Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz have been arguing about television shows since they were both critics at the Newark Star-Ledger in the 1990s. Alan now writes for HitFix.com and is the author of “The Revolution Was Televised.” Matt writes for New York magazine, is editor-in-chief of RogerEbert.com, and author of “The Wes Anderson Collection” and “Mad Men Carousel.”
All these years later, Matt and Alan are still arguing about TV, which led to “TV: The Book,” in which they rank the greatest American shows of all time. When they both joined me on the air, I asked them:
- What were the criteria for how you ranked the shows?
- What did you do about your natural bias for shows from your lifetime or that you’ve reviewed?
- How much did the rape revelations about Bill Cosby affect your score for “The Cosby Show”?
- How did you view shows that ran too long and got worse in their later years?
- How did NBC’s problems in the 1990s affect shows like “30 Rock”?
- What show are you disappointed you couldn’t include in the top 100 because the other guy wouldn’t rate it high enough?
- Do shows that only lasted one season deserve to be on the list?
- What’s the effect of binge viewing on a show’s greatness?
- Are all of the shows in the book available online, so you could go back and watch/re-watch them?
Listen to our conversation here.
Previously on Harris Online…