferred show for me at the time it originally aired, and I've only really rediscovered it recently.

I'm afraid I prefer more esoteric and obscure fare. In the seventies I really liked WKRP In Cincinnati, Barney Miller, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the eighties I really liked The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Cheers, and Hill Street Blues. Oh, and I also really liked The Rockford Files, mostly because the hero was an antihero, and the show pushed the boundaries of TV by making the series almost noir-ish. Well...as noir-ish as was possible back in the days of only three broadcast networks.

Unlike many here, I think there are a lot of really smart TV shows now -- but you have to really hunt them down. Burn Notice, which aired on USA this past summer was one that I thought was very entertaining and clever. I'm looking forward to its return -- assuming the writers strike doesn't drag out too long. I'm also enjoying Pushing Daisies, which is a new show this season. I like how it manages to be both romantic AND edgy at the same time. Quite a tricky thing to successfully pull off, and for me, part of the fun of tuning in every week is to see if they manage to do it yet again.

Oh, and for fans of Stephen J. Cannell, I've unearthed an interview with him from something called the "Archive of American Television". I haven't watched all of the interview, but it looks very lengthy, and each part has gotten high marks from viewers.

Stephen J. Cannell Interviews

I gotta go with MacGyver, followed closely by Star Trek: The Original Series.

BTW, I like your picks grapeshot!

I have to admit, I too ...

"gotta go with MacGyver"
and
"In the seventies I really liked WKRP In Cincinnati"

But I found that (for me) MacGyver really hasn't held up over the years quite as well as Magnum. Last Xmas, I got the 1st season of both shows as gifts. I watched MacGyver first, and it was OK, but Magnum got me hooked all over again!

Highlander was a great series in the 1990's.

Of course, this Wednesday night, we'll be sitting down to watch the Thanksgiving Day episode from the first season DVD of WKRP ... "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Kahunagirl

From that list, I gotta go with Star Trek. It's earned a really geeky reputation over the years, but the original is still so much fun and so creative. I never got into any of the spinoffs, though. The writing improved but I always thought they made everything else far too serious and dull.

Most of the shows I grew up watching in the 80's haven't aged well at all. There was a time when I thought the Dukes of Hazzard was the greatest thing in the world. Now I can barely sit through five minutes whenever I see it on cable.

Highlander was a great series in the 1990's.

Hey, I kind of liked that one, too. Recently I purchased several seasons and watched selected episodes. I found that they've held up well over the intervening decade. One of the things that I particularly noted this time around was the impressive use of locations in Paris and France. It gives a rather decadent elegance to the look of the show which I think serves it really well. I haven't had a chance to check out episodes which are set in "Seacouver", but I suspect that a location in the New World just can't stack up to a location in the Old World.

Doc Ibold wrote:Knight Rider, baby!

Good to know I'm not the only one here who likes Knight rider. Apart from Magnum.