1977 · 1 Season · ABC · Historical Drama
Roots remains one of the most important and powerful television events in American history, a family saga that forced a nation to confront the reality of slavery with an emotional directness that still resonates nearly five decades later.
2007 · 2 Seasons · ABC · Comedy-Drama, Fantasy
Pushing Daisies is one of the most visually inventive and emotionally genuine shows network television has ever produced. Bryan Fuller built a candy-colored world around a premise that could have been grim and instead made it warm, funny, and deeply romantic. The 2007 writers' strike cut its first season short, and ABC cancelled it after just 22 episodes, but the show's reputation has only grown since. Its biggest limitation is that ABC never gave it enough time to fully explore its own potential, and the rushed ending reflects that. But what exists is a rare piece of television that committed fully to a singular vision and made something no other show has come close to replicating.
2021 · 5 Seasons · ABC · Comedy, Mockumentary
Abbott Elementary revived the network sitcom by doing something radical: being consistently funny while caring about its characters and their world. Quinta Brunson created a mockumentary that uses the format's familiar toolkit with precision, building a teaching staff that feels lived-in and authentic without sacrificing comedy for sentiment. The show occasionally leans too hard on its feel-good instincts, and the mockumentary framework can feel like a safety net rather than a creative choice. But the ensemble is so strong and the writing so consistently sharp that Abbott Elementary has earned its place as the best broadcast comedy in years.
1994 · 3 Seasons · ABC, ABC Family · Action, Drama, Fantasy
Gargoyles is the most ambitious animated series Disney ever produced, a show that treated mythology, Shakespearean themes, and genuine moral complexity as appropriate material for a children's action cartoon and somehow made it work. Greg Weisman created a world that drew from Scottish legend, Norse mythology, King Arthur, and Macbeth, populated it with characters who evolved in meaningful ways across episodes, and told serialized stories with a sophistication that most adult dramas of its era couldn't match. The first two seasons are exceptional. The third season, produced without Weisman's involvement, is widely regarded as a significant decline. But what Weisman built in those first 65 episodes remains one of the finest achievements in Western animation.
2011 · 3 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Happy Endings is one of the best-written ensemble comedies of the 2010s and one of ABC's biggest scheduling casualties. Its six-person friend group has the chemistry of a cast that's been working together for a decade despite only getting three seasons, the joke density is among the highest on network television, and the show's rapid-fire style rewards rewatching in a way that few comedies do. ABC never gave it a fair shot with consistent scheduling, and its cancellation after three seasons remains one of the most frequently cited examples of a network fumbling a great show. What exists is excellent. There just isn't enough of it.
2004 · 5 Seasons · ABC · Legal Drama / Comedy
The unlikely friendship between James Spader's morally flexible attorney and William Shatner's aging legend gave television one of its most entertaining double acts. Boston Legal used its courtroom setting as a platform for sharp political commentary, absurdist humor, and surprisingly moving character work, all held together by Spader and Shatner's electric chemistry. The cases could be uneven and the show's politics were never subtle, but those balcony scenes, with scotch and cigars and two men who truly needed each other, elevated the entire enterprise into something special.
2001 · 9 Seasons · NBC / ABC · Comedy / Medical Drama
The rare comedy that could make you laugh and cry in the same episode, sometimes in the same scene. Bill Lawrence's medical comedy used J.D.'s overactive imagination as a storytelling device that kept the format fresh for years, and the friendships at its core, particularly the bond between J.D. and Turk, became some of the most beloved in television comedy. The first eight seasons tell a complete, satisfying story. The ninth season, a soft reboot that even its creator acknowledges was a misstep, is best treated as a separate entity. At its peak, nothing on television balanced humor and heartbreak with this much precision.
1988 · 9 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Roseanne redefined what a family sitcom could be by centering a working-class family that actually felt working-class. The first six seasons are among the best in sitcom history, with sharp writing, authentic family dynamics, and a willingness to address real problems without losing its sense of humor. The later seasons, particularly the infamous ninth season, represent one of the most dramatic quality declines in television history. At its best, it's essential viewing. At its worst, it's a cautionary tale about what happens when a show loses its grounding.
1993 · 7 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Boy Meets World is the rare coming-of-age sitcom that actually grew up with its audience, following Cory Matthews from middle school through college with a sincerity and emotional depth that most TGIF shows never attempted. Ben Savage and Rider Strong's friendship is the show's backbone, William Daniels' Mr. Feeny is one of television's great mentor figures, and the series handles the transition from childhood comedy to young-adult drama with more grace than it gets credit for. The college seasons are weaker than the high school years, and some dramatic turns in later seasons strain the sitcom format, but the emotional core holds across all seven seasons.
2013 · 7 Seasons · ABC · Sci-Fi / Action / Espionage
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. overcame a rocky start to become one of the most rewarding long-running sci-fi shows on network TV, with a cast and creative team that consistently exceeded expectations.
2004 · 6 Seasons · ABC · Sci-Fi / Drama
Lost changed television. That's not up for debate. Its combination of cinematic production values, puzzle-box storytelling, and one of the deepest ensemble casts in network TV history turned it into a cultural phenomenon that reshaped how audiences engaged with serialized drama. The first four seasons build mystery and character with remarkable skill, creating an addictive viewing experience that few shows have matched. A final season and ending that divided its audience so sharply that the debate continues years later keeps it from the pantheon of all-time greats. Even so, the journey through those 121 episodes, the characters you meet, the questions the island raises, and the emotional connections the show earns represent something that television rarely attempts and may never quite replicate.
