TV KNOCKOUT Discussion

I totally forgot about Garth Merenghi's Darkplace until it was too late. Consider these knockouts incomplete!

QFT. There's a reason I didn't put Land of the Lost in the original list.

Also, these brackets are HUGE. Are we just going to whittle each one down to one show and have a final four, or are we going to re-organize them when each one gets down to about 8 or so?

I figure we're only going to shrink these lists halfway and keep breaking down from there, unless, somehow, more progress is made later today.

Also, how did we forget F Troop? I love F Troop!

Well, there's Nathan Barley.

Newsradio is the only fatality I have an issue with. Also, Combat never stood a chance, as no one here has seen it. It's a cool show, many episodes directed by Robert Altman. There's a fringe cable channel that's showing those episodes soon.

And Freaks And Geeks and Spaced seem to lead the parade. Let's no stereotype ourselves, guys.

Red Dwarf sucks, btw.

There were always going to be TV shows left out, so don't beat yourself up to bad.

I love the idea of a tV knockout, but I gotta agree - these brackets are huge. By the time I get ready to vote, about ten posts have already taken place.

I thought it would last a little longer. But right now, with so few people playing, certain shows are gonna get axed quickly and people will be bummed later on. Their loss.

There is only a couple of shows, I'm fighting for right now. The lists are still WAY TO BIG to really concentrate on one show or another. I'm actually looking to knockout shows, so if gets down to one, consider me the closer.

In the end, I think we'll have some new shows (like BSG '08 already having 8 votes!) and some great old ones. Then it will be tough.

I'm looking to knock shows out, too. I'm waiting until the end of the day to do my fifth vote. Hopefully there will be a one-pointer in each bracket that I can axe.

Yeah, I blew my wad. Hopefully someone can take out Pee-Wee. It's a cute show, but not one of the best.

And another I forgot- VR.5! Damn me. Surprised no one here suggested the American "Office"- one of the more prominent MIA's.

I got a soft spot for Pee-Wee (unlike his hard one), so I'm gonna give it some my votes. I think the show was way ahed of it's time for childrens TV. But, I don't think it's one of the greatest ever, and I know it won't last. But I gotta try.

The American Office wouldn't have lasted that long, IMO, so no big loss. Overall, there isn't a major show you forgot (as far as I can tell), just a few future vote fodder.

I see all the anti-Whedonites are voting in big numbers in this.

The number of votes Spaced has already is astounding. It's good, but not enough to be leading the pack by so much.

I knew I should have nominated Stargate SG-1 so I could have split the anti-RDA vote. Damn you Dickson!

I generally wouldn't want to vote for a short lived show as being one of the 'best ever', but I can't help but vote for both The Job and Freeks and Geeks, which I would definitely consider to be one of the best shows of all time.

As for Pee-Wee, I added it to the list, but I don't really want to vote for or against it. I have nothing against it, but I would pick Sesame Street over it any day.

Also, I mentioned it the D Bracket itself, but there was an error and Newsradio actually was not eliminated, and should still have 1 vote.

I'd like to mention that in the C-Bracket, the very first person to copy and paste actually didn't copy the last two shows that fabfunk posted (Your Show of Shows and Picket Fences), so they were pretty much automatically removed.

Crap. Shit. Fuck. That was me. I've added them back into the end of the list.

Freaks was one of the greats. And The Job went through a second season. Both have a manageable enough length to qualify. The UK Office was consierably shorter than both of these, but it's still great.

I wish these had been broken up by decade, and then even further by genre or network. This Knockout is about as messy and sloppy as a floor after a bukake shoot.

Yeah. The 80s are getting hammered big time. I'll submit it wasn't all great, but it wasn't all exactly crap either.

Yeah, I think we all agree it's a little wacked out. But we are getting things slowly worked out. We just need a few more people voting, so we can really start chopping some of the shows out.

Bracket B has become uninteresting. I don't even want to vote in it anymore.

I mean, I get it. Everyone thinks BSG is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but should it really be raping the rest of the competition like the US Dream Team?

The fact that BSG and Spaced are two of the highest vote getters, is pretty sad. I like both shows, but come on!

I think, after this week, we should do a bracket shuffle. I got no problem having four brackets still - but maybe, to keep things fair - we shuffle up some of the shows.

I dunno, just trying to think of something to bring some life into this game. It will get better, once shows are eliminated. Start taking out shows people, shrink these lists.

Let's get rid of the fucking game shows first. All the Whedon shows are out already and yet "Price of Right" remains? The hell?

