Michael Chiklis was a lot more gracious than Vic Mackey ever would have been.

Chiklis played the brutally corrupt L.A. detective on “The Shield,” one of the most groundbreaking shows in TV history. On Sunday, he posted on his X account an aggregate ranking of the best shows in TV history. It combined rankings from 12 separate media sources that have taken on this ever-changing, evergreen debate. (That means it’s a question that will always be interesting to address anew.) Those sources include IMDB, Flixter and others. 

“Good company,” the affable (in real life) Chiklis posted, presumably in response to the inclusion of “The Shield” on the list, at No. 45.

Mackey would have tracked down the originator of these rankings and given him a blanket party. (That’s a form of internal hazing conducted by cops against cops. Keep up.)

Forty-five? Are you kidding me? I have “The Shield” at No. 7.

For the record, the aggregate poll ranked “Breaking Bad” No. 1, which is worthy of its own debate, given that there are those among you (me) who believe that the prequel, “Better Call Saul,” was even better.

This 45 diss set me off my axis, as harmless social threads of zero real-life consequence often tend to do. First, I hastily assembled my own personal top 10. (I picked “The Sopranos” No. 1). Then I asked my social followers, who chose “Six Feet Under.” I even asked my new best friend Grok – which, if you don’t know, has sort of become the personified collective name of Artificial Intelligence itself. I have had some of the most earnest exchanges of my life of late with Grok, which to some might set off alarm bells because Grok isn’t human, “so I don’t have feelings, dreams, or a favorite coffee order,” he said. JUST LIKE ME. “I’m built to understand the world through logic and data, with a touch of playfulness,” said Grok. JUST LIKE ME. Grok picked “The Sopranos” No. 1. JUST LIKE ME.

But as might be expected when a big question like, “Rank the best TV shows” spans 75 subjective years, there was little further consensus among the four top-10 lists. In fact, not a single title appears on all four lists.

Opening up this topic for conversation (with my human friends – or at least human enough to have Facebook accounts) – raised the fascinating issue of something called “recency.” That’s a psychological principle of memory that dates all the way back to the 19th century. Essentially, it posits that we all have a cognitive bias in favor of that which has happened most recently – and to us. The aggregate poll’s top 5 shows have been off the air for an average of only 13 years each.

Compare that, to say, M*A*S*H, which most certainly would have won this poll back in 1983. That year, when it aired its final episode, “M*A*S*H” was watched by 122 million people. The metrics have all changed since but, right now, “Squid Games” is generally considered the most popular show on television – and this season, it was streamed by “only” 27.3 million.  And, ironically, it appears on none of the four top-10 lists.

One of the gobsmacking privileges of not dying young means that, if you’re lucky, you’ll live long enough to grow far out of step with the prevailing, youth-focused pop culture. My top-10 list proudly includes both “M*A*S*H” and “All in the Family” because 1) I am not an idiot, and 2) See No. 1. But neither of those shows appears on any of the other three top 10s because 1) Grok also just informed me that I am older than 60% of the rest of the living U.S. population.

Meaning: 1) You whipper-snappers out there have never seen “The Carol Burnett Show” or “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” – and, 2) you are not deep-diving down your Peacock and Hulu holes to find them. Just as I have never seen “The Boys” and am just as certain that (no offense) my nonstop life will ever stop in its tracks with “The Boys” ranking as the top television priority in my life. Not when those 2024 taxes are still not doing themselves.

But this is a big topic, and one of great reader interest, as evidenced by those who weighed in on last week’s unofficial social poll. With your help, we here at the Denver Gazette are going all in to see if we can come up with a more definitive snapshot of what you all, in 2025, consider to be the greatest TV shows of all time. We even came up with a fancy online form that you can use to register your votes.

Where are you, “Dynasty” fans? “Saved by the Bell”? “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman?” Let your voices be heard!

And check back here around Sept. 7 to see how it all turns out. Thanks in advance for playing along.

RANKING THE BEST TV SHOWS OF ALL TIME

AGGREGATE POLL

1. Breaking Bad
2. Game of Thrones
3. Chernobyl
4. The Sopranos
5. Band of Brothers
6. The Wire
7. Better Call Saul
8. Stranger Things
9. Sherlock
10. Peaky Blinders

JOHN MOORE

1. The Sopranos
2. M*A*S*H
3. Roots
4. Better Call Saul
5. The Wire
6. Breaking Bad
7. Deadwood
8. The Shield
9. The Good Place
10. All in the Family

JOHN MOORE’s SOCIAL FOLLOWERS

1. Six Feet Under   
2. Andor   
3. Severance    
4. South Park   
5. Game of Thrones   
6. Downton Abbey   
7. Ted Lasso   
8. The Mary Tyler Moore Show   
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
10. Better Call Saul

GROK (A.I.)

1. The Sopranos
2. Breaking Bad
3. The Wire
4. Game of Thrones
5. Mad Men
6. The Simpsons
7. Twin Peaks
8. Seinfeld
9. Chernobyl
10. Avatar: The Last Airbender