Series You Loved from Beginning to End

[Antoyne]

Hannibal. Brilliant, haunting, and underrated. Watched every episode. Still sad it ended. 

 

Got into Breaking Bad late in the game but absolutely one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and it was a pleasure watching all the old seasons in time to watch the last season as it aired live.

[dragonflies]

Bones I love from beginning to end, I binge it constantly lol

 

M*A*S*H I love from beginning to end, even if there's a few eppy's I don't care for

[Soapsuds]

The Jeffersons

[SoapDope]

Eight Is Enough.

 

Seinfeld

 

3rd Rock From The Sun

 

Brady Bunch

 

Love Boat

 

Hart To Hart

[Vee]

I forgot to add Hannibal, oof - flawless from start to finish. Also the most artistically arresting show on television since/until (counting Season 3) Twin Peaks. Way more than what I expected given what I anticipated was yet another tacky movie tie-in show.

 

Frankly, given Bryan Fuller's current track record of dramatically abandoning project after project due to budget complaints, I expect the much-mooted Amazon return of the show in some form to happen sooner than later. If he keeps this streak up Hannibal will be the only way for him to fix his rep.

[MichaelGL]

Veronica Mars

Pushing Daisies

Summerland

Gotham 

Hidden Palms

[amybrickwallace]

 

Hands down the funniest moment of the funniest episode of the entire seven season run!!! 😂😂😂😂😂

[DRW50]

 The Nanny - the middle seasons were swamped with stunt casting to stall out the will they/won't they storyline, but that was finally resolved and the last season was decent enough, with a strong finale. 

 

A Different World 

 

Mary Tyler Moore Show - the show was never the same when Mary moved to her new apartment, and season 6 was very aimless, but again, a more than decent close 

 

Dick Van Dyke Show 

 

Bob Newhart Show - even if the last season was a bit thin 

 

St. Elsewhere - this show was a whole ass mess multiple times (especially seasons 4 and 5) but at its best it was better than anything else on TV, before, during or since. It also paved the way for so much tough, honest, questioning TV we've had over the last 35 years. 

 

Six Feet Under - The stories for David and Claire (especially Claire) fell apart in the later seasons (looking back I think Alan Ball was working out some type of issues about conservatism with Claire...), but the show ended well and the last scenes will always haunt me. 

[Shawn]

Breaking Bad - my all-time favorite EVER, and IMO the greatest scripted drama ever written.

The Golden Girls - it never gets old

The X-Files - The Robert Patrick Years were severely underrated

The Fall - Gillian Anderson is incredible as always

The Critic

Ally McBeal

Tales From The Crypt

MadTV

Everybody Loves Raymond

 

[Gray Bunny]

I think most of mine have already been mentioned, but:

 

Drama: 

-Sisters

-Nurse Jackie 

-The Practice (I'll forgive the final revamped season with half the cast gutted) 

-Desperate Housewives (2nd season was a bit much, kinda like How To Get Away With Murder when there's too much going on, but they recovered. Final season was ho-hum but still enjoyable overall and the series finale was a great wrap-up) 

-Sex And The City (I actually don't mind the testimonials of S1 and first part of S2, because it's fun watching the show evolve into what it became) 

 

Comedy: 

-The Golden Girls (Bea Arthur and others might say their characters became caricatures in its later years, but I love all 7 seasons; the last season is actually my favorite) 

-Saved By The Bell (oh hell, I'll throw this in because it was my childhood favorite) 

-The Nanny (6 fabulous seasons. This is a show that evolved perfectly even after the main couple you're rooting for actually get together. It's funny how the children were such an afterthought by the 3rd season, but Fran's antics and her wonderful supporting cast made it so delicious week after week) 

-The Facts of Life (I don't mind the Over Our Heads/Cloris Leachman era, but it's good they ended it when they did. I just wish they had penned a more appropriate series finale episode, instead of solely focusing on a backdoor pilot that never came to fruition) 

-The Brady Bunch (another one that just got better with age, as the kids aged) 

 

 

SIDE NOTE: I love these topics, thanks to the original posters of these. As someone who went to school for television production (but didn't end up using his degree...sigh), I always loved diving into television history discussions.

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[Faulkner]

Did you watch Hill Street Blues? I like the cast, and Daniel J. Travanti was hot as hell, but I find it tough to appreciate because the censored language and content come off as unbearably corny compared to modern-day shows and the gritty films that preceded it in the ‘70s (Scorsese, etc.) I get that the grit, serialized stories, and Altmanesque overlapping dialogue were groundbreaking for TV at the time, and I’m no stranger for putting aside modern bias to appreciate movies as being of their place and time, but HSB just had this documentary veneer that made its concessions to broadcast standards feel much more off-putting. It’s on Hulu along with St. Elsewhere and Lou Grant, which I’d also like to watch.

[Vee]

The Fall became pure OTT opera at points in the second series, but was still spellbinding and excellent throughout. Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan are incredible, as is the whole cast, and it's a very potent and pointed statement about women's worlds and misogyny.

 

Les Revenants (a.k.a. The Returned - the original French version, not the shortlived American remake) was probably the scariest thing I'd seen on television since Twin Peaks, and it was consistently stunning. I think both of the above are still on Netflix.

[DRW50]

 

I did - mainly when TV Land reran it with St. E. I never quite watched every episode as I felt like the concessions the show made to the network after season 1 helped take away some of the authenticity, and the Bochco quirkiness doesn't wear well for me (also why I don't rewatch LA Law too often). I think you make a lot of good points. 

 

That first season is fascinating to watch though. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Yikes! I loved every single season of TMTMS; it's my most revered sitcom of all time, just as St. Elsewhere is my most beloved drama. (I would KILL to get the complete series on DVD, even if I had to settle for bootlegs).

 

I adored Mary's first apartment, and was disappointed with her new digs, but season six had so many wonderful episodes, like:

 

--"Edie Gets Married" (Lou's ex wife marries another man)

--"Chuckles Bites the Dust"

--"Mary's Delinquent" (Mary and Sue Ann become big sisters to juvenile delinquents)

--"Ted's Wedding" (Ted and Georgette get married in Mary's living room)

--"The Happy Homemaker Takes Lou Home"

--"What Do You Want to Do When You Produce?" (Sue Ann torments her new producer, Murray)

--"The Seminar" (Mary converses with Betty Ford...but doesn't believe it)

--"Once I Had a Secret Love" Lou and Sue Ann hook up, and Lou and Mary break up)

--"Ted and the Kid" (Supposedly unable to conceive, Ted and georgette adopt a son...and then get pregnant)

 

IMHO, the eps directed by Jay Sandrich and written by David Lloyd were the highlights of the entire series.

 

As for St. E, I was aghast at that final scene in the show's last episode, but as you say, when the show was good, it was brilliant. Never equalled. (And I would have married David Morse's hunky and sweet Dr. Jack.)

 

[applcin]

Grimm - I still kinda miss those guys, especially the Nick/Monroe bromance.
Barney Miller
All In The Family - yes, the family dynamic changed but, simply put, Carroll O'Connor was still great to watch

I do have a predisposition towards the various Star Trek series and watched them all beginning to end with varying degrees of enjoyment. But that is like one of my tried and true, go-to places when I want to either "hang out" with some old familiar friends or just visit that particular universe.