EW 25 best cult tv shows from the past 25 years

wonder showzen
mst3k close second

whats the rationale for undeclared but not F&G. thats dumb

tng had massive ratings especially considering that it was syndicated right out of the gate

other than vmars all the wb/cw shows are like 'i guess i've heard of these?' 2 me

i guess EW also did some list of best cult shows of all time and left star trek completely off it & ppl were butthurt

would've voted for Profit if they'd bothered to include it

Twin Peaks is better than everything, pretty much

feel like i should rewatch some xfiles some time does it hold up y/n

n

y

Arrested Development, no competition

feel like i should rewatch some xfiles some time does it hold up y/n

started rewatching some earlier this year. the mulder/scully relationship is a lot more engaging than i remember - and gillian anderson acts it (and her other business) really nicely.

the deep throat stuff gets going surprisingly early.

isn't it, like, episode two

not sure i believe this is the answer, but i voted party down

seems like it best maintained quality over course of life

wonder showzen

Veronica Mars first 2 seasons were really good/fun.

twin peaks
arrested
vmars
mst3k
party down

isn't it, like, episode two

it is but i didn't remember the erlenmeyer flask - the s1 finale - being so soon. that kind of seems like the point where shit got real, conspiracy-wise.

i think if anna friel was not in pushing daisies i would not have stuck with it to the last ep despite my growing queasiness at its unremitting hi-intensity quirkiness

we're just voting for our favorite show? wire then buffy then

wire is my favorite show on the list but twin peaks set the bar for cult tv shows on this list

TWIN PEAKS

easiest poll ever

Can't pick won't pick.

No 'Terriers' no credibility.

Terriers had so much potential. It was just starting to develop.

Star Trek - inconsistent, sometimes amazingly good - or Twin Peaks.

jbn on the money.

first season of 'veronica mars' is all time, but then

the Terriers intro theme song is totally dope imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVHOn-S82ms

tbph tho, I think I liked it a bit more when I had no clue what the lyrics were

Yeah I bought that song on iTunes!

Not that buying a song on iTunes is some kind of novel thing, but it was the only song I bought from there last year.

I want to vote for Better Off Ted even though there are 10+ shows I liked better on the list. I never followed it closely (possibly because of changing timeslots/etc.) but every time I watched it was hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh7Nz4bIwss

will never not laugh at "dick-infected man mattress"

re: Terriers - such a misguided title, and the way it was branded/marketed didn't ameliorate the confusion, like AT ALL. Half of the first (and only, RIP) season had already gone by before I even caught wind of the fact that the show had nothing to do with dogs and dog-owners.

first season of 'veronica mars' is all time, but then

Veronica Mars is one of those shows that should have been cancelled after one season, because then it would have been perfect.

weird list. a better selection of cult shows would have shit like millenium and ez streets and profit and, idk, shannon's deal!

how is The Wire a cult show & not Deadwood?

omar otm

otmar

this is the zine that started it all for 'lost' http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/ew-lost-cover-fox-emile_300.jpg

they took me boibee!

lol

best "cult show" or just simple, straight-out best show?

buffy takes cake on persistence of quality, but god damn does battlestar galactica deserving that title ever more.

i mean - best cult surrounding a show? least obnoxious fans? i'm sure it's just "yeah, best" being sought out for here but i want to believe that we're actually siphoning out which shows had the absolute worst fans

(winner: breaking bad)

jake, not vienna!

this is a weird list

feel like i should rewatch some xfiles some time does it hold up y/n

― johnny crunch, Friday, July 27, 2012 6:52 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Most everything but their atrocious outfits do, yes.

scully's shoulderpads were pretty off the hook in the first season iirc

Yep. The patterns too. Watched it all again last year and the her outfits in the first couple seasons were just mind-blowing horrible.

I guess either Twin Peaks or MSCL or MST3k

but god damn does battlestar galactica deserving that title ever more.

The last season destroyed that show for me.

maybe my standards are tougher but I don't think a show that had more than 3 seasons on network tv/basic cable or 4 seasons on premium cable can be considered cult

they forget this gem

http://www.impawards.com/tv/posters/john_from_cincinnati.jpg

Buffy over Twin Peaks for me on grounds of sustained excellence, but this wasn't easy -- nothing ever came close to Twin Peaks for sheer intensity of "I can't believe this is actually on television right now."

Hard to believe there'd be a poll in which I would NOT vote for Undeclared or Party Down or Firefly, but there it is.

