Question: Is The Sopranos the best drama in the history of television, or is it one of the best dramas in the history of television that often gets the top spot because it's fairly recent?

That's one of the questions to ponder as you read AOL's Top 50 Dramas Of All-Time list. The Sopranos comes in at number one.

It's not a bad list, actually. When you narrow down a TV show to a specific genre and go all the way up to 50, most of the shows we would all pick will show up on the list: The X-Files, Deadwood, The Rockford Files, Mad Men, St. Elsewhere, Columbo, The Wire. Those are all classic dramas (and good ones) that you would expect to see.

One thing I didn't expect to see? Friday Night Lights in the number 10 spot, ahead of all the shows I just mentioned above.



I don't think I'd put Friday Night Lights that high on the list. Not because it has only been on for two seasons. After all, I'd put Mad Men on the list and it's only two seasons long, as well. But I don't think that FNL has had that all-encompassing effect on the television/pop culture landscape that Mad Men has had, and I certainly wouldn't put it ahead of The X-Files, Columbo, or The Wire (I know, different types of dramas, but still...)

Really happy to see The Fugitive on the list (much better than the movie), as well as The Rockford Files.



I've been sitting here trying to figure out what's missing from this list. It's a fairly accurate representation of TV dramas over the past 50 years or so, though I guess some dramas were forgotten.

How about Magnum, P.I.? Sure, there was a lot of comedy on the show too, but if you're going to put Moonlighting and Desperate Housewives on the list (and DH has often been called a comedy), I think Magnum should be on there, too (and it ran for eight seasons). I'm impressed that the list goes back far enough to include shows like Dr. Kildare and The Untouchables, though the 50s should be represented by anthology dramas like Studio One and Playhouse 90.

A lot of people would like to lump Magnum, P.I. into a "cheesy" category because it's from the 80s and it featured a sports car and it had beautiful girls in it and all that, but it's a very solid drama. I wanted to find an episode to post here but couldn't find one to embed (same with The Twilight Zone below). Instead, gaze at the faces of Tom Selleck, John Hillerman, Larry Manetti, and Roger E. Mosley.

And since we're talking about anthology dramas, where the heck is The Twilight Zone? It's not as if sci-fi/horror dramas would be in a separate category, because The X-Files, Battlestar Galactica, and Star Trek: The Next Generation did make the list.

Still not sure how The Mod Squad made the list. House fans might be a little ticked off that it beat that show by a few spots. I'm sure we could all think of many shows that could go into that Mod Squad spot (though I liked the show).

This is probably my biggest beef with an otherwise respectable list, no love for Rod Serling. I could probably name a lot of other shows I liked better than about 15 that they picked, but it would be more about my personal favorites than a definite best.