The Top 25 Conservative TV Shows of the last 25 Years

ExurbanLeague.com ^ | June 2, 2010 | Kevin

[inkling]

Television has been dismissed as a cultural wasteland, and for conservatives, it's a barren wasteland indeed, especially over the last quarter-century. Joe Friday doesn't save the world from hippies every week: Today, the hippies are the heroes and conservatives (especially conservative Christians) are the villains.

But there is still hope. There are still good conservative television shows out there, you just have to look for them.

The Rules

No miniseries.
Basic cable or broadcast TV only.
No documentaries.
No news or opinion shows.
No sports.

Ideally, it should have DVD sets available for purchase. Good TV. No "Highway to Heaven" or the like, they must be shows that you can talk about with some measure of pride.

25. Chuck
Adam Baldwin's Casey is one of the greatest scene-stealers in recent TV history. Any show with a character who keeps a picture of Ronald Reagan on his desk had to make the list.

24. Pitchmen
Hard-working, everyday Americans coming up with great ideas, and then working even hard to make them real. Capitalism at its very best, and a great testament to the American dream.

23. Hunter
Dirty Harry with an NFL star as the lead actor. Moral relativism? Rights of the accused? Talk to the .44, baby. Works for me.

22. The Goode Family
Ooooh so close. With Mike Judge at the trigger and the silliness of political correctness as its target, The Goode Family had the potential to be a cornerstone of conservative comedy. The director was willing, but alas, the scripts were weak.

21. Magnum P.I.
A show with a lead character who's a well-adjusted, happy Vietnam veteran...

(Click link for full list...)

[TaraP]

I did not know much about him nor his views...Like yourself I just liked the show, and when it was on the world still seemed kinda normal from a kids’ point of view!

[raybbr]

You know I’m not talking about AA. I’m talking about the kinds of “all talk no action” social programs you always see from the government, where your problems are entirely the fault of someone or something else, so you’re not responsible. AA makes one admit that the problem is entirely one’s own fault, and that one must take responsibility for one’s own actions.

Okay, I wasn't sure how much you knew about AA. And, you're right AA is not touchy-feely. Although, over the past 22 years it's gotten pretty lame at some meetings. New comers are treated with kid gloves instead of telling them the truth.

[Travis T. OJustice]

I’ll admit to enjoying that genre, but not those particular artists. :)

[rintense]

Hart to Hart: happily married and deeply in love rich couple jetting around the world taking the law into their own hands and seeking justice (quite often with a gun, one that is hidden in the steering wheel of Jonathan Hart’s car) all while being charitable to others and animals causes.

[DM1]

As i said i only saw that episode and maybe one or two others so i will not blabber on about it just saying that i saw enough of it to turn me off
Boomer was gorgeous though (if i got the right name for the asian pilot)

[DM1]

Are you serious??!! Cylons as the US.... Wow it was worse than i thought

[rintense]

I’d agree about BSG. Other than the season that was meant to parallel Iraq occupation, this show had an undoubtedly conservative message, all the while constantly smacking down the pacifists that Apollo and Baltar became.

[surroundedbyblue]

HAHA!! I thought about that one! And the A-Team. Big guns, personal freedom, fighting corrupt gov! Ahhh...the Reagan years. Those were the days. I grew up in the 80s. Now my poor kid has to grow up under THIS administration. Ugh.

[GonzoGOP]

A-Team. Big guns

I have to disagree on the A-Team. They acted like you could fire a gun and not hurt people. The shooting the gun out of the bad guys hand attitude is what has lead to the stupid "shoot to wound" laws in California. Rule 1 - Never point a firearm at anything you don't intend to destroy. Rule 2 - If they are shooting that much and never managing to hit anything they aren't very good mercenaries.

I have to admit I always held Howling Mad Murdoch up as a role model. But hey he was locked up in an insane asylum so it made sense that he didn't get a lot of target practice.

[tarheelswamprat]

re: Sledgehammer

Another interesting tidbit about the cast is that his sidekick, the gorgeous Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin) was in real life Mrs. Michael Crichton.

[BelegStrongbow]

Actually, the question might well be raised whether the show hasn’t run through all the original concepts available and unless it swings outside the original scope won’t have anything to say. Then again, they’re pushing backstories where our good guys have totally indefensible pasts. Hard to like Gibbs having assassinated someone, even if on orders. Also nasty to have him hung out to dry. At least on ‘Bones’ Booth’s past has been protected and backstopped. It’s pretty clear he was at least as active a sniper as Gibbs, though in different warzones.

I’m curious to see how the shows mutate now that we have such a questionable leader in reality. So many were anti-establishment when the establishment looked Republican (yes, Firefly, that’s you I’m looking at), so now that the Dems have proven that all the dystopias the sci-fi, forensic types feared really come to pass when majoritarians get control, what they gonna do now? Be interesting to see.

[blackie]

NCIS has gone downhill since Donald Bellisario left the show.

[surroundedbyblue]

Point taken. What’s interesting though is that I think I read somewhere (a long time ago) that they guy who played Murdoch is a huge conservative in real life. Is that true?

[Fiji Hill]

"I Led Three Lives" is hard to find, but it appears to be available from Bear Manor Media.

[Wilum]

Where allot of us Boomers were guided in the right direction

My man The Lone Ranger - Clayton Moore.

[Tolsti2]

If nothing else, you can see a great assortment of the latest rifles and pistols of late. Tons of H&K’s and FN 5.7’s. The show’s a lot more complicated than ‘Cylons are x’. They certainly represented islamics attacking the US the first season. By the 3, things got a bit more mingled, but what can you expect. In the end, the strong and faithful still ended up the best in an ‘end of the world’ scenario. Adama got a little bit less hardcore, and Roslin got a lot moreso. My personal choice is that it should be in the top 5 or so friendly for conservatives, but it still has some of the other side in it.

[GonzoGOP]

So many were anti-establishment when the establishment looked Republican (yes, Firefly, that’s you I’m looking at),

Firefly was a western in space. There can be little doubt that the Browncoats were the confederates. The government was always trying to force a Utopian view on people that didn't want it. There rich were always pictured as limousine liberals who didn't know or want to know what was happening on the frontier. If you watched the movie there can be absolutely now thought that they were talking about the end product of socialism/progressiveism. They even use many of the same slogans. And the operative from the movie is absolutely a Rham Emanuel type.

[blackie]

Yeah, Bruce Campbell plays an ex-FBI agent on Burn Notice.

I like most his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Campbell

[apocalypto]

The one show I saw of CSI: Miami was definitely not conservative. Some of the others also should not be on list. Too many shows today push values I would not want my kids to copy.

I would vote for ***"Touched by an Angel"***
Too old to count in this poll but fun shows: "The Untouchables" with Robert Stack, "Lassie" (still appearing in reruns) and "The Gray Ghost"

[Rastus]

Dwight Schultz is an outspoken conservative. It’s cost him some roles. I think Dirk Benedict may lean right, since he has written for Big Hollywood (a non-political column).

You may be right about the effect the A-Team had, but I think the reason they went with no deaths was to make it more kid-friendly more than any kind of statement. A couple of scripts in season two did seem to be trying to shill for the Democrats in that year’s presidential election. Peppard was a Democrat for sure.