Let the listing begin

100 Greatest TV Shows of the 00s ~ Introductory Notes & Ground Rules

I've been working on this one for a few weeks now.

While the decade lists for music, film and etc. will be much, much shorter, I've gone all out with the TV one. Over the next couple of weeks I'll roll out my picks for the top 100 television shows of the 00s. Of course, it'll be my top 100 shows, which'll mean some glaring omissions, of course. I never really got into much of what FX has to offer, like the Shield, Rescue Me and Nip/Tuck. And while I enjoyed the Sopranos, it didn't crack my top ten. Also, up until last week, I was sure Freaks and Geeks aired in 98-99. But Alan Sepinwall reminded me that while Freaks debuted in fall of 1999, more than few new episodes aired in 2000 -- a pleasant surprise that brings me to my ground rules.

1. Shows in question must have had a first-run airdate between 2000-09. No exceptions.
2. Episodes of shows in question that aired before 2000 do not count in determining their ranking. Not good news for Buffy and the X-Files, which we'll get to over the next few days.
3. Shows in question must have produced at least six episodes, though not all episodes had to air on the original network -- i.e., Bryan Fuller's Wonderfalls is in. Mini-series are not.
4. Finally, I excluded reality shows, news, sports, and talk shows only because I didn't care to write about them, even if some might have made the list. Nothing objective about this rule. Just my preference. Many apologies to the Daily Show and Craig Ferguson. Sketch comedy, however, is in like sin. Because this is my list, dammit!

And that's really it.

Some caveats. All of these shows are in English. While I do love the small screen, I don't claim to know my Korean soaps or every international version of the Office. For that, I apologize. The BBC and ITV are represented quite well. Canada gets two shows, and Australia one. The rest come form the good old US of A. Having only seen the Onion AV Club's 00-list, I think my list might be a little comedy heavy as compared to others. But over the next few weeks we'll see if the real critics like to laugh as much as I do. Also, I have no aversion to ranking science fiction alongside more "realistic" programs. Spoiler Alert! Battlestar is ranked higher than the Sopranos. Deal with it.

I hope someone out there has as much fun reading this as I had writing it.

(P.S. I'll probably post an abbreviated version of this over at Saniel Bonders's sometime soon, but check it out as the list action has already begun. Happy listing!)