Why isn't "Get a Life" on this list?

Twin Peaks
Arrested Development
The Wire

Twin Peaks vs Wire vs Buffy = I refuse to choose.

Community

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Friday, July 27, 2012 6:49 PM (14 minutes ago)

._.

this is tough, i'm a card-carrying member of many of these cuts:

25. Pushing Daisies
23. Better Off Ted
21. Party Down
15. Community
13. Veronica Mars
10. Lost
7. Star Trek: TNG
5. The Wire
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000

Wire or MST3K is prob the best of those but it's nice to be able to vote for something genuinely slept on like Better Off Ted or Pushing Daisies

cuts cults

deep cults

Undeclared is just kinda not that good, i was shocked at how high it got on the ilx 2000s tv poll

if buffy and the wire were eliminated, i might vote party down. but buffy, obvs.

Erica, did you end up finishing the x-files???

this is going to come down to Buffy vs. TP, isn't it?

dude this is ILX, Buffy wins

love for Twin Peaks seems way more widespread on ilx than for Buffy. maybe The Wire too.

i only learned recently that The Comeback has some kind of rabid following, which is weird to me, it was just ok

I thought this would be easy, but I was misreading Better Off Ted as Father Ted.

Undeclared is just kinda not that good, i was shocked at how high it got on the ilx 2000s tv poll

― Nutri Grane (some dude), Saturday, July 28, 2012 1:02 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah its puzzling to me as well. its just not very funny or charming

was the comeback the lisa kudrow show? i had no idea it had a followin

g

yeah Kudrow. i was channel surfing recently and she was on The View promoting her new show but all the View ladies kept steering the interview to "but The Comeback now that was really great!"

MST3K with only Twin Peaks even remotely in the hunt. Arrested Development at #2 is some shit.

Veronica Mars s2 >>>> Twin Peaks s2/Arrested development s2

yeah even VMars fans tend to way overstate the quality dropoff after the first season

Host segments (which were unmitigatedly terrible after the jump to Sci-Fi Network) aside, MST3K is also the only totally consistent series in this lineup.

Loved season 2 of V Mars.

Arrested Development has not aged well at all.

No not really

The Wire > Twin Peaks (first season) >>>>> Twin Peaks (whole thing)>Party Down

No Freaks & Geeks, no credibility (and Popular? c'mon)

they weren't gonna put f&g AND undeclared on there and i'd argue that f&g is too established classic (but not established cult classic like twin peaks or star trek tng and x-files which were straight up hits?) to be up there but then the wire and arrested development are up there so who knows. i'm guessing the text justifies the placement - the sometimes obnoxious missionary nature of wire fans and the way that show being apparently more popular in afterlife than when it was on (plus the president and david simon's annoyance), and of course arrested development following the star trek model of rebirth (down to animated series providing an outlet during the interim). popular being on there actually seems sorta canny, like the comeback's placement as well. plus they had to find a way for this not to just be a list of geekcore stuff.

Twin Peaks is better than everything, pretty much

not the best show up there (the wire duh) and maybe not even my fave cult show up there (firefly maybe? maybe wonder showzen) but voted twin peaks cuz it really does feel like one of those before and after shows like hill st blues or all in the family, networks are still trying to figure out how to bottle that first season mania w/o succumbing to that second season comedown. plus sherilyn fenn.

22. Farscape
20. Popular
19. Supernatural
18. Wonder Showzen
8. The Comeback
7. Star Trek: TNG
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Those are the shows I haven't seen. Which should I check out next?

how much time you got? watch three or four clips of wonder showzen on youtube and you'll know if you should investigate more (there's not alot to investigate but at the same time i couldn't imagine doing a marathon, it's a very very obnoxious show). buffy's the best show up there but there's alot there, i think you're supposed to start w/ the second season? i only really watched it second season to her freshman year of college and maybe two three episodes after that, always meant to revisit. mst3k seems an obvious one you can dip into, i do wonder what it would be like to fresh eyes in 2012. i wasn't nearly as fierce a devotee to that as others on ilx - i watched it when i happened to - and tbh i know that avclub is doing some 'the ten episodes to watch' type guide for it soon so i was gonna wait for that. then again i'm not sure the quality varies that much so maybe just browse on netflix and see which one grabs yr attention? comeback is recommended if you're a lisa kudrow fan, may god rest her soul.

wonder showzen is in a similar vein as tv funhouse or look around you w/ a bridge to adult swim tim and eric type stuff

I feel like I failed somehow by giving up on Buffy. I did start with S1 though maybe that was the problem. I should give it another go. I wish F&G was on here.

