List of 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time by Writers Guild of America

List of 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time by Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced the list of the 101 Best-Written TV Series, honoring seven decades of outstanding television programming and the writers who brought it all to life.

The list was determined through online voting by WGAW and WGAE members.

Following is the list of 101 Best-Written TV Series of All Time by Writers Guild of America

Rank Series Title Network Writer(s)*

1 The Sopranos HBO Created by David Chase

2 Seinfeld NBC Created by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld

3 The Twilight Zone (1959) CBS Season One writers: Charles Beaumont, Richard
Matheson, Robert Presnell, Jr., Rod Serling
Four All in the Family CBS
Developed for Television by Norman Lear, Based on Till
Death Do Us Part, Created by Johnny Speight

5  M*A*S*H  CBS  Developed for Television by Larry Gelbart

6  The Mary Tyler
Moore Show  CBS  Created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns

7  Mad Men  AMC  Created by Matthew Weiner

8  Cheers  NBC
Created by Glen Charles & Les Charles and James
Burrows

9  The Wire  HBO  Created by David Simon

10  The West Wing  NBC  Created by Aaron Sorkin

11  The Simpsons  FOX
Created by Matt Groening, Developed by James L.
Brooks and Matt Groening and Sam Simon

12  I Love Lucy  CBS
“Pilot,” Written by Jess Oppenheimer & Madelyn Pugh &
Bob Carroll, Jr.

13  Breaking Bad  AMC  Created by Vince Gilligan

14  The Dick Van Dyke
Show  CBS  Created by Carl Reiner

15  Hill Street Blues  NBC  Created by Michael Kozoll and Steven Bochco

16  Arrested Development  FOX  Created by Mitchell Hurwitz

17  The Daily Show with Jon Stewart COMEDY CENTRAL
Created by Madeleine Smithberg, Lizz Winstead; Season
One – 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

18  Six Feet Under  HBO  Created by Alan Ball

19  Taxi  ABC
Created by James L. Brooks and Stan Daniels and David
Davis and Ed Weinberger

20  The Larry Sanders
Show  HBO  Created by Garry Shandling & Dennis Klein

21  30 Rock  NBC  Created by Tina Fey

22  Friday Night Lights  NBC
Developed for Television by Peter Berg, Inspired by the
Book by H.G. Bissinger

23  Frasier  NBC
Created by David Angell & Peter Casey & David Lee,
Based on the Character “Frasier Crane” Created by Glen
Charles & Les Charles

24  Friends  NBC  Created by Marta Kauffman & David Crane

25  Saturday Night Live  NBC
Season One: Writing Supervised by Walter Kempley,
Harry Shearer; Written by: Ann Beatts, Chevy Chase,
Tom Davis, Al Franken, Rosie Michaels, Garrett Morris,
Michael O'Donoghue, Herb Sargent, Tom Schiller, Alan
Zweibel

26  The X-Files  FOX  Created by Chris Carter

27  Lost  ABC
Created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon
Lindelof

28  ER  NBC  Created Michael Crichton

29  The Cosby Show  NBC
Created by Ed Weinberger & Michael Leeson and William
Cosby, Jr., Ed. D.

30  Curb Your
Enthusiasm  HBO  Created by Larry David

31  The Honeymooners  CBS
Season One writers: Herbert Finn, Marvin Marx, A.J.
Russell, Leonard Stern, Walter Stone, Sydney Zelinka

32  Deadwood  HBO  Created by David Milch

33  Star Trek  NBC  Created by Gene Roddenberry

34  Modern Family  ABC  Created by Steven Levitan & Christopher Lloyd

35  Twin Peaks  ABC  “Pilot,” Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch

36  NYPD Blue  ABC  Created by David Milch & Steven Bochco

37  The Carol Burnett
Show  CBS
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

38  Battlestar Galactica
(2005)  SYFY
Developed by Ronald D. Moore, Based on the Series
Battlestar Galactica Created by Glen A. Larson

39  Sex & the City  HBO
Created by Darren Star, Based on the Book by Candace
Bushnell

40  Game of Thrones  HBO
Created by David Benioff & D. B. Weiss, Based on A
Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin

41  The Bob Newhart
Show  *TIE  CBS  Created by David Davis and Lorenzo Music

42-   Your Show of Shows *TIE  NBC Season One: Written by Mel Tolkin, Lucille Kallen, Max
Liebman

43  Downton Abbey  *TIE  PBS  Created by Julian Fellowes

44-   Law & Order  *TIE  NBC  Created by Dick Wolf

45-  thirtysomething  *TIE  ABC  Created by Marshall Herskovitz & Edward Zwick

46  Homicide: Life on the Street  *TIE  NBC
Created by Paul Attanasio, Based on the Book Homicide:
A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon

  47-St. Elsewhere  *TIE  CBS
Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey, Developed by
Mark Tinker / John Masius

48  Homeland  SHOWTIME
Developed by Howard Gordon & Alex Gansa, Based on
the Original Israeli Series Prisoners of War by Gideon
Raff

49  Buffy the Vampire
Slayer  WB  Created by Joss Whedon

50  The Colbert Report
*TIE
COMEDY
CENTRAL
Season One writers: Stephen Colbert, Rich Dahm, Eric
Drysdale, Peter Gwinn, Jay Katsir, Laura Krafft, Allison
Silverman

