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HOLLYWOOD'S 100 FAVORITE TV SHOWS AS OF SEPTEMBER 2015 UPDATE.

50/100 - Freaks and Geeks - (1999-2000) NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

"People still come up to me and say, 'Your show saved me,'" says Linda Cardellini, 40, who played geek-turned-freak Lindsay Weir in co-creators Judd Apatow and Paul Feig's high school drama.

"It was a bittersweet show, and that's probably why it didn't survive for long. I remember executives feeling bad that the characters were always losing. They'd say, 'Can't something good happen to them?' But the show wasn't about the shiny people. It was about real kids."

49/100 - Orphan Black - (2013-Present) BBC America

Courtesy of BBC America

Star Tatiana Maslany, 29, plays multiple characters (but only has been nominated for one Emmy) in this Canada-produced thriller about a conspiracy to reshape humankind with cloning.

"The show has resonated with people because the themes are universal — identity, body autonomy, these are things people care about," says Maslany. "And it's just a weird show — that's what I love about it."

48/100 - The Golden Girls - (1985-1992) NBC

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Betty White originally auditioned for the role of sex-hungry Blanche but was "concerned the part might seem too close to Sue Ann Nivens from The Mary Tyler Moore Show," says the 93-year-old actress.

The sitcom about a bunch of older ladies — NBC president Brandon Tartikoff came up with the idea after spending time with an elderly aunt — was anything but stodgy, dealing with such subjects as AIDS and gay marriage.

47/100 - The Dick Van Dyke Show - (1961-1966) CBS

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"I get great pleasure from kids coming up to me and saying they became comedy writers because of The Dick Van Dyke Show," says Carl Reiner, 93, who based his Kennedy-era classic sitcom on his own experiences as a TV scribe.

"Conan O'Brien told me the show made him want to be a writer, and I thought that was pretty great."

46/100 - Veep - (2012-Present) HBO

Here's the downside of playing president — or even vice president — on TV: If you're any good at it, people take you too seriously. "I'm just trying to make a funny-as-shit show," says Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 54. "But I get asked questions as if I were running for office."

45/100 - Homeland - (2011-Present) Showtime

David Bloomer/SHOWTIME

This dark political drama has an eerie knack for pulling storylines out of headlines before those headlines are even printed. Says co-creator Alex Gansa, "If you look at the news now, a former ambassador to Pakistan is being accused of selling secrets," which happens to be a plot point that played out in the show's fourth season. "It's uncanny and bizarre," he notes, "but it's all serendipity."

44/100 - Downton Abbey - (2010-Present) ITV, PBS

Courtesy of BBC America

Sure, it's on PBS. And yes, it's full of Edwardian footmen and snooty butlers. But don't be fooled. "The biggest misconception about our show is that it's a comedy of manners," EP Gareth Neame, 48, recently told THR.

"But we have these shocking twists. It always seems to be a shock when the story goes on a big right angle." Creator Julian Fellows is still in awe of the runaway success of Downton. But he speculates it may have something to do with a desire for a show that reached across class lines. "If it had been made in the '50s, the servants would have been there for comedic relief.

And if it had been made in the '90s, the Crawley's would have been vile," Fellows notes. "But Downton treated the characters upstairs and downstairs equally. It was a show about social change and democracy that on the surface looked comfortingly familiar."

43/100 - The Carol Burnett Show - (1967-1978) CBS

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"The network tried to talk me out of doing a variety show, claiming it was a man's game," recalls Carol Burnett, 82. "But because of a special clause in my contract giving me the choice between an hour variety show or a sitcom, they had to give us 30 weeks, pay or play!"

42/100 - Castle - (2009-Present) ABC

Adam Larkey/ABC

This procedural about a mystery writer moonlighting as an NYPD detec¬tive gets solid ratings, if not much love from critics. But being a critical darling isn't everything.

"I tend to safeguard how cool Castle isn't," says star Nathan Fillion, 44.

41/100 - Happy Days - (1974-1984) ABC

Courtesy of Photofest

The network had one note regarding Fonzie: Lose the threatening-looking leather jacket. But producer Garry Marshall argued that the jacket was motorcycle safety equipment, and a compromise was reached: Fonzie could wear it when his bike was on the screen.

"That's why you saw the motorcycle in Mr. C's kitchen," explains Anson Williams, 65, who played Potsie. "And in Fonzie's apartment and at Arnold's …"

40/100 - Frasier - (1993-2004) NBC

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Kelsey Grammer was hesitant to spin off his Cheers character, so producers Peter Casey, David Angell and David Lee came up with the idea of Grammer playing an eccentric Malcolm Forbes-like billionaire who was paralyzed. NBC hated it, so Frasier Crane it was.

NBC was in such a rush to get the show on the air that the network barely had time for notes. "They might have really dissected the thing," says Casey. "Instead they said, 'Let's roll.' "

39/100 - All in the Family - (1971-1979) CBS

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"In those days, everybody knew an Archie Bunker," creator Norman Lear, 93, told THR last year about his struggle to get a "lovable bigot" on TV.