2009 · ABC · Reality / Business
Shark Tank made venture capital a spectator sport, entrepreneurs walking a carpeted gauntlet to pitch five self-made investors who negotiate with their own money and their whole personalities. The format's genius is playable math, valuations and royalty deals legible enough that the couch negotiates along, and its best pitches, disasters and million-dollar lightning alike, became a business education America actually completed. The drama edits inflate, the deals often dissolve after the cameras, and the sharks' theater can drown the finance. As a machine for making commerce watchable, though, it has no real rival, and everyone knows their favorite shark.
2009 · 11 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Modern Family redefined the family sitcom for a new era by presenting a multigenerational, diverse family through the mockumentary lens that made each episode feel intimate and immediate. The first five seasons deliver some of the sharpest, warmest comedy of the 2010s, with an ensemble so perfectly cast that every family member gets their share of standout moments. The later seasons ran on momentum rather than invention, and eleven seasons was several too many, but the family it built remains one of television's most endearing.
2014 · 6 Seasons · ABC · Drama / Thriller
How to Get Away with Murder runs on two engines, a flash-forward mystery machine that dispenses corpses like clockwork, and Viola Davis delivering a weekly acting masterclass that won her a historic Emmy. As defense attorney and law professor Annalise Keating, Davis builds one of television's most complete characters, brilliant, ruinous, magnetic, and rawly vulnerable, while her five student accomplices stack cover-ups on cover-ups until the bodies practically need a spreadsheet. The twist economy that makes early seasons unputdownable eventually hyperinflates, and consensus finds the back half exhausting. Davis never once is. She's the whole case for the show, and she wins it.
2012 · 7 Seasons · ABC · Drama / Thriller
Scandal made Thursday nights appointment television again, turning Kerry Washington's crisis-fixer Olivia Pope into an era-defining character and live-tweeting into a national sport. Shonda Rhimes's D.C. runs on monologues delivered at sprint speed, wine glasses the size of fishbowls, and twists deployed with total shamelessness, and for its first few seasons the velocity is intoxicating. Then the secret spy agency eats the show. Community consensus maps a steep arc, thrilling rise, gladiator peak, and a long back half of diminishing sanity that even devoted fans describe with affectionate exhaustion. The handled-it years remain legitimately great television.
1991 · 8 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Home Improvement is a show built entirely on Tim Allen's specific brand of comedy, and for eight seasons that foundation proved remarkably durable. The Tool Time show-within-a-show provides a unique structural hook, the Tim-and-Jill marriage has genuine warmth, and the Wilson fence conversations offer a philosophical counterweight to the slapstick. The formula stays largely unchanged across 204 episodes, which is either a comfort or a limitation depending on your patience. It's a show that defined a particular kind of 1990s masculinity, for better and worse, and delivered reliable family comedy throughout its run.
2009 · 8 Seasons · ABC · Crime / Comedy / Drama
Nathan Fillion's irresistible charm as a mystery novelist playing detective made Castle appointment television for six strong seasons. His chemistry with Stana Katic's Kate Beckett elevated a standard procedural into something warmer and more engaging than the genre typically produces, and the show's willingness to play with genre conventions through themed episodes kept the formula from going stale. The final two seasons, marred by behind-the-scenes difficulties and creative missteps, diminished the ending but couldn't erase what came before. At its best, Castle proved that a procedural doesn't need to be grim to be compelling.
1989 · 9 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Family Matters began as a grounded domestic comedy about a middle-class Black family in Chicago before Jaleel White's Steve Urkel took over the show and transformed it into something entirely different. The early seasons balance family warmth with genuine humor, and the Winslow family dynamics are strong enough to carry the show on their own. But as Urkel's popularity grew, the series increasingly abandoned its original identity in favor of slapstick, sci-fi gimmicks, and a character who went from charming nuisance to the center of every storyline. It's two shows in one, and opinions on which one is better depend entirely on what you came for.
2005 · 22 Seasons · ABC · Medical Drama / Romance
The longest-running primetime medical drama in American television history, and a show that has survived more cast departures, character deaths, and natural disasters than most soap operas dream of. Grey's Anatomy built its legacy on the strength of its early seasons, when Meredith Grey's intern class felt fresh and the emotional stakes hit hard, and has sustained itself through sheer force of formula and a fanbase that has grown up alongside the show. The first five seasons are peak Shonda Rhimes. Everything after varies wildly, but the show's ability to generate big emotional moments has never completely disappeared.
1987 · 8 Seasons · ABC · Comedy
Full House is peak wholesome family television, a show where every problem has a solution, every conflict ends in a hug, and three men raising three girls in San Francisco became one of the most successful formulas in sitcom history. Bob Saget, John Stamos, and Dave Coulier have an easy chemistry, the Olsen twins became a cultural phenomenon, and the show's sincerity is its greatest strength and most significant limitation. It's a show that knows exactly what it is and never pretends to be anything more, which is either comforting or cloying depending on your tolerance for sentimentality.
2017 · 7 Seasons · ABC · Medical Drama
The Good Doctor rides almost entirely on Freddie Highmore's committed performance, delivering a network medical drama that occasionally reaches for something deeper but too often settles for formula.