What is the next best series after The Avengers?

[Brian Flagg]

Other favourites are Mission Impossible (the ones minus Barbara Bain)

The ones minus Barbara Bain? You must be drinking too much Avengerhol, because M:I went straight to the crapper after Bain and Landau left. I love the show (minus season 5) but they never found a suitable replacement for Bain. Only Lynda Day George comes close.

Unless you say that because you think that Diana should have received one of the Emmys Bain got.

As for the original question, I'll pick The Persuaders!...

[denis]

Sherlock Holmes (with Jeremy Brett)
Kojak (Telly Savalas)
Les Brigades du Tigre (a French series)
The Untouchables (Robert Stack)
The Persuaders (Moore-Curtis)
Dempsey and Makepeace (Barber-Brandon)
The Streets of San Francisco (Malden-Douglas)...

[mjhbuckeye]

Twilight Zone was the best thing ever on TV, but since it was an antholgy series rather then episodic, I guess it wouldn't qualify altogether. The Granada Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett and the Rumpole of the Bailey series with Leo McKern (both gone now, so very sad) were both brilliant. From this side of the pond, I've enjoyed greatly St. Elsewhere, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Fugitive and The Wonder Years with the old Outer Limits as a guilty pleasure. Moonlighting, China Beach, Northern Exposure and Mission: Impossible also consumed huge parts of my viewing time. Of shows in current production, I only consider Monk as must see.

[Rodney]

On further reflection, Blake's 7.

[Mike Gambit]

Ok. Here's my "Top 30" after The /New/Avengers (in no particular order, and probably not ALL regarded as "Cult")

24
The Professionals
Doctor Who (Pertwee/Sladen the peak for me)
Thriller
Taggart
Life On Mars/Ashes to Ashes
Spooks
Brookside
The Equalizer
Columbo
CSI (all 3)
Crown Court
Depatment S
The Sweeney
Hammer House of Horror/Mystery & Suspense
Dempsey & Makepeace
Armchair Thriller
Randall & Hopkirk Deceased
The X Files
Jonathan Creek
The Saint
The Persuaders
Twilight Zone
Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected
The Champions
Sarah Jane Adventures
Torchwood
The Prisoner
Starsky & Hutch
The Bill

[daftyboy]

Well it's all fairly predictable fantasy and sci-fi for me...

Sapphire and Steel
Doctor Who from Hartnell up to Tom Baker going bonkers in Invasion of Time
The Prisoner
Robin of Sherwood
The Goodies

movies
Quatermass and the Pit
Planet of the Apes

But, yes, The Avengers is tops for me. Especially the first Diana Rigg series which is more or less perfect except for the odd dodgy fight sequence!
Dafty

[Whiskers]

How about a Top 150? I came across this fairly recent poll for best TV show ever.

Television Heaven Top 100

It seems many people here might have cast their votes judging by the result.

[shaunodan]

I never missed an episode of Buffy. Back when the original movie came out with Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland (an Avengers alumnus, BTW), I thought it was the dumbest concept on the planet. The TV series was outstanding, though.

It's too bad that Sarah Michelle Gellar has gone all "Hollywood skinny" though. Lately, she looks like a concentration camp survivor.

This is a "before" photo . . . obviously.

A great series and Buffy looks fantastic in the photo...a real slayer Purdey, unlike Buffy, could still look ultra sexy and dangerous despite being surprisingly thin legged and bony for a top action girl ''Hollywood skinny'' does not suit Sarah at all Purdey being ranked ahead of Buffy in a poll of action girls

[Rodders]

Life on Mars, Blake 7.

[anti-clockwise]

The Wild Wild West with Robert Conrad and Artemus Gordon. Similarities to TA.