The Best Classic TV (pre 2000)
by littlemishaps | created - 29 Aug 2011 | updated - 29 Aug 2011 | PublicThe best TV series debuting before 2000.
(Disclaimer: in my opinion!)
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1. Mr. Bean (1990–1995)
Not Rated | 25 min | Comedy, Family
Bumbling, childlike Mr. Bean has trouble completing the simplest of day-to-day tasks, but his perseverance and resourcefulness frequently allow him to find ingenious ways around problems.
Stars: Rowan Atkinson, Matilda Ziegler, Robin Driscoll, Matthew Ashforde
Votes: 133,099
2. Only Fools and Horses (1981–2003)
TV-PG | 95 min | Comedy
Comedy that follows two brothers from London's rough Peckham estate as they wheel and deal through a number of dodgy deals and search for the big score that'll make them millionaires.
Stars: David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Roger Lloyd Pack, Buster Merryfield
Votes: 56,633
3. Jonathan Creek (1997–2016)
TV-MA | 60 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Jonathan Creek, a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles, works from his home in a converted windmill. He uses his abilities to solve impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
Stars: Alan Davies, Caroline Quentin, Stuart Milligan, Julia Sawalha
Votes: 8,980
4. Spaced (1999–2001)
TV-14 | 25 min | Comedy
Friends Tim and Daisy, 20-something North Londoners with uncertain futures, must pretend to be a couple to live in the only apartment they can afford.
Stars: Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes, Julia Deakin, Nick Frost
Votes: 57,604
5. Fawlty Towers (1975–1979)
TV-PG | 30 min | Comedy
Hotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.
Stars: John Cleese, Prunella Scales, Andrew Sachs, Connie Booth
Votes: 100,032
6. Thunderbirds (1965–1966)
TV-G | 50 min | Action, Adventure, Family
In the year 2065, the Tracy family run International Rescue - a top-secret organization whose ongoing mission is to rescue people trapped in extraordinarily dangerous situations using their advanced Thunderbirds machines.
Stars: Sylvia Anderson, Peter Dyneley, David Graham, Shane Rimmer
Votes: 5,109
7. Friends (1994–2004)
TV-14 | 22 min | Comedy, Romance
Follows the personal and professional lives of six twenty to thirty year-old friends living in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc
Votes: 1,086,569
8. The Simpsons (1989– )
TV-14 | 22 min | Animation, Comedy
The satiric adventures of a working-class family in the misfit city of Springfield.
Stars: Dan Castellaneta, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Julie Kavner
Votes: 435,339
9. Red Dwarf (1988– )
TV-14 | 30 min | Comedy, Sci-Fi
The adventures of the last human alive and his friends, stranded three million years into deep space on the mining ship Red Dwarf.
Stars: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn
Votes: 37,253
10. Dawson's Creek (1998–2003)
TV-14 | 60 min | Drama, Romance
Two childhood best friends, Dawson and Joey, go through different stages of adolescence together. Their friendship is later tested when they both start a relationship with different people.
Stars: James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson
Votes: 44,606
11. The Tribe (1999–2003)
TV-PG | 30 min | Drama, Family, Romance
A group of young adults struggle to survive in a world where all the adults have been killed by a mysterious virus.
Stars: Caleb Ross, Victoria Spence, Meryl Cassie, Antonia Prebble
Votes: 3,190
12. Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012)
TV-14 | 45 min | Comedy
The wild misadventures of Edina "Eddy" Monsoon and her best friend Patsy Stone, who live in a nearly constant haze of drugged, drunken selfishness.
Stars: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield
Votes: 21,493
13. The Royle Family (1998–2012)
45 min | Comedy
A British sitcom about the everyday life of a working-class family in Northwest England: watching telly, smoking, drinking, and bickering.
Stars: Caroline Aherne, Craig Cash, Sue Johnston, Ricky Tomlinson
Votes: 9,072
14. One Foot in the Grave (1990–2001)
TV-PG | 90 min | Comedy, Drama
Victor Meldrew is a retiree who attracts bad luck. If he's not driving his long suffering wife Margaret crazy with his constant moaning, he's fighting with neighbours.
Stars: Richard Wilson, Annette Crosbie, Doreen Mantle, Owen Brenman
Votes: 7,311
15. The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2020)
TV-PG | 60 min | Comedy
A boisterous female minister comes to serve in an eccentricly conservative small town's church.
Stars: Dawn French, James Fleet, Trevor Peacock, Gary Waldhorn
Votes: 15,454
16. Blackadder (1982–1983)
TV-PG | 195 min | Comedy
In the Middle Ages, Prince Edmund the Black Adder constantly schemes and endeavors to seize the crown from his father and brother.
Stars: Rowan Atkinson, Brian Blessed, Elspet Gray, Tim McInnerny
Votes: 41,036
17. British Men Behaving Badly (1992–2014)
TV-14 | 45 min | Comedy
Two early thirties best friends live together while having completely different personalities. While their girlfriends try to help them take on more responsibilities the boys seldom respond well and usually end up drinking together.
Stars: Martin Clunes, Caroline Quentin, Leslie Ash, Neil Morrissey
Votes: 8,649
18. The Young Ones (1982–1984)
TV-14 | 35 min | Comedy
The crazy and sometimes surreal comedic adventures of four very different students in Thatcher's Britain.
Stars: Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Christopher Ryan
Votes: 16,429
19. The Brittas Empire (1991–1997)
TV-14 | 30 min | Comedy
Gordon Brittas is the manager of the Whitbury-Newtown Leisure Centre. Despite his good intentions, everything seems to go wrong when he's around, despite the best efforts of the center staff and his long-suffering wife, Helen.
Stars: Chris Barrie, Harriet Thorpe, Michael Burns, Tim Marriott
Votes: 3,788
20. Round the Twist (1989–2001)
TV-PG | 25 min | Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Tony Twist and his three children--14-year-old twins Pete and Linda and 7-year-old Bronson--move to an old lighthouse on the rugged Australian coast.
Stars: Mark Mitchell, Esben Storm, Rian McLean, Mathew Waters
Votes: 2,864
21. Father Ted (1995–1998)
TV-14 | 25 min | Comedy
Three misfit priests and their housekeeper live on Craggy Island, not the peaceful and quiet part of Ireland that it seems to be.
Stars: Dermot Morgan, Ardal O'Hanlon, Frank Kelly, Pauline McLynn
Votes: 43,730
22. Futurama (1999– )
TV-14 | 22 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year's Eve 2999.
Stars: Billy West, John DiMaggio, Katey Sagal, Tress MacNeille
Votes: 260,628
23. The Outer Limits (1995–2002)
TV-PG | 44 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A modern revival of the classic science fiction horror anthology show The Outer Limits (1963). Episodes often have twist-endings and involve aliens. Sometimes, a story from one episode continues in a later episode.
Stars: Kevin Conway, Alex Diakun, Eric Schneider, Garvin Cross
Votes: 13,753
24. Doctor Who (1963–1989)
TV-PG | 25 min | Adventure, Drama, Family
The adventures in time and space of the Doctor, a Time Lord who changes appearance and personality by regenerating when near death, and is joined by companions in battles against aliens and other megalomaniacs.
Stars: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker
Votes: 39,489
25. The X-Files (1993–2018)
TV-14 | 45 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents, Fox Mulder the believer and Dana Scully the skeptic, investigate the strange and unexplained, while hidden forces work to impede their efforts.
Stars: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, William B. Davis
Votes: 249,408
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