The results are in ... and they tell quite a different story than what we've seen in our own Favorite Television Themes countdowns.
A couple of weeks ago, we encouraged you to vote in Rich Appel's annual Tele-Lection poll ... hopefully, some of you did.
Well, now the polls are closed and the results are in ... and while most of the themes listed in The Top 40 are the ones you would expect to see here, there are a few surprises.
Sean Ross, in his weekly Ross On Radio column, gave extensive coverage to this year’s list. You can read that review here:
https://radioinsight.com/blogs/295062/tv-on-the-radio-the-2025-tele-lection/
(be sure to pay special attention to the "post-game" recap section for some interesting stats)
Here's the way The Top Fifteen finished up:
|
This Year |
Last Year |
SHOW |
Forgotten Hits Ranking, 2020 |
|
1 |
4 |
The Mary Tyler Moore Show |
4 |
|
2 |
2 |
Hawaii Five-O |
1 |
|
3 |
12 |
Gilligan's Island |
10 |
|
4 |
1 |
Cheers |
7 |
|
5 |
13 |
Welcome Back, Kotter |
29 |
|
6 |
39 |
The Beverly Hillbillies |
9 |
|
7 |
15 |
The Jeffersons |
21 |
|
8 |
6 |
Laverne & Shirley |
26 |
|
9 |
14 |
Mission: Impossible |
3 |
|
10 |
29 |
The Twilight Zone |
28 |
|
11 |
31 |
The Rockford Files |
16 |
|
12 |
28 |
Batman |
15 |
|
13 |
23 |
Maude |
xx |
|
14 |
32 |
Friends |
19 |
|
15 |
7 |
The Monkees |
6 |
Noticeably missing from their list of Top 15 favorites were Bonanza, Secret Agent Man, M*A*S*H, The Andy Griffith Show, WKRP In Cincinnati, The Addams Family, Happy Days, Peter Gunn, Green Acres and The Brady Bunch – all of which made our Top 20. (M*A*S*H, WKRP and The Addams Family all made Rich's Top Ten list last year - but fell short in his latest poll)
You can view both our 2020 results … and our 2013 results … here:
https://forgottenhits.com/your_top_100_all-time_favorite_tv_themes_based_on_our_2020_poll
https://forgottenhits.com/your_top_50_all-time_favorite_tv_themes_2013
Listen to Rich’s show "That Thing With Rich Appel" here:
https://www.thatthingshow.com/listen-guide
(always a fun time!)
