15 Best CBS Shows Of All Time, Ranked – TVLine

CBS, originally known as the Columbia Broadcasting System, is one of the Big Three television networks alongside NBC and ABC. It’s been an integral part of TV history since its founding as the radio network United Independent Broadcasters, Inc. in 1927. Nowadays, it retains ample attention and viewers with its well-known shows like “Survivor,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and procedural juggernauts like “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS.”

To go through the history of CBS, aka the Eye Network, after its logo; aka the Tiffany Network, after one of its foundational locations in New York City’s Tiffany and Company Building, is to ponder some of the most iconic television shows ever aired. CBS has offered an embarrassment of riches in its nearly 100 years of business, making curating a list of just 15 programs a fool’s errand.

So, TV historians and fans of one of the great networks of all time, let us all be fools and count down the 15 best CBS shows of all time.

One of the longest-running American television shows of all time, “Gunsmoke” gave its viewers — many of whom transitioned to the small screen from the show’s previous iteration as a radio drama — Western adventures aplenty.

James Arness held down the show’s 20-year run as U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon, an avatar of law and order in Dodge City, Kansas during the late 19th century. His colleagues and allies include the town doctor, Galen Adams, known familiarly as Doc (Milburn Stone), and the saloon proprietor, Miss Kitty Russell (Amanda Blake).

The episodes — of which there are an astonishing 635 not counting the five made-for-TV movies after the run — usually feature trouble from an outside source that comes into town looking to ruffle feathers. Marshal Dillon and his deputies have no choice but to take care of the problem while modeling the old-fashioned values that classic Westerns like “Gunsmoke” are known for.

For its ubiquity throughout one of television’s most formative eras, “Gunsmoke” earns a spot on this list.

Developed by TV comedy guru Norman Lear, “The Jeffersons” is a spin-off of another Lear joint, “All in the Family.” “The Jeffersons” is centered on the titular family, a Black couple that moves “on up” — as the theme song proclaims — to a high-rise apartment in Manhattan.

Originally airing from 1975 to 1985, “The Jeffersons” stars Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson and Isabel Sanford as Louise Jefferson. Hard-headed George can be gruff, selfish, and a little close-minded about the world around him and what he needs to do to keep his piece of the pie. Louise — aka “Weezy” — is the kinder and more empathetic of the couple, though she’s not a naive babe in the woods, either.

Together, over 11 seasons, the couple deals with hot-button issues like economic anxiety, gun control, and especially racism — the Ku Klux Klan even makes an appearance in an episode that uses racial slurs for effect. Without the impact of “The Jeffersons,” we might not have iconic shows like “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” — and we definitely wouldn’t have the Jeffersons making a cameo on a “Fresh Prince” episode.

One of two Bob Newhart-starring shows that aired on the Tiffany Network (with the second one’s series finale memorably referencing the first), the first “Bob Newhart Show” aired six seasons from 1972 to 1978. Newhart, one of American history’s great comedians, starred as Dr. Robert Hartley, a psychologist who deals with eccentric patients, co-workers, and a loving but sharp wife played by Suzanne Pleshette.

Unlike many comedians of equally iconic status, Newhart tends to play the grounded voice of reason in a sea of uncontrolled chaos — his deadpan stammer indicating a pained struggle to maintain order. On the “Bob Newhart Show,” the protagonist acts as a sparring partner for more animated comic performances from folks like Bill Daily, Marcia Wallace, and Jack Riley.

With one of television’s catchiest and friendliest theme songs, “The Andy Griffith Show” provided a particularly kind-hearted brand of Americana over its eight seasons in the 1960s.

Andy Griffith, by then already an iconic and beloved comedian and actor, played Sheriff Andy Taylor, who served the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina. Other cast members included the unstoppable Don Knotts as the ever-bumbling Deputy Barney Fife and a young Ron Howard as Opie, Andy’s adorable son.

In many of its episodes, “The Andy Griffith Show” plays a little like a sweet and silly take on “Gunsmoke” with its reliable sheriff moving through an eccentric group of friends and family to solve whatever problems come the town’s way.

If you’ve seen any legal procedural on television in the past 70 years — especially if you loved the Matthew Rhys-starring HBO series “Perry Mason” — you owe it to yourself to watch the original.

