The BEST ABC (US) shows of all time
Every ABC (US) show, ranked
We've compiled the average episode rating for every ABC (US) show to compile this list of best shows!
#1 - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (US)
This game is based on the British version of the same name. This game is simple, but in a hard way: Be the first to answer a question correctly, get up on stage to answer 15 more questions correctly, and you win $1 million. But the hard parts are these: Be the first to answer a "fastest finger question" (a question with 4 answers to be placed in a certain order) correctly. The person who does this gets up on stage and into the "hot seat", where s/he will answer 15 multiple choice questions. The second hard part is the multiple choice questions get tougher as they go along: for that reason, 3 "Lifelines" (types of aid) are there to help: once one lifeline is used, it cannot be used again. These Lifelines are: 1. Ask the audience, usually used in one of the first 7 or 8 questions. The audience uses the keypad in front of their seats to vote on what they think the answer is, and the results are shown to the player on his/her computer screen in bar graph form. 2.
View Episode Rankings#2 - Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
An annual fashion show sponsored by Victoria's Secret, a brand of lingerie and sleepwear. Victoria's Secret uses the show to promote and market its goods in high-profile settings. The show features some of the world's leading fashion models such as current Victoria's Secret Angels Adriana Lima, Alessandra Ambrosio, Miranda Kerr, Doutzen Kroes, Behati Prinsloo, Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman, Erin Heatherton, Lily Aldridge, and Lindsay Ellingson. While the fashion show started in 1995, the first airing on broadcast television began in 2001.
View Episode Rankings#3 - The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and Scrappy Too!
The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and Scrappy Too! is a package show produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1980 for ABC Saturday mornings. The program contained segments from Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and Richie Rich. The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo shorts represents the sixth show in which Scooby-Doo appears.[1] This was the only Hanna-Barbera package series for which Scooby-Doo was given second billing and also notable for Richie Rich's debut in animation.
View Episode Rankings#4 - Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution
Famed TV chef and cookbook author Jamie Oliver heads to American cities to help get the residents to start leading a healthier life. Oliver's goal is to set each community up as a template for the rest of the country to follow and start a chain reaction of Americans eating healthier. Naysayers challenge Oliver in his quest for improving the health of the residents.
View Episode Rankings#5 - Pound Puppies
Pound Puppies cartoon was inspired by the Tonka Toys line and centers on 11-year old Holly and her dog friends Cooler, Whopper, Nose Marie, and Howler at the Wagga Wagga Pound who work hard to find happy homes for dogs. They are opposed by Brattina and Katrina, along with Catgut and Nabbit. The series began with a one-hour special in 1985 on ABC. The Pound Puppies consisted of 13 episodes, aired Saturday mornings on ABC. It was followed by The All-New Pound Puppies in 1987.
View Episode Rankings#6 - Child Support
Fred Savage serves as host of this game show that features adult contestants and interactions between Ricky Gervais and a group of 5 kids. The contestants are asked to answer 10 questions and if they cannot correctly answer, they have the chance to be saved by the kids who always say the most unpredictable things.
View Episode Rankings#7 - The Pink Panther
The Pink Panther is a heroic, moral cartoon cat with pink fur and the manners of an English aristocrat. He only becomes flustered or angry at obtuse or offensive humans who try to disrupt his existence, or at troublesome gadgets, rodents, or insects. In most of his cartoons, he stumbles into a difficult situation and stoically endeavors to make the best of it. Episodes of this series feature three theatrical cartoons, two with the Pink Panther, and one featuring the Inspector, a cartoon version of the accident-prone, bumbling French detective, Inspector Clouseau, played in movies by Peter Sellers. The Inspector is often assisted by a Spanish gendarme, Sergeant Deux-Deux, and together they fallibly battle villains of all shapes and sizes in various parts of the world, always on the orders of the long-suffering Surete Commissioner.
View Episode Rankings#8 - Primetime: What Would You Do?
ABC's hidden camera, ethical dilemma series What Would You Do? puts ordinary people on the spot. From bullying to abuse, racial attacks and more.
