There have been so many all-around great TV shows. Stand-outs for me are The West Wing, The Simpsons, Six Feet Under, The X-Files (pre-movie), OZ, and MASH.

For pure mindless escapism I love(d) Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives, Ellen (her old series and before she came out on it), the early years of MTV's The Real World, and call me crazy but I'm hooked on the pseudo reality series Laguna Beach.