“Perry Mason,” based on the literary character created by author Erle Stanley Gardner, ran for nine seasons from 1957 to 1966. Raymond Burr played the title role, a defense attorney who serves his clients to the best of his abilities. He’s assisted by his secretary Della Street (Barbara Hale) and the dry and imposing private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper). Together, the trio take on Los Angeles’ most knotted cases, usually busting out an acquittal by an episode’s end. It might make the show formulaic, but goodness, what a formula it is.

Another procedural inspired by a beloved literary detective, “Elementary” takes Sherlock Holmes and transports him into 21st century New York City.

Holmes is played by Jonny Lee Miller, whose performance gives the culturally ubiquitous detective a pleasing, droll sense of prickliness, intellect, and bleary-eyed trauma. Assisted by the gender-flipped Dr. Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), Holmes consults with the New York Police Department, solving the most seemingly impossible cases and slowly bettering himself along the way.

“Elementary” folds in some recognizable elements and characters from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes” mythology, including Holmes’ archnemesis Moriarty (Natalie Dormer). But at its most pleasurable, accessible best, it functions as an intoxicating police procedural with personality, great performances, and depth to spare.

Sonny Curtis sings “You’re gonna make it after all,” Mary Tyler Moore throws her hat into the air, the image freezes, and one of the all-time great TV show theme songs conveys the plucky but hard-won optimism that powers a standard-setter of American TV comedy.

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns, stars Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards, a news show producer based in Minneapolis. Despite reeling from a broken engagement, she is hard-working, kind, and tough when she needs to be. And her co-workers provide lots of comic sparring, including her acerbic boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner), a sarcastic newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod), and the spectacularly dunderheaded anchor Ted Baxter (Ted Knight).

This crew is among the greatest comedy ensemble casts ever assembled, rewriting the playbook for workplace comedies to come. It’s a shining feat of television.

We know Alfred Hitchcock as one of the greatest film directors of all time — a master of suspense who helmed classics like “Psycho,” “North by Northwest,” and “Rear Window.” But Hitchcock deserves his flowers for his contributions to television, too.

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” a “Twilight Zone”-esque anthology series that aired on CBS for five seasons before hopping to NBC, then going back to CBS rebranded as “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” for two seasons before ending its run with one more season on NBC, features the director drolly introducing a self-contained episode of high-quality genre thrills and burgeoning talent. These episodes were directed by many people who went on to be essential filmmakers themselves, including Robert Altman, William Friedkin, and Arthur Hiller.

Some of the great episodes to check out in its CBS seasons include “The Case of Mr. Pelham,” a Hitchcock-directed tale of a mysterious doppelganger wreaking havoc in the life of the original person (Tom Ewell in both roles), and “The Diplomatic Corpse” starring Peter Lorre as a detective on the case of a wealthy woman’s untimely demise.

The aforementioned Mary Tyler Moore first broke through on television in the essential 1960s CBS series “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” created by fellow comedy icon Carl Reiner. Moore played Laura Petrie, the charming wife of Rob Petrie (Dick Van Dyke), the head writer of an in-universe TV comedy show. And if all you’ve seen from “The Dick Van Dyke Show” is that clip of Moore nailing a trick pool shot on her first try, you’ve got many other pleasures to uncover.

“The Dick Van Dyke Show” is full of physical comedy set pieces from Van Dyke and Moore, giving the show a timeless quality that entertains children and old-timers alike. It’s also full of witty repartee between Van Dyke and his daffy co-workers.

And most endearingly, the relationship between Rob and Laura Petrie is lovely and earnest throughout, finding comedy outside of the typical “married couple who hate each other” tropes you find in other shows.

“Murder, She Wrote” is a fuzzy, hand-knit sweater; a London Fog latte served at the exact right temperature; one of the most comforting shows you’re likely to find … that’s about a bunch of murders.

Dame Angela Lansbury played mystery writer Jessica Fletcher, a resident of Cabot Cove, Maine. While it’s a small town where everybody knows everybody else, it has quite the homicide rate, with new deaths popping up every week. So, Fletcher, using her knowledge of and experience writing murder plots, consults with the police force, including sheriffs played by Tom Bosley and Ron Masak, to solve the case and nab the dramatic confession.

