10...er, 9-6 Favorite TV Shows

You got a taste with #10, now here come da judge:

#9 Late Night with David Letterman - In early 1990 the Groah home acquired a satellite dish and multiple channels. A few years later the then-fledgling 'E' channel acquired re-broadcast rights to the first few years of the Late Night library. I was hooked instantly.

I planned my homework around being able to watch Letterman, both on E and on NBC. I had insomnia anyway, and Letterman made it something I embraced. I got to watch the first few years worth of shows in a really compressed amount of time and see the day-to-day evolution of the show. Even now, at it's heart, it's a comedy show with interviews, but then it was even more so. And funny. And ballsy. And inventive. And every minute of it was overseen by one cranky and sardonic hoosier.

#8 Arrested Development - No show in years makes me laugh as consitently and longly (longly? really?) as Arrested Development. The comedy runs the gamut of mean spirited, smart, dumb, puns, crude, vile, satiric, juvenile, and cheap. In a Friends world it's easy to see why this show never got huge ratings.

And the cast. Holy crap. You anchor that show with one or two of the leads, but this show has, what, an ensemble of 9? If/when it goes away, I'll miss it.

# 7 The West Wing (first four seasons) - I made the mistake of watching the season one season finale and then obsessed over the reruns up til the new season. I've typed lots about The West Wing recently, and I don't know what different I can say. There's a reason it won Peabodys, and that was humor, drama, and style. Most of the time The West Wing could've easily won Emmys in the comedy category as easily as it won for drama.

Public servants should want to aspire to greatness. This show made it look easy. Or really hard.

#6 Mystery Science Theater 3000 - If I'm occasionally funny, it's due to MST3K. A guy and two puppet robots watch bad movies and talk back to them. The show was like a joke every 10 seconds.

Bryan always summed it up the best way: "It's taking bad art and making it into good art." There were no life lessons, no hugging, just the funny. You could bet that you wouldn't get all the jokes in a show either, just more of the appeal. Years later I'd rewatch episodes and get more than before. Humor that grows with you.

Sadly, the broadcast rights are just sitting now. A show as timeless as MST3K should always be on, right next to Seinfeld, Cheers, Taxi, and M.A.S.H. Except with, you know, puppets.

That's 9-6. 5-1 to come. You guys know what you haven't seen here, so you know what's coming. Oh, I should mentioned The Ben Stiller Show on the earlier list. Lapse in memory yet green, but slightly moldy.