View Episode Rankings#9 - Expedition Impossible
Are you ready for an adventure of epic proportions? Then brace yourself for Expedition Impossible. 13 three-person teams find themselves racing across vast deserts, over snow-capped mountains and through raging rivers in the beautifully exotic, fabled Kingdom of Morocco. Each week, a new stage of the expedition will be revealed to the teams. Will they crumble under the pressure of life in the wilds, or will they find a way to work together to complete their incredible journey? After 10 stunning legs of competition filled with drama, laughs and memorable characters, one team will cross the finish line to claim victory. Each winning team member gets $50,000 (that's $150,000 total for the team) as well a new Ford Explorer. Excellent! Expedition Impossible comes from Executive Producer Mark Burnett, whose hits include Shark Tank, Survivor and The Apprentice, just to name a few. The show promises to have lots of human drama to accompany all the high adventure. Adventurer, zoologist, big cat trainer and all-around risk-taker Dave Salmoni hosts the show which premieres on Tuesday, June 21 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. Buckle up! This is going to be one heck of an expedition!
View Episode Rankings#10 - Sports Night
Sports Night ran nearly two full seasons on the ABC network in the US during the '98-99 and '99-00 seasons. Smart, fast-paced, witty and featuring a fine ensemble cast, Sports Night struggled in the ratings from the start, particularly during its second season, when it was routinely pre-empted and moved from night to night. Art imitated life imitating art, as the show took on a consultant, was hired to "tweak" the ratings. The show within a show continued to falter, amidst rumors of the imminent sale of its network and the subsequent gutting of its staff, until it, like its parent Sports Night, simply disappeared from the schedule.
View Episode Rankings#11 - Scrubs
Scrubs focuses on the lives of several people working at Sacred Heart, a teaching hospital. It features fast-paced dialogue, slapstick, and surreal vignettes presented mostly as the daydreams of the central character, Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian.
View Episode Rankings#12 - Schoolhouse Rock!
Schoolhouse Rock! is an American series of animated musical educational short films that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming on the U.S. television network ABC. The topics covered included grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and civics. The series produced original episodes between 1973 and 1986 (with 37 episodes created between 1973 and 1980, and four created as the "Computer Rock" segment between 1983 and 1984), with a return in 1993 and new episodes airing at least once a year between then and 1996, when production of the series for ABC was halted. Episodes continued to air for an additional five years after that, finally coming to an end after a 26-year run cancellation in 1999 by ABC. This television program was often rated TV-G in the United States.
View Episode Rankings#13 - Boston Legal
Boston Legal tells the professional and personal stories of a group of brilliant but often emotionally-challenged attorneys. James Spader and William Shatner play Alan Shore and Denny Crane, unlikely kindred spirits among the brigade of high-priced litigators at Crane, Poole & Schmidt. In addition, Shirley Schmidt, a founding partner of the firm, continues to help bring order to the chaotic office. She keeps a vigilant eye on all, particularly Denny Crane, with whom she shares a checkered past. Fast-paced and wildly comedic, the series confronts social and moral issues, while its characters continually stretch the boundaries of the law.
View Episode Rankings#14 - Columbo
A Los Angeles homicide detective, Lieutenant Columbo, uses his humble ways and shrewd demeanor to ferret out even the most careful criminals.
View Episode Rankings#15 - The Weekenders
The Weekenders is an original Disney animated television series which focuses on a group of hardcore friends named Tino, Lor, Carver and Tish who spend their weekends trying to have as much fun as possible. While sometimes their weekends are far from what they plan, they usually manage to work together with the help of some advice from Tino's mother, and things usually work out in the end. Their weekends often consist of visiting various Pizza Parlors and ultimately to have the perfect weekend, though their weekends seldomly go as planned. The central setting of the cartoon is that it takes place only on the weekends, though in some cases it does show certain days of the week in order to show the cause of the episode or the end result thereof. It also has various quirks, like Tino's gray screen and the end-of-episode catchphrase, "Later days!".
