20 Best Classic TV Shows of All Time

Starring: Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White and Estelle Getty

Memorable quotes: “Picture it, Sicily…” and “Back in Saint Olaf…”

The Golden Girls is as beloved today as it was when it originally aired on NBC in the late 1980s. The show’s stars were all established comedic actresses when they signed on to the show, but it was the time they spent as Miami housemates, bonding over cheesecake and telling stories about life back in Sicily, Minnesota and Brooklyn, that cemented their status as TV legends.

Packed with jokes, this classic sitcom, which won 11 Emmy Awards during its run, was as funny as it was ahead of its time, celebrating the sex lives of older women and quietly including groundbreaking storylines about gay rights, immigration and suicide. And that theme song will be etched in our brains forever! Thank you for being a friend, indeed.

Memorable quote: “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”

It’s safe to say that many of the very first viewers of Sesame Street probably have grandchildren who now watch the show. What started in 1969 as an educational children’s television show that featured Jim Henson’s Muppets, including Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Grover and Kermit the Frog, has become a global empire that’s now broadcast in over 140 countries. The show was groundbreaking for blending animation, puppetry, live actors and writing that was geared toward children but funny enough (and often sneakily subversive) for adults to enjoy too.

In its time on air, Sesame Street has proven to be one of the best kids shows on TV, and it has dealt with important issues like death, disability and race. For a certain generation, Elmo was the show’s superstar, but for those of us who are a touch older, we’re partial to the classic Sesame Street songs and the totally ’70s animations, like the one that has helped us remember our grocery list to this day: “A loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter.”

Starring: Mary Tyler Moore, Ed Asner, Gavin MacLeod, Ted Knight, Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper, Georgia Engel and Betty White

Memorable quote: “You’re gonna make it after all”

Mary Tyler Moore made a name for herself as Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, where she won two Emmys. But it was her decision to star as single professional woman Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show that cemented her status as an icon. Mary’s focus on her career rather than marriage and family was groundbreaking at the time, and a landmark moment in television and women’s history. Thanks to the stellar supporting cast, this classic TV show set the bar for workplace comedies. The show produced three spin-off series, won 29 Emmy Awards and has often been referred to as one of the greatest TV shows of all time.

Starring: Alan Alda, Gary Burghoff, Loretta Swit, McLean Stevenson and Larry Linville

Memorable quote: “Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake’s plane was shot down over the Sea of Japan. It spun in. There were no survivors.”

M*A*S*H first aired in 1972 amid heated national discourse about our continued involvement in the Vietnam War. The sitcom, about a mobile Army surgical hospital in the Korean War, played politics for laughs and leaned into charming, witty performances from stars Alan Alda and Gary Burghoff during its first few seasons. Eventually, as cast members left the series and the writer’s room evolved, the show pivoted more heavily into drama and became one of the most iconic TV series of all time. (The final episode of M*A*S*H is still the most watched finale in TV history, drawing more than 105 million viewers.)

The above quote marked one of the most dramatic moments of the series, announcing the death of beloved character Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake, played by MacLean Stevenson, who earned a Golden Globe for his work when he left the series at the end of the third season.

Starring: Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner and Danielle Brisebois

Memorable episodes: “Sammy’s Visit” and “Everybody Tells the Truth”

All in the Family may go down in history as Norman Lear’s most iconic television series: The TV writer and producer is responsible for dozens of classic TV shows, including The Jeffersons, Good Times and One Day At a Time, but All in the Family is his flagship series. Starring Carroll O’Connor as the bigoted Archie Bunker, the show played up Bunker’s misogyny, racism and inappropriate insults for laughs, most of which were ultimately at Bunker’s expense.

The show co-starred Jean Stapleton as Archie’s long-suffering wife, Edith, Sally Struthers as his politically progressive daughter, Gloria, and a young Rob Reiner as the son-in-law Archie not-so-affectionately refers to as Meathead. It featured memorable guest appearances from the likes of Sammy Davis Jr., whose impromptu kiss on Archie’s cheek earned one of the longest laughs from an audience in TV history.

Starring: Jackie Gleason, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney and Joyce Randolph

Memorable quotes: “Baby, you’re the greatest!” and “One of these days, POW! Right in the kisser!”

