"I apologize. I know I left some of your favorite shows off this list. How do I know that? Because I left some of my favorite shows off this list. The happy and unfortunate fact is that there are far more than 100 great shows, and more created every year. Lists are incredibly important: they are how we define what matters to us, what we want entertainment and art to do, what we expect of our culture." —TIME TV critic James Poniewozik
This lustily misanthropic comedy was HBO back when HBO was just a movie channel: it took Dabney Coleman, the movie’s comic villain of choice (Tootsie, Nine to Five), and made him into Bill Bittinger, the preening, conniving host of a local-TV talk show. A man whose only moral dilemma was whether it is better to lie to get a job or to get into someone’s pants, Bill bulldozed over rivals and meek producers on the strength of Coleman’s swaggering, damn-the-likeability performance. This sitcom was smart and ahead of its time, and that plus 50 cents will still get you canceled after two seasons, but it’s hard to imagine Larry Sanders—or Larry David—or David Brent—without Buffalo Bill.
Who says there are no second chances in Hollywood? Joss Whedon saw his script for the 1992 movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer made into a one-joke travesty of a teen comedy. Five years later, like a mystic being resurrected within a pentagram, it came back to life as a magical dramedy, a ripping thriller and the smartest work of girls-kick-ass feminism ever crafted by a pudgy guy who’s into comic books. Sarah Michelle Gellar nimbly handled the show’s undead allegories for coming-of-age conflicts (her stunt double nimbly handled the rest). And the show unspooled a rich mythology, realistic family and relationship stories and the best Sondheimian musical episode ever written for hour long television. The demons and ghouls were comically rubber-faced, but Buffy’s spirit was achingly real.