Thanks xp. Not a lisa kudrow fan so will stay away from comeback. Just watched some youtube wonder showzen clips, def not interested. Did the same w farscape, def not interested in that either. I have time, I am cool with slow burners, I think I may do Buffy. So seriously skip season 1? I am kind of a completist so that seems weird, but will I miss a bunch of stuff that matters?

That's what I was worried about too.

it's so hard with buffy! i ill-advisedly tried to get a whole bunch of people into buffy recently and i carefully chose episodes from the second season that i thought would hook them but it totally failed. maybe you just had to be there? when the show was actually airing, i mean? but yes, the first season is kind of silly. i like it, but i am already a true believer.

like, i had a buffy party. can you imag what a crazed fascist i was? it was even worse than you can imagine.

IN MY DEFENSE, a friend who is a sci fi lover requested that i introduce her to buffy, but it spiraled out of control because i am insane.

someone asked me to give them backstory for the first episode i showed them and it took me like half an hour and i had to stop myself from saying things like, "and this is how you should be feeling at the 10:33 mark."

lol

Haha

I'd watch it with you HS, even if you are a little scary. ;)

haha i would be on my best behavior, E!

one of my friends who is the loveliest person innocently declared after we'd watched the second episode, "i think this was good tv before tv got actually good," and i may have audibly growled at him, poor thing.

"i think this was good tv before tv got actually good,"

your friend was right. and this sentiment also applies to the x-files (which i love, but LOL anyway).

i will seriously kill you

i remember my late 1990s/20-something self declaring that the x-files and seinfeld were the only American shows on TV worth watching. i realize now that i was insufferable ... but i was also right!

I'd vote for Larry Sanders if it were here (surprised it isn't), otherwise Twin Peaks. But I've seen so pitifully little of anything else listed, I'll pass.

should be noted for the record 'tv got actually good' refers to maybe 5 dramas tops (sopranos, deadwood, the wire, breaking bad, mad men) and anyone acting like anything recent beyond those represent a serious leap forward over rockford files or hill st blues or er nevermind HOMICIDE is delusional. comedies has game changers - all in the family, seinfeld, larry sanders, louie - but i can't imagine any argument for any great leap forward there, i'll stack bilko up against 30 rock any day.

Yeah, i pretty sure the dude in question was comparing Buffy to Lost, rather than The Wire, to which I say whatever.

haha i love lost (that's right no past tense! no regrets!) but WOW. maybe in terms of production values lost has an edge and maaaybe the acting (except when it doesn't) but wow.

I think production values were exactly what he had in mind. If it's important to you that your tv looks expensive then Buffy is probably not for you.

should be noted for the record 'tv got actually good' refers to maybe 5 dramas tops (sopranos, deadwood, the wire, breaking bad, mad men)

haha I have made this argument so many times on ilx. "a new golden age of tv"...oh no wait you mean two shows.

xpost dude should check out a little show called entourage

compared to when the best show on TV was ALF, i think yes we are in a new golden age of tv

alf is a better show than mad men, without a doubt

phillip when was the best show on tv alf precisely?

alf is a better show than mad men, without a doubt

tru dat.

and who reps for entourage nowadays anyway?!?

tanner is such a rare surname that i thought the tanners in full house had to be related to the tanners in alf, but alf never showed up on full house, but steve urkel did.

was it when when hill st blues and st elsewhere, which i'd take over every tv drama currently in production except two, were on or was it when cheers, which i'd take over every tv comedy currently in production, was on? or are you just saying shows as shitty as alf aren't on tv anymore in which case 'whitney cummings', 'charlie sheen' - four shows worse than alf right there. and apparently russell brand is coming to american tv.

cheers and alf are of a piece. TNG is kind of an interesting case because it straddles two eras in TV. compare 'the royale' with 'best of both worlds'

tanner is such a rare surname that i thought the tanners in full house had to be related to the tanners in alf, but alf never showed up on full house, but steve urkel did.

or somehow related to the late Chuck Tanner:

http://www.pittsburghsportsreport.com/PSR/sites/default/files/0Tanner.jpg

re: Buffy, I trudged through the first season-and-a-half thinking, "I don't like vampires, I don't like horror-themed stuff, and this shit better get good soon." And boy, did it. In the words of Lindsey Naegle, it gets biz-zay, consistently and thoroughly.