It’s hard to believe that as influential as The Honeymooners is, this classic TV show ran for only one season. The characters of Ralph Kramden (played by Jackie Gleason), his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows) and his best friend Ed (Art Carney) originated in a sketch on the variety show Cavalcade of Stars and later became part of The Jackie Gleason Show. They were so popular that Gleason spun them off into their own show, in which Kramden’s short temper made him prone to outbursts directed at Alice, like “One of these days, POW! Right in the kisser!” and “To the moon, Alice!”

Though Alice was portrayed as the smarter, unflappable half of the couple, Ralph’s threats of domestic violence would not go over well today. But the old TV show was immensely popular during its original run, and it found even greater success in syndication. It even inspired the creation of the beloved Hanna-Barbera show The Flintstones, one of the best cartoon shows of all time, whose characters were based on those in The Honeymooners.

Starring: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, William Frawley and Richard Keith

Memorable quote: “Lucy, ’splain!”

I Love Lucy was groundbreaking television when it first premiered in 1951, and it pioneered the multi-camera format that many sitcoms use to this day. But we wouldn’t be here talking about the show if it weren’t for Lucille Ball’s amazing comedic chops and the indelible performances from Arnaz, William Frawley (as Fred Mertz) and Vivian Vance (as Ethel Mertz). Among the best classic TV shows of all time, I Love Lucy had a crack team of writers who came up with iconic TV gags, like Lucy and Ethel stuffing chocolates into their mouths as they worked at a candy factory assembly line and Lucy stomping grapes at a winery.

Starring: Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd, William Daniels, David Morse and Denzel Washington

Memorable episode: “The Last One”

St. Elsewhere may be more famous these days as a breeding ground for talent than as one of TV’s greatest shows about doctors. The series was responsible for helping to launch or define the careers of Denzel Washington, Mark Harmon, Ed Begley Jr. and Howie Mandel, among many others. Set at fictional Boston hospital St. Eligius, nicknamed St. Elsewhere due to its lack of prestige, the show became the template for medical dramas like ER and Grey’s Anatomy, weaving the imperfect, often soap-operatic lives of the doctors in with their day-to-day dealings with patients.

The show featured one of the most famous series finales of all time, “The Last One,” in which a young autistic boy, played by Chad Allen, is seen playing with a snow globe that contains a replica of St. Eligius inside it, and we learn that the entire series took place inside his imagination.

Starring: Angela Lansbury, Tom Bosley, William Windom, Ron Masak and Louis Herthum

Memorable episode: “Magnum on Ice,” a crossover event between Murder, She Wrote and Magnum, P.I.

How many people have been murdered in the small Maine town of Cabot Cove? Well, at least 264. That’s how many episodes there are of Murder, She Wrote, each one featuring a murder of the week, solved by author-detective Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela Lansbury. Each episode of this crime show begins with Lansbury saying, “Tonight, on Murder, She Wrote…”

The formula would follow as such: A dead body is discovered. Jessica rides her trusty bicycle around town, looking for clues and conferring with the sheriff or local doctors. She meets with special guest stars, most of whom refer to her as “Aunt Jessica,” including big names like Sonny Bono, George Clooney and LeVar Burton. In the end, Jessica always catches her man (or woman), and resourceful as she is, she turns the caper into her next novel.

Memorable quotes: “I’m Chevy Chase … and you’re not” and “You look mahvelous!”

Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street are not just two of the longest-running shows on TV. They’re also the only two classic shows from our list that are still on the air. Created by Lorne Michaels in 1975, SNL began as a subversive sketch comedy show featuring comedians like Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. For the past 50 years, it has propelled dozens of comedians, including Will Ferrell, Chris Rock and Tina Fey, to massive stardom. Audiences watch it for its topical sketch humor, satirical news delivery on Weekend Update and memorable characters like Wayne and Garth, Roseanne Roseannadanna  and Mary Catherine Gallagher.

Over the years, critics have sometimes unfavorably compared the show to earlier versions of itself, but it remains one of the most influential comedy shows of all time. SNL is also the most awarded show in primetime history, with more than 100 Emmy awards as of the time of this writing.

