Vote: Is this Australia’s best TV show of all time?

These are the 50 best homegrown TV shows of all time, according to experts, but readers say it’s “missed an awful lot of our very best”. Which ones would you add? Have your say.

Lovers of Australian television have been demanding “Look at moi!” or cheekily ordering a glass of “Cardonnay” since 2002.

The social impact of Kath & Kim remains imprinted on the Australian cultural psyche more than 20 years after its record-breaking ratings run and is a worthy No. 1 on the 50 Best Australian TV Shows Of All Time poll.

A panel of entertainment writers and reviewers from this masthead and news.com.au cast their votes for the most loved homegrown shows which have been appointment viewing for Australian audiences over the past 60 years ahead of the 2024 TV Week Logies in Sydney on August 18.

Anyone for a glass of “Cardonnay”? Kath & Kim is our No.1 show. Picture: Supplied.

Kath & Kim was ranked highly by the majority of the panel, with Herald Sun columnist Fiona Byrne picking it as her No. 1 show.

The brainchild of comedy stars Gina Riley and Jane Turner was a ratings juggernaut whose fourth season episodes in 2005 were watched each week by more than two million viewers.

The show was also wildly popular overseas although the American attempt to reimagine it for their audience failed to connect once stripped of its quintessential Australianness.

It has also enjoyed a generational refresh in the streaming era, broadcast both on 7Plus and Netflix.

Comedy series Frontline was also popular among the voters. Picture: Supplied.

“Smart, knowing and funny, Kath ‘n’ Kim captured early noughties suburban Australian culture with razor sharp accuracy and lovingly poked fun at it,” Byrne said.

“The show remains as fresh today as when it launched in 2002 and images from the series are repurposed as memes even now.

“The mangled phrases and words uttered by Kath Day Knight (Turner) and Kim (Riley) – ‘Look at moi’, ‘You are effluent’, ‘O.V.A.H’ and ‘Cardonnay’ made the leap from screen to real life having a cultural impact that few shows have equalled.”

Foxtel drama Love My Way placed as the highest drama series. Picture: Supplied.

The unquenchable thirst for Australian stories and characters on our screens is reflected by the poll with drama being the dominant genre in the top 50.

Love My Way was the highest ranking drama, coming in at No.3. The Foxtel drama about a group of 30somethings dealing with life’s trials and tribulations featured a stacked ensemble cast of acclaimed actors including Claudia Karvan, Asher Keddie, Brendan Cowell and Dan Wyllie with guests stars including Sam Worthington, Ben Mendelsohn, Sasha Horler and Justine Clarke.

The Underbelly series also featured in the top 10, its true crime dramas capturing the nation’s imagination and fuelling the popularity of the genre on podcasts and streamers.

Which was your favourite Neighbour? Picture: Supplied.

And of course the shenanigans of Ramsay St would poll highly, with the panel deciding Neighbours was worthy of a top 10 spot.

The enduring Australian love for dramas with a black comedic bent influenced voters, with National TV Reviewer James Wigney picking the Foxtel series Mr Inbetween, written by and starring Scott Ryan, as his No. 1 show.

“This brilliant blend of black comedy and crime drama – like Two Hands before it and Deadloch after it – takes top spot as much for the way it came about as for its quality 26-episode, three-season run between 2018 and 2021,” Wigney said.

“Scott Ryan, with the help of long-time champion Nash Edgerton, took 13 years to bring his $3000 mockumentary and its lead character, hitman Ray Shoesmith to the small screen, and earned accolades at home and around the world when he finally did.

“Ryan found the perfect blend of unassuming, knockabout charm and barely concealed menace as Ray, the killer-with-a-code trying to negotiate a grimy underworld hiding in plain sight in suburban Sydney, while providing for his daughter and loved ones.

“And a killer support cast that included Justin Rosniak, Brooke Satchwell and Damon Herriman sealed the contract.”

Perhaps the most surprising poll result was the top 5 finish for both Countdown and Rage. Molly Meldrum remains a national treasure – and revered by global pop stars from Madonna to Debbie Harry – for his profound hitmaking influence on the sound of the Australian airwaves through the ’70s and ’80s.

While ABC’s Rage is still entertaining insomniacs and night owls 37 years after Iggy Pop’s Real Wild Child opening theme scream first blasted out of our sets.

Sunday nights just aren’t the same without Molly bringing Elton and more superstars to our screens. Picture: Supplied.

Music also inspired the postmillennial explosion of reality television, with Popstars inspiring the creation of Australian Idol, The X Factor and The Voice.

news.com.au entertainment editor Nick Bond put the show which featured Jackie O as a judge and gave us chart-toppers Bardot and Scandal’us at the top of his rankings.

“That first season of Popstars aired back in 2000, when reality TV – and particularly talent shows – was in its infancy. Watch the series back now and you’ll enter a portal to a time when reality TV was rough around the edges and a lot more real than today,” he said.

“That first season had everything: Tantrums! Midriff tops! About 900 off-key renditions of Ain’t No Sunshine! If you were a pop-loving Aussie at the turn of the century, each episode was appointment television.”

If you ned a laugh, check out Colin From Accounts which makes the top 20 in our poll. Picture: Binge

Only two children’s shows made the top 50 but they’re both beloved – the global phenomenon that is Bluey and ’90s series Round The Twist.

“I dare anyone to watch an episode of Bluey (like Cricket, or The Decider, or Duck Cake) and not cry!” said Bluey fangirl and Stellar writer Karlie Rutherford.

“In less than 10 minutes, this show by creator Joe Brumm, encapsulates what it means to be Australian, a parent, a child/a sibling, a human … and it’s about a family of blue heeler dogs.

“If that’s not genius, I don’t know what is. They’ve changed the vocabulary of Australian families with kids around the country asking to play a game of Keepy Uppy or requesting dollarbucks.

“And now, with the show arguably our greatest export, families around the world are now crying out ‘biscuits!’ when they stub their toe.”

The voting panel:

James Wigney – National TV Reviewer

Fiona Byrne – Gossip Queen, Herald Sun

Nick Bond – Entertainment Editor, news.com.au

Andrew Bucklow – Podcast culture king, news.com.au

Siobhan Duck – Binge Guide and Stellar TV writer

Lisa Mayoh – Insider and Sydney Weekend editor, Telegraph

Karlie Rutherford – Stellar and Confidential writer

Kathy McCabe – National Music Writer

* The Best 50 Australian TV Shows poll was decided by tabulating the scores from each voter’s ranking of shows from the ’60s to now from a master long list and their personal passions. It is not a critics’ list; it’s what people who love watching Australian television have loved to watch.

Originally published as Vote: Is this Australia’s best TV show of all time?