The Lost Lowdown

Article from TV Squad



MENSA chairman picks the ten smartest shows of all-time
Posted Feb 18th 2008 9:01AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, TV Royalty, Programming, Game Show

Everybody loves lists, even MENSA members.

Jim Werdell, the chairman of the brainy group, has picked what he considers the ten smartest TV shows of all-time. While some of the shows are no-brainers (ha!), I'm not quite sure why he picks some of the shows he does. The full list is after the jump, along with my suggestions for other shows that should be there.

I mean, seriously...Mad About You?!

1. M*A*S*H
2. Cosmos
3. CSI
4. House
5. The West Wing
6. Boston Legal
7. All in the Family
8. Frasier
9. Mad About You
10. Jeopardy!

OK, right off the bat, I can say that I don't really have a problem with M*A*S*H, Cosmos, The West Wing, and Jeopardy being on the list (though I wonder if we could put a lot of other science/education shows in the Cosmos spot). My main dispute is with Mad About You. It had some great episodes and some great seasons, but they put this above The Dick Van Dyke Show, Seinfeld, Arrested Development, and even Everybody Loves Raymond? As for the other shows, I can't really speak about Boston Legal since I haven't watched it enough to make a judgment (though I wonder if the MENSA Chair has watched enough TV to say this is smarter than other dramas in TV history). If you're going to pick a game show, then Jeopardy is the right one to pick I guess, but there's no way that CSI is a smarter show than Columbo. And no Simpsons or science fiction shows?? No Lost or Twilight Zone?

There are so many examples of shows I could pick that should be on that list but I don't think TV Squad has enough space. What would you put on the list (and take off)?

thats stupid. i totally agree with you bruce. my list would have twin peaks, twilight zone, lost, and arrested development.

There are different kinds of intelligence, I would have chosen Titus for it's depth in exploring the family dynamic.

Obviously Lost should top the list, and I agree the Simpsons should have gotten a mention as well.

I'm not sure what "smart" means in general. The plots are clever? The dialogue is clever? Something else? I would argue that knowing a lot of trivia (Jeopardy) does not count.

Rare is the entertainment narrative full of what I would call "intelligence". My picks would be something like Euclid's Elements, or Newton's Principia. (I know they aren't TV shows but)

That list makes no sense.

1. M*A*S*H (I know why it's here but I never got into it)
2. Cosmos (Never heard of it)
3. CSI (Really?)
4. House (Never seen it)
5. The West Wing (Saw half of the pilot. Nuff said)
6. Boston Legal (See #4)
7. All in the Family (See #1)
8. Frasier (It should be on a list like this, but not this high)
9. Mad About You (Come on! I saw most of this series, and it was good, but not great)
10. Jeopardy! (Like Justin said, knowing a bunch of facts isn't intelligence. I do think it displays a type of intelligence. And I do think you have to be intelligent to give the correct answer (since you aren't just answering questions. I guess you're questioning answers?)


My list would include the likes of The Simpson's, Married With Children (Serious, so very smart), Arrested Development, I Love Lucy.