Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

'TV Guide' Editor Discusses 10 Best Shows of 2002

Aired December 16, 2002 - 10:40   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and talk about a little bit of television here. The HBO hit series "The Sopranos" has become a Sunday night ritual for millions of people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun. Mom always said you'd (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: So a lot of you have discovered "The Sopranos," but you may have unknowingly surfed right past some other shows that are worth watching, at least according to "TV Guide." That's coming to your rescue, has a list out of what they believe to be the 10 best shows of 2002. Let's show you what the cover looks like, it's basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal gracing the cover. Now that is one big Santa Claus. He can bring a lot of presents .

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: He won't fit in the chimney, though.

KAGAN: No, he won't, like that guy a couple of weeks ago, they had to break into the chimney. All right.

Lisa Bernhard, she's the deputy editor of "TV Guide" and she joins us with a sneak peek at the list.

Lisa, happy holidays, thanks for joining us.

LISA BERNHARD, "TV GUIDE" DEPUTY EDITOR: Hey, Daryn, happy holidays to you. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. Also, people on this list, let's go ahead an put it up and see what "TV Guide" believes to be the 10 best shows of 2002, and then we're going to talk about them.

All right, number one, actually a quick question for you, is "24" the best show, or these are just the top 10 in any particular order?

BERNHARD: "24" we've named the best show of 2002, absolutely.

KAGAN: OK, so "24," "CSI,"

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: "Curb Your Enthusiasm," (UNINTELLIGIBLE), "Alias," "Friends," "The Sopranos," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Boomtown," and "The Gilmore Girls." How contentious -- you know, one of these days, I want to come over to "TV Guide" when you come up with these lists.

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: I want to be in the room when you guys have this discussion.

BERNHARD: It's always a battle. Everybody -- there's camps of different people who say, you know, we love "Gilmore Girls," some of us go okay, "Gilmore Girls" is trying, it's struggling along. We really like "24" or we like "Alias." "Curb Your Enthusiasm" I think is an interesting choice, because, you know, on HBO, the programming obviously is so strong, with "The Sopranos," (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KAGAN: And it follows -- or is was following "Sopranos."

BERNHARD: It was, indeed.

And, you know, I think it really started to gain some buzz when it got nominated for an Emmy this past year. And, you know, Larry David, this is really his chance to shine. Obviously, he was one of the creators with "Seinfeld" but he was behind the scenes. And, you know, the character of George Costanza was based on Larry David. He's almost kind of taken him a step further. He's such a miscreant, misanthrope, and he imagines worst case scenarios and it's just absolutely hilarious, so, really gaining a lot of momentum, that show.

KAGAN: You know, one thing I thought was interesting about this list, that I think is clearly a sign of the times in television, at least almost half of the shows on this list are not from one of the major three networks. You have HBO, UPN, WB as an example.

BERNHARD: Right. With "Gilmore Girls" on WB and with "Buffy," which was on WB and now on UPN, moved to UPN. It's probably going to be the last year for "Buffy." Sarah Michelle Gellar, her contract's coming up and of course, she's been making feature films, so she'd like to make the jump into feature films more full time. But this show has done so well consistently of having this kind of Goth vampire setting and really dealing with the angst of young people.

It's used humor, drama, it did a musical episode which blew everybody away. Nobody thought these actors could sing, and you kind of groaned to think, oh, they're going to try to push the envelope even farther. And they had terrific songs, written by Josh Whedon, and it's just really consistently had a strong following. So we had -- you know, we had to give it credit. So, you're right, the little networks are coming along.

KAGAN: "Buffy's" going bye-bye.

BERNHARD: "Buffy's" going bye-bye, yes.

KAGAN: Take me back inside that room, in the "TV Guide" offices, and let me know who the bitter people are. What show where people really got this close to getting on the list, but didn't make it? BERNHARD: Well, I mean, there's other great shows, obviously. You had to think about the "The Osbournes." I mean, certainly that had tremendous buzz this season. Gosh, that was -- that was probably one that was -- you know, you could say that that was overlooked, because that...

KAGAN: Well, Since we have this other list, because that's kind of clever, "best awards," like best comedy ensemble is "Scrubs," but best guilty pleasures...

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: "Osbournes" and also "American Idol."

BERNHARD: "American Idol," right. And you're right...

KAGAN: Right on that, yes.

BERNHARD: And "Scrubs," a lot of people really love "Scrubs." You're right, we named that as kind of a best ensemble comedy, not quite the top 10, but that show is coming along as well. I mean, that show seems to be gaining momentum. Other, stronger shows, you know, have faded. If you look at NBC's "Will and Grace" or you look at "Frazier," those are sort of a little bit past their prime, so those aren't really making the top-10 list anymore. So, you know, there is a lot of debate, but there's a lot of good stuff, you know, as usual. And some of the shows we're trying to really get behind, like "Alias" has buzz, but it's still trying to find more and more viewers. It'll come on after the Super Bowl, hopefully that will help, but that's a show that still we think is a real quality show. So we're trying to get behind some of these shows. "Gilmore Girls" on WB, not a heck of a lot of viewers, but we try to go to bat for some shows that we think are really worthy, you know, of attention, not all ratings winners yet, but hopefully they will be, you know, in the near future. .

KAGAN: I bet there's a lot of producers and stars out there that are singing your praises today and appreciating your help.

You know, we have a lot of amateur "TV Guide" pickers out there in our own viewing audience, and we've been asking them to write in, to e-mail, what they think are the best shows of 2002. So we're going to say good-bye to you and thank you for your help. But stick around and watch the screen, and report back to "TV Guide" what our viewers are saying. Lisa Bernhard, from "TV Guide," thank you.

