Best of TV, 1949-ongoing
An attempt to list my highest-ranked TV outings for each year, starting in 1949. Eligible are TV episodes, TV movies, TV specials and/or TV mini-series based on their original air dates on IMDB.
List activity
18 views
• 1 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
75 titles
- DirectorRobert StevensStarsMargaret PhillipsTod AndrewsBarry MacollumErnest Bowers suffers an attack of catalepsy while crossing the street, lapsing into a coma that resembles death. Believing he was killed by a passing car, his body is sent to the city morgue. His coat, with a note in the pocket describing his medical condition, is taken by the owner of a secondhand clothing store and quickly sold. The couple who purchase the jacket finds the note and begins a race to save Ernest from a premature embalming.
- DirectorRobert StevensStarsRalph BellRalph ClantonDonald BukaPrince Florizel and his cohort, Gerard, masquerade under false identities and hit the city in search of adventure. One night in a bar, they encounter a young man who says he does not wish to go on. Claiming to feel the same way, the prince and his friend soon find themselves at the Suicide Club, an organization whose members want to die. Each evening using a deck of cards, the "lucky" next victim is decided, as is the member who must commit the deed and make it look like an accident. Florizel and Gerard's charade ceases to be entertaining when a club member is actually killed.
- DirectorLaurence Schwab Jr.StarsBurgess MeredithJohn BaragreyDavid LewisAn odd professor claims he can spot Martians, who masquerade as humans, using a pair of infrared glasses he wears. Only then can you see the third eyeball in the middle of their forehead. He relates his wild theory to a photographer sitting by him in a bar--and the man believes him. While playing around with infrared film, the photographer says he's snapped a shot of a man with three eyes. The two team up to convince authorities of their find
- DirectorJack WebbStarsJack WebbBarney PhillipsLee MarvinFriday begins to question Henry Ross, a suspect in a man's disappearance, which Friday believes is actually a murder. Ross coolly and calmly denies any involvement in the disappearance, but Friday's relentless interrogation soon begin to crack the man's facade.
- DirectorJack WebbStarsJack WebbBen AlexanderGwen DelanoFriday and Jacobs look for an elderly woman who has been passing bad checks just three different months a year for nearly 10 years.
- DirectorRichard IrvingStarsAlan NapierNatalie WoodMoyna MacGillMonica is a lonely young girl who is schooled at home by her Uncle Stephen and his housekeeper. When Monica talks about her new playmates Mary and Elsie, her Uncle believes she is just imagining things. He grows more concerned when he himself begins to hear Monica's playmates throughout the house.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAlfred HitchcockJoseph CottenRaymond BaileyWilliam Callew is involved in a bad traffic accident on a rural road, that leaves him so paralyzed he appears lifeless, and when help arrives they think he's really dead.
- DirectorHerschel DaughertyStarsAlfred HitchcockJack MullaneyPatricia HitchcockWhen Clint Ringle learns that Ellie Marsh, the schoolteacher whom he loves, is engaged to Walt Norton, Clint kills Walt and then hides in the schoolhouse's bell tower, waiting for his chance to exact further revenge.
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsNancy KellyE.G. MarshallRichard LongPaul Steppe, a watch repairman, suspects his wife is cheating on him while he tends to his store every afternoon. Consumed with jealousy, he devises a time bomb set to go off at four o' clock - the same time her "lover" pays his daily visit. One day, when his wife is at the market, he sneaks into the house to plant the device. There, Paul is surprised by two burglars, who tie him up and gag him - leaving him at the mercy of his own device ticking away.
- 1955–196230mTV-148.3 (1.3K)TV EpisodeDirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsAlfred HitchcockBarbara Bel GeddesHarold J. StoneAfter Mary Maloney's police chief husband is murdered, the police investigate but have a hard time figuring out the murder weapon.
- DirectorRobert StevensStarsRod SerlingGig YoungFrank OvertonA man, fed up with where he's at in life, finds himself not only in his old hometown, but back to the time when he was a boy.
- DirectorDouglas HeyesStarsJohn CarradineH.M. WynantRobin HughesSeeking refuge from a storm, a traveler comes upon a bizarre abbey of monks, who have imprisoned a man who begs for his help. When he confronts the head monk, he is told that the man is the Devil, and he must decide whom to believe.
- DirectorBuzz KulikStarsJack KlugmanJonathan WintersDee SharonFrustrated pool champion Jesse Cardiff has beaten everyone except for the deceased James Howard "Fats" Brown. Jesse can only curse his name. But guess who just walked into the pool room on Randolph Street?
- DirectorRobert AltmanStarsVic MorrowRick JasonSteven RogersSaunders is ordered to join a reconnaissance patrol whose Sergeant doesn't like him or want him along.
- DirectorPaul StanleyStarsVic MorrowRick JasonSteven RogersA GI private is killed after taking over an enemy machine gun and killing dozens of Nazis, but his best friend falsely claims he did the shooting.
- DirectorByron HaskinStarsRobert CulpArlene MartelAbraham SofaerContinuance of the human race against alien invaders depends on a man with an incomplete glass computer hand and no memory of his past.
- DirectorJohn PeyserStarsRick JasonVic MorrowRobert DuvallLt. Hanley comes across three German soldiers in a deserted French town. Two are killed and he captures the third...a demolition expert. He tells Hanley that the entire town is mined and booby trapped to kill American soldiers. When Hanley finds out there is no way to prevent the returning French population from reentering the town he forces the German to disarm the mines and traps at gunpoint. Hanley must be on constant guard because the German is very clever and always thinking of escape.
- DirectorVic MorrowStarsRick JasonVic MorrowJack HoganLt. Hanley has the support of a tank to help his platoon to take the hill. However, the tank is destroyed by a German bazooka. Now Hanley plans to use the shield of the tank to attack the German bunker also with a bazooka.
- DirectorJoseph PevneyStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyIn the throes of his Pon Farr mating period, Spock must return to Vulcan to meet his intended future wife, betrothed from childhood.
- DirectorJames KomackStarsWilliam ShatnerLeonard NimoyDeForest KelleyThe crew of the Enterprise struggles to cope with a planet of imitative people who have modeled their society on 1920s gangsters.
- DirectorIan MacNaughtonJohn Howard DaviesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric Idle'It's Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart', Famous Deaths, Italian Lesson, Whizzo Butter, 'It's the Arts', Arthur "Two-Sheds" Jackson, Cycling Race, and The Funniest Joke in the World.
- DirectorIan MacNaughtonStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric IdleThe 127th annual Twit of the Year Show. Also: Hitler and Himmler are guests for tea in a boarding house; a BBC broadcast is interrupted when a British minister falls into a fissure.
- DirectorSteven SpielbergStarsDennis WeaverJacqueline ScottEddie FirestoneA business commuter is pursued and terrorized by the malevolent driver of a massive tractor-trailer.
- 1969–197429mTV-148.2 (844)TV EpisodeDirectorIan MacNaughtonStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric Idle"The Money Program" features a Swiss banker, a city accountant and a song of praise.
- DirectorIan MacNaughtonStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseEric IdleA highwayman steals "lupins" from the rich and tries to give them to the poor. Also: the first episode in a tatty, tedious 18th-century serial is brought to a screeching halt; peasants clamor for Titian paintings and Venetian glass.