i kinda think the best thing to do with buffy is either just randomly watch some reruns here and there until you get into it or just start at the beginning and suffer through the nickelodeon-level episodes until you get to the good stuff. part of the fun is watching how much better it gets.

i will seriously kill you

― horseshoe, Saturday, July 28, 2012 9:43 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:D <3

haha I have made this argument so many times on ilx. "a new golden age of tv"...oh no wait you mean two shows.

i'd make an argument about the sitcoms too but people get weirdly defensive, especially about 70s/80s stuff

well my argument is usually not that tv used to be better, just that it also sucks now

horseshoe definitely makes the most charming murder vows on all of ilx (xpost)

"a new golden age of tv" is the saddest phrase a human can speak next to "meet my girlfriend, she's a realdoll"

don't knock tv, man, it's a staring contest with someone i love

haha

if you think TV sucks now and sucked then why would you even...

it's because iatee is adorno iirc

how fucking stupid do you have to be to think dexter is so much better than homicide or that l&o:svu is so much better than l&o for that matter?

surely saddest phrase a human could utter is 'i just got a job at spin magazine' right?

naw, whiney is adorno. i dunno what iatee is.

l&o:svu is the one that really cracks me up in that list of golden age tv

balls, who or what are you actually talking to

yknow that 3 hour preview of falling skies before prometheus didn't sway me but now that i know it's so much better than twin peaks (if not as good as 24 or dexter - but what is?) maybe i'll check it out

because twin peaks was a mediocre cable show

thanks for reading

i guess i'm talking to whoever hacked yr account and said that even second tier golden age of television shows like dexter and 24 are so much better than anything that came before the 2000s (which includes the best seasons of the sopranos btw).

fair enough, poorly worded

i watched a shit ton of TV in the 90s, i'm just saying the pickings overall are a lot better now

if Dexter had come out in, say, 1990, it would be revered as much as Twin Peaks is.

plus its first two seasons were pretty damn good ... though not up to the high standards of the Wire/Sopranos/Breaking Bad troika.

as for 1990s cult shows, i mourn the fact that get a life has disappeared into oblivion ... not only in this EW poll, but in general.

if dexter had come out twenty years ago and been 20% smarter it would've been millenium and nobody would give a fuck

XP OTM

get a life was hilarious. loved it when i was like, 9 years old. saw a few episodes on youtube recently and it's still pretty funny

"Let's get stalking!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbeHCVHOYv4

What a warped show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbeHCVHOYv4

yeah Get A Life robbed on this list

yeah it's kinda sad that chris elliott is kinda stuck doing not very great guest shots on not very great cbs sitcoms now cuz for a good while there between letterman and get a life the guy was the source of some brilliant stuff on tv

whilst praising chris elliott's past glories, let's not forget the greatness that was cabin boy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9CrbAAXORA

there were tons of great shows in the 50s, 60s and 70s, wtf

the only shows from those eras that kind of hold up today are twilight zone and i love lucy maybe. some outer limits, too. night gallery was just...

the honeymooners is still pretty awesome.

it's not fair to honeymooners but king of queens really soured me on the genre.

lol i understand (still love honeymooners tho)

voting mst3k for being an actual kind of "cult" experience in my youth, feel like it has to be something i swapped vhs tapes of with pals rather than just A Good Recent Show and mr. show isn't on the list

nor kids in the hall

oh man yeah KITH kinda robbed too.

yeah it's kinda sad that chris elliott is kinda stuck doing not very great guest shots on not very great cbs sitcoms now cuz for a good while there between letterman and get a life the guy was the source of some brilliant stuff on tv

― balls, Sunday, July 29, 2012 12:41 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

have you not seen Eagleheart!? to me it's like the long-awaited return to Chris Elliott actually having a proper Chris Elliott vehicle after an absurdly long time in the post-Cabin Boy wilderness.

the only shows from those eras that kind of hold up today are twilight zone and i love lucy maybe. some outer limits, too. night gallery was just...

― Philip Nunez, Sunday, July 29, 2012 1:31 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

naked city was better than most of the stuff on today

i feel like i should vote wire but i voted mst3k for much the same reasons as croup mentioned above.

i kinda feel like shows that got tons of awards and critical love almost shouldn't be in the list, compared to shows like MST or Buffy or X-Files where the fervent cult outside the critical community really drove the show's ultimate canonization

yeah were there ever any writeups in the atlantic about the significance of alex krycek??