Lansbury’s performance is gentle but firm, played with a bottomless well of empathy even when she’s confronting the murderer of the episode. She centers the show perfectly, catapulting “Murder, She Wrote” above its detective procedural competition effortlessly.

Airing for just 39 episodes, “The Honeymooners” broke ground in the domestic situation comedy, presenting a married couple that don’t always get along. It was also among the first shows to present a gritty, relatively authentic iteration of working-class struggles.

Jackie Gleason, who also created the series, starred as Ralph Kramden, a bus driver who’s a blowhard, a bully, an impatient and greedy philistine, and one of the funniest television characters of all time. He constantly (impotently) threatens his wife, Alice (Audrey Meadows), but she pays it no mind, giving it back to Ralph as good as he gives.

Together, with their neighbors and best friends — the dim-witted Ed Norton (Art Carney) and his wife Trixie (Joyce Randolph) — the Kramdens toil their way through schemes, dreams, and frustrations, all to riotous, brusque effect. “The Honeymooners” is now fundamentally in the DNA of TV comedy, from direct lifts like “The Flintstones” to edgier upgrades like “Married… With Children.”

Based on a novel by Richard Hooker and a film directed by Robert Altman, “M*A*S*H” blended all of its inspirations, tonal experimentations, and anxieties about America’s role in international wars into a landmark television series.

“M*A*S*H” follows the crew of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War, including the sarcastic but moralistic Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda), the tough but increasingly vulnerable Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit), the rambunctious, cross-dressing Maxwell Klinger (Jamie Farr), and Father Mulcahy (William Christopher), a Catholic priest with an open-minded relationship with his faith.

These squad members undergo myriad misadventures ranging from seriousness to silliness, to life-and-death stakes, to relationship squabbles. “M*A*S*H” is a revolutionary text in the study of both dramedies and prestige television, using its long-running popularity to play with the form and go for artsy pathos just as much as meat-and-potatoes laughs.

“All in the Family” is one of the great TV comedies — a work of provocation and courage that still affects audiences to this day. 

Developed by Norman Lear and inspired by the British comedy “Till Death Us Do Part,” “All in the Family” stars Carroll O’Connor as the controversial and compelling Archie Bunker. Archie is misanthropic, bitter, and bigoted, stubbornly refusing to change with the increasingly progressive society around him. This stubbornness causes much of the show’s conflicts, especially when Archie butts heads with his liberal son-in-law Michael, whom Archie calls “Meathead” (Rob Reiner).

Archie is married to Edith (Jean Stapleton), who tries to maintain kindness despite her outwardly volatile husband. It all makes for a sitcom that feels alive and dangerous more than 45 years after its nine-season run aired its final episode.

The pipeline from American theater to American television can’t be overstated. Near the start of the TV medium, many programs presented either self-contained adaptations of pieces originally written for the stage or brand-new pieces that functioned as “filmed theater” or a “teleplay.” Rod Serling was one of the key authors of this movement, and from 1959 to 1964, he constructed his magnum opus for CBS.

“The Twilight Zone,” an anthology series created and hosted by Serling (with a little less sardonicism than Alfred Hitchcock), presented tales of science fiction, horror, dark fantasy, and ironic twists. The show’s secret weapon is its usage of these tricks and tropes to make ruthless comments on human nature’s most essential, often evil elements.

Some of the greatest “Twilight Zone” episodes include “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and “Time Enough at Last” which has, maybe, the meanest twist ending ever committed to the screen.

The greatest CBS show of all time is also likely the greatest sitcom of all time. It’s “I Love Lucy,” a rollicking comedy full of some of the most iconic sequences of TV history.

Lucille Ball commands the screen as Lucy Ricardo, wife of suave jazz band leader Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz, Ball’s real-life husband and producing partner). Lucy, a housewife, is eager for stardom, resorting to outlandish schemes to grab the spotlight, much to Ricky’s chagrin.

Along for the ride are the couple’s best friends and landlords (and former vaudeville performers) Fred and Ethel Mertz (William Frawley and Vivian Vance). Together, the quartet falls into misadventures a-plenty, and the performers jump on these set pieces with an innate mastery of their form.

From Lucy’s inability to pronounce the health tonic Vitameatavegamin (which is actually just alcohol) or hold down an assembly line job at a chocolate manufacturing factory, “I Love Lucy” is chock-full of hilarity, warmth, and invention.