Top Ten Television of 1999

By: Frederick C. Szebin
Date: Monday, January 10, 2000

It was quite a lively year on the tube, thanks to some returning favorites, some interesting freshmen, and special thanks to the craft of animation. Of course, the television season doesn't conform to the calendar year, which makes it hard to assess a Top Ten list (weak shows may get better and strong ones may run out of gas), but here are ten good shows in no particular order:

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has become what DARK SHADOWS was to its generation: a groovy good time had by all the boys and ghouls as plots twist, characters change, the supernatural runs rampant and clever writing teams with likable stars to create an on-going chiller that's very addictive. In one of the best seasons yet Buffy, Willow and Oz go to college. While trying to deal with the inherent challenges involved therein, powerful Buffy has been having the hardest time of all when taking on the emotional turmoil. The series has gotten a little too DAWNSON CREEKy with all of the college kid kissy face, but the show's driving force, Joss Whedon, always manages to steer it back on course. Even the legendary DARK SHADOWS took some time for the mushy stuff before the severed hands and disembodied heads could kick in. The real joy of watching this show is to watch how the scripts unfold, allowing us to follow and even to second guess, only to be proven joyously wrong by twists and unexpected chills. BUFFY is a multi-layered series that must be careful not to ignore plot holes and watch itself from becoming too cloying and self-parodying.

Somebody at CBS got brave and offered something genuinely different. Quirky, odd, weird, idiosyncratic all fit NOW AND AGAIN, Glen Gordon Caron's mind-swap super hero saga in which John Goodman got run over by a train and woke up as young and virile Eric Close, an artificially-created man with incredible strength, stamina and speed, created and trained by Dennis Haysbert's Dr. Morris, who is also in charge of training the new recruit so he can be America's best weapon against all comers. Only, Close's Mr. Wiseman isn't allowed to acknowledge his past, including his loving wife, wonderfully played by Margaret Colin, and 15 year old daughter, Heather, portrayed by Heather Matarazzo, a rule he quickly breaks on the first episode. Excellent performances by the stars and guest stars give a subtle elegance to something that could have been gaudy. New York locations are beautifully utilized with stunts on busy city streets or in traffic-congested tunnels with nary a false note in a premise that is bravely played low key in an era when computer effects have usurped dramatic necessity.


Brian Henson has been walking quite fine in his dad's shoes lately, keeping the Muppets busy, and using what has been learned in the Creature Shop to bring Rockne S. O'Bannon's FARSCAPE to life on the Sci Fi Channel. In this series we have five disparate aliens; Earthman Commander John Crichton (Ben Browder), who is sucked into a wormhole that flings him untold light years away as the living prison ship, Moya, is being fired upon by the misnomered Peace Keepers, one of which, Officer Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) gets aboard and begins to understand the plight of escaping prisoners Ka D'argo (Anthony Simco), a brutish Luxan warrior, Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan (Virginia Hey), an 812 year old Delvian priestess, and Rygel XVI (operated by John Eccleston, Dave Collins, Sean Masterson, Graeme Haddon and Tim Mieville, and regally voiced by Johnathan Hardy), a pompous 26-inch tall former ruler who has been imprisoned for 250 years. Sun knows she would be killed by her former leader for being 'exposed' to these lesser creatures, so she joins the crew as Moya's Pilot (operated by Eccleston, Collins, Masterson, Haddon and Mieville, and voiced by Lani John Tupu), a multi-armed, multi-tasking alien joined body and soul to Moya race across uncharted space, hoping to avoid the Peace Keepers who want to destroy them, and to maybewith some astronomical luckfind their respective ways home.
Henson's Creature Shop has come up with a couple of the most appealing nonexistent characters on the tube; Rygel and Pilot, each carefully articulated and fully drawn as genuine personalities, as vital to the series as their flesh and blood co-stars. Some of the stories may seem familiar, but there is a comfort in this show that, despite the constant in-fightingsome of which gets a little bloody (Rygel is small, but he has sharp teeth, and isn't afraid to use them), we know an undeniable camaraderie exists between the characters, and the stories keep a sprightly enough pace to keep us from worrying too much about plot contrivances. While not as sharp as BABYLONE 5 or THE X-FILES in its better seasons, FARSCAPE offers much entertainment in a handsome package.

For some of the truly best genre work the tube has to offer, we must turn to animation of all sorts to find some gleaming jewels in what was once the slop of series cartoons. The genius of THE SIMPSONS, for instance, runs deep. For over a decade that lower-middle class yellow trash has been holding up a fun house mirror to our lives in the most consistently funny long-running show in the vast wasteland's history. This show just doesn't slow down, and a regular viewer since their Tracy Ullman days would be hard pressed to name more than one hand's worth (of five fingers) episodes that just didn't work.
For season 11, such stars as Mel Gibson, Dick Clark, and Mark McQuire allowed themselves to be spoofed in THE SIMPSONS world view that suggests our pastimes, interests and mores offer insights into madness. THE SIMPSONS hasn't been afraid to be politically incorrect in this unenlightened p.c. age, and if a few dolphins have to be electrified to prove the point, then so be it, and more power to them. Those doses of dark humor have always worked well within the more gentle aspects of the show to create one of the medium's truly great programs.
And just down the street Matt Groening and partner David X. Cohen gave SF buffs and comedy lovers in general a grand gift with FUTURAMA, the animated exploits of professional slacker Frye (voiced by Billy West) who inadvertently freezes himself for 1000 years and wakes up at the dawn of the millennium after the next. He finds an uber-aged great grandfather (also voiced by West), makes friends with robot cad Bender (John DiMaggio) and depth perspective-impaired Leela (Katy Sagal). This group bands together to run a galactic Fed Ex without a comic beat missed, no joke unturned and vocal performances nuanced to near-perfection by everyone. And FUTURAMA's use of both forms is always perfect, blending wonderfully whether they're adding to a visual joke or heightening the dramatic tension of the moment. As funny and insightful as THE SIMPSONS, FUTURAMA proves once again that animation is a perfect medium for biting satire and wholehearted spoofery.