View Episode Rankings#16 - On the Air
Czars of the bizarre, Mark Frost & David Lynch have concocted a new series that shows the perils of live television during the "Golden Age of Television." Complete with the usual odd assortment of strange characters that would normally be associated with a Lynch / Frost production. Music for the series was composed and conducted by Angelo Badalamenti. In an attempt to revive his failing career, movie star Lester Guy has agreed to star in this new live variety show for the Zoblotnick Broadcasting Company (ZBC). The owner of the network sends his nephew, from the old country, to direct this show...
View Episode Rankings#17 - The Addams Family
The Addams Family is the creation of American cartoonist Charles Addams. A satirical inversion of the ideal of the perfect American nuclear family, they are an eccentric wealthy family who delight in everything grotesque and macabre, and are never really aware that people find them bizarre or frightening. In fact, they themselves are often terrified by "normal" people.
View Episode Rankings#18 - Bump in the Night
Mr. Bumpy is a monster who lives under the bed, has many adventures around the house with his friends Squishington, the bathroom monster and Molly Coddle, the comfort doll.
View Episode Rankings#19 - Castle (2009)
Rick Castle is one of the world's most successful crime authors. But when his rock star lifestyle isn't enough, this bad boy goes looking for new trouble and finds it working with smart, beautiful Detective Kate Beckett. Inspired by her professional record and intrigued by her buttoned-up personality, Castle's found the model for his bold new character whether she likes it or not. Now with the mayor's permission, Castle is helping solve crime with his own twist.
View Episode Rankings#20 - Lost
After their plane, Oceanic Air flight 815, tore apart whilst thousands of miles off course, the survivors find themselves on a mysterious deserted island where they soon find out they are not alone.
View Episode Rankings#21 - Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies centers on the life of Ned, a pie-maker gifted with the mysterious ability to bring dead things back to life by touching them. There are some conditions to this somewhat unusual talent. Ned quickly learns that if something is revived for more than exactly one minute, something of similar "life value" in the vicinity drops dead, as a form of balance. Additionally, if he touches the revived person or thing a second time, it falls dead again, this time permanently.
View Episode Rankings#22 - Veritas: The Quest
What if you watched your mother mysteriously vanish in an ancient tomb? What if you discovered that your father was not who he seemed to be? What if the worst day of your life began your life's greatest adventure? Meet Nikko Zond, a hyper-intelligent but rebellious teenager still… More mourning the death of his renowned archeologist mother and a virtual stranger to his workaholic father, Solomon. On the day Nikko gets kicked out of the latest in a long line of boarding schools, he discovers his father's career as a university professor is just a cover. Solomon is really head of the Veritas Foundation, whose agenda is to seek the truth behind the mysteries of history and civilization. Teaming up for the first time with his father, Nikko finds his parents' spirit of adventure clearly runs in his blood, as he inadvertently gets entangled in his dad's dangerous adventures. Soon, and against his father's better judgment, Nikko enters the high tech, classified world of Veritas and begins the adventure of his lifetime - a journey that will lead to the unlocking of universal mysteries and, hopefully, will bring him and his emotionally estranged father back together. The Veritas team includes: The highly intelligent and mysterious Vincent Siminou, Solomon's closest confidant and protector; Calvin Banks, a high strung but brilliant by-the-books archaeologist; and Maggie, a cool and sophisticated computer scientist. And charged with the difficult task of trying to keep Nikko out of trouble is Juliet Droil, a beautiful and brilliant former student of his father's who will be Nikko's tutor and friend. From an excavation site of the pre-Roman civilization of Ancient Gaul to the North Pole, there is no place to which the Veritas Foundation will not venture in their mission for the truth. But a secret nefarious organization, seeking to destroy the Foundation's research, will never be far behind. The series stars Ryan Merriman as Nikko Zond, Alex Carter as Solomon Z
View Episode Rankings#23 - Soap
Sisters Mary Campbell and Jessica Tate lead soap-opera lives with their crazy families.
