A dozen TV shows that belong in the canon
“Six Feet Under” -- A finely written melodrama about finding life in the company of death.
Art Streiber/HBO
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“Friday Night Lights” -- Brought realism to the notion of a “happy marriage” and showed a local community creating meaning.
Bill Records/NBC
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“The Wire” -- A haunting epic about crime, poverty, drugs, and helplessness, and the antipathy between individuals and social systems.
Larry Riley/HBO
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“Breaking Bad” -- A tightly written, Kafkaesque portrait of personal transformation and a man driven to extremes by fear.
Ursula Coyote
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“The Sopranos” -- Took TV drama in a new anti-heroic direction, told its stories through a fascinating psychological lens.
Barry Wetcher/HBO
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“Seinfeld” -- Stripped the sitcom of sentimentality and sent-up small-mindedness and urban life.
Carin Baer/Castle Rock Entertainment
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“Arrested Development” -- The age of the dysfunctional family got its own farcical opus.
F. Scott Schafer/Fox/AP
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“The Simpsons” -- The relentlessness of American pop culture, embedded in a family comedy.
Fox Broacasting Co./AP
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“The Andy Griffith Show” -- Morality tales, family bonds, and small-town life gone by.
REUTERS
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“The Dick Van Dyke Show” -- A snapshot of America’s Camelot that brought situation comedy to a new level of honesty.
United Press International
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“Lost” -- It pushed serial storytelling to the outer limits, asking the viewer to work to piece together a global and cosmic puzzle.
MARIO PEREZ/ABC
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Frank Ockenfels/AMC
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