Friday, July 2, 2021

TV: an updated list of series I've seen from start to finish

Above image by Tyrone Biljan, courtesy of 13thdimension.com

Back in April I posted a list of TV series that I've seen in their entirety, every episode. This is an update of that list, still missing a number of shows my memory won't surrender, but adding some recent completions. I'm reluctantly adding Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, but still hoping some smarter'n smart network will swoop in and rescue the series for a well-deserved third season (and beyond). Let's get to the list, with its original introduction intact, and its later paragraphs given a fresh coat o' varnish.

I like TV shows. This is an attempt to list every TV series I've ever watched in its entirety, from Season 1 Episode 1 through the blowout finale. It includes mini-series, broadcast series, cable series, and streaming series without discrimination. And it includes some series I saw piecemeal, as long as I'm sure I saw all of the episodes in whatever sequence I got to them. Some I saw on first run, others I watched after the fact. It is a woefully incomplete list--because, y'know, memory--but it's a start. I may come back here to add more series as I remember them.


The Adventures Of Superman
Angel
Arrow
Batman
Being Erica
Bionic Woman [2007 series]
Birds Of Prey
Black Lightning
The Bob Newhart Show
Bosom Buddies
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Bunheads
The Crazy Ones
Daredevil
The Defenders [Marvel Comics series]
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Ellery Queen
The Event
Firefly
The Flash [1990-1991 series]
Flashforward [2009-2010 series]
Freaks And Geeks
Friends
Gilligan's Island
Gilmore Girls
Glee
Go On

The Good Place, quite possibly my all-time favorite TV series (other than Jeopardy!)

The Good Place
Gotham
The Green Hornet
Heroes
High Fidelity
Iron Fist
Krypton
Luke Cage
M*A*S*H
Mad Men
Marvel's Agent Carter
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Middle Man
The Monkees
Mrs. America
The Munsters
The Newsroom
No Ordinary Family
Pan Am
Police Squad!
*Powerless
Pushing Daisies
Quantum Leap
The Queen's Gambit
Reaper
Ringer
Sherlock
Smallville
Smash
Square Pegs
St. Elsewhere
Star Trek
*The Steven Banks Show
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Timeless
Unorthodox
V [2009-2011 series]
Veronica Mars
The Village
WandaVision
We'll Get By
The West Wing
The Wonder Years
Younger
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist


If I forgot any series you think I must have seen from start to finish, I welcome attempts to jog my stubborn memory.

There are two series cited with an asterisk: NBC's 2017 DC Comics sitcom Powerless and the 1994 PBS comedy series The Steven Banks Show. In both cases, I saw all of the broadcast episodes, but each had additional episodes that were completed but never aired. Haven't seen those, so...asterisk.

This list arbitrarily excludes animated shows, only because I didn't want to rack my brain to identify which cartoon series qualified; the cartoon list would include things like The FlintstonesBatman: The Animated Series (and the subsequent related Superman and Justice League series that were part of that B:TAS universe), and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Among live-action shows, Arrested Development and Twin Peaks would have been listed on the basis of their original network TV runs, but both have since been revived, and I haven't seen any of the latter-day episodes. (On the other hand, I have seen the continuations of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, and approve of both.)


Current series that will probably make this list some day include Batwoman, The Falcon And The Winter SoldierFirefly Lane
The Flash (The CW's version, which is distinct from the '90s series), LokiThe Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,  StargirlSupergirl, and the simply swell Superman and Lois. I've just started the final season of Jessica Jones. Having seen the first season of Dollhouse, I may go back to see its second and final season. My wife and I finished the fourth and last season of Being Erica this week, and loved it. We'll be hunting down more shows to enjoy together.


I own home video copies of just a handful of complete TV series. I have The Monkees on DVD and on Blu-ray, Batman on Blu-ray, Shindig! on an unauthorized set of DVD-Rs (and I really need to go back and finish watching those), homemade VHS copies of The Green Hornet, and Police Squad!, and, if we count non-physical media, the 2011-2012 series Pan Am on iTunes. I may write about Pan Am some day; the timing of its original network run coincided with some emotional turmoil in my life, and the idea of jetting off to Europe seemed mighty appealing to me. The pilot episode of Pan Am would serve as part of the climax in the first chapter of a long-gestating memoir I call Spain, a piece which, frankly, I doubt I'll ever getting around to writing. 


There are still a lot of older TV series that should probably be on this list. It's likely that I've seen every episode of 
Get SmartThe Beverly HillbilliesF TroopThe Odd CoupleThe Andy Griffith ShowWKRP In CincinnatiHec RamseySwitchWhen Things Were Rottenand a big ol' bunch of others, but my reasonable doubt is sufficient for me to omit them from this list. There are some other older shows--The Guns Of Will Sonnett, the 1960s Tarzan, Disney's Zorro--I'd like the opportunity to re-visit, but for now, I don't think I've seen all of those episodes.

Yet.


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