The top 100 SciFi shows – Behind the scenes at CliqueClack TV

We here at CliqueClack TV are many things: caring, charitable, dashingly handsome (or beautiful), and passionate. Very passionate. We’re so passionate that we make a Harlequin romance novel seem like a teenage sex romp. This is especially true when it comes to Internet “Top xxx” lists. When one comes out with a listing of television series, the proverbial gloves come off.

This time around, it was a list of the Top 100 science fiction/fantasy shows of all time that pissed off produced a lively debate at the CliqueClack offices. Here are a few of the comments made by our fine staff of writers.

KEITH: What a weird list. Some make sense, others are way out of left field. How can they even include a show like Warehouse 13 in the list at all, when the show’s so new? And to put Dollhouse in the top 20 so soon?

BOB: I love Firefly, but number three on the list seems like a big stretch, especially with X-Files only at seven? The more I look at it, the wronger it seems. Twilight Zone is only 12? And if Buffy is at 6, how the heck is Angel way back at 26? Makes no sense….

KONA: I’m not even a sci-fi/fantasy fan, and I can tell this list is bullshit. The Twilight Zone is one of the GREATEST SHOWS EVER MADE. Fuck Max Headroom.

ANNIE: Stuff like Jake 2.0 seems kind of out-of-nowhere (unless it’s just me that didn’t really care for it, despite really liking Christopher Gorham). Also, is it safe for Alf and the Thundercats to be that close together on the list?

IVEY: The list is jacked, and some of their explanations are just as bad. In the bit about Angel they use Gunn’s addition as a positive. Way to take the least developed character on the show and use him as justification. And Kona has it right. Max Headroom?

SCOTT: Twilight Zone should be number one. Fringe is way too high at #18. And Airwolf was neither sci-fi or fantasy. It was a fuckin’ high-tech helicopter!

BRETT: On the one hand, the list is very good, for the simple fact that it’s an “Internet” list. And as the Internet always does, everything related to Joss Whedon has been over-valued. Seriously, put up a poll about anything, and put something vaguely Whedon related in it. Look at Dollhouse. Top 20 of ever, and even the people that make the show have basically agreed that half the episodes are not good. Fringe’s oddly high ranking signals that Abrams is the next coming of Whedon in that regard.

Looking at it objectively, it’s just a frickin’ train wreck. Worse, even their attempt at an explanation doesn’t help. “We did try to look at a show’s popularity at the time it was on the air, how much of a cult following its garnered since it ended (if it’s already ended), and how much influence it had on other TV shows and pop culture as a whole.” And then LEXX is 34?

I loved LEXX, but fuck if I’ve ever met anyone else who watched it. It actually fails at all their qualifications. Nobody watched it when it was on. There’s no cult following since it ended. And the only thing it may have influenced was the “made for no money” SciFi Saturday movies. Yeah, the LEXX legacy is Aztec Rex.

The one omission that stands out to me is Invasion. With so many one and done shows on the list, I don’t know how that one didn’t make it. Or is my copy of the Internet missing that overwhelming Jake 2.0 cult following?

JASON: They missed Woops!, too. And The Charmings. If Max Headroom can be that high, then those can be on the list! Misfits of Science?

BRETT: Since ratings success and longevity are not concerns, I’d put Global Frequency on the list too.

RICH: I’m surprised they had Get Smart and not Man From U.N.C.L.E. And, they had SeaQuest, but not Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which moved so far into sci-fi/fantasy that it was a totally different show at the end.

KONA: I used to watch Get Smart on Nick at Night all the time. I never would have said it was a sci-fi show. Why is it even on the list? Because he had a shoe phone? Who doesn’t have a shoe phone? That is Science FACT.

Finally, to sum it all up, a comment by the young and beautiful Julia:

JULIA: Yes, I, uh, am totally enraged! About! All these shows I’ve never watched! How dare they…. or…. something.
Rar!

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Aug 31, 2009 @ 14:00 EST5EDT