Best Classic TV Shows Available to Stream

Barry Miller (played by Hal Linden) is the captain of a police precinct in New York City’s Greenwich Village and the stabilizing presence among the eccentrics and misfits he supervises. The sitcom won Golden Globes and Emmy awards during its eight-season run, and it boosted the careers of Steve Landesberg and Abe Vigoda. The show holds a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.1 out of 10 ranking among IMDb users.

“Perry Mason” is one of the earliest television courtroom dramas. The show featured Raymond Burr as the redoubtable defense attorney known for his powers of deduction and the ability to break down witnesses on the stand. The show won several Golden Globes and Emmys and ran for nine years. It has an 8.1 rating out of 10 among IMDb users.

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” tapped into the growing independence of American women in the character of television news producer Mary Richards. The sharply written and brilliantly cast series created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns ran for seven years, took home 29 Emmy awards, three Golden Globes, and spun off three series. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” has a rating of 8.1 out of 10 among IMDb users

“Boy Meets World” is a coming-of-age series that ran for seven seasons beginning in 1993. It followed Ben Savage’s Cory Matthews’ journey through middle school, high school, and college, along with his family and friends. The show has received largely positive reviews online and has a 91% positive rating from users on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Frasier” is a sitcom starring Kelsey Grammer as a radio psychiatrist who lives in Seattle with his father, a retired police detective partially disabled because of a gunshot wound. The show was spun off from the successful series “Cheers” and became one of the most celebrated spinoffs in television history, winning 37 Emmys. Critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes gave the series a 93% approval rating. “Frasier” holds a rating of 8.0 out of 10 among IMDb users

Don Adams starred as inept secret agent Maxwell Smart in the goofy 1960s-era sendup of the spy genre. The series that was created by Buck Henry and Mel Brooks is fondly remembered by baby boomers, and 92% audiences on Rotten Tomatoes liked it. The series has a rating of 8.2 out of 10 among IMDb users.

The multi-talented Will Smith, who had already launched a career as a rapper, successfully transitioned to the small screen in this sitcom. Smith played a streetwise kid from West Philadelphia who runs afoul with street toughs and is sent by his mother to live with rich relatives in California. On Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of audiences liked the show, which is best remembered for its infectious theme song rapped by Smith. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” has a rating of 7.9 out of 10 among IMDb users.

Peter Falk played “Columbo,” one of television’s iconic detectives from the 1970s, whose disheveled appearance and disarming demeanor belie his considerable sleuthing skills. The 68-episode series has an audience score of 71% on Rotten Tomatoes. “Columbo” holds a rating of 8.2 out of 10 among IMDb users.

“Married… with Children,” a lowbrow sitcom on Fox about a miserable lower-middle class family, offended viewers, enraged critics, and prompted threats against sponsors of the show. Yet it found an audience and ran for 11 seasons and 262 episodes. The raunchy series has a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Cast members Ed O’Neill and Christina Applegate would find additional fame in the series “Modern Family” and “Dead to Me.” “Married… with Children” has an IMDb user rating of 8.0 out of 10.

TV tough guy Robert Stack (“The Untouchables”) hosted this Emmy-nominated series that used re-enactments, interviews, and updates to tell stories about real mysteries about missing persons and the supernatural. The 613-episode series holds a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.3 rating of 10 among IMDb users.

This comic Western series follows Harvard-educated gunman Brisco County Jr. as he hunts the gang of men who killed his father. The show only ran for a single season in the early 1990s but garnered a cult following. A DVD containing all 27 episodes was released in 2006, but for those wishing to stream this eccentric gem, the show is now available on several platforms.

“The Dick Van Dyke Show,” created by comedy legend Carl Reiner, set the standard for television situation comedies, winning 14 Emmys in five seasons. The show was about the home and professional life of a television comedy writer played by Dick Van Dyke. The sharply written sitcom featured a well-assembled cast and took advantage of Van Dyke’s physical comedy gifts. The series was also noteworthy for making a star out of Mary Tyler Moore, who would go on to star in her own series in the 1970s. The show holds a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 8.3 out of 10 among IMDb users.

The laid-back and easy-to-watch sitcom set in the mythical North Carolina town of Mayberry starred Andy Griffith as the single parent of a boy, played by eventual movie director Ron Howard. Other beloved characters included Don Knotts as Barney Fife and Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee. “The Andy Griffith Show” was a consistent hit during its run and has a 94% approval score among audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. It holds a score of 8.3 out of 10 among IMDb users.

