Picking the best of TV

For television, the most anyone can do is name the best of the half-century, since TV didn't get seriously started until the 1950s. So here goes: my list of the best on the tube over the past five decades:

* The best drama series of all time is still on the air: "Law & Order," the NBC show that manages in each episode to present a complicated detective story that keeps you guessing, followed by a court case that involves legal quagmires, moral conundrums and ethical puzzles. This show is so good that I can watch reruns without remembering whodunit -- and if they got away with it. Runners-up: "St. Elsewhere" and "Little House on the Prairie."

* From Milton Berle to "Mystery Science Theater," a lot of shows have made me laugh, which is the primary requirement for best comedy series. To narrow the field, I included another criterion: a willingness to probe a little more deeply into human behavior. While I am tempted to name "The Simpsons," which is unfailingly hilarious in its depiction of human folly, I will opt instead for "All in the Family," the 1970s' CBS sitcom that found humor in serious situations at a time when most TV shows -- drama and comedy -- had the depth of a dime.

* The best documentary of the past 50 years has no equal: PBS's "The Civil War," which first aired in 1990. I've seen it at least five times and would gladly watch it ten more. It brought together every element a top documentary needs: an important topic, excellent visuals, wonderful music, superb writing and the perfect narrator (historian David McCullough).

* The top mini-series in television history is another PBS offering: "Brideshead Revisited," the multi-part serialization of Evelyn Waugh's novel about Catholicism, class division, sin, family and redemption. "Brideshead," which ran first in 1982, did what most TV shows don't do: It took religion seriously and recognized the essential place it has in human life. Second and third place go to ABC's "Roots" and NBC's "Jesus of Nazareth."

* The most memorable real-life moment in television history is very difficult to choose. Consider some of the nominees: the Challenger explosion...the impeachment hearings and trial of President Clinton...the O.J. Simpson chase and trial...Jacqueline Kennedy's tour of the White House...President Nixon's resignation.

I think the mourning for and funeral of President Kennedy in 1963 stand out from the others because of the intense and universal trauma involved. For four days, the nation stood still and watched TV in order to be part of history in a way that had never happened before.

* Over the years of writing this column, I've interviewed scores of celebrities, including Charlton Heston, Bob Newhart, Lucille Ball, Steve Allen, William F. Buckley Jr., Patty Duke, Danny and Marlo Thomas, Michael Landon, and Siskel and Ebert. Of them all, the person that I would most like to know better is Carol Burnett, who came across as unaffected, genuine and -- well, precisely like she seems on TV. If she's not available, I'd take Beverly Sills or Fred Rogers in an instant.

* Who is the most important person in TV history? Is it Philo Farnsworth, one of its inventors? Could it be a newsman like Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite? Should I select an actor or personality whose career stretched across decades, such as Johnny Carson, Bill Cosby or even Bob Barker, who has been on your screen almost as long as it's been able to receive signals?

I am going to opt for you, the TV viewer. Without you, the networks would be sending shows into the ether. Without you, no one would have ever heard of Arthur Godfrey, Ed Sullivan, Mary Tyler Moore or George Clooney. Without you, there wouldn't be a single channel, much less cable networks and satellite dishes and VCRs and DVDs.

I hope you use your power and influence wisely in the new millennium.

(I can't let 1999 pass without a tip of the hat to C-SPAN for its excellent year-long series on the American presidency, featuring authors, historians, politicians, a president or two, and even the grandson of John Tyler.)

(01-27-00)