View Episode Rankings#24 - When We Rise
“When We Rise” chronicles the personal and political struggles, set-backs and triumphs of a diverse family of LGBT men and women who helped pioneer one of the last legs of the U.S. Civil Rights movement from its turbulent infancy in the 20th century to the once unfathomable successes of today. The period piece tells the history of the gay rights movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
View Episode Rankings#25 - Modern Family
This mockumentary explores the many different types of a modern family through the stories of a gay couple, comprised of Mitchell and Cameron, and their daughter Lily, a straight couple, comprised of Phil and Claire, and their three kids, Haley, Alex, and Luke, and a multi-ethnic couple, which is comprised of Jay and Gloria, and her son Manny.
View Episode Rankings#26 - Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters
Episodes feature the Ghostbusters as well as their secretary Janine. But the main star of this show is their pet ghost Slimer, who's joined by some new friends and some new enemies.
View Episode Rankings#27 - Boy Meets World
Boy Meets World chronicles the events and everyday life lessons of Cory Matthews who grows up from a young boy to a married man.
View Episode Rankings#28 - China Beach
The trials of a weary nurse, her friends and colleagues in a Vietnam War field hospital.
View Episode Rankings#29 - Commander In Chief
Commander-in-Chief, is a political drama about the nation's first female president. Unlike NBC's The West Wing however, Chief plans to spend more time examining the president's family life with less focus on West Wing matters.
View Episode Rankings#30 - The Wonder Years
The Wonder Years tells the story of Kevin Arnold facing the trials and tribulations of youth while growing up during the 1960s. Told through narration from an adult Kevin, Kevin faces the difficulties of maintaining relationships and friendships on his enthralling journey into adulthood.
View Episode Rankings#31 - The Good Doctor
Shaun Murphy, a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues.
View Episode Rankings#32 - Jabberjaw
In the year 2076, Jabberjaw, a 15-foot tall talking great white shark, and his human friends Biff, Shelly, Bubbles and Clamhead play in a band called The Neptunes; the group travels from underwater city to city, battling diabolical villains while playing concerts.
View Episode Rankings#33 - Police Squad!
In this cult parody of cop dramas, replete with farce and sight gags, Lieutenant Frank Drebin and his fellow officers from Police Squad bungle their way though crime investigations.
View Episode Rankings#34 - Gargoyles
In Scotland, 994 A.D., the castle Wyvern is guarded by gargoyles, creatures that sleep during the day, turned into stone, and are fearsome warriors during the night. In spite of keeping the castle's inhabitants safe, the gargoyles are not respected nor appreciated by them, except for the Captain of Guard who sees great value and honor in these creatures. After being betrayed by the only human they trusted, most of the gargoyles are killed while sleeping, and out of anger the Magus puts a spell on the surviving gargoyles so they also sleep during the night. In 1994 A.D., the billionaire David Xanatos purchases the castle, moving it to the top of his skyscraper in Manhattan. With the castle above the clouds, the spell is broken and now the Scottish gargoyles live again in a world strange to them. The Clan is still reluctant about trusting humans, but after meeting Elisa Maza they find a reason to befriend humans again.
View Episode Rankings#35 - Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
The first incarnation of what has become a franchise-of-sorts, Scooby-Doo is a large, loveable but cowardly Great Dane who hangs around four California high school students (Fred, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy). The four teen-agers are in constant search of mysteries and adventures, driving around in a bright green van known as the Mystery Machine. Many of the group's adventures involve villians who take on supernatural disguises (ghosts and monsters); the villians' activities usually involve blackmail, theft, fraud and other forms of corruption.
View Episode Rankings#36 - The Beatles Anthology
This series is a documentary on the life and times of the Beatles. It features clips from many of their songs as well as in-depth descriptions of their songs, tours, and lives.
View Episode Rankings#37 - The Real Ghostbusters
The Real Ghostbusters continues where the first movie left off, with the four Ghostbusters facing forces of the supernatural. Helping out the Ghostbusters would be their secretary, Janine Melnitz, and (eventually) Louis Tully. Also joining in would be the green ghost busted at the Sedgewick Hotel in the first movie, which was given the name Slimer.
