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121
Taxi

ABC (ended 1983)

Taxi's television history is filled with contradictions. Produced by some of television comedy's most well-regarded talent, the show was canceled by two different networks. Despite winning fourteen Emmy Awards in only five seasons, the program's ratings were rock-bottom for its final seasons. Although it thrives in syndication and is still well-loved by many viewers, Taxi will be best remembered as the ancestral bridge between two of the most successful sit-coms of all time: The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers. In the mid-1970s, MTM Productions had achieved huge success with both popularity and critical appraisal. So it was an unexpected move when four of the company's finest writers and producers, James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger, jumped off the stable ship of MTM in 1978 to form their own production company, John Charles Walters Company. To launch their new venture, they looked back to an idea that Brooks and Davis had previously considered with MTM: the daily life of a New York City taxi company. From MTM head Grant Tinker they purchased the rights to the newspaper article that had initiated the concept and began producing this new show at Paramount for ABC. They brought a few other MTM veterans along for the ride, including director James Burrows and writer/producers Glen and Les Charles. Although Taxi certainly bore many of the trademark signs of "quality television" as exemplified by MTM, other changes in style and focus distinguished this from an MTM product. After working on the middle-class female-centered worlds of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis for years, the group at John Charles Walters wanted to create a program focusing on blue-collar male experience. MTM programs all had clearly defined settings, but Taxi's creators wanted a show that was firmly rooted in a city's identity--Taxi's situations and mood were distinctly New York. Despite MTM Productions innovations in creating ensemble character comedy, there was always one central star around which the ensemble revolved. In Taxi Judd Hirsch's Alex Reiger was a main character, but his importance seemed secondary to the centrality of the ensemble and the Sunshine Cab Company itself. While The Mary Tyler Moore Show proudly proclaimed that "you're going to make it on your own," the destitute drivers of Taxi were doomed to perpetual failure; the closest any of them came to happiness was Reiger's content acceptance of his lot in life--to be a cabby. Taxi debuted on 12 September 1978, amidst a strong ABC Tuesday night line-up. It followed Three's Company, a wildly-successful example of the type of show MTM "quality" sit-coms reacted against. Taxi used this strong position to end the season ninth in the ratings and garner its first of three straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show's success was due to its excellent writing, Burrows's award-winning directing using his innovative four-camera technique, and its largely unknown but talented cast. Danny DeVito's Louie DePalma soon became one of the most despised men on television--possibly the most unredeemable and worthless louse of a character ever to reside on the small screen. Andy Kaufman's foreign mechanic Latka Gravas provided over-the-top comedy within an ensemble emphasizing subtle character humor. But Kaufman sometimes also brought a demonic edge to the character, an echo of his infamous appearances on Saturday Night Live as a macho wrestler of women and Mighty Mouse lip-syncher. In the second season Christopher Lloyd's Reverend Jim Ignatowski was added to the group as television's first drugged-out '60s burn-out character. But Lloyd's Emmy-winning performance created in Jim more than just a storehouse of fried brain cells; he established a deep, complex humanity that moved far beyond mere caricature. The program launched successful movie careers for DeVito and Lloyd, as well as the fairly-notable television careers of Tony Danza and Marilu Henner; Kaufman's controversial career would certainly have continued had he not died of cancer in 1984. In its third season ABC moved Taxi from beneath Three's Company's protective wing to a more competitive Wednesday night slot; the ratings plummeted and Taxi finished the next two years in 53rd place. ABC canceled the show in early 1982 as part of a larger network push away from "quality" and toward the Aaron Spelling-produced popular fare of Dynasty and The Love Boat. HBO bid for the show, looking for it to become the first ongoing sitcom for the pay channel, but lost out to NBC, which scheduled the series for the 1982-83 season. Ironically, this reunited the show's executive producers with their former boss Tinker, who had taken over NBC. Tinker's reign at NBC was focused, not surprisingly, on "quality" programming which he hoped would attract viewers to the perennially last-place network. Taxi was partnered with a very compatible show on Thursday night--Cheers, created by Taxi veterans Charles, Burrows, and Charles. Although this line-up featured some of the great programs in television history--the comedies were sandwiched by dramas Fame and Hill St. Blues--the ratings were dreadful and Taxi finished the season in 73rd place. NBC was willing to stick by Cheers for another chance, but felt Taxi had run its course and canceled it at the end of the season. Had Taxi been given another year or two, it would have been part of one of the most successful nights on television, featuring The Cosby Show (co-created by Taxi creator Weinberger), Family Ties, Hill St. Blues, L.A. Law, and eventual powerhouse Cheers. Taxi lives on in syndication, but its most significant place in television history is as the middle generation between The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers. It served as a transition between the star-driven middle-class character comedy of MTM programs and the location-centered ensemble comedy inhabited by the losers of Cheers and Taxi. Considered one of the great sit-coms of its era, Taxi stands as a prime example of the constant tension in television programming between standards of "quality" and reliance on high ratings to determine success. --Jason Mittel The Museum of Broadcast Communicationsmoreless
122
Intelligence

