#23

Monday Night RAW

January 11, 1993 at the Grand Ballroom at the Manhattan Center, a show debuted on the USA Network. 33 years later, Monday Night RAW is live weekly on Netflix, nearing its 1700th episode.

RAW has been a major influential show among the pro wrestling world. Created by Vince McMahon, RAW was shot live and dealt with storylines as they went.

Over the years, RAW has been on USA Network, Spike TV, and Netflix.

It had some of the greatest memories of WWE wrestling over the years. Just a few included:

• Mankind (Mick Foley) defeating the Rock for the WWE Championship thanks to a chair shot by Stone Cold Steve Austin (Still the largest “pop” by a crowd I have ever heard).
• D-Generation X invading rival wrestliong company WCW in a tank.
• CM Punk’s “pipebomb” promo
• Stone Cold Steve Austin’s confrontation with Mike Tyson
• The SHIELD collapsing when Set Rollins turned on his brothers in the SHIELD.
• Shane McMahon showed up on Monday Nitro to official purchase WCW out from under his father.
• Edge and Lita had a “live-sex celebration”
• The Dudley Boys put 80 + year old Mae Young through a table off the stage.
• Mr. McMahon’s limosine exploded… with him inside!
• Brian Pillman brings out a gun to prevent Stone Cold’s home invasion.
• Chris Jericho debuts, interrupting the Rock, bringing Y2J to the WWE.
• Mick zfoley hosts “This is your Life” for The Rock.
• Triple H reveals that he had married Stephanie McMahon in Vegas.

After 33 years, the show continues to surprise and create the controversy necessary for headlines to be made.

#24

Boston Legal

Denny Crane….

Boston Legal was a spin off of The Practice on ABC that ran for five seasons. It spun off the character of Alan Shore, who arrived in the final season of The Practice. Played by James Spader, Alan was a morally-compromised lawyer with a heart of gold who was happy to take on any seemingly unwinnable case.

He was paired with Denny Crane, a legend of a lawyer who, at times, just had to say his name to express his power. Denny Crane was played by Willaim Shatner in the most over-the-top manner. Spader and Shatner had the most amazing chemistry and comedic timing with each other. The show realized quickly what they had with this pairing and turned them into the biggest bromance ever seen on TV.

The show, produced by David E. Kelley, was set at the Boston law firm, Crane, Poole & Schmidt. The firm tackled every case imaginable, including against tobacco, big pharm, and the US Government.

Denny Crane was as eccentric as imaginable, but he was dealing with the early onset of Alzheimer’s Disease, which he would joke was Mad Cow, and the struggle of someone as larger than life as Denny Crane not being as in control than he once was.

The cast changed over the five seasons, but it included Candace Bergen, René Auberjonois, Julie Bowen, Mark Valley, Gary Anthony Williams, John Larroquette, Christian Clemenson, Constance Zimmer, Lake Bell and Rhona Mitre.

One of the features of the show was the big final argument that the lawyers, especially Alan Shore, would deliver to the jury in their weekly case. Always compelling, the closing argument highlighted the issue of the week.

Boston Legal was funny, dramatic and worked on multiple levels.

#25

Only Murders in the Building

As we kick off the top 25, we come to Hulu’s greatest success story, a murder mystery show that is both clever and hilarious. There are three reasons why Only Murders in the Building is such a sensation: Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.

The trio has so much charisma and chemistry that the show could have been just them getting on, but it is so much more than just that.

The mysteries each season are written so well, with twists and turns that few shows are able to accomplish, while still being laugh out loud funny. It is a show where major celebrities want to join up for small orles or cameos. Just to name a few, Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Christoph Waltz, Dianne Wiest, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Renée Zellweger, plus notable stars Nathan Lane, Bobby Cannavale, Jane Lynch, Melissa McCarthy, Sting, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey, Richard Kind, Shirley MacLaine, Andrea Martin, Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis, Molly Shannon, Kumail Nanjiani, Eva Longoria, and Logan Lerman, among others.

Each season has found its own voice. The show has never fallen into formula, which is an impressive feat considering. Season three, which centered around the development of Oliver’s Broadway play, had some of the best songs from any show throughout that season (particularly Martin’s performance of “Which of the Pickwick Triplets Did It?” .

The real life friendship between Steve Martin and Martin Short comes through on film, but who would have expected that Selina Gomez would be able to fit into that pairing with such a perfect fluidity. It never felt like she was forced in. It always felt as if she fit beautifully.

Only Murders in the Building has had five seasons and has been renewed for a sixth season on Hulu.