The groundbreaking comedy “All in the Family,” modeled on the British series “Till Death Do Us Part,” addressed the racial and class divisions of late 1960s and early 1970s in America as experienced through a bigoted construction worker played by Carroll O’Connor. The series that was created by Norman Lear redefined the American sitcom. It won 22 Emmys and eight Golden Globes during its nine-season run. “All in the Family” has an 84% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and holds a score of 8.3 out of 10 among IMDb users.

Claire Danes starred in this short-lived series about the emotional life of teenager Angela Chase. A near-perfect encapsulation of the ’90s, the show has a 100% Freshness rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95% rating from users.

The original series about intergalactic exploration, created by Gene Roddenberry, starred William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. The timing of the series coincided with the ascendent space programs of the United States and Soviet Union. The series also dealt with issues such as violence and race and featured the first interracial kiss on television between Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, who played an officer on the spaceship. The series became a cultural icon, spawning several subsequent Star Trek television series, a movie franchise, and a generation of fans known as Trekkies. Users of IMDb gave the series a rating of 8.3 out of 10.

“M*A*S*H” took sitcoms in a new direction, combining traditional sitcom tropes with a thoughtful examination of the psychological toll of armed conflict, in this case the Korean War. The series debuted in 1972, underwent major character changes, and ran for 11 seasons — longer than the war itself. The final episode, titled “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen,” aired on Feb. 28, 1983, and during the show’s final six minutes, viewership peaked at 121.6 million. “M*A*S*H ” has a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and holds an 8.3 rating out of 10 among IMDb users.

Nearly 20 years after the original “Star Trek” series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” began its seven-season run. The series starred Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the USS Enterprise-D, and was set about 100 years after the original mission of Captain Kirk. The series has an 8.6 rating of 10 among IMDb users and an 89% approval score among critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

FOX’s sci-fi series “The X-Files” originally ran from 1993 through 2002. At the time, the show won 15 Emmy awards for numerous categories. The series returned for two seasons that aired in 2016 and 2018. It’s available to stream on numerous platforms, including all 11 seasons on Hulu.

The five-season series of tales of the macabre and the unexplained, which debuted in 1959, is the gold standard for thought-provoking and inventive television and enjoys a loyal following to this day. The Golden Globe and Emmy-award winning series, hosted by master storyteller Rod Serling, has a Freshness rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics of 82%, while 96% of audiences enjoyed the series. IMDb users gave “the Zone” 9.0 out of 10.

The surreal mystery television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch premiered in 1990 and eventually gained a cult following. The series follows an FBI agent with his own idiosyncrasies who goes to the town of Twin Peaks to probe the death of teen Laura Palmer. There he discovers things aren’t exactly what they seem. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave the quirky series a Freshness rating of 89%, and 88% of audiences enjoyed the series. IMDb users rated “Twin Peaks” 8.8 out of 10.

Mild-mannered host Bob Ross recorded more than 400 episodes of this show, which documents his oil painting. Considering its simple premise, the show ran for an impressive 31 seasons and has an overall rating of 9.4 out of 10 on IMDb.

One of television’s most successful sitcoms, called a show about nothing, “Seinfeld ” follows the lives of four neurotic New Yorkers. The series was among the top-rated television shows throughout its run, winning 10 Emmys in nine seasons. Its finale was the fourth-most viewed series-ending show of all time. “Seinfeld” has an 88% Freshness rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and 95% of audiences liked the show. It holds a rating of 8.8 out of 10 among IMDb users.

With its 31st season about to conclude, “The Simpsons” is the longest-running scripted show in TV history. The famously satirical cartoon is available to stream on numerous platforms, with the complete series available on both Amazon Video and Disney+. While many fans believe the show has decreased in quality over the years, it still has an overall rating of 8.7 out of 10 on IMDb with more than 350,000 user votes being cast.

The long-running sitcom about six twenty-something friends living in New York made stars out of all six actors. The show’s finale drew 52.5 million viewers in May 2004 and was one of the top-rated television series enders. Critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a Freshness rating of 78%, while audiences gave it more love, with a 95% score. IMDb users gave “Friends” a rating of 8.9 out of 10.