Favorite Emmy Winning Shows

The Emmy Awards are upon us and I just thought I would put in my two cents but seeing how this is a movie blog, I'll be brief. I rarely watch television anymore, not that I don't find anything wrong with it, I just don't really have time to sit and watch a show, particularly if it's a drama, lately dramas require your full attention, shows like "Lost" and "24" on ongoing serials with cliffhangers at the end almost all the time. I miss the good old days where it was ok to miss one episode every once in awhile which is why I tend to prefer my good old half hour sitcom. Anyhoo here are some of my favorite shows most of which have gone the way of the doe doe.

1. The Simpsons: If I was left on an Island with only one TV show DVD collection to choose from it would be "The Simpsons", even though I would need an extra raft to bring all the seasons over with me. "The Simpsons" remains consistently funny and out of loyalty I tend to ignore those who say the series is slipping and "Family Guy" is the new reigning champ. "The Simpsons" is the only show today I still watch consistently, it must hold the record for most Emmy wins for an animated program which is probably due to its long running number of seasons. Despite what others think, "The Simpsons" is still funnier than most sitcoms out there today.

2. Cheers: This is a close second to "The Simpsons" before everyone in the 90s decided coffee shops were the hip place to be, people would hang out in a bar to forget their troubles. "Cheers" was the first and best to start this trend. Cheers was a friendly neighborhood bar that invited you to sit down and have a cold one while the gang entertained us with their not so glamorous lives. The tradition was continued with "Frasier" which I also loved, but to me it doesn't get much better than the place where everyone knows your name.

3. Arrested Development: The show that was kinda destined to have a short run with a cult following. Each episode was full of different screwball elements and boasted the most dysfunctional family in history. The fact that "Everybody Loves Raymond" beat it one year for best sitcom shows the Emmys as the sham they are

4. MASH: Two words: Alan Alda. MASH was not a perfect show with some pretty repetitive and heavy handed episodes, but Alan Alda kept it going for 11 seasons with his pitch perfect depiction of Hawkeye. It remains my favorite show of the 70s mostly for his performance. But along with Cheers and Arrested Development it remains one of the best ensemble comedies ever. It's really the only show I would tune in simply for the characters.

5. The West Wing: Really the only drama I tuned into regularly. The Aaron Sorkin brainchild suffered a bit of a backlash after its creator jumped ship but it gained credibility again in the last season with the election of presidential hopefuls Jimmy Smits and (in his second best television role) Alan Alda. But it was really the golden Sorkin years with his Capraesque touches to politics and that fast paced walking while talking down the hallway rhythm that made this such a joy.

Honorable mentions: "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Get Smart" were everyday occurrences in my house as I was growing up. "Extras" with Ricky Gervais has one of my favorite finales of all time, and if those stupid studio execs just left David Lynch alone about solving who killed Laura Palmer "Twin Peaks" would be what I expect it would've been: Pitch Perfect.