#27

Daredevil

The Man Without Fear made his way to Netflix and what we got was brutal, violent, and brilliant.

Daredevil had three seasons on Netflix, before going back to Marvel Studios where they put out Daredevil: Born Again.

This show was supremely awesome for several reasons. It took people’s breath away with its hallway one-shot battles and its deacpitations with car doors.

Matt Murdock, blind attoney-at-law, was played by Charlie Cox and his main antagonist, Wilson Fisk, was played by Vincent D’Onofrio, and you could not have found two better actors. So great were they that, when Marvel got the rights back and were planning to do something different with Daredevil, they decided why fight the fan outrage because they simply could not replace these actors. No one would accept the recast.

The rest of the cast was great too. It included Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal, Rosario Dawson, Elodie Yung, Ayelet Zurer, Toby Leonard Moore, Wilson Bethel, Scott Glenn, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and Bob Gunton.

The show was so well written and enjoyable that Matt did not get into his Daredevil costume until the final episode of season one and people were okay with it.

Dardevil: Born Again will have a seaon two on Disney + continuing the legacy of these characters who made such an impact on Netflix.

#30

Bates Motel

Bates Motel was based on Alfred Hitchcock’s movie Psycho, though it took some step that the movie did not take. And it was for the better.

Bates Motel was on A&E and went five seasons.

I loved Bates Motel. It was so insanely well written and acted that these already iconic characters became even more so.

Freddie Highmore played Norman Bates as a teen and his performance as the mentally imbalanced youth was amazing. You knew Norman’s destiny, but you just could not help but hope they would find a way around it.

Vera Farmiga played Norma Bates and she brought the character to life. She was spirited, passionate and a force of nature and you wished beyond all hope that she would not end up dead as a corpse in the attic. Her realtionship on the show with Nestor Carbonell’s Sheriff Alex Romero is one of my favorite TV couples of all time. Both of these damaged characters absolutely came to life when they got together. It was way too short of a relationship.

Of course, the signature relationship of Bates Motel was between Norman and Norma. The relationship bordered on obsessive from both sides and the toxicity was obvious. Another excellent addition to the show was Norma’s other son, Dylan, played by Max Thieriot. The second son brought such an unknown quality to the show and became one of my favorite characters on the canvas.

You were never quite sure where the show was going. It combined amazing drama with horror and mysteries that seemed to have clear answers, yet you were never quite sure.

As a “contemporary prequel” to Psycho, Bates Motel was a thrill a minute.

#31

X-Men ’97

When it was announced that Marvel Studios was going to do an animated show that picked up after the X-Men: Animated Series from the 1990s, lots of people were interested.

Who would have guessed that it was going to be one of the best things Marvel Studios had done on Disney +?

The return to the world of the X-Men took the best of the show from the ’90s and blended it with some of the best of animation from today. The animation of the show had the flavor of the original, but was also drastically improved and was beautifully rendered.

Some characters really got to shine in the new version. Cyclops, who has never been portrayed well in live action or animation, was immediately shown to be the brilliant character that he was. The show took quite a risk with the character of Wolverine. Undoubtedly the most popular X-Man, Wolverine spent most of the time of the first season on the back burner as other X-Men such as Rogue, Cyclops, Gambit, Nightcrawler took center stage. Wolverine was still there to do something awesome, but he was not everything to the story.

Then, episode five, a show called “Remember It” is, arguably, the best television episode ever done by Marvel. There is no denying that “Remember It” hit hard and showed what kind of storytelling this show was going to present.

X-Men ’97 will be returning for a second season and it was well deserved.

#32

Happy Days

Flashback to the 1950s. A simpler time. When the most important thing was to be cool.

Happy Days was a sitcom on ABC and lasted for 11 seasons. The shows ensemble featured the Cunningham family, Richie’s friends, and a leather-jacked clad mechanic named Arthur Fonzerelli, aka The Fonz.

While the show started off with the Cunninghams, Howard, Marian, Richie, and Joanie (oh, and the totally forgotten Chuck), the show developed into a show about Fonzie and his life. The Fonz became one of the most standout characters of the show (including becoming a member of the EYG Hall of Fame).

The show included an ensemble cast of top line actors including Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Tom Bosley, Marion Ross, Anson Williams, Erin Moran, Donnie Most, Pat Morita, Scott Baio, Al Molinaro, and Lynda Goodfriend.

The friendship between Richie and Fonzie became a center piece of the show, and it was still able to survive when, after seven seasons, Ron Howard left Happy Days to start a career in directing. Though the show tried, they never replaced that Fonzie-Richie bond that had carried the early years of the show.

