20 Classic TV Shows: The Season We Pick As Each Show's Peak

Season 4 (1992-1993)

''Homer the Heretic'' proved The Simpsons could be the most philosophically sophisticated primetime series in living memory, while ''Marge and the Monorail'' proved it would never sacrifice silliness for smarts. And if you can see a snowplow without singing ''Mister Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mister Plow,'' well, we don't want to know you. —Margaret Lyons

Season 1 (2001-2002)

And so it began: The glam era of espionage drama, anchored by Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow, a grad student who pretended to toil at a bank while working undercover for the CIA at a criminal enterprise that pretended to be the CIA. (What? Spy stuff is complicated.) Season 1 was a white-knuckled, globe-spanning thrill ride, as Sydney tried to hide her secret identity from her friends and her double-agent status from the nefarious SD-6 while rocking cool disguises and clocking bad guys. All that, plus family intrigue! (The Man is...Mom?) —Dan Snierson

Season 1 (2004-2005)

A plane crashes on a remote island, plunging our survivors into a sea of weird: A polar bear. A people-munching creature. ''The Others.'' Season 1 of the ABC drama deftly doled out mystery after tantalizing mystery (a man in a wheelchair can suddenly walk again?), and left us cliffhanging at season's end with Walt's ominous kidnapping (''we're going to have to take the boy'') and the promise of entering... the hatch. BONK. —Dan Snierson

Season 2 (1997-1998)

It was the sophomore season of The WB's cult hit where the series truly came into its own. The emotional and dramatic high point was undoubtedly Buffy and Angel's initial romance and then eventual battle — complete with rocket launchers and groin kicks — after Angel lost his soul due to a pesky gypsy curse. And sweet, sweet Buffy-lovin'. —Tim Stack

Season 1 (1990-1991)

No one had ever seen weirdness combined with the murder-mystery genre the way David Lynch did it in Twin Peaks. ''Who killed Laura Palmer?'' became a national question, and Kyle MacLachlan's coffee-guzzling, pie-loving FBI agent Dale Cooper was just the man to enter the bucolic community of Twin Peaks to solve that question. Steeped in eerie foreboding, populated with odd characters (the Log Lady, who talked to a chunk of wood she carried around), Peaks was TV's first surrealist-experiment mass-hit. —Ken Tucker

Season 3 (2006)

Elections, banks, schools — normal town stuff, right? Well, almost: In David Milch's hands, Deadwood's final season vividly, profanely explored what it is we sacrifice when we opt to be part of civil society. —Margaret Lyons

Season 2 (2004-2005)

Let's give season 2 of the dearly departed sitcom a hand! After all, it was this season that brought us brilliant episodes surrounding Buster's loose seal-related amputation, Maggie Lizer's fake pregnancy and, of course, Girls With Low Self-Esteem. Add to that Tobias' not-so-undercover stint as unintentionally inappropriate nanny Mrs. Featherbottom, and it's obvious that season 2 boasts some of the best comedy ever put on television. I mean, COME on! —Kate Ward

Season 4 (2002)

The Sopranos still stands as proof that watching an already dark series slip into utter blackness can be brilliant. From Junior's Alzheimer's and Tony's brutal murder of Ralphie to Christopher's crippling drug addiction and Adriana's desperate morph into FBI informant, season 4 had us loving every minute of the hurt (and the killing). —Aubry D'Arminio

Season 1 (2004-2005)

Regardless of what you thought of the 2003 miniseries that set the stage for Ronald D. Moore's reinvention of Battlestar Galactica — personally, I dug it — these first 13 episodes are a marvel of character-based tension and Hitchcockian inertia. From the exhausting ''33'' (in which the Cylons harry the fleet of spaceships containing the last 50,000 humans alive every 33 minutes) to the explosive ''Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2'' (in which the hidden ''bomb'' we first met in the miniseries finally goes boom, to devastating effect), this first season redefined what TV viewers could expect from their science fiction. —Marc Bernardin

Season 4 (2006)