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

if dexter had come out twenty years ago and been 20% smarter it would've been millenium and nobody would give a fuck

― balls, Sunday, 29 July 2012 05:23 (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

would've voted for Profit if they'd bothered to include it

Me too.

I tried watching an MST3K as an adult and :(

There is nothing about you I like.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

☮ ➝

which episode?

the only shows from those eras that kind of hold up today are twilight zone and i love lucy maybe. some outer limits, too. night gallery was just...

― Philip Nunez, Sunday, July 29, 2012 1:31 AM

naked city was better than most of the stuff on today

― Hungry4Ass, Sunday, July 29, 2012 6:23 AM (4 days ago)

otm. same goes for alfred hitchcock presents. route 66 was pretty good, too, though overly constrained by its formula.

agree w whiney about mst3k. have seen a few episodes, but don't get the appeal.

favorites here are/were buffy, the x-files, arrested development & twin peaks. voted arrested development, though the better twin peaks episodes are in class by themselves.

i voted party down

You people are flirting with fire. The wrath of Raggett would come down on you ... if there was a wrathful bone in that guy's body.

i rationalized not voting for a bunch of other stuff by saying they aren't cult shows. the wire feels more like a full on religion show for ex.

agree w whiney about mst3k. have seen a few episodes, but don't get the appeal.

voted arrested development

The one follows the other like a belch following a big meal.

would attend at least one service at the Church of Bubbles tbh xpost

I'm just saying, i LOVED LOVED LOVED mst3k in high school and then i tried to revisit it as a grown man, and I was just http://i.imgur.com/7WOj5.gif. I'll have to look in my netflix and see the episode in question, but i was pretty shocked at the disconnect

Even odds it was a Sci-Fi era episode.

The actual riff writing was still pretty sharp those last three years, but man, those host segments did way more damage to my impression of the show than they probably should've.

just looked it up, it was The Brain That Wouldn't Die

Could just be that Mike's the problem, then.

But that episode has a lot of fantastic movie segment jokes, so maybe you are just a jerkass.

"maybe"

stuff i rep for:

25. Pushing Daisies
24. Archer
23. Better Off Ted
21. Party Down
18. Wonder Showzen
17. Fringe
15. Community
13. Veronica Mars
12. Twin Peaks
11. Firefly
3. Mystery Science Theater 3000
2. Arrested Development

#1 with a bullet in the incredibly horrible descent from greatness that makes the latter stuff nigh unwatchable: its always sunny in philadelphia

stuff i wished was in here: john from cincinatti, carnivale

is pushing daisies a thing i should investigate? the title annoys me for some reason.

But that episode has a lot of fantastic movie segment jokes, so maybe you are just a jerkass.

― Eric H., Thursday, August 2, 2012 12:18 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This trip

nah, probably not. xp

oops, i was gonna zing you but forget it

I need badly to be zinged.

yeah i'm going to need more than a facepalm from a linkin park fan for me to reconsider the shame of mst3k

was it the dated silliness that made you feel too mature for it, whiney?

Firefly is the best show ever. Sci-fi but not for nerds like Farscape!

<img>http://bandbent.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/firefly.jpg<;/img>

Awesome!

was it the dated silliness that made you feel too mature for it, whiney?

― da croupier, Thursday, August 2, 2012 12:48 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I like silliness!

it's this kind of POP CULTURE ON PARADE LOL THIS "JOEK" IS JUST A POP CULTURE REFERNCE WITH NO SETUP kinda reminding me of like advanced placement family guy into remedial onion a/v club. That shit was hilar when I was like 16 but now in the Patto Oswalt EVERYONE IS OTAKU R2D2 it just seems like a lonely hearts club for dorks

i wondered if it was a "i imagined a nerd enjoying this and got mad" thing

MST3K has a lot to answer for in retrospect, but it was the first and the best and, also, its references are just smarter. And only some of the jokes are references.

i wondered if it was a "i imagined a nerd enjoying this and got mad" thing

Whiney's daily operation

i wondered if it was a "i imagined a nerd enjoying this and got mad" thing

― da croupier, Thursday, August 2, 2012 1:06 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i dunno, i enjoyed it at one point. more like "I imagined a teenager enjoying this"

Like, I don;t like Foster the People either, whatever

Like i'm not gonna be on here defending 311 or wool hats or libertarianism or any of the other ridiculous bullshit I liked sophomore year of high school

whiney you just said now in the Patto Oswalt EVERYONE IS OTAKU R2D2 it just seems like a lonely hearts club for dorks

also you are still a 311-loving libertarian who are you kidding

The brodel is the nazz and the nazz knows where it's at

i didnt even think about what i would vote in this poll because the choices were so stupid.

