Just following the movie thread, but what are your favorites TV shows, past and present?

My all-time favorite would be the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker. I just love the idea of a cowardly reporter facing supernatural menaces alone, because no one else believes him.

The Night Gallery had some good episodes, just like the Boris Karloff hosted show, "Thriller."

X-Files

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Any others?

x-files by a mile but i also enjoy the old twilight zone episodes, not sure if thats considered horror. not only are those my two favorite horror shows but those are easily in my top 5 all time favorite shows too. x-files is the greatest thing thats ever been on tv.

I don't think there's ever been a horror tv show I really enjoyed.

I liked the first season of Millenium, but I guess that wasn't horror or was it?

It's interesting how opinions can differ: X-Files get's my vote for the _worst_ tv show of the genre.

And I'd say Buffy is comedy, not horror.

Never quite sure what counts as 'horror' rather than SF, fantasy, drama... but I'd put forward 'Threshold', excellent idea that deserved to be continued rather than killed off after the first series.

Well, I'm a big Buffy and Angel fan and been getting into Fringe.  The plus with these shows is they're fiancee-friendly (not much into the gore, so she sometimes has to look away at Fringe). 

In the hit and miss category, Tales from the Crypt had a few good episodes.  The X-Files was really good for the first few seasons, but lost it's way and became boring.  Additionally, the first season of Masters of Horror had a few good episodes (and a few clunkers).

But my favorite, the one that still can send shivers down my spine, is the original Outer Limits.  While the stories are a bit more sci-fi oriented, it still managed to be terrifying.  And a few of the episodes (It Came from the Woodwork comes to mind) had a bit of the cosmic horror angle behind it.

I loved the Hitchhiker series on HBO back in the early 80s. That was pretty good, and was freaky at times. I hadn't thought of it in years, though.

Threshold had only one thing going for it -- Peter Dinklage. I thought everything else about the show needed improvement, and frankly only watched it because of Peter. Not that it couldn't have been a decent show, but I ust don't think the network wanted to spend the money needed to make it good.

Loved X-FIles and Millenium. And the Twilight Zone. I actually enjoyed the 80s version better than the original, the 60s and the 90s versions. But that may be because the Invisibles episode is still me favorite.

jhaelen said:

That's too bad about not finding one you enjoyed. I would put Milennium in the horror category.

I'd have to disagree on X-Files and Buffy. X-Files had some classic moments, both for sci-fi and horror.  Buffy  clearly had a humorous streak, but they had some truly creepy episodes, "Hush" is the first that comes to mind, the Dark Willow episodes, too.

sepayne7l said:

I always liked American Gothic.  Oh, and look it's available for free on Hulu, can't beat that...

Oh, American Gothic was good. Such a shame it lasted one season. When someone knocks usually my wife or I will still say, the "Someon's at the door" line from the show.

I do that too with "Someone's at the Door," I think it was the way Merlyn said it that always stuck with me.  

My sister had a mug, "Conscience is just the fear of being caught. -- Lucas Buck."

I think I was the one who gave  it to her.  I wonder if she still has it?  I'll check next time I visit... but mugs are notoriously fragile.

I'm really into "True Blood" lately. First few episodes where 'Ok' but after that it's really picking up. Vampires FTW! :D

I agree completely, Trublood is great. My partner showed it to me after much dodging on my part (I'm kind of sick of vampires), but it's really quite good, I don't think I'd classify it as horror though, maybe I'm just jaded.

And I LOVE the X-Files. The last few seasons were kind of silly, but the early episodes were great, especially 'Home'.

Glasser's Muse said:

that episode creeped me out big time as a kid and i lived in a small town and every time i heard a car drive slow down the street or heard a car door close at night i was wide awake again. even thinking about that episode now weirds me out.....

folie a deux is such a lovecraftian episodes and was always one of my favorites, later when i found out about lovecraft i was like wow that episode really has to be a nod to that type of horror.

I would have to say Supernatural and Fringe are my two current favorites. Fringe is very X-files meets Alias, I really dug the story arc through the first season, and Supernatural is just fun.

Deek said:

And it's precisely my main criticism about Supernatural that it's 'just fun'. If I wanted 'just fun' I'd watch any of the hundreds (thousands?) of comedy shows.

I don't think there's _ever_ been a good TV horror show. The first season of Millenium got close, but it was more crime than horror. The later seaons were junk because they were trying to appeal to the X-files fans...