A TV Top 50 to remember: from 'I Love Lucy' to Grover in Sesame Street

What's your favorite TV show of all time?
Raphael Bob-Waksberg's list
Creator of BoJack Horseman
The list that went viral
BoJack ties with Tuca and Bertie
Undone
Then, it gets weirder...
30-Rock-Community-Parks-Office
A very, very specific 'I Love Lucy' episode
Saturday Night Live... but not now
Breaking Bad... in a bar
Six Feet Under... a little
Merritt Wever's Emmy acceptance speech
Transparent
Girls: both Golden and Not Golden
Conan O'Brien... at some very specific point
Star Trek
My So-Called Life
Freaks and Geeks
Sesame Street
Frasier
Pose
Blossom
Boy Meets World
Children interrupt BBC News interview
Watching reruns at daytime
And finally: my friends
What's your favorite TV show of all time?

Rolling Stone magazine recently published an inquiry among TV makers about their favorite TV shows of all time. One of the Top 50 ballots stood out among the pile, and it even went viral on social media! The list is weird, funny, and oddly detailed. Even Grover from 'Sesame Street' is on it!

Raphael Bob-Waksberg's list

The TV maker whose name was on the ballot is Raphael Bob-Waksberg, a comedian, writer, producer, and voice actor whose career has taken flight in recent years. That's why Rolling Stone was interested to know what his favorite TV programs are.

Creator of BoJack Horseman

Raphael Bob-Waksberg is the maker of 'BoJack Horseman,' the adult animated series on Netflix that follows a Hollywood has-been who's half horse and half man. The series, which had its final episode in 2020, is funny, dramatic, and sad at the same time.

Image: Netflix

The list that went viral

Bob-Waksberg was confident enough to put his own series on number one in his Top 50. Here we see his list, as tweeted by Alan Sepinwall (@sepinwall) from Rolling Stone. The journalist writes next to it that the ballot was "very unusual" and that he "had many, many questions." Let's have a look at some of the weird titles - and stories - included in this Top 50!

BoJack ties with Tuca and Bertie

At number 1, 'BoJack Horseman' ties with two other series. First, there's 'Tuca and Bertie,' made by the same people behind 'BoJack' and with similar animated characters going through awkward situations. Bob-Waksberg clearly likes his own work, putting it right there at the top!

Image: Netflix

Undone

The other program sharing the number 1 spot on Bob-Waksberg's list is 'Undone' from Amazon Prime Video. Starring Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk, this animated drama series looks amazingly realistic thanks to the technology of rotoscoping. Among its creators is, probably unsurprisingly, once again Raphael Bob-Waksberg.

Image: Amazon Prime Video

Then, it gets weirder...

Apart from shows that many would put in their lists of favorite TV programs, such as 'Mad Men,' 'The Sopranos,' 'Seinfeld,' and 'The Simpsons,' Bob-Waksberg all of a sudden includes the "annual airing of It's a Wonderful Life" on number 17. We're talking about a cinema film here, but since it's broadcast on television every year around the same time (Christmas), you can also consider it a TV show.

30-Rock-Community-Parks-Office

Raphael Bob-Waksberg put four comedy series in tenth place because he couldn't choose between them. Importantly, he added: "ALL ON THE SAME NIGHT?!?!?!" Because, yes, these shows always seem to be on TV on the same night. And actually, that's fine.

Image: Steve Carrell from 'The Office' and Tina Fey from '30 Rock,' both NBC. The other two shows on number 10 are 'Community' and 'Parks & Recreation.'

A very, very specific 'I Love Lucy' episode

Number 11 is for "I Love Lucy the week Lucy got pregnant AND got accused of being a communist AND she found out Desi was cheating on her." Oh, those innocent fifties!

Saturday Night Live... but not now

The time when people like this live sketch show best is when they are in high school. Or at least, that's what Raphael Bob-Waksberg says. And it makes sense. Before high school, you don't get the jokes. And after high school, you get bored with them.

Breaking Bad... in a bar

Number 14: "[the] final season of Breaking Bad which you watched in a New York sports bar packed with fans who also didn't have cable and you all gasped and cheered together like you were spectators at the Coliseum." Wouldn't we all have loved to watch 'Breaking Bad' that way?