View Episode Rankings#38 - How to Get Away with Murder
Brilliant criminal defense attorney and law professor Annalise Keating, plus five of her students, become involved in a twisted murder case.
View Episode Rankings#39 - Dark Shadows
With vampires, witches, warlocks, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures, it became a surprising phenomenon. The show revolves around Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a guilt-ridden 175-year-old vampire who longs to be human again and returns to his estate after being chained inside a coffin for nearly 200 years.
View Episode Rankings#40 - The Untouchables
The Untouchables chronicles the campaign of Eliot Ness (Robert Stack), the young U.S. Prohibition Bureau agent, to smash the beer and booze empire of Al Capone in 1920s Chicago.
View Episode Rankings#41 - The Norm Show
The show focuses on the life of Norm Henderson, a former NHL hockey player who is banned for life from hockey due to gambling and tax evasion. In order to avoid jail time for these crimes, Norm must perform five years of community service as a full-time social worker.
View Episode Rankings#42 - Combat!
This WWII show centered on the lives of the men from King Company. For 5 1/2 years the men of King Co. faced the enemy starting with the landing on Omaha Beach-D Day June 6, 1944. You see how they evolved from a squad of men to a family.
View Episode Rankings#43 - The Fugitive
Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen), wrongly accused of murdering his wife, escapes custody while on the road to prison and must elude the police to continue his quest to find the real killer.
View Episode Rankings#44 - MacGyver
MacGyver follows the adventures of the laid-back, extremely resourceful secret agent Angus MacGyver. He prefers non-violent conflict resolution whenever possible and refuses to carry or use a gun.
View Episode Rankings#45 - Vega$
This popular series, handsome, fun loving, private eye, Dan Tanna, drives around Las Vegas in his vintage Thunderbird solving private cases but is also on retainer to a wealthy casino owner to keep crime out of his hotels. He is helped by his smart and sexy assistant, a sexy and not too smart chorus girl who takes messages for him, and his enthusiastic, yet inept, legman.
View Episode Rankings#46 - The Rookie
Starting over isn’t easy, especially for small-town guy John Nolan who, after a life-altering incident, is pursuing his dream of being a Los Angeles police officer. As the force’s oldest rookie, he’s met with skepticism from some higher-ups who see him as just a walking midlife crisis. If he can’t keep up with the young cops and the criminals, he’ll be risking lives including his own. But if he can use his life experience, determination and sense of humor to give him an edge, he may just become a success in this new chapter of his life.
View Episode Rankings#47 - Forever (2014)
A 200-year-old Dr. Henry Morgan, who works in a mortuary trying to find a key to untying the curse of his immortality.
View Episode Rankings#48 - Tales From the Cryptkeeper
To capitalize on the merchandising craze brought forth by HBO's series "Tales from the Crypt", they invented this Saturday morning cartoon. Much like the series (and EC comics) that the cartoon was based on, the show featured different child characters weekly who ended up in twisted situations, but with a little more morality play than the HBO series. Still hosting was The Cryptkeeper, and in the second season, The Vaultkeeper and The Old Witch (both narrators from the comic series) had come in to upstage The Cryptkeeper. After two seasons, the show disappeared from ABC's lineup, but resurfaced on CBS in 1999 with new episodes, under the title "New Tales from the Cryptkeeper." The Vaultkeeper and the Old Witch were now absent as hosts, and the Cryptkeeper kept popping up within the context of the story more than in the previous seasons. In 2000, CBS dropped their entire Saturday morning children's show schedule. Since then, the show has aired in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
View Episode Rankings#49 - The Outer Limits
Tending toward the hard science, space travel, time travel, and human evolution it tries to examine in each show some form of the question, "What is the nature of man?"
View Episode Rankings#50 - Once And Again
A divorced father and a soon-to-be divorced mother meet and begin a romantic courtship which is always complicated by their respective children and their own life problems.
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