After exposing Baltimore's drug trade, shady ports, and corrupt politics, David Simon's HBO crime drama pointed its guns towards the city's school system and, quite sadly, delivered its most frustrating, heartbreaking, and nerve wracking 13 episodes. —Aubry D'Arminio

Season 2 (2008)

The best year of a show nominally about men? Its season about women, when Peggy struggled with her decision to give up the baby she didn't know she was having, Joan ran head first into a miserable marriage, and Betty realized her happiness wasn't real. Or particularly happy. We felt empty, hurt, no longer envious of their clothes, and all the better for it. Not to mention a bit chuffed when female writer Kater Gordon accepted her Emmy for co-writing the powerful finale. —Aubry D'Arminio

Season 1 (2000)

Name a show that changed television more over the past 20 years. Throwing 16 strangers on an island together and watching them battle it out for a million dollars, Survivor made TV exciting and unpredictable when it burst on the scene in the summer of 2000. And Richard (the Rat) Hatch became the archetype for a completely new TV character: the reality villain. —Dalton Ross

Season 3 (2000)

Otherwise known as When Carrie Met Aidan...And Then Had An Affair With Mr. Big. SATC's third season was full of big laughs (Who can forget Samantha and the guy with ''funky spunk?'') but also major emotional developments (Carrie's infidelity, Miranda and Steve's break-up, Charlotte's wedding to Trey). —Tim Stack

Season 1 (2004-2005)

When she first stormed onto the scene, you couldn't help but love Veronica, played by the indomitable Kristen Bell. She was a young sleuth, smarter and prettier than anyone else on TV, and intent on figuring out who killed her best friend Lilly. Besides just plain being clever, Mars boasted — especially in its first season — a killer cast (Amanda Seyfried, Tina Majorino, Enrico Colatoni) and that cool teen vibe that so defined shows on The WB during this era. —Tanner Stransky

Season 2 (2005-2006)

After a six-episode season 1 that focused mostly on the show's heavy-hitters, the second season of The Office boasted a full 22 order of half-hours that delighted because it really dug into the quirkiness of the secondary characters: the bitchiness of Angela (Angela Kinsey), the sweetness of Phyllis (Phyllis Smith), and the train-wreckiness of Meredith (Kate Flannery). Plus, fans got what they wanted: Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) kiss, starting the sweet romance that would come to define the whole series. —Tanner Stransky

Season 5 (2006)

The edgy cop drama was beginning to feel a little stale by the time it got to season 5, but then Forest Whitaker made everything fresh again with a pack of Juicy Fruit gum. As Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh, Whitaker was engaging and demented playing an internal affairs officer intent on bringing down Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). And he was never more riveting than when he offered enemies a simple stick of gum. —Dalton Ross

Season 2 (2007-2008)

The critically acclaimed sitcom hit its stride in season 2, thanks to down-to-earth story arcs that balanced the show's patented zaniness (see: Jack's relationship with a political rival, played by Edie Falco). And it certainly didn't hurt that the season attracted some seriously funny guest stars (Carrie Fisher, Al Gore, Dean Winters — the list keeps going). What can we say? We want to go to there — back to season 2, that is. —Kate Ward

Season 1 (1987-1988)

An undercover-agent crime drama with a difference — the focus was less on star Ken Wahl than on the villains he cozied up to — Wiseguy was one strange series. Its first season introduced America to Kevin Spacey as the psychopath Mel Profitt, a man of such dubious morals it was strongly implied he'd bedded his sister (Joan Severance). And the late great Ray Sharkey appeared as the vicious hoodlum Sonny Steelgrave. With flamboyant baddies like this, all Wahl had to do was give 'em a hard stare and he came off looking like a leather-jacketed superhero. —Ken Tucker

Season 2 (2000-2001)

Beginning with the harrowing aftermath of an assassination attempt on President Josiah Bartlet (Martin Sheen) — which left Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) in critical condition — the sophomore year of Aaron Sorkin's Emmy-winning series moved with an urgency that the strong first season lacked. Oh, Wing still had all of its noble-public-servant speechifying and rapid-fire humor, but Sorkin found his ''my show's gonna be about something'' stroke here. —Marc Bernardin