How to stream the 25 best TV shows of all time
How to stream the 25 best TV shows of all time
The Streamable has assembled a list of the best TV series in history, and we’ll show you where to stream them here!
The history of television is a lot longer than audiences think. Although the term “television” first appeared in 1900, research into methods of mechanically scanning and transmitting graphics began decades before, and those efforts have culminated in an industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
Television has grown into the main entertainment medium for billions of people around the world, and its storied history has produced some of the most influential and culturally relevant content ever seen. A great television show can change hearts and minds, can make its viewers feel emotions like nothing else can.
With all that in mind, The Streamable decided it was high time to assemble a list of our top 25 television shows of all time. Of course, every list is subjective, but our experts have put together a lineup that we feel can stand toe-to-toe with any other assembly of top TV shows you’ll find. We’ve chosen shows that have made an indelible mark on the television medium, from titles that are decades old to recent releases that still have audiences buzzing.
Scroll down to see our top 25 list of the best TV shows of all time below. The list is in descending order, so keep scrolling to see which TV show we put in the coveted No. 1 spot overall, and where you can stream each title. Feel free to let us know if we made any egregious snubs in the comments!
Nos. 25 through 20
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Friday Night Lights
October 3, 2006The trials and triumphs of life in the small town of Dillon, Texas, where high school football is everything.
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The Twilight Zone
October 2, 1959An anthology series containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist.
- DIRECTV MySports
- $44.99 / month
- Paramount Plus Premium
- $13.99 / month
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Fargo
April 15, 2014A close-knit anthology series dealing with stories involving malice, violence and murder based in and around Minnesota.
- DIRECTV MyEntertainment
- $42.99 / month
- Sling TV Sling Select
- $29.99 / month
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M*A*S*H
September 17, 1972The 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stuck in the middle of the Korean war. With little help from the circumstances they find themselves in, they are forced to make their own fun. Fond of practical jokes and revenge, the doctors, nurses, administrators, and soldiers often find ways of making wartime life bearable.
- DIRECTV MySports
- $44.99 / month
- Paramount Plus Premium
- $13.99 / month
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Oz
July 12, 1997The daily lives of prisoners in Emerald City, an experimental unit of the Oswald Maximum Security Prison where ingroups - Muslims, Latinos, Italians, Aryans - stick close to their mutual friends and terrorize their mutual enemies.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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Nos. 20 through 16
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Arrested Development
November 2, 2003The story of a wealthy family that lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.
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The Dick Van Dyke Show
October 3, 1961The Dick Van Dyke Show centers around the work and home life of television comedy writer Rob Petrie. The plots generally revolve around problems at work, where Rob got into various comedic jams with fellow writers Buddy Sorrell, Sally Rogers and producer Mel Cooley.
- DIRECTV MySports
- $44.99 / month
- Paramount Plus Premium
- $13.99 / month
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Twin Peaks
April 8, 1990The body of Laura Palmer is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + Showtime
- $70.99 / month
- Paramount+ with SHOWTIME
- $12.99 / month
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Cheers
September 30, 1982The story about a blue-collar Boston bar run by former sports star Sam Malone and the quirky and wonderful people who worked and drank there.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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Curb Your Enthusiasm
October 15, 2000The off-kilter, unscripted comic vision of Larry David, who plays himself in a parallel universe in which he can’t seem to do anything right, and, by his standards, neither can anyone else.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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Nos. 15 through 11
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Stranger Things
July 15, 2016When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
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The Office
March 24, 2005The everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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Succession
June 3, 2018Follow the lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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Game of Thrones
April 17, 2011Seven noble families fight for control of the mythical land of Westeros. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the farthest north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night’s Watch, is all that stands between the realms of men and icy horrors beyond.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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Better Call Saul
February 8, 2015Six years before Saul Goodman meets Walter White. We meet him when the man who will become Saul Goodman is known as Jimmy McGill, a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny, and, more immediately, hustling to make ends meet. Working alongside, and, often, against Jimmy, is “fixer” Mike Ehrmantraut. The series tracks Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman, the man who puts “criminal” in “criminal lawyer”.
- Philo Essential
- $25 / month
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Nos. 6 through 10
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Star Trek
September 8, 1966Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the command of Captain James T. Kirk with First Officer Mr. Spock, from the planet Vulcan. With a determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen led by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no man has gone before.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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Friends
September 22, 1994Six young people from New York City, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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The West Wing
September 22, 1999The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation’s capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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The Simpsons
December 17, 1989Set in Springfield, the average American town, the show focuses on the antics and everyday adventures of the Simpson family; Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, as well as a virtual cast of thousands. Since the beginning, the series has been a pop culture icon, attracting hundreds of celebrities to guest star. The show has also made name for itself in its fearless satirical take on politics, media and American life in general.
“The Simpsons” was ranked the best sitcom of all time by Rolling Stone in 2021.
If you’ve never seen it, “The Simpsons Movie” pulled together some of the series’ best writers for a wild ride.
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I Love Lucy
October 15, 1951Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz, who also happen to be their best friends.
- DIRECTV MySports
- $44.99 / month
- Paramount Plus Premium
- $13.99 / month
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Nos. 5 through 1
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Seinfeld
July 5, 1989A stand-up comedian and his three offbeat friends weather the pitfalls and payoffs of life in New York City in the ’90s. It’s a show about nothing.
- DIRECTV MyNews
- $39.99 / month
- Peacock Premium Plus
- $19.99 / month
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Mad Men
July 19, 2007Set in 1960-1970 New York, this sexy, stylized and provocative drama follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising.
- Philo Essential
- $25 / month
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Breaking Bad
January 20, 2008Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family’s financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.
- Philo Essential
- $25 / month
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The Sopranos
January 10, 1999The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony’s family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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The Wire
June 2, 2002Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
This brilliant series is routinely cited as the best TV show ever made. (Entertainment Weekly, The BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, and Salon.com have all ranked it #1.) It is the closest thing we have to a novel on television. Sprawling narratives, unforgettable characters, and jaw-dropping plot twists combine into something remarkable, unique, and definitively American. From the police to the drug dealers to the junkies to blue-collar workers to politicians to journalists to elementary students, all the pieces matter.
- DIRECTV Entertainment + HBO
- $74.99 / month
- Hulu Live TV
- $89.99 / month
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