Image: AMC / Netflix

Six Feet Under... a little

Skip the whole show and watch only "the last ten minutes of Six Feet Under." Those are the ones that made it to Bob-Waksberg's list. He is, indeed, referring to one of the most legendary series finales in TV history.

Image: HBO

Merritt Wever's Emmy acceptance speech

Usually, the acceptance speeches of award winners don't make for very exciting television. But when Merritt Wever won the Emmy Award in 2013 for her role in 'Nurse Jackie,' she held a speech that became an instant meme:
"Thank you so much, thank you so much, I gotta go, bye."
....And that was it! So, of course, this scene showed up in Bob-Waksberg's Top 50 of best TV ever.

Transparent

A father gets his family together and tells them that he is actually their mother. A groundbreaking series at Amazon Prime that made it to 25 on Bob-Waksberg's list.

Image: Amazon Prime Video

Girls: both Golden and Not Golden

First come the 'Golden Girls' on number 30, with Rue McClanahan and Betty White on the right of the photo, and then come the 'Girls (not Golden)' on number 31 with Allison Williams and Lena Dunham. The hierarchy seems fair. And did you realize there's 27 years between the start of the two shows?

Image: HBO / NBC

Conan O'Brien... at some very specific point

The 'Conan O'Brien Show' makes it to comedy writer Bob-Waksberg's list, but not all episodes. He liked the late-night show best "during the writers' strike" - that is, probably the time when Conan O'Brien made most of the jokes himself.

Star Trek

On 33 comes "the Star Trek DS9 where they go back in time to the original series." So, really, what Waksberg seems to like most is the original series. Why didn't he just say so?

My So-Called Life

Number 37 is for 'My So-Called Life,' the 90s cult series that never got enough episodes. It's good, Waksberg suggests, "but in an alternate universe where Jared Leto didn't then become famous." He doesn't seem to like the actor and 30-seconds-to-Mars-singer very much.

Image: ABC

Freaks and Geeks

This show was basically, "as my friend Caroline once called it, 'My So-Called Life with more dudes." And the dudes would become quite famous after leaving the teen comedy. In the photo, we see James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Jason Segel, among others.

Sesame Street

"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!"
"Waiter, this hamburger is much too small!"
"Waiter, you've gotten spaghetti all over me!"

- "Charlie, draw one! I think we've got a weirdo here..."

Bob-Waksberg's favorite parts of 'Sesame Street' were the "Grover-as-a-waiter sketches." And he's right, they were the best.

Frasier

"But minus the fat jokes," says Waksberg. They may have been acceptable when the show was filmed, from 1993 to 2004, but not anymore.

Pose

At number 44, Waksberg says: "Still haven't gotten to Pose but I'm sure I would love it!"

And so are we. 'Pose' was nominated for several awards and won the Emmys Television Academy Honors in 2019.

Image: Netflix

Blossom

Here's a strange one, on number 46. "Family sitcoms where Jewish children infiltrate otherwise goyish families (Blossom, Boy Meets World, Growing Pains, etc)." Asked to explain to Rolling Stone, Bob-Waksberg says: "What a genre! What a strange little micro genre of television."

Boy Meets World

"Look, I was a Jewish kid, and I didn’t see a ton of representation for myself on television. But these were places where I was like, 'That kid is like me! Even though he's celebrating Christmas for some reason, ...he is clearly Jewish!'" Bob-Waksberg told Rolling Stone.

Image: ABC / Disney Channel

Children interrupt BBC News interview

Yes, it's a specific genre of TV, especially since the pandemic. An expert is giving a serious interview from their home office, and all of a sudden, their child barges in and takes over the entire show. This is what happened with Political Science Professor Robert Kelly of Pusan National University. He will forever be known as 'BBC Dad.'

Watching reruns at daytime

We all know number 49: "Old reruns and syndicated game shows when you're home sick from school and you're in the TV room with a blanket and a bucket to throw up into and your parents are both at work, you've got the whole day to yourself, and already you're feeling a little bit better." An example of a show? 'The Love Boat.'

And finally: my friends

On number 50, not to hurt anyone's feelings, Bob-Waksberg writes: "all the shows made by my friends who would be bummed I didn't include them on this list."
Very considerate of the 'Bojack Horseman' creator!