TV Junkie: A History

Author:

I watched a lot of TV shows over the years. And when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. And I watched accross the board.

Keep in mind that I’m only 35 years old.

I watched The Guiding Light for two years straight (it’s a soap opera whose German title was the Springfield Story). I watched medical shows like Trapper John M.D. and lawyer shows like L.A. Law. I watched the 80s action shows from MacGuyver to Riptide. I even watched Love Boat every weekday on one of the first private channels in Germany: Sat.1. I got up at 6am on every Saturday morning to watch Rawhide (Tausend Meilen Staub, lit. “A Thousand Miles of Dust”) with a very young and pre-Fistful Clint Eastwood. I knew who Daniel Boone was around the same time I met the Cartwrights as well as the men from the Shiloh Ranch.

And last weekend I binge-watched the first Netflix show House of Cards (Big recommendation! Kevin Spacey is a brilliant Magnificent Bastard!) and I got curious as to how many shows I watched intently over the past two and a half decades.

With the help of the list on the German site Wunschliste.de I created a list of “my” shows.

I only counted live-action fiction shows, no animated shows may they be Saturday morning cartoons like Yogi Bear or Scooby-Doo or evening shows like The Simpsons or South Park. No scripted reality (which I’m avoiding to 99% anyway with the exception of Comic Book Men). In this list are only shows which I followed for more than a year unless the show itself didn’t last that long.

And the answer was: 244 246 247. Two hundred and fourty four six seven different shows I watched with active interest since I’ve started watching television. And the worst thing is: Of most of these shows I watched 90% or more episodes at least once.

Title
2 Broke Girls
10 Things I Hate About You
18 to Life
21 Jump Street
24
Adventures of Brisco County Jr., The
Airwolf
Alarm für Cobra 11
ALF
Alien Nation
Ally McBeal
Angel
Arabela
Arabela se vraci
Arrow
A-Team, The
Auf Achse
Automan
B.L. Stryker
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Baby Daddy
Babylon 5
Batman [1965]
Battlestar Galactica [1978]
Battlestar Galactica [2003]
Baywatch
Beauty and the Beast [1987]
Beauty and the Beast [2012]
Bewitched
Big Bang Theory, The
Bionic Woman
Bonanza
Bones
Booker
Breaking In
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Burn Notice
Cagney & Lacey
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future
Castle
Charlie’s Angels [1976]
CHiPs
Chuck
Clown Ferdinand
Columbo
Come Fly with Me
Common Law
Cosby Show, The
Cougar Town
Coupling (UK)
Daniel Boone
Dark Angel
Dawson’s Creek
Desperate Housewives
Dexter
Doctor Who
Doogie Howser, M.D.
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Due South
Dukes of Hazzard, The
Early Edition
Elementary
Emergency!
ER
Fall Guy, The
Family Matters
Fantaghirò
Fantasy Island
Farscape
Father Dowling Mysteries
Firefly
Flash, The
Flipper
Forever Knight
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The
Friends
Full House
Glee
Go On
Good Wife, The
Goodwin Games, The
Gossip Girl
Großstadtrevier
Growing Pains
Guiding Light, The
Gunsmoke
Guys with Kids
Happy Days
Happy Endings
Hardcastle & McCormick
Hart of Dixie
Hart to Hart
Hercules
Heroes
High Chaparral, The
Highlander
Highlander: The Raven
Highway to Heaven
Highwayman, The
Hogan’s Heroes
Home Improvement
House of Cards
House of Lies
House, M.D.
Houston Knights
How I Met Your Mother
Human Target
I Dream of Jeannie
Ich heirate eine Familie
Incredible Hulk, The [1978]
Ironside
IT Crowd, The
JAG
Jake and the Fatman
Justified
King & Maxwell
King of Queens, The
Knight Rider
Kommissar Rex
Kung Fu
Kung Fu – The Legend Continues
L.A. Law
Land of the Lost [1977]
Land of the Lost [1991]
Last Man Standing
Letajici Cestmir
Leverage
Life Unexpected
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Longmire
Lost
Love Boat
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Mad Men
Man from Atlantis, The
Man From U.N.C.L.E., The
Married with Children
Matlock
Max Headroom
Melissa & Joey
Men at Work
Midnight Caller
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mike & Molly
Mork and Mindy
Mortal Kombat Conquest
Mr. Belvedere
Mr. Ed
Munsters Today, The
Munsters, The
Murder, She Wrote
Murphy Brown
My Secret Identity
Nashville
Neighbours
New Girl
Newsroom, The
Night Court
North and South
North and South, Book II
NTSF:SD:SUV::
O.C., The
Odd Couple, The
Operation Petticoat
Out of this World
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose
Party Down
Perry Mason
Person of Interest
Pretender, The
Primeval
Quantum Leap
Quincy, M.E.
Raising Hope
Raumpatrouille Orion
Raven
Rawhide
Remington Steele
Riptide
Roseanne
Sarah Connor Chronicles, The
Sarah Jane Adventures, The
Scarecrow and Mrs. King
Schwarzwaldklinik, Die
SeaQuest DSV
Sentinel, The
Seven Days
Sherlock
Shogun
$#*! My Dad Says
Simon & Simon
Six Million Dollar Man, The
Sledge Hammer!
Sliders
Smallville
Space – Above and Beyond
Space Rangers
Spartacus
Spuk im Hochhaus
Spuk unterm Riesenrad
Spuk von draußen
Star Trek
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Next Generation, The
Star Trek: Voyager
Stargate SG-1
Stargate: Atlantis
Starsky & Hutch
Step By Step
Stingray
Street Hawk
Strike Back
Suburgatory
Suits
Superboy
Supernatural
Sweating Bullets
Switched at Birth
T. J. Hooker
Tales of the Gold Monkey
Team Knight Rider
Tequila and Bonetti
The 10th Kingdom
Three’s Company
Thunder in Paradise
Time Trax
Trapper John, M.D.
Tripods, The
True Blood
Türkisch für Anfänger
Two and a Half Men
V [1983]
V: The Final Battle [1984]
V [1984]
Vampire Diaries, The
Veronica Mars
Viper
Virginian, The
Voyagers!
Walker, Texas Ranger
War of the Worlds
White Collar
Who’s the Boss?
Xena: Warrior Princess
Zorro [1990]

Phew. That’s not bad, is it? 🙂

PS: This list is not guaranteed to be complete. 😉

PPS: And I still remember more which I have overlooked, e.g. Tales of the Gold Monkey and Sherlock, which makes it 246!

PPPS: 247: Family Matters. How could I forget Steve Urkel?