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CATEGORY; ENTERTAINMENT - MOVIES/TV Shows.

AUG 11

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

75/100 - Doctor Who - (1963-1989) BBC, PBS

Courtesy of Photofest

"He's the perfect TV character," says Steven Moffat, 53, showrunner of the new Who, which continues the sci-fi adventures of the longest-running character in TV history, a Time Lord who travels the space-time continuum in a phone booth (airing in the U.S. on BBC America).

"You can do anything — high adventure, a love story, a comedy. When you get bored of one Doctor, a new one pops up."




74/100 - 24 HOURS - (2001-2010) Fox

Courtesy of Photofest

"We were shooting our fourth or fifth episode when the World Trade Center towers went down," recalls producer Howard Gordon, 54. "We thought, 'Well, this is done.

Who is going to want to watch this show?' " A lot of people wanted to watch the real-time adventures of federal agent Jack Bauer, including fans like Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh.




73/100 - Alfred Hitchcock Presents - (1955-1962) CBS, NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

The original TV fright fest from the master of horror. "It was a chance each week to get something new," says The X-Files creator Chris Carter, a childhood fan. "Television anthologies are sorely missing on TV today."




72/100 - Mork & Mindy - (1978-1982) ABC



"There was one time we were wait¬ing backstage," recalls Pam Dawber, 63, who played Mindy opposite Robin Williams' wacky Mork.

"I noticed a robe lying around, and I put it on and started dancing, singing, 'Hare Krishna.' Then Robin put on a robe and started dancing, too. He even found a tambou-rine. Everybody laughed so hard, the whole thing ended up staying in the show."




71/100 - Saved by the Bell - (1989-1993) NBC

NBC

This high school series was famous for its romantic pairings, but it was the interracial hookup between Zack and Lisa that elicited the strongest fan response.

"We got thousands of letters," says exec producer Peter Engel, 55. "But it wasn't, 'How could there be a black and white kiss?' It was, 'How could Zack kiss Screech's girlfriend?' I was proud of that."




70/100 - I Dream of Jeannie - (1965-1970) NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

"The day the show got picked up was also the day I found out I was pregnant," recalls star Barbara Eden, 84. "I went to [creator] Sidney Sheldon to tell him, assuming that they would replace me." Turns out she was irreplaceable.

For much of the first season, Eden says "I was draped in so many veils, I looked like a walking tent."




69/100 - Entourage - (2004-2011) HBO

Courtesy of HBO

"It was just taking in stories and spitting them out," is how creator Doug Ellin, 47, wrote the pulled-from-the trades plotlines of his Hollywood satire, which sometimes hit a bit too close to home.

The episode in which Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold leads a mass exodus from his agency had the character's inspiration, WME's Ari Emanuel, squirming in his seat. Says Ellin, "Ari told me he watched covering his face."




68/100 - Firefly - (2002-2003) Fox

Courtesy of Photofest

Joss Whedon's Buffy follow-up was a quirky space Western that got canceled its first season. But in that short time, the show built enough of a cult following for Fox to reassemble the cast for a feature adaptation, 2005's Serenity. "The fact that Firefly was canceled and the fans continue to come — it truly moves me," says star Nathan Fillion.




67/100 - Moonlighting - (1985-1989) ABC

Courtesy of Everett Collection

It was the charming verbal sparring between co-stars Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd that made this PI dramedy such a hit. But some also tuned in for Agnes DiPesto, the oddball receptionist who greeted every caller with a poem.

"People still call me Ms. DiPesto," says actress Allyce Beasley, 61. "She seems to have been an indelible character in a lot of people's minds."




66/100 - Taxi - (1978-1983) ABC, NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

James L. Brooks says he got the idea for the show when reading a magazine article about a cab company "where everyone had an ambition to be something else.

." He visited the company before writing the pilot and observed, he says, "a very short taxi dispatcher being given a bribe." And Danny DeVito's career was born.




65/100 - Family Guy - (1999-Present) Fox

FOX

Creator Seth MacFarlane, 41, has admitted that he based Peter Griffin, Family Guy's loudmouthed cartoon dad, on a security guard he knew while attending the Rhode Island School of Design.

"The guy could read a phone book and make me laugh," he has said. Still unanswered: Who exactly was the inspiration for Peter's English-speaking, Prius-driving, novel-writing dog?




64/100 - House - (2004-2012) Fox

Hugh Laurie, who played the crabby, Vicodin-addicted title character in this quirky medical drama, hated the show's title.

"I remember being on the phone for 45 minutes with Hugh convincing him that, no, House was a good title," says creator David Shore, 56. "Hugh felt that by calling it House, we were putting too much of a focus on one character."