 51- The Good Wife  *TIE  CBS  Created by Robert King & Michelle King

52-The Office (UK) *TIE  BBC  Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant

53  Northern Exposure  CBS  Created by Joshua Brand & John Falsey

54  The Wonder Years  ABC  Created by Neal Marlens & Carol Black

55  L.A. Law  NBC  Created by Steven Bochco & Terry Louise Fisher

56  Sesame Street  PBS  Created by Joan Ganz Cooney

57  Columbo  NBC  Created by Richard Levinson & William Link

58  Fawlty Towers  *TIE  BBC  Written by John Cleese & Connie Booth

59-  The Rockford Files  *TIE  NBC  Created by Roy Huggins and Stephen J. Cannell

60  Freaks and Geeks  *TIE  NBC  Created by Paul Feig

61-  Moonlighting  *TIE  ABC  Created by Glenn Gordon Caron

62  Roots  ABC
Written by William Blinn, M. Charles Cohen, Ernest Kinoy,
James Lee; Based on the Book by Alex Haley

63  Everybody Loves
Raymond  *TIE  CBS  Created by Philip Rosenthal

64-   South Park  *TIE  COMEDY CENTRAL
Created by Matt Stone & Trey Parker

65  Playhouse 90  CBS
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 D. 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

66  Dexter  *TIE  SHOWTIME
Developed for Television by James Manos, Jr., Based on
the Novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

67-  The Office (US)  *TIE  NBC
Created by Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant,
Developed by Greg Daniels, Based on the BBC Series
The Office

68  My So-Called Life  ABC  Created by Winnie Holzman

69  The Golden Girls  NBC  Created by Susan Harris

70  The Andy Griffith Show  CBS
Episode 1, “The New Housekeeper,” Written by Jack
Elinson and Charles Stewart

71  24  *TIE  FOX  Created by Joel Surnow & Robert Cochran

72-   Roseanne  *TIE  ABC
Created by Matt Williams, Based on a Character Created
by Roseanne Barr

73-  The Shield  *TIE  FX  Created by Shawn Ryan

74  House  *TIE  FOX  Created by David Shore

75-  Murphy  Brown  *TIE  CBS  Created by Diane English

76  Barney Miller  *TIE  ABC  Created by Danny Arnold & Theodore J. Flicker

77-  I, Claudius  *TIE  PBS  Written by Rupert Graves and Jack Pulman

78  The Odd Couple  ABC
Episode 1, “The Fight of the Felix,” Written by Peggy
Elliott & Ed Scharlach

79  Alfred Hitchcock
Presents  *TIE  CBS
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

80-   Monty Python’s
Flying Circus  *TIE  BBC
Conceived and Written by Graham Chapman, John
Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Terry Jones,
Michael Palin

81-   Star Trek: The Next
Generation  *TIE  SYN  Created by Gene Roddenberry

82-  Upstairs, Downstairs  *TIE  PBS  Created by Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins

83  Get Smart  NBC  “Pilot,” Written by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry

84  The Defenders  *TIE  CBS  Created by Reginald Rose

85-   Gunsmoke  *TIE  CBS
Episode 1, “Matt Gets It,” Written by Charles Marquis
Warren & John Meston

86  Justified  *TIE  FX
Developed for Television by Graham Yost, Based on the
Short Story “Fire in the Hole” by Elmore Leonard

87-   Sgt. Bilko (The Phil
Silvers Show)  *TIE  CBS  Created by Nat Hiken

88  Band of Brothers  HBO
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

89  Rowan & Martin’s
Laugh-In  NBC
Season One: Written by Chris Beard, Phil Hahn, John
Hanrahan, Coslough Johnson, Paul Keyes, Marc London,
Allan Manings, David Panich, Hugh Wedlock, Digby Wolfe

90  The Prisoner  CBS
Premiere Episode: Written by George Markstein and
David Tomblin

91  Absolutely Fabulous
(UK)  *TIE  BBC
Episode 1, “Fashion,” Written by Jennifer Saunders,
Based on an Original Idea by Jennifer Saunders & Dawn
French

92-   The Muppet Show  *TIE  SYN
Season One: Written by Jack Burns, Jim Henson, Jerry
Juhl, Marc London

93  Boardwalk Empire  HBO
Created by Terence Winter, Based on the Book
Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson

94  Will & Grace  NBC  Created by David Kohan & Max Mutchnick

95  Family Ties  NBC  Created by Gary David Goldberg

96  Lonesome Dove
*TIE  CBS
Teleplay by Bill Wittliff, Based on the Novel Lonesome
Dove by Larry McMurtry

97-   Soap  *TIE  ABC  Created by Susan Harris

98  The Fugitive  *TIE  ABC
Episode 1, “Where the Action Is,” Written by Harry
Kronman

99-  Late Night with David
Letterman  *TIE  CBS
Season One: Writing Supervised by Merrill Markoe,
Writers: Andy Breckman, Tom Gammill, David Letterman,
Richard Morris, Gerard Mulligan, Max Pross, Karl
Tiedemann, Steve Winer

100- Louie  *TIE  FX  Season One: Written and Directed by Louis C.K.

101 Oz HBO Created by Tom Fontana

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Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Tags – Best Written TV Series USA 2013