Starring: Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer, George Wendt and John Ratzenberger

Memorable quote: “Norm!”

Cheers, a classic TV show about a Boston bar and its lovable patrons, was well written and brilliantly acted, and we genuinely cared about the characters. Ted Danson is a playboy ex-baseball player named Sam Malone, who owns the bar where characters played by Woody Harrelson, Rhea Perlman, Shelley Long and, later, Kirstie Alley, all worked. Patrons like Cliff Claven (John Ratzenberger), Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) rounded out the show’s hilarious ensemble. (Grammer would go on to star in a spin-off, Frasier, which was massively successful in its own right.) The series’ clever writing included long-running gags that always paid off, like Cliff’s never-ending supply of trivia (which landed him on Jeopardy! once), Norm’s constant complaints about wife Vera and the bar’s ongoing feud with Gary’s Old Town Tavern.

Starring: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam and Carl Reiner

Memorable quote: “Oh, Rob!”

The Dick Van Dyke Show was created by comedy legend Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie, a comedy writer and family man married to Laura (Mary Tyler Moore). The iconic television series gave audiences a look at what life was like behind the scenes of a TV show, as Rob worked each day on a fictional sitcom called The Alan Brady Show. With incredible comedic performances from Van Dyke, Moore and supporting cast Carl Reiner, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, the show earned 15 Emmy awards over its five seasons. Though the show would often be referenced in pop culture for Laura’s outfits and the opening credits, which saw Rob tripping over the living room ottoman, it’s the writing that makes the series as funny now as it was five decades ago.

Starring: Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner

Memorable quote: “I saw it in a window and just couldn’t resist it.”

Carol Burnett had already become a popular television personality in the decade before her eponymous show premiered, but The Carol Burnett Show made her one of the greatest television personalities of all time. The sketch and variety show starred Burnett, Vicky Lawrence, Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner and Tim Conway, and featured costumes designed by the legendary Bob Mackie. One of the most iconic moments from the show was from a sketch titled “Went with the Wind,” a parody of Gone with the Wind that featured a dress (designed by Mackie) fashioned in the shape of a curtain, complete with a rod running across the shoulders. When Burnett appeared on screen wearing it, she famously explained, “I saw it in a window and just couldn’t resist it.”

The show had several signatures, including a weekly ad-libbed question-and-answer session between Burnett and the live studio audience, and Burnett’s ear-tug at the end of each episode, which was a signal to her grandmother. Every episode also featured an appearance from a special guest, and over the years such legendary figures as Lucille Ball, Sonny Bono, Cher and Ray Charles appeared.

Presented by: Rod Serling 

Memorable quote: “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind, a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead—your next stop: the Twilight Zone.”

The above quote, recited in the opening credits of The Twilight Zone each week by series creator Rod Serling, helpfully explains the premise of the show while also ominously portending that you’re about to experience something wild, unlike anything you could fathom in the real world. The show was an anthology series featuring different actors, many of them already famous, appearing in various science fiction scenarios, such as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” in which William Shatner’s character spies a terrifying monster on the wing of an airplane, and “Time Enough at Last,” which zeroes in on the experience of a man (Burgess Meredith) alone in the world in the aftermath of nuclear war.

Though many of the episodes are fantastical and sometimes terrifying, the series was acclaimed by fans and critics alike and set the standard for similar shows, like Black Mirror and The Outer Limits.

Starring: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick, Barry Williams, Eve Plumb, Christopher Knight, Susan Olsen and Mike Lookinland

Memorable quote: “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”

The Brady Bunch is not prestige television by any stretch—at this point, it borders on camp—but it is one of the most iconic television series of all time. The theme song sets up the entire premise: A lovely lady (Florence Henderson) with three very lovely girls meets a man named Brady (Robert Reed) with three boys of his own. Somehow they formed a family, complete with a maid (Ann B. Davis) and a dog named Tiger.

