by William Menna

Created on: October 31, 2006   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

While we are past the days of instant classics like Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, television still has its fair share of highly entertaining shows to offer. The overall quality of TV is dropping as evidenced by recent shameful attempts at programming like Wife Swap, America's Next Top Model, and the entire E! Network, but if you take the time to look, there remain quality programs to be found.

A British comedic import, The Office has blasted straight past cult hit into full blown sensation. The Office focuses on the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin, a paper company employing an eye-popping number of incompetent employees. Steve Carell, playing Michael Scott, has a brilliantly executed dry wit, playing the impeccably ignorant, wildly inappropriate, and completely incapable manager of the Scranton office. He and the rest of the cast make uncomfortable an understatement, helping us all feel better about our own daily interactions.

Since HBO started getting into the business of original programming, it has settled for nothing but the best. They have delivered and retain what is almost a modern version of Seinfeld through Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. A major writer for Seinfeld, David brings the same sociopathic jerk characters to the uncensored and commercial-free environment of HBO, making for a perfect fit. Another HBO mainstay, Real Time with Bill Maher is a blunt talk show that mixes comedy, satire, and politics. While most political shows inevitably deteriorate into games of name-calling, Real Time focuses on only having guests that are willing and able to stick to the issues and take a joke.

Similar to Real Time in genre and topics, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report anchor Comedy Central's schedule. Stewart and Colbert parody each day's political news while still delivering as much actual news content as you would get from the major networks. The Daily Show has drawn such high profile guests as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John McCain while Stephen Colbert's performance earned him a widely heralded spot at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in which he chided the president and media in a no holds barred routine that garnered widespread praise for its candidness.

Lasting year after year as the smartest show on television, Jeopardy continues to hold its viewers' attention with its intellectual yet backwards answer and question format. Also in the game show genre, The Price is Right has a lasting appeal that seemingly gets

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>