In the abscence of Get A Life and Strangers With Candy and Mr. Show and actual cult TV shows, I vote Wonder Showzen

have you revisited as a grown man?

Wonder Showzen, I mean

look at you all butthurt that i made fun of your wacky robot orson welled fat joke hour

stop evading the question

I was grown up when I watched Wonder Shozen, but haven't seen it since it went off the air. Eric Andre steady filling that void of anarchic full-contact TV for me atm

I dunno why really but Whiney's aesthetic preferences/distinctions always seem so arbitrary to me

what the fuck is better off ted

it's a good show

but its called better off ted?

haha well I voted for buffy so I'm a case of arrested development twilight-obsesses manchild but female iirc

I'm waiting for Whiney to start an ex-nerd ministry and then get arrested in the bathroom of a comic-con

Whiney's version of ex-nerd is writing about music and praising Linkin Park. He's about ex-nerd as Michele Bachmann's husband is straight.

re: alfred hitchcock presents, the best parts were the hitchcock skits where he abuses the sponsor. the shows were mostly not as good as zone (did some of the writers graduate to twilight zone?), and sometimes as bad as 'one step beyond'

there aren't any good modern anthology shows, though, if that's the competition.

Whiney's version of ex-nerd is writing about music and praising Linkin Park. He's about ex-nerd as Michele Bachmann's husband is straight.

― your native bacon (mh), Thursday, August 2, 2012 1:46 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm a geek, there's a difference

Pretty sure most in that demo also love MST3K but ymmv.

For your files:

NERD SHIT THAT WHINEY FUCKED WITH IN JUNIOR HIGH
They Might Be Giants, MST3K (maybe more early high school), deep Simpsons fandom, Devo, Monty Python, Super Nintendo, collecting Marvel trading cards but not actually reading comic books, Talking Heads, Weird Al,

NERD SHIT WHINEY COULD NOT FUCK WITH IN JUNIOR HIGH
Xanth novels, Dungeons & Dragons, whatever that fucking movie with the "I am Inigo Montoya" thing that all the drama kids quoted, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, JRR Tolkien books, RPGs, Star Wars

is monty python: hitchhikers split like buzzcocks: magazine?

this is like the play at home version of the jaymc game show xpost

i've at-least-kinda-watched 10 of these shows, which i'm...surprised by, but yeah there's some glaring omissions here

MSCL is that rare show where i wish it had gone on for another season (i guess mainly because it ends with lots of loose narrative threads)

xp hah whiney i probably would've been friends with you in junior high (except for TMBG and non-magic:TG trading cards)

ok hitchhiker's clearly does not belong in the second list

why not? you're saying whiney secretly could fuck with it?

at some point or other in my life, i've enjoyed everything in whiney's FW list except: TMBG, MST3K, super nintendo, marvel cards

otoh, i LOVE everything in his WNF list except: tolkien

the Marvel trading cards thing is a bit of a headscratcher

Whiney, Better Off Ted is a hilariously black-hearted satire of soulless corporate evil. I think you might like it. Check out the episode "Racial Sensitivity," when the company installs automatic light switches (to save money/energy) and/but they don't recognize black employees.

I'm already offended

it's a really good episode, maybe the best one.

i've liked everything except marvel trading cards, xanth novels (only barely aware of wtf these even are), D&D, and RPGs. i don't really think of simpsons and super nintendo as 'nerd stuff' so much as 'stuff every other kid in the world was into too.'

yeah, my brother's the anti-nerd, and he was way more into video games than me. in a way, it seems nerdier to not play video games.

I don't know what's worse, pretending the nerd versus geek thing is relevant ("I'm a music geek, not a NERD") or thinking that one obsession is worse than another

I mean, unless we're using "nerd" as a euphemism for "socially maladjusted" and "geek" just means "I am really into things"

http://images.wikia.com/x-files/images/6/6a/Humbug.jpg

http://www.ourhonordefend.com/wp-content/uploads/ogre_revengeofthenerds.jpg

I once saw the guy in Mordy's pic get a tattoo in person!