HBO

In this HBO comedy series special counter intelligence operatives are undercover as disgruntled civil employees. Bradley Cooper and Patton Owalt star.
123
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Showtime (ended 2010)

In society, there are many products and ideas that we buy in to. Some of these products, services or ideas are just plain bullsh**. Well-known magicians, Penn and Teller, are here to knock some sense into people in a humorous and informal way and to explain why some things in life are just plain bullsh**.moreless
124
Last Call with Carson Daly

NBC

Hosted by Carson Daly, whose career now spans a multitude of media including network television, cable, radio and most recently, the recording industry, "Last Call" features interviews and musical performances by today's top artists and entertainers.moreless
125
The Looney Tunes Show

Cartoon Network

This is a new series with the original Looney Tunes characters reprising their roles, including Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote as well as Merrie Melodies segments returning. All of the original actors are returning to voice their characters. Bugs and Daffy goes through the suburban living while sharing the same house and meeting their colorful neighbors.moreless
126
Baby Daddy

ABC Family (Returning May 29th, 2013)

Baby Daddy is a series about Ben (Jean-Luc Bilodeau) who, in his 20s, becomes a surprise dad to a baby girl when she's left on his doorstep by an ex-girlfriend. Ben decides to raise the baby with the help of his mother Bonnie (Melissa Peterman), his brother Danny (Derek Theler), his best friend Tucker (Tahj Mowry) and his close female friend, Riley (Chelsea Kane), who has a secret crush on him.moreless
127
Death in Paradise

BBC

A BBC light-hearted drama series about an English Detective Inspector who is forced to transfer to the small Caribbean island of Saint-Marie; unfortunately, he hates sun, sea and sand.
128
A.N.T. Farm

Disney Channel (Returning May 31st, 2013)

China McClain plays Chyna Parks, a girl in middle school who has some serious singing talent and gets into a gifted program called Advanced Natural Talent at the local high school. She and her fellow "ANT's" must deal with being at high school with much older kids and trying to fit in.moreless
129
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

PBS (ended 2001)

