TV Episodes Considered The Greatest of All Time



A television episode is a short segment in a television series, which makes up a part of it. There have been several great television episodes over the years, though there is no question to which one is the greatest. However, there are certain contenders for the greatest. Television episodes have continuously aired since the 1940's, in various different forms including dramas, sitcoms, variety shows and more.

Critics have constantly tried to determine what television's greatest episode of all time is, even though there have been polls of the greatest episodes for a single series. TV Guide, the major television magazine, compiled a list of the greatest television episodes in 1997, and again in 2009. In their 1997 list, they named Chuckles Bites the Dust, the Emmy-winning Mary Tyler Moore Show episode the greatest of all time. In 2009, The Contest, the controversial Seinfeld episode was listed as #1, pushing the latter down to #3.

Other Possible Contenders


Although these could be certain contenders for the greatest television episode of all time, there is no guarantee. There are plenty of TV episodes out there that match the quality of these, but are not strongly determined to be "the best" of the series that they are in.

The Sopranos
The Blue Comet is often ranked one of their best episodes. It got several emmy nominations, and was the penultimate episode of the series. It centered around a war waging between the Lupertazzi family and the Soprano crime families. This leads to several assassinations, one of the most well-known being Bobby Bacala.

Other Possible "Best" Sopranos Episodes: College centering around Tony taking Meadow to look at colleges in Maine.

Join the Club centering around Tony Soprano in a coma after being shot.

Pine Barrens centering around a failed assassination attempt made by Chris and Paulie

Lost
Through the Looking Glass, the third season finale of the series, got several accolades. The survivors of the plane crash go for one final battle with the "Others", while Charlie tries to investigate their main headquarters, a mysterious ship known as the Looking Glass.

Seinfeld


The Pony Remark received critical acclaim, and was often called a turning point for the series. Jerry Seinfeld and Elaine Benes go to one of Jerry's relatives' 50th anniversary, where he makes a comment about hating everyone who has a pony. Shortly after, one of them dies, and he wonders if the pony remark had anything to do with her death (since she grew up with a pony).

The episode The Chinese Restaurant also could be called one of the best of the series. One of their first classic episodes, it centers around the four waiting for a table at a Chinese Restaurant before seeing "Planet 9 From Outer Space". It helped improve the concept of the series about "nothing".