1. The Wonder Years
More than any other show, The Wonder Years had story lines that applied to everyone while still being very specific to the life of Kevin Arnold. We all had a Winnie Cooper. We all had a Harper's Woods. Everyone thinks they are the cool ones in their BFF relationships. Older siblings are mean, but only Wayne is that disgusting. Many shows sacrifice universal reliability for interesting story lines, but The Wonder Years erased that division. Most importantly, Fred Savages's Kevin Arnold was not the most likable protagonist in the world. Let's face it, he was often an immature jerk, but weren't we all at that age? A testament to its quality was the flawless use voice over by Daniel Stern as adult Kevin. This storytelling devise is often seen as either a crutch or impossible to translate to the screen, but here it was an art form that allows a valid adult perspective into a child's narrative. Hindsight and regret are a major part of growing up because making mistakes is how we learn. One of my favorite episodes of The Wonder Years had Kevin trying out for the baseball team. He made the team in spite of his lack of skill and due to the fact that Kevin's father was friends with the coach. Kevin quickly realizes this, but is torn between his father's pride and his duty to the team. The reason this episode is so memorable is because it climaxes in Kevin alone at the plate in position to win the big game. Instead of hitting a home run and being the hero or striking out and learning a lesson, Older Kevin tells us something else. Kevin does a home run and rounds the bases not because it is what actually happened, but because that is how he would like to remember it. That is how memories work and is a clever trick often used as an homage today by shows like How I Met Your Mother. The Wonder Years was not about what happened, but more about how the events in our lives make us feel. Youth is a feeling, and a stated in the finale, it is not the time that the events took place that are "The Wonder Years" but how we look back on them and feel. The soundtrack didn't hurt either.