"In a little toy neighborhood, a tiny trolley rolls past a house at the end of a street. Welcome toMister Rogers' Neighborhood." In the annals of children's TV, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood ranks among the longest-lasting and beloved shows. Upon its conclusion, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was the longest-running series in PBS history (a record eclipsed by Sesame Street in 2003). Host Fred Rogers (known to millions as simply "Mister Rogers") used his gentle charm and mannerisms to communicate with his audience of children. Topics centered on nearly every inconceivable matter of concern to children, ranging from everyday fears related to going to sleep, getting immunizations and disappointment about not getting one's way to losing a loved one to death and physical handicaps. Rogers used simple songs and, on nearly every show, segments from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe (NOM) to make his point. A scale-model trolley was often (but not always) used to segue into the Make-Believe segments, said neighborhood being inhabited by puppet characters including King Friday XIII, Lady Elaine Fairchild and Daniel Striped Tiger. Many shows also featured visits from cast members – most often Mr. McFeely (tagline: "Speedy Delivery"), Robert Trow, Joe Negri and Chef Brockett (the local baker). Many times, Rogers also visited the neighborhood shops of both the regulars and guests. Each show began and ended with a camera panning over a scale neighborhood (said to represent the town where Rogers lived). Production History While today's longer-running PBS Kids shows reinvent themselves every five years, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood achieved, throughout its 31 seasons, that rarest of elements: consistency. It is a legacy that can all be traced through every aspect of Fred Rogers' television career. Some of the characters in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, both real and imagined, had appeared in two of Fred Rogers' earlier programs, The Children's Corner for Pittsburgh's WQED in 1954 and the CBC's Misterogers in 1963. It was for Misterogers that Fred first appeared on-camera. Rogers returned to WQED in Pittsburgh to begin writing and hosting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood May 22, 1967. Several other public television stations from Chicago to Boston carried the show on a trial basis that year. Beginning February 19, 1968, the Mister Rogers' Neighborhood program that we know today, began airing nationwide on National Educational Television (NET), the predecessor to PBS. This was also the year David Newell, returned from Europe, began work for Rogers. He was in charge of the production as well as the neighborhood's Speedy Delivery service. (AN ASIDE: Rogers wanted to call the delivery man Mr. McCurdy after the man at the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, whose support launched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. But the people at Sears-Roebuck called Rogers and said "Mr. McCurdy" was too self-serving. Thus Rogers went to his roots to rename Newell's deliveryman. "McFeely" was Rogers' middle name and the last name of his maternal grandfather.) Shows were produced as a daily strip from 1968 to 1976, at which time production was suspended. Counting black-and-white episodes, 590 shows were produced in that span. Production resumed at the beginning of the remote video age in 1979. Rogers went on location more, supervising videos of how people make things (a precursor to the TVO series Here's How!). Other characters would be introduced in the subsequent two decades. In all, 305 new programs were taped from 1979 through 2001. Of that volume, the most notable shows came in 1991, with Rogers focusing on calming children's fears during the first U.S. war with Iraq. PBS gradually narrowed the window for the 460 "pre-79" episodes with each new season from 1980 onward. When the number of "post-75" episodes was enough to cover entire years, the classic shows were retired, last airing on PBS in the summer of 1995. Despite the production stoppage and the subsequent passing of Fred Rogers on February 27, 2003, PBS continues to repeat Mister Roger's Neighborhood in all its original glory–an accomplishment unique among all PBS Kids shows.moreless
130
The Amazing World of Gumball

Cartoon Network

Welcome to Elmore! This quaint little suburb isn't quite what it seems, as in Elmore, just about everything has the ability to come to life! The Amazing World Of Gumball follows the misadventures of Gumball, a twelve year old cat. With the help of his best friend Darwin, his former pet goldfish that grew legs and joined the family, he gets into all sorts of antics. He is joined by his sister, Anais, a four year old bunny with heightened intelligence. His father, Richard, and his mother, Nicole, are there to provide him support as well.moreless
131
Johnny Bravo

Cartoon Network (ended 2004)

Johnny Bravo tells the story of a biceps-bulging, karate-chopping free spirit, who believes he's a gift from God to the women of the earth. Unfortunately for Johnny, everyone else sees him as a narcissistic Mama's boy with big muscles and even bigger hair. In short, he is the quintessential guy who "just doesn't get it." No matter what he does, or where he finds himself, he always winds up being his own worst enemy.moreless
132
Hung

HBO (ended 2011)

