Absolute Best Television

Louie is a stand-up comedian and divorced father of two girls. This series follows him through his everyday life, as he meets various characters, struggles with his love life and pursues humor.

Dr. Joel Fleischman (Rob Morrow) is fresh out of medical college, and fresh out of luck. Failing to read the fine print in his scholarship conditions, he finds he has no choice but to move to the remote and somewhat eccentric town of Cicely, Alaska. Once there, he is welcomed by the peculiar locals who are not keen to see him go, most especially Maurice J. Minnifield (Barry Corbin), the ex-N.A.S.A. astronaut. Despite Joel's adamant denials, one gets the impression that he enjoys life in Cicely more than he admits.

On his birthday, Thom Payne gets the gift of insignificance and also a new boss. He suspects his ED pills are interfering with his anti-depressants, leaving him with neither happiness nor... happiness. In a culture that reveres youth - a culture he helped create - Thom needs to figure out what his purpose is now that he's halfway to death and nobody cares what he thinks. Because in a world where any Kardashian is trending up, perhaps the wise among us would heartily embrace trending down.

Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to run into. He is always sensible. He maintains order over a squad room of detectives who gamble for a hobby, get hit on by anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. Nearly all of the action takes place in the squad room where the citizens and criminals are brought in to complicate the mix.

A New York comic is forced to make a new start for himself after his wife leaves him.

Forrest Bedford is a Southern lawyer in the late 1950s, generally content with his privileged life. But the winds of change are blowing, and he becomes increasingly involved with civil rights cases. Mean- while, Lilly Harper, who cares for his children, is on her own journey of political and personal awareness.

A group of college buddies in the throes of middle age keep their friendship going long after they've graduated.

A look at a seemingly placid New England town that is actually wrought with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy, all told through the lens of Olive, whose wicked wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm but troubled heart and staunch moral center. The story spans 25 years and focuses on Olive's relationships with her husband, Henry, the good-hearted and kindly town pharmacist; their son, Christopher, who resents his mother's approach to parenting; and other members of their community.

Presidential advisers get their personal lives hopelessly tangled up with professional duties as they try to conduct the business of running a country. Fictional Democratic President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet suffers no fools, and that policy alienates many. He and his dedicated staffers struggle to balance the needs of the country with the political realities of Washington, D.C., working through two presidential terms that include countless scandals, threats and political scuffles, as well as the race to succeed Bartlet as the leader of the free world.

A self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening becomes determined to live an enlightened life, creating havoc at home and work.

"Roseanne" is the story of a working-class family struggling with life's essential problems - marriage, children, money, and parents-in-law. A now-classic sitcom, the story circles around the Connor family, a family of five that includes the parents, Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Dan (John Goodman), and the children, Becky (Alicia Goranson), Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and D.J. (Michael Fishman). Roseanne is helped in her challenge to keep the family moving along by her single sister, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), and various friends.

Psychiatrist Craig Huffstodt is a good therapist and middle-aged family man. However his own family's private lives are full of crazy stuff in every sense, including a mentally incurable uncle Teddy, who however fascinates Craig's adolescent son Byrd.

An actress raises her three daughters while juggling the pressures of working in Hollywood and being a single parent.

Sam is a true Kansan on the surface, but, beneath it all, struggles to fit the hometown mould. Grappling with loss and acceptance, she discovers herself and a community of outsiders who don't fit in but don't give up.

Chip Baskets has a dream: become a classically trained French clown in Paris. Things don't go as well as he'd like, though, largely because of an impenetrable language barrier. With his lack of success overseas and mounting financial problems, Chip moves back home to Bakersfield, Calif., which presents other challenges for the wannabe jester. Going back home means having to confront his past, and compete with his siblings for his mother's approval. Even though he didn't make it as a clown in France, Chip is sort of living his dream -- as a rodeo clown.

Nathaniel Fisher, his wife Ruth, and their children David and Claire run a small funeral business that offers the best care to be found anywhere close by. Prodigal son Nate Jr. arrives home for Christmas just as his father is killed by a bus, and has to stick around when he and David are willed the funeral service together. How does a family who helps others deal with grief deal with its own?

Mort has a secret that he really wants to tell his three adult children, who are so self-absorbed they don't see that something has changed for divorced, girlfriendless dad. Even when he invites them to dinner en masse to share his news, somehow, the conversation becomes about them. The secret unfolds, though, when he comes home and sees his married daughter getting intimate with her ex. Now, he knows her secret; she learns his; and the dysfunctional family finds one secret after another being exposed.

This hour-long dramatic series featured life at St. Eligius Hospital, headed by Drs. Donald Westphall and Daniel Auschlander. Every year, new residents would walk down the halls of St. Eligius; learning to deal with perfectionist Cardiovascular Surgeon Mark Craig was only the beginning of the way the hospital and its interesting patients would change their lives forever.