The Best TV Show Released the Year You Were Born

Refusing to exhibit the slightest semblance of sentimentality, this immortal sitcom upended TV norms and societal ones alike. Follow comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his three closest friends as they navigate the New York City single life. Through their misadventures, an entire pop culture iconography was born.

Auteur David Lynch put his surrealist stamp on the soap opera format and briefly grabbed the zeitgeist with this idiosyncratic drama. Infusing various sub-genres with a dreamlike tonality, it centers on the vicious murder of mysterious teen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). A recent third season picks things up 25 years after the events of the original series.

This short-lived animated series made up part of The Disney Afternoon programming block before moving to Saturday mornings on ABC. It chronicles the adventures of its title character, a regular duck who moonlights as a superhero. A reboot is reportedly in the works at Disney+.

This boldly stylistic series eventually sparked a full-blown DC Animated Universe across multiple mediums. Dispensing with a noirish tone and complex themes, it depicts the Dark Knight’s crime-fighting adventures. Critics and fans alike consider it to be one of the greatest animated shows ever created.

The truth is out there, and FBI Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are going to find it in this blockbuster sci-fi series. Featuring both standalone episodes and a serialized arc, it grappled with aliens and other strange phenomena. Spin-offs, film adaptations, comic books, video games, and a TV reboot would follow.

This insanely popular sitcom takes place in Manhattan and follows the exploits of six close friends. Top-notch writing and expert casting kept the quality bar impressively high over the course of 10 seasons. In 2020, HBO Max reportedly paid over $400 million for streaming rights.

This clever workplace sitcom takes viewers behind the scenes at WNYX NewsRadio, New York’s No. 2 news radio station. Comedy legend Phil Hartman tragically died during a production hiatus between the fourth and fifth season, making the character of Bill McNeal his final regular role.

This Japanese anime series adapts a popular manga and picks up where a 1980s predecessor left off. Now an adult, hero Son Goku and his cohorts must defend Earth from alien invaders. It helped spawn an ongoing franchise, which consists of movies, shows, video games, and more.

Welcome to South Park, Colorado, home to four foul-mouthed grade kids and an endless supply of absurd events. Still going strong after 24 seasons, the show continues to provide a much-needed dose of uncompromising satire. A recent (and lucrative) deal with Paramount+ called for more episodes and 14 direct-to-streaming movies.

This improvisational comedy smash adapted a British show of the same name and initially ran for eight seasons. Working in tandem with the audience, host Drew Carey throws out prompts for a panel of performers to enact. The show has since been revived by CW and is now in the midst of an 18th overall season.