"It's hard to make an indecent living." Thomas Jane heads up the cast in this comedy as Ray Drecker, a middle-aged basketball coach and high school History teacher who figures out how to put his exceptional physical endowments to use and change his fortunes. Forced to find an alternative source of income after a series of unfavorable events, Ray takes on a whole new profession aided by his pimp and business partner, Tanya Skagle (Jane Adams). Joining Jane and Adams are Men in Trees' Anne Heche who plays Ray's ex-wife, Jessica and Eddie Jemison as Jessica's new husband, Dr. Ronnie Haxon. Rounding up the series cast are Charlie Saxton and Sianoa Smit-McPhee who play Jessica and Ray's twin children, Damon and Darby. Created by Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin, the series is filmed both in areas of Detroit, Michigan and Los Angeles, California.moreless
133
Red Dwarf

BBC Two

3 Million Years from Earth, the mining ship Red Dwarf Its crew: Dave Lister, the last crew member alive Arnold Rimmer, a hologram simulation of his dead bunkmate Cat, a humanoid, evolved from Lister's cat. Additional: The ship's crew has come across new members: Kryten, a series 4000 mechanoid rescued from the Nova 5 Navigation Officer Kristine Kochanski, from a parallel universe. I am Holly, the ship's computer with an IQ of 6000 (and rapidly decreasing). Message Ends. ========================== Welcome to the Red Dwarf guide. Enjoy the backstory and details of one of the best SF parodies ever created for TV.moreless
134
Pair of Kings

Disney XD

While living life like regular teenagers, Brady and Boomer find out that they are successors to the throne of The Island of Kinkou. Brady and Boomer now have to uproot their lives and fulfill their royal duties.moreless
135
An Idiot Abroad

Sky1

On a podcast, Karl Pilkington admitted that he doesn't see the fuss about the Seven Wonders of the World, despite never going to see even one of them. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant respond by sending him around the world to experience the Wonders for himself. An Idiot Abroad, filmed in high definition, is the documentary travelogue series that covers Pilkington's journey as he visits landmarks like the Great Wall of China and the Great Pyramids of Egypt. An Idiot Abroad originally aired in the UK on Sky One before being picked up by the Science Channel in the U.S. in 2011.moreless
136
Portlandia

IFC - Independent Film Channel

IFC has greenlighted a new series that will focus on how life really is in Portland, Oregon. Lorne Michaels will executive producer the short-based series, which stars Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.moreless
137
Night Court

NBC (ended 1992)

The honorable Judge Harry T. Stone is a young hip, jeans wearing, liberal eccentric; and he presides over New York Manhattan Night Court. The hilarity of this show stems from the incredible characters that pass through the courtrooms and solutions that Harry and his staff come up with.moreless
138
Comedy Central Roast

Comedy Central

This annual laugh fest from Comedy Central picks a particular celebrity each year as it's target. A panel is selected from the celebrity's peers and current, popular comedians to comically point out the foibles of the personal and professional lives of the celebrity in question.moreless
139
The Penguins of Madagascar

Nickelodeon

The co-stars of the 2005 film Madagascar, the 2005 short film The Madagascar Penguins in: A Christmas Caper and the 2008 film Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa are set to dress up the small screen as spies in this Nickelodeon series. Four confused penguins named Skipper (the leader of the group), Kowalski (the smartest of the group), Private (the youngest of the group) and Rico (the craziest of the group) continue there epic journey and embark new adventures. They live at Central Park Zoo of the busy streets of New York; they also try to keep their multi species happy. But one day a party animal moves next door named Julien King of the Lemurs, and now all is not normal. The show is produced by DreamWorks Animation.moreless
140
Shin Chan

Cartoon Network

Shin-Chan is FUNimation's version of the popular yet controversial Japanese anime series. Shin is a 5-year-old boy who is constantly doing and saying inappropriate things, with hilarious results, much to the dismay and annoyance of those around him. Shin, along with his family, his friends from kindergarten, and some annoying neighbors, ends up turning every day situations into funny adventures.

Unsure how the show would be initially received, it debuted in late August 2006 on Adult Swim as a test run of six episodes composed of vignettes that were mixed and matched spanning the show's 14 year history. The test run proved to be a success and a complete first season was ordered. FUNimation has made the episodes more mature in content as well as more current with numerous pop culture references.moreless
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