And here, now, our viewers' picks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 16, 2002 - 10:40   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go ahead and talk about a little bit of television here. The HBO hit series "The Sopranos" has become a Sunday night ritual for millions of people.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Woke up this morning, got yourself a gun. Mom always said you'd (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: So a lot of you have discovered "The Sopranos," but you may have unknowingly surfed right past some other shows that are worth watching, at least according to "TV Guide." That's coming to your rescue, has a list out of what they believe to be the 10 best shows of 2002. Let's show you what the cover looks like, it's basketball superstar Shaquille O'Neal gracing the cover. Now that is one big Santa Claus. He can bring a lot of presents .

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: He won't fit in the chimney, though.

KAGAN: No, he won't, like that guy a couple of weeks ago, they had to break into the chimney. All right.

Lisa Bernhard, she's the deputy editor of "TV Guide" and she joins us with a sneak peek at the list.

Lisa, happy holidays, thanks for joining us.

LISA BERNHARD, "TV GUIDE" DEPUTY EDITOR: Hey, Daryn, happy holidays to you. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. Also, people on this list, let's go ahead an put it up and see what "TV Guide" believes to be the 10 best shows of 2002, and then we're going to talk about them.

All right, number one, actually a quick question for you, is "24" the best show, or these are just the top 10 in any particular order?

BERNHARD: "24" we've named the best show of 2002, absolutely.

KAGAN: OK, so "24," "CSI,"

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: "Curb Your Enthusiasm," (UNINTELLIGIBLE), "Alias," "Friends," "The Sopranos," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Boomtown," and "The Gilmore Girls." How contentious -- you know, one of these days, I want to come over to "TV Guide" when you come up with these lists.

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: I want to be in the room when you guys have this discussion.

BERNHARD: It's always a battle. Everybody -- there's camps of different people who say, you know, we love "Gilmore Girls," some of us go okay, "Gilmore Girls" is trying, it's struggling along. We really like "24" or we like "Alias." "Curb Your Enthusiasm" I think is an interesting choice, because, you know, on HBO, the programming obviously is so strong, with "The Sopranos," (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KAGAN: And it follows -- or is was following "Sopranos."

BERNHARD: It was, indeed.

And, you know, I think it really started to gain some buzz when it got nominated for an Emmy this past year. And, you know, Larry David, this is really his chance to shine. Obviously, he was one of the creators with "Seinfeld" but he was behind the scenes. And, you know, the character of George Costanza was based on Larry David. He's almost kind of taken him a step further. He's such a miscreant, misanthrope, and he imagines worst case scenarios and it's just absolutely hilarious, so, really gaining a lot of momentum, that show.

KAGAN: You know, one thing I thought was interesting about this list, that I think is clearly a sign of the times in television, at least almost half of the shows on this list are not from one of the major three networks. You have HBO, UPN, WB as an example.

BERNHARD: Right. With "Gilmore Girls" on WB and with "Buffy," which was on WB and now on UPN, moved to UPN. It's probably going to be the last year for "Buffy." Sarah Michelle Gellar, her contract's coming up and of course, she's been making feature films, so she'd like to make the jump into feature films more full time. But this show has done so well consistently of having this kind of Goth vampire setting and really dealing with the angst of young people.

It's used humor, drama, it did a musical episode which blew everybody away. Nobody thought these actors could sing, and you kind of groaned to think, oh, they're going to try to push the envelope even farther. And they had terrific songs, written by Josh Whedon, and it's just really consistently had a strong following. So we had -- you know, we had to give it credit. So, you're right, the little networks are coming along.

KAGAN: "Buffy's" going bye-bye.

BERNHARD: "Buffy's" going bye-bye, yes.

KAGAN: Take me back inside that room, in the "TV Guide" offices, and let me know who the bitter people are. What show where people really got this close to getting on the list, but didn't make it? BERNHARD: Well, I mean, there's other great shows, obviously. You had to think about the "The Osbournes." I mean, certainly that had tremendous buzz this season. Gosh, that was -- that was probably one that was -- you know, you could say that that was overlooked, because that...

KAGAN: Well, Since we have this other list, because that's kind of clever, "best awards," like best comedy ensemble is "Scrubs," but best guilty pleasures...

BERNHARD: Right.

KAGAN: "Osbournes" and also "American Idol."

BERNHARD: "American Idol," right. And you're right...

KAGAN: Right on that, yes.

BERNHARD: And "Scrubs," a lot of people really love "Scrubs." You're right, we named that as kind of a best ensemble comedy, not quite the top 10, but that show is coming along as well. I mean, that show seems to be gaining momentum. Other, stronger shows, you know, have faded. If you look at NBC's "Will and Grace" or you look at "Frazier," those are sort of a little bit past their prime, so those aren't really making the top-10 list anymore. So, you know, there is a lot of debate, but there's a lot of good stuff, you know, as usual. And some of the shows we're trying to really get behind, like "Alias" has buzz, but it's still trying to find more and more viewers. It'll come on after the Super Bowl, hopefully that will help, but that's a show that still we think is a real quality show. So we're trying to get behind some of these shows. "Gilmore Girls" on WB, not a heck of a lot of viewers, but we try to go to bat for some shows that we think are really worthy, you know, of attention, not all ratings winners yet, but hopefully they will be, you know, in the near future. .

KAGAN: I bet there's a lot of producers and stars out there that are singing your praises today and appreciating your help.

You know, we have a lot of amateur "TV Guide" pickers out there in our own viewing audience, and we've been asking them to write in, to e-mail, what they think are the best shows of 2002. So we're going to say good-bye to you and thank you for your help. But stick around and watch the screen, and report back to "TV Guide" what our viewers are saying. Lisa Bernhard, from "TV Guide," thank you.

And here, now, our viewers' picks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com