I think his current performance partner is from around this area, I see him around town occasionally. That pic is pretty old!

I'm not a nerd. nerds are smart - Milhouse

I'm a geek, there's a difference

jeez

voted for my so-called life btw just seemed like the right thing to do

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

God, I only saw this thread in its early days. Well done, guys. Well done.

NERD SHIT THAT WHINEY FUCKED WITH IN JUNIOR HIGH
They Might Be Giants, MST3K (maybe more early high school), deep Simpsons fandom, Devo, Monty Python, Super Nintendo, collecting Marvel trading cards but not actually reading comic books, Talking Heads, Weird Al,

NERD SHIT WHINEY COULD NOT FUCK WITH IN JUNIOR HIGH
Xanth novels, Dungeons & Dragons, whatever that fucking movie with the "I am Inigo Montoya" thing that all the drama kids quoted, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, JRR Tolkien books, RPGs, Star Wars

― MUBU gai pan (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, August 2, 2012 7:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0Mku4aYMjEM/THxet02BAVI/AAAAAAAAAAM/9YSBtB50ouM/S760/who+gives+a+shit.jpg

c'mon, how else will we know what it's ok to like

I don't know what's worse, pretending the nerd versus geek thing is relevant ("I'm a music geek, not a NERD") or thinking that one obsession is worse than another

― your native bacon (mh), Thursday, August 2, 2012 4:51 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mean, unless we're using "nerd" as a euphemism for "socially maladjusted" and "geek" just means "I am really into things"

― your native bacon (mh), Thursday, August 2, 2012 4:52 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this is basically my neverending argument against whiney's neverending bile fountain in a nutshell

I ran into some typical comic nerds at a shop I wouldn't expect them at and it wasn't their encyclopedic knowledge that was off-putting, but the way they related to it and the way they expressed it and talked to each other. Same goes for people into most things.

these results seem completely otm

Yeah. Top 3 are pretty much perfect.

i have yet to be able to watch a twin peaks episode all the way through (doesn't help that I was made to watch Fire Walk With Me before I saw any) but I do love knowing this was ON TV whenever I see a bit.

Party Down beating Arrested Development is so awesome

I prefer Arrested Development but i have a feeling the Party Down movie will be better than any new AD

not holding my breath for that

A/V Club's Ten essential MST3K episodes:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/ten-essential-mst3k-episodes,83328/

ftr I disagree with a LOT of these choices, but fans can be all over the place on what the show's best episodes are.

wtf

where are Manos, Egaah!, The Wild World of Batwoman and The Final Sacrifice

where's frickin SPACE MUTINY

whiney doesn't fuck w/ d&d OR rpgs in general

I'd have said Manos, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Pod People and at least one of the Coleman Francis trio would all have been absolute no-contest sure things.

Racket Girls, Village of the Giants and San Francisco International are probably my 3 very favorite eps, but I don't see many other fans giving those ones major support.

I would have nommed The Girl With Gold Boots but I am pretty sure that's just me being a big booster for some precious nonsense

The only ep from seasons 8-10 that I'd rep pretty hard for is The Giant (Wisconsin) Spider Invasion.

srsly though, I almost hurt myself watching Eegah!

at least they got Werewolf right.

time chasers and hobgoblins would have to be on my list too

Yes to Time Chasers, definitely a top ten. For me, Riding with Death is also on that list.

A/V Club's Ten essential MST3K episodes

http://s3.amazonaws.com/theoatmeal-img/comics/pelvic_thrusting_cats/ralphing_cats_of_infinity.gif

manos, final sacrifice, space mutiny, and pod people were covered in initial list - http://www.avclub.com/articles/mystery-science-theater-3000,61789/ - which this list is an "extension" of

eh both lists are consistently good episodes, and they rightfully point out monster-a-go-go is a genuine chore in the original. skipped some faves but it's not like they're truly off-t-m

I think one of the main other reasons I don't like seasons 8-10 is that they pretty much stopped doing shorts. If I counted them as separate entities, most of my top 10 would be shorts.

oh yeah so many of my favorites are shorts

I love plenty of movies from the last few seasons but I skip 99.9% of the post-TV's Frank skit stuff.

go wonder showzen!

voted for my so-called life btw just seemed like the right thing to do

― what makes you think its a pun (Lamp), Thursday, August 2, 2012 5:08 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lamp = good person