Forgot to mention my favourite- Murdoch Mysteries, a cop show set in 1890s Toronto. The first episode was about the Current Wars, where an Edison demonstration of the dangers of AC power (electrocuting a dog) was sabotaged to kill the person who threw the switch.
The first four seasons ran on CityTV (citytv.com) then it moved to the CBC (cbc.ca). CBC never creates hits, they pick up hits from the private networks and run them about 5 seasons past the sell-by date- SCTV and Red Green are the best-known examples of this. Murdoch has stayed pretty good so far but there has been some PC slipping into it recently so I give it 1-2 more seasons max before it becomes unwatchable.
It's interesting to have him use existing materials at hand to anticipate future technologies. The Wild Wild West TV show did this, and of course MacGyver was an expert at using whatever was at hand to develop some awesome weapon or bomb. Murdoch sounds like it combines these elements with a more serious detective plot.
I also like interweaving real historical figures into the story. Historical fiction with a lot of fact is something I like.