63/100 - Hill Street Blues - (1981-1987) NBC

Courtesy of Photofest

"I'd get letters," recalls creator Steven Bochco, 71, of the reaction to his frenetic, envelope-pushing cop show. " 'It's too noisy, there are too many stories, the camera jig-gling makes me ill.' Critics loved it, but nobody watched."

Emmy voters loved it, too, nominating it for a 21 awards its first season. "It was the lowest-rated show ever to get picked up for a second season," Bochco notes proudly.




62/100 - Bewitched - (1964-1972) ABC

Courtesy of Photofest

Erin Murphy was a toddler when she began playing Tabitha, daughter of witch/housewife Samantha Stevens, but the 51-year-old actress vividly remembers her TV mom: "Elizabeth Montgomeryhad a dirty sense of humor, and she loved horse racing," she says. "She was amazing."




61/100 - Roseanne - (1988-1997) ABC

Courtesy of Photofest

John Goodman became an unlikely star when he landed the role of Dan Connor opposite comedy queen Roseanne Barr in her hit sitcom about a blue-collar family struggling to get by. "I probably got a bit of a swelled head now that I look back on it," says Goodman, 63. "I thought I was handling it well, but I self-dramatize a lot."




60/100 - Murphy Brown - (1988-1998) CBS

Courtesy of Photofest

Creator Diane English is certain her newsroom comedy would never make it on network TV today. "That was a time when people still respected journalists and journalism," she says. "It's hard to make heroes out of those people today."




59/100 - Monty Python's Flying Circus - (1969-1974) BBC, PBS

Courtesy of Photofest

"The only bad thing about the Pythons is that they stopped," says Anne Beatts, an original writer on SNL, a show that probably would not exist if not for the seismic shift in comedy triggered by this gleefully absurdist British sketch show.

"SNL, good or bad, has gone on for 40 years. The Pythons didn't give us that much. We were cheated."




58/100 - How I Met Your Mother - (2005-2014) CBS

Courtesy of CBS

The surprisingly poignant finale of this sitcom framed around a man explaining to his kids how he met their mother had been in the works since the very first episode (spoiler alert: Mom's dead).

Showrunners and creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays "had this vision for years," says Cristin Milioti, 30, who played Mom.




57/100 - The Good Wife - (2009-Present) CBS

Jeff Neumann/CBS

This edgy legal drama starring Julianna Margulies is so smart, and politically charged, it's often mistaken for a cable show instead of a broadcast series.

"I've heard that," says co-creator Michelle King, "but a compliment is a compliment. I'm delighted to take it."




56/100 - The Wonder Years - (1988-1993) ABC

Courtesy of Photofest

"It was terrifying," Fred Savage, 39, once said about his first kiss, which happened to occur onscreen in the pilot of this sweetly nostalgic series about growing up in the suburbs in the late '60s. Just his luck, it took six takes to get it right.

"The one good thing about getting your first kiss on camera," noted co-star Danica McKellar, "is that you know for sure it's going to happen."




55/100 - Star Trek: The Next Generation - (1987-1994) Syndicated

Courtesy of Photofest

"I'm not going to have a bald Englishman playing the new Capt. Kirk," Gene Roddenberry supposedly said when pitched the idea of Patrick Stewart helming The Enterprise in the space series sequel.

According to Chaos on the Bridge, a new William Shatner-directed doc about TNG, Roddenberry insisted Stewart wear a toupee. Stewart had his hairpiece Fed-Ex'd from London before he read for the part along with the other two finalists: Mitchell Ryan and Yaphet Kotto. Stewart was so good, Roddenberry relented: "Hair won't matter in the 25th century."




54/100 - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - (1990-1996) NBC

Everett Collection

"In every country in the world, it is the thing that I am most known for," Will Smith, 46, has said of the upbeat family sitcom that first made him a star. "No matter how big the movies get, it's the Fresh Prince."




53/100 - Curb Your Enthusiasm - (1999-2011) HBO

Courtesy of HBO

Larry David's Seinfeld follow-up didn't require a whole lot of writing. It was almost all improv. "If you were a guest actor, you didn't get to read anything," says co-star and EP Jeff Garlin, 53. "We would just tell you what the scene is about."




52/100 - True Detective - (2014-Present) HBO

HBO

Nic Pizzolatto's postmodern take on noir cop thrillers sparked a network bidding war that included Netflix and HBO. "I really admire Netflix," says Pizzolatto, 39.

"I use it as much as anybody on the planet. In the end, though, it was the model of putting every episode out at once. Some shows are better off having a week in between to digest and anticipate."




51/100 - Gilmore Girls

Courtesy of Photofest

Fans weren't the only ones bummed when the mother-daughter dramedy ended its run; creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had to sit out the last season on the sidelines after her contract renegotiationswent south. "Shit happens," she philoso¬phizes.

"It wasn't like they got Saddam Hussein to come in — they left the show in the hands of our writers. But it's always a bummer when you don't get to end it."




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