"The network was worried about everything — the tone of the show, the lead character and what he might say. It took three years to get on the air because we made no real concessions."

38/100 - Friday Night Lights - (2006-2011) NBC

courtesy of Photofest

Before they signed on for the family drama, Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler had one note for creator Peter Berg: "We did not want to be jumping into bed with other people and constantly at odds," says Britton, 48.

"There's an old falsity that a working relationship is not going to be interesting to watch."

37/100 - Dexter - (2006-2013) Showtime

Showtime

TV's first serial killer protagonist murdered at least 55 people over the course of eight years, and yet somehow Dexter remained remarkably relatable.

"If we were offing kindergartners and grandmas, all bets would be off in terms of the audience rooting for him," admits star Michael C. Hall, 44. "In the end, I suppose, there's a frustrated vigilante spirit in many of us."

36/100 - The Muppet Show - (1976-1981) Syndicated

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It's amazing what can be done with felt. "There's something wonderful about the honesty of the characters," says Jim Henson protege Bill Prady.

"What made the characters endearing was that they wore their hearts on their sleeves. They lived life all the way out." They'll soon be living it out again; Prady is producing a revived series (a late-night talk show with Miss Piggy hosting, natch) with all the original characters, coming to ABC on Sept. 22.

35/100 - Star Trek - (1966-1969) NBC

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"Maybe the special effects weren't great, or they had to make certain costuming decisions, but when you heard that music, you knew you were going to get something wonderful," says screenwriter Robert Gordon, whose love of Trek led him to write the 1999 feature film Galaxy Quest.

"Every show was a big idea. An allegory about Vietnam or man's nature in the universe or how power can corrupt."

34/100 - South Park - (1997-Present) Comedy Central

Photofest

George Clooney probably is the man most responsible for getting Matt Stone and Trey Parker's R-rated cartoon on the air.

When a primitive prototype "Christmas episode" started making the rounds on VHS in Hollywood in the mid-'90s, the star loved it so much that he supposedly had 300 VHS copies made and passed them out to friends. Clooney has done voice work on the show.

33/100 - Sherlock (U.K.) - (2010-Present) BBC, PBS

Courtesy of Photofest

Bringing the 19th century sleuth into the 21st century was, um, elementary, according to co-creator Steven Moffat, 53.

"There's a harmony between the two eras. Back then, people wrote journals; now they write blogs. People sent telegrams; now they're called texts …"

32/100 - Parks and Recreation - (2009-2015) NBC

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Chris Pratt came back for the sixth season with a new career as a movie star, and now Aziz Ansari has a show on Netflix while Amy Poehler has become the embodiment of Joy (in Inside Out).

"In 50 years, it's going to be mind-blowing that this cast was all on the same TV program," says showrunner Mike Schur, 39.

31/100 - The Office (U.S.) - (2005-2013) NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

Adapting Ricky Gervais' workplace sitcom for American TV was "nerve-racking," says EP Greg Daniels, 52. Especially because all of Daniels' friends were huge fans of the British version.

"It was every single intelligent comedy person I respected," he says. "I had dreams that I would be brought up in front of comedy court and they would say, 'What have you done?!'"

30/100 - The Wire - (2002-2008) HBO

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It's not just one of Hollywood's favorite shows but also that of a certain resident of Washington, D.C. "I'm a huge fan," President Obama said in March, when he invited creator David Simon to the White House.

"I think it's one of the greatest, not just television shows, but pieces of art in the last couple of decades."

29/100 - Six Feet Under - (2001-2005) HBO

Every episode of the funeral home drama opened with a shocking death — getting struck by lightning, getting cut in half by an elevator — but that wasn't cable-edgy enough to satisfy HBO.

Recalls creator Alan Ball, 58: "The note I got — probably my favorite note ever — was, 'It feels a little safe. Can you just make the whole thing a little more f—ed up?'"

28/100 - ER - (1994-2009) NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

The smash hit medical drama made household names out of George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. But at first, NBC hated it. "They were very vocal about that fact," says EP John Wells, 59.

"We were telling 10, 12, 13 stories in an hour — it was too much. But we tested it, and NBC put it on the air. By November, we were the No. 1 show in America and on the cover of Newsweek."

27/100 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - (1997-2003) WB, UPN

Courtesy of Photofest

Nearly 20 years since its debut, Buffy remains ahead of its time for mak¬ing a female superhero the star of the show.

So far ahead of its time that creator Joss Whedon, 51, jokes about what the network notes might look like if he pitched the show today: " 'Can't we make her more passive?' " he chuckles.

26/100 - Orange Is the New Black (No. 26) - (2013-Present) Netflix

Photofest

"She does not follow anybody's ideas about what she should be," says Shonda Rhimes of Jenji Kohan, 46, creator of this groundbreaking women's prison drama.

"I see Orange Is the New Black and I think, 'I never would have thought of that in a million years.' I can't stop watching."

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