Easily one of the greatest British pop-culture creations, Red Dwarf is a wild, rough-hewn sci-fi comedy starring Craig Charles as Dave Lister, the last known living human being who emerges from stasis after 3 million years while aboard the mining ship Red Dwarf. For company, he has Arnold Rimmer (Chris Barrie), a holographic representation of his dead colleague, Cat (Danny John-Jules), a human-cat hybrid who evolved from Lister's own pet cat, service droid Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) and the ship's computer, Holly (Norman Lovett & Hattie Hayridge). The core of the show's hilarious dynamic is the love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship between Lister and Rimmer, and though the show began on an apparent shoestring budget, by mid-way through its run, the sets, effects and overall look of the show became considerably more sophisticated, even if this resulted in a backlash when the seventh and eighth series were shot with a more cinematic style. It may have all been downhill since series 6, but even a less-great episode of Red Dwarf is still eminently watchable TV, and classic episodes such as Gunmen of the Apocalypse, White Hole and Marooned are a testament to everything that made the show such a hit in the first place: the charm, the outlandishness, and the clever scripting.
20. Frasier
Proof that spin-offs from classic TV shows can actually work, and more to the point, can even out-do the show they spawned from, Frasier is one of the most intelligent and well-acted American sitcoms of all time. Protagonist and radio psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) returns to his hometown of Seattle, where he is forced to have his retired father Martin (John Mahoney) live with him. To make things easier, he hires physiotherapist Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), with whom Frasier's brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce) becomes hopelessly obsessed. A sharp, sophisticated and devilishly funny show, Frasier milked the arrogance of the Crane brothers for every drop, and viewers couldn't help but become engrossed in Niles' quest to win the affections of Daphne. It's one of the longest-running romantic arcs in TV history, finally resolving itself at the end of season 7. While it's fair to say that the show was never quite as great once Niles' chase was over, the trademark wit never went away, and frankly, who can resist Grammer's lovely, velvety voice?
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