Sesame Street? You fruits.

Today's episode brought to you by the letters F and U. And the number 9.

Not nearly as sad as having the X-Files mopping the floor with The Twilight Zone. X-Files probably wouldn't have ever existed had Serling never concocted The Twilight Zone.

Spaced and BSG have the numbers they deserve, I've no complaints.. then again, I voted heavily for both.

Bracket B is gonna get ugly if these things aren't shuffled soon. There are eight shows in double-digits right now.

Let's get to knockin'!

Slestak hates England.

What can I say? I'm a typical boorish American.

I've backed off on Alan Partridge. Feel free to vote it to the heavens.

I really hate this argument. So what if it wouldn’t have existed because of another show? It also wouldn't have existed if Chris Carters mom took a load of sperm in her ass instead of her vagina. It, to me, is a better show.

I've tried to go to bat for The Dick Van Dyke Show, but I just don't have the numbers to save it.

I was originally approaching this as a "greatest of all time" knockout, but yesterday I began to see it clearly isn't. People are just going to vote for what they like. That's fine by me. I'm not going to get wound up over what people vote for, just like I expect them not to get wound up over what I vote against.

I feel pretty comfortable that I am walking both sides. While I do lobby for a couple of my favorite shows (like X-Files), I feel I am giving a lot of votes to shows who have made a significant impact on TV (like Sesame Street - which I guess makes me a fruit.)

I think a lot of people just don't have as good a working knowledge of many of these older shows, and you can't really fault them for that. I'm 30 years old, I saw Roots when it originally aired, but I was too young to be affected by it. Many of the older shows I've never even seen before, and at 30 I'm probably older than many of the posters here.

I've never even SEEN an episode of Your Show of Shows, so how I can I vote for it? Because I heard it was so influential and kick-ass?

On the same note, I try not to vote against shows I'm not familiar with either.

I'm sure we could argue about Red Dwarf, but what's the point, really? Did it have the viewership or the recognition that Carson had? No. Did it have as much of an influence? Undoubtedly not. But hell, I don't see The Tonight Show with Jack Parr on this list, and frankly I don't feel talk shows have done much to add to society, they're just platforms for celebs to shill their latest crap .. so fuck them. Letterman and Carson can both bow down before more imaginitive shows like The Twilight Zone or more thought provoking shows like All in the Family.

Citizen Kane is no Battlestar Galactica.

But maybe you buy the argument that different countries don´t import every show on that list. And since these boards are fairly international I assume it is fair to say that it largely depends on national stations and habits.

I have never ever seen roots here in Germany, though holocaust (not hollocaust) was a cultural phenomenon. For obvious reasons. As could be argued in regards for roots and the US of A. Same goes for all the Talkshows.

EDITED for spelling to prevent a cynical joke that should be refrained from. Even from Fabs.

I will stand up as not being fond of "Roots". But yeah, "Red Dwarf" blows.

Citizen Kane is only what, an hour and a half or so, and can be found easily on a store shelf or a rental store. It requires very little investmment of your time and money to see a noted classic movie. Hell, stay in and wait a few months.. it's bound to play on TNT or some other basic cable channel. Even if you end up not liking it, it's not so much skin off your ass.

Older tv shows, on the other hand...

Who in my age bracket (or worse, younger) is going to go out of their way to hunt down old tv shows, pay a hefty price for some dvd box set (if one even exists, many do not) and then watch a shitload of episodes - ESPECIALLY with old talk shows which aren't built to stand the test of time. An episode of Car 54 is more relevant to us today than an episode of The Tonight Show from even 20 years ago.

First round ends tonight, chumps. Second round will be up tomorrow.

My general rules are:

-- I'll only vote for or against shows that I've seen.

-- I'll vote for shows that had a marked impact on the field of television (say what you will about the later years of each, but the X-Files, The Simpsons, and Seinfeld changed the way we thought about TV programming, influenced the types of shows that were being made after them, and are all still quite popular today via syndication).

-- I'll vote for shows that had a marked impact on me as a viewer (i.e., I can appreciate that All in the Family is considered by many to be great, thus I won't vote against it. However, I personally don't care for it, so I won't vote for it either. On the other hand Arrested Development, Six Feet Under, and Carnivale were such a huge part of my TV viewing experience, they are to me the definition of great TV.)

-- Many of the shows that I consider great are ahead in points right now, so I'm voting for what I like to keep them around and getting rid of the crap. When it comes down making a choice, I'll vote for the better show over personal preference.