There was nothing terribly controversial or dramatic about the show (unless you count the time Peter and Bobby found a “cursed” Tiki idol in Hawaii that wreaked havoc on their vacation plans), and yet the show features tons of iconic pop-culture touchstones. There was the time middle daughter Jan, jealous of her older sister, declared “All I ever hear is ‘Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!’” Or the time the kids formed a band but Peter’s voice cracked in the middle of recording their big song “Time to Change.” How about the time when Marcia invites Davy Jones from The Monkees to her school, but he shows up at her house instead? The show was entertaining and fun and very much of its time, which is to say, it was groovy, man.

Starring: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Marla Gibbs, Roxie Roker and Franklin Cover

Memorable episodes: “Florence in Love” and “A Friend in Need”

The Jeffersons was a groundbreaking TV series. Spun off from All in the Family, it was one of the first sitcoms to feature a predominantly Black cast and the first to feature an interracial couple. The theme song, iconic in its own right, explains that George and Louise Jefferson, played by Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford, moved on up from Queens to “a deluxe apartment in the sky” on Manhattan’s tony Upper East Side. George and Louise (aka Weezy) had appeared on All in the Family for several seasons, and due to their popularity (and some pressure on the show’s creator to show a realistic representation of middle class Black Americans on TV), they received their own sitcom. After being nominated for an Emmy for seven consecutive years, Isabel Sanford’s 1981 win made her the first African American actress to win Best Actress in a Comedy Series.

Starring: Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, Bill Daily, Marcia Wallace and Peter Bonerz

Memorable episode: “Happy Trails to You”

Bob Newhart was a pioneer of the 20th-century sitcom, and the success of both The Bob Newhart Show and the subsequent Newhart speak for themselves. The former features Newhart as Dr. Robert Hartley, a psychotherapist in 1970s Chicago. The comedic chemistry between Newhart and his on-screen wife, played by Suzanne Pleshette, and the hilarity mined from Dr. Hartley’s patients struck comedy gold during the show’s six seasons. Newhart has always played a great straight man, and his Dr. Hartley was the perfect foil to genius performances from actors like Jack Riley and Henry Winkler, who let their neuroses have a field day on his couch.

Presented by: Ed Sullivan

Memorable quote: “We have a really big show tonight”

The Ed Sullivan Show was a Sunday night entertainment staple in American households from 1949 until its final episode in 1971. It showcased performances from musicians, comedians, dancers and even circus acts, all broadcast live from New York City and presented by entertainment columnist and personality Ed Sullivan. The show featured new and emerging talent like Elvis Presley and the Beatles, beloved children’s entertainment like the Muppets, and performances from Broadway shows with their original casts.

While this classic TV show was universally beloved and generally wholesome, it was not without its controversies, like when the Doors famously sang the drug-referencing line “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” from the song “Light My Fire” live on air, to Sullivan’s dismay. For any young act to appear on the show was a critical career move, and for decades, an appearance on Ed Sullivan was a symbol of making it in show business.

Starring: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt and Dave Goelz

Memorable quote: “Wakka wakka!”

People may not know it, but The Muppet Show, created by Jim Henson, was filmed entirely in England. No American TV network wanted to air the comedy show when it was pitched by Henson, so it was originally produced for the British TV station ATV. Only after it aired there did CBS pick it up and air it in America. Starring all the classic Muppets, including Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and Fozzie Bear, the show featured a memorable theme song, a house band (The Electric Mayhem), comedy sketches, musical performances and appearances from such entertainment legends as Julie Andrews, Milton Berle and Gene Kelly. Some of the most memorable sketches from the show include “Pigs in Space,” “The Swedish Chef” and “Veterinarian’s Hospital,” a parody of soap operas like General Hospital.

Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards

Memorable quotes: “No soup for you!” and “Yada, yada, yada”

Seinfeld is one of those shows where even if you’ve never seen it, you’ve likely made a reference to it. It’s also one of the best classic shows on Netflix. Known for its spot-on observational humor, there was no topic the show didn’t cover, and it offered up a catchphrase for just about every situation. From “yada, yada, yada” and “No soup for you!” to “It’s not you, it’s me,” the show, created by star Jerry Seinfeld and writer Larry David, has made an indelible mark in our brains. Seinfeld was the recipient of Emmys, Golden Globes and even a Peabody Award in 1993, but perhaps its biggest achievement will be its place in the cultural zeitgeist. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

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