Saban Entertainment (MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS) and Marvel Studios teamed up to concoct SPIDERMAN UNLIMITED, a brisk little epic that reduxes the Spiderman mythos as through a looking glass. Spiderman finds himself on a Counter-Earth, fighting not only new versions of his own Earth's bad guys, but taking on the Beastial forces of this strange new world, as well as the gooey Synaptic that wants to rewire everyone's brain. SPIDERMAN UNLIMITED reached for the level of success granted to X-MEN and, judging from early episodes, just might have pulled it off if Fox execs had left it alone, and didn't move it into oblivion like they did with THE SILVER SURFER and THE TICK, but let an audience build. It was definitely worth the time to find out where it was all going, but Fox had other plans, so we got extra episodes of DIGIMON.

Manga master Akira Toriyama gave the world a gloriously addictive gift in the form of the animated series DRAGONBALL Z, airing in America on Cartoon Network. In it, we were introduced to Goku, a super-powered young man with a charming naiveté and the strength to save the world. There is also a myriad of supporting characters, each of whom face greater dangers than they ever imagined. The epic tale of DRAGONBALL Z is a series-spanning adventure that builds threat upon threat, each more deadly than the last. What makes DRAGONBALL Z (the Z stands for Zen) such a vital and entertaining program is not only the incredible battles (which are virtually constant), but getting to watch the changing of these animated characters.

And then there's SOUTH PARK, that stand-alone masterwork that has closed minds confused and simple minds laughing their asses off even if they don't get what's really going on with this most brilliant program.
Of course you realize that there is more to this show than foul language, fart jokes and flying poo. Right? Trey Parker and Matt Stone have created an honest monster to tear asunder our notions of childhood innocence, societal propriety and everything that we want to believe that we hold dear. SOUTH PARK gleefully spits in the eye of hypocrisy, pop culture, religion, politics, death, sex and each viewer's feelings of discomfiture to see us as we don't want to believe we are. THE SIMPSON and FUTURAMA do this, as does THE FAMILY GUY, but SOUTH PARK is a particularly vicious (I mean that in a good way) vehicle that hilariously treads ground those other most wise programs don't dare walk on, whether it be because of network censorship or some form of artistic integrity doesn't matter. SOUTH PARK is a brave and bold new world in the art of satire, afraid of nothing and brilliantly voiced with anger and sweetness interchangeable. There have been few soap boxes as good as this in showing the insanity we like to think of as civilization. Even Benjamin Franklin made fart jokes, people. So, lighten the f**k up.

Fox Kids continues to offer wonderful little gifts for kids of all ages, they just tend not to keep them around for very long. BIG GUY AND RUSTY THE BOY ROBOT was quite nice. Based on the Dark Horse comic book, it followed the exploits of an Iron Giant-type mechanized fighter that was being put out to pasture after much service in favor of the newer model, Rusty, a precocious mechanoid with its own strengths, but the weakness of youth and inexperience holding him back. Big Guy was brought out of retirement to fight all manner of baddies and even get involved in a little industrial espionage in genuinely entertaining adventures with fine animation and excellent voice talent until Fox moved it aside for a second episode of DIGIMON and the 13 week run of Marvel's THE AVENGERS. Should the bots be brought out of mothballs they are well worth a lingering look. BIG GUY AND RUSTY sported excellent character design with fast-paced comic book adventures the way we like 'em. But it can take time to build an audience. Time seems to be a commodity that the short attention spans running Fox Kids are short of.
Again on Fox (God bless 'em!) is the visually-stunning BEAST WARS, which takes place in the future of the universe set up in the 80s by THE TRANFORMERS; a new generation of animal-based bio-bots called the Maximals continue the fight against a new version of the evil Decepticons, now called Predicons. CGI vistas spin and whirl before our eyes as all perception is screwed with in air-borne battles between creatures with some incredible built in weaponry. Fast-paced isn't the word; nary a breath is taken as the Maximals try to stay one paw and claw ahead of their mortal enemies as in-fighting splits both groups at any given time. Excellent voice work backs up the computer-generated characters and their CGI reality. Brought to us by Main Frame, the same company that served three excellent seasons of REBOOT, BEAST WARS encompasses a darker world with more fire power. And although it can seem like an over-long toy commercial (which it probably is to some), the on-going fight between the Maximals and the Predicons should give a high fun quotient to those of us who grew up on DC and Marvel. Don't blink, though, or you'll miss some of the fastest and most stunning CGI work on TV.

Ok, so there are ten good ones, varied in subject matter, scope and demographic intent. Check them out if you aren't already hooked, and should you be a regular viewer of them all; spread your love of them like alien pods and bring others into the fold. Once they know what we already know, they will never be the same.