Happy Days led to several spin offs, including the exceptional Mork & Mindy and Laverne & Shirley.

#34

The Practice

David E. Kelley has created several hugely awesome shows. This is the first one to break the top 100 at the EYG Top 100 (but won’t be the last).

The Practice is set at a small, private law firm in Boston where a group of lawyers, specifically defense attorneys, dealt with moral choices and legal ethics, and, as Kelley stated, was created as a balance to NBC’s LA Law.

The show ran for eight seasons on ABC and won several Emmy Awards.

The ensemble cast was one of the strongest on TV. It featured Dylan McDermott, LisaGay Hamilton, Steve Harris, Camryn Manheim, Kelli Williams, Michael Badalucco, Lara Flynn Boyle, Marla Sokoloff, Jason Kravits, and James Spader.

The Practice had some of the best courtroom drama on TV as the show’s specialty was the closing arguments when the lawyers of Donnell, Young, Dole and Frutt made their final push to defend their clients vigorously. Many times, especially the episodes where there would be defending rapists, the cases were morally questionable and they would step up with some of the most questionable tactics. Yet the show never failed to portray the lawyers of the firm in a noble light, speaking about how difficult being a defense attorney could be.

#35

Murphy Brown

Politics and the media. Murphy Brown was a show ahead of its time.

At the fictional news television newsmagazine program, FYI, investiagtive journalist Murphy Brown searched for the scoops and traversed the ups and downs of Washngton, D.C. with her crew of fellow reporters.

Murphy Brown, played by Candice Bergen, was one of the top sitcoms on CBS and was genuinely funny. It used current world politics to tell some remarkably hilarious stories.

When real world Vice President Dan Quayle made a remark about the fictional TV show Murphy Brown, the show took it into their fictional world and ran with it into a feud with the sitting VP. I would love to have seen what Murphy Brown would have done with Donald Trump (though he was mentioned during a 2017 revival of the shw that lasted one season).

As it is with many of these types of shows, the ensemble’s chemistry is what truly makes the show work. This is true for Murphy Brown as well as Candice Bergen was joined by Charles Kinbrough, Joe Regalbuto, Grant Shaud, Faith Ford, Pat Corley, Robert Pastorelli and eventually Lily Tomlin.

One of the running gags throughout the show was the inability for Murphy Brown to keep a secretary. The joke allowed a countless number of fun cameos over the 10+ seasons of the show.

The multiple Emmy winning show dealt with many issues outside of politics, including breast cancer, feminism, family and single mothers.

#36

Breaking Bad

Considered by many the greatest show on TV, Breaking Bad was a show that I came to in a different manner.

I had never been interested in the show, despite the cultural significance that it was having. It was around the fourth season that I decided to go back and watch the show from the beginning. The first couple of seasons felt kind of… okay. I did not love the show in the first handful of episodes. In fact, near the beginning of season three, I actually considered stopping watching it. The whole plane crash stuff was nearly the straw that broke my back.

I am so glad that I stuck with the show. Almost immediately the show felt better. In season three, I became engaged and enthralled by the characters and the story it was telling. I can’t believe that I nearly gave up on the show.

By the end of the fifth and final season, Breaking Bad was one of my favorite shows on TV at the time.

The all-star cast was sensational. The cast included Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, RJ Mitte, Betsy Brandt, Giancarlo Esposito, Jonathan Banks, and Bob Odenkirk.

The character of Walter White is one of the greatest characters in TV history and the comple performance from Bryan Cranston earned him four Emmy Awards for best Actor in a Drama and Aaron Paul’s work as Jesse Pinkman won him three Emmy Awards for best Supporting Actor in a Drama.

#37

Stranger Things

Stranger Things is one of Netflix’s biggest shows of all time. A supernatural/action/comedy/horror show that grabs you with a ton of nostalgia and coming-to-age drama among a group of wonderful characters that are as charismatic as you could believe.

It started off as a mystery as young Will Byers disappeared. His friends become enveloped in the mystery and the dangers of the Upside Down, a hostile nearby dimension with creatures and monsters.

The cast is sensational. It included  Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Cara Buono, Matthew Modine, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Sean Astin, Paul Reiser, Maya Hawke, Priah Ferguson, Brett Gelman, Jamie Campbell Bower, Eduardo Franco, Joseph Quinn, and Amybeth McNulty.

However, the key to the show is the kids. Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schapp have unbelievable chemistry together and when you add in the special talent of Millie Bobby Brown, you have something truly special.

The show has run for four seasons, with the fifth and final season preparing to drop later this month.