Ever wonder what the longest-running TV shows have been?

I wonder this all the time, but the lists on wikipedia always infuriate me, because they're so cluttered with talk shows, soap operas, children's Saturday morning stuff, etc. Finally, I filtered through it myself and came up with the fact that there have been 30 prime-time/adult oriented, fictional/continously plotted (not sketch shows) seasonal/weekly television shows that have gone 10 seasons or more.

In case you were wondering, here they are with their number of seasons next to them. Shows with the same number of seasons have the ones with the most episodes first. Enjoy.

22. The Simpsons

20. Gunsmoke
20. Law & Order

19. Lassie

15. E.R.
15. South Park

14. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
14. Bonanza
14. Knots Landing

13. Dallas
13. King of the Hill

12. The Lucy Show
12. My Three Sons
12. NYPD Blue
12. Murder, She Wrote
12. Hawaii Five-O

11. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
11. M*A*S*H
11. Cheers
11. Frasier
11. Married...With Children
11. Happy Days
11. Seventh Heaven
11. The Jeffersons

10. Smallville
10. Stargate SG-1
10. Murphy Brown
10. Friends
10. JAG
10. Beverly Hills, 90210


Of course, The Simpsons, South Park, and Law & Order: SVU are still going, so this will have to change in the fall.

Slimy!

 

Doctor Who doesn't count?

 

Oh, well I guess this list was just for American TV. I'm not sure if the original Doctor Who was boradcast steadily, weekly/seasonally as it aired in Britain, in the U.S. ,or if they just have always shown clumps of reruns on PBS.

Slimy!

 

I didn't realize Ozzie and Harriet and Gunsmoke went on so long.

 

Gunsmoke definitely, though I've barely heard of Ozzie and Harriet. My dad always told me how Gunsmoke was on for 20 years. '55-'75.

My dad and I are going to do this thing in the future where we watch the first and last episode of a series back to back. I think that'd be really interesting with Gunsmoke.

Slimy!

 

I can't even remember the last time I even cracked a smile during an episode of the Simpsons.

 

SVU just finished its twelfth season.

 

Have no fears, they've got stories for years etc etc!

 

Why was SNL excluded from the list?

EDIT: Erm nvm, I see it.

 

According to IMDB, Doctor Who ran from 1963 to 1989. That's 26 seasons and nearly 700 episodes, which makes it the longest lived TV show ever.

 

The Bill ran for 26 seasons and 2400 episodes.


suckkkkaaaahhhh

 

All I know is that I realized recently that BSG ended before ER, which started 11 years prior to BSG... and then my mind exploded.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

Longest-lived TV show? Not even close.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_running_U.S._television_series#40.2B_years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_running_U.K._television_series

 

I thought the longest running scripted show was Guiding Light. It ran from the '30's til '09. Granted it was on radio until sometime in the 50's when it made the jump to TV, but considering it was a daily soap opera instead of a weekly program, I'm pretty sure it blows anything on this list out of the water.

 

Pretty sure we're excluding news shows and daytime television.

 

Is this an appropriate thread within which to express my genuine hatred for South Park?

 

"Longest-lived primetime scripted show," then.

 

Pretty sure Doctor Who wins then...

 

Taggart has been going for 27 years as of this moment. Last of the Summer Wine made it to 31. The Bill, as mentioned, had the same number of series but 3 times as many episodes.

I wouldn't count the new and old series together though, given that they were 15 years apart.

 

I'm intrigued. Why do you hate South Park?

 

Doctor Who is still running. NuWho is a direct continuation of Classic Who, even though there was a 16-year-long break (containing one crappy movie) between the two. That means the show is now in its 32nd series/season. In 2013 it will celebrate its 50th birthday.

 

Sky at Night has been going for 54 years with the same presenter.

EDIT; And Columbo had 12 series

 

Stunned you didn't know that, Kate. I remember when it went off the air (I have vague memories of my parents watching it when was young, it started right at my bedtime, so I saw the opening credits and then had to go to bed), they made a huge deal of it being the longest running series at that time.

Sad thing about that list is that every show stayed on the air at least 1 season too long (yes, even Seinfeld).

 

That wasn't on the list. No soup for you!