1. Mad Men
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. Probably Buffy

Honorable mentions (or sheer indecisiveness): Six Feet Under, TNG, DS9, Batman: The Animated Series

Actually Ptolemaic Egypt did adopt a lot the artistic styles associated with ancient Egypt. So the show was not wrong in that regard.

1. Walking Dead
2. Psyche
3. Animaniacs (if not Bugs Bunny).

A close one for 2 is NCIS though. I can't pinpoint it, but I like that show.

largeham, to support my point. This link explains (albeit briefly)
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/art/ptolemaic.html

Dead like me. It needs a mentioning.

1) (blank) (I have not seen any TV shows of the last year)
2) Carnivale (greatest opening title sequence of any TV show that ever has or ever will be - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CYMXoX-b0o . It is a story of the battle between Good and Evil set during the Depression). BSG is a close second for this category.
3) I, Claudius

I also enjoyed Rome, but I think portraying Cleopatra as an opium smoker was probably not too far off the mark. Drug use was likely fairly common among the well-to-do in ancient times (as is portrayed in at least one other scene in the rest of the series). The series did play fast and loose with the history in general, though - mostly to appeal to the sensibilities of a 21st century television audience. Fortunately they still had the good sense to play some of the more dramatic moments exactly as history had written (like the death of Pompey). There are a few hat tips in the show to "I, Claudius", which positively warmed my heart. ("I, Claudius", the greatest TV series of all time, picks up more or less where Rome leaves off, seven years after Actium). For those who have not seen it, here's a taste (warning: spoilers!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQe28wNe6SU

Ahh, so many choices! Anything on USA network I love and would put at number 1. If I had to choose:

1. White Collar
2. Firefly
3. Friends (I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned yet)

1. How I Met Your Mother
2. Futurama (I know it's still on, but I'm pretending it never came back after being canceled)
3. Fawlty Towers

1. The Tudors.
2. The West Wing.
3. Star Trek TOS.

Bump!

What is your favourite television show?
1. Over the last year = The Pillars of the Earth
2. Decade = It would have to be 'Friends'.
3. All time = Question Time

1. Over the last year - Probably House MD, but several are as good or almost as good.
2. Decade - Battlestar Galactica (2005) or Firefly
3. All time - Probably Battlestar Galactica or Firefly here as well, but I might change my mind since I'm trying to watch anything star trek that has come out, ever.

1 modern family, royal pains
2 curb your enthusiasm, lost, firefly
3 seinfeld, monty pythons flying circus, falwty towers

Modern Family is a great show.

ya it was on tonight but i missed it

Over the last year: House
Over the last decade: House
Of all-time: Star trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation...and House

I am a big fan of Hugh Laurie, but to be honest, I have never liked House. I much preferred him in Blackadder and Hugh and Laurie. House was always too American for my liking (don't get me wrong I love lots of American stuff - but some stuff is sooo American. Brits and Aussies will know what I mean).

Speaking Hugh Laurie
Jeeves and wooster was awesome
Oh and poirot

Really? Hugh Laurie too American? I always thought his humor was too British, maybe because of Black Adder and House sarcasm :P

too=to

Hugh Laurie is very British, but House is very American. Don't get me wrong, he is the best thing about the show (which I must admit I have not seen for years).

What's more british that PG Wodehouse's jeeves and wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen fry

+1 Denis. Loved the PG Wodeshouse stuff.

Not british but kind of wish i was... I like British music, British tv, British people, movies, books,
Pink Floyd
Queen
The beetles
Agatha Christie
Pg Wodehouse
Monty python ( movies, flying circus, and John cleese)
Fawlty towers

It's hard to articulate but I find some American TV corny and overly sentimental. Take Family Ties, for example. Great cast. Funny actors (especially M J Fox). But they always had to ruin it with excessive sentimentality. Seinfeld was a show, that for it's time, really went against the grain (there was nothing sentimental about Seinfeld). Seinfeld = one of the best shows ever.
But hey, there is so much American TV. So perhaps I am overly generalizing . Mad Men was awesome. And Modern Family is not sentimental and nor was Curb Your Enthusiasm (and of course South Park - I really don't have a good case with these examples).

correction: I said Hugh and Laurie earlier. I meant Fry and Laurie.

There's lots of trash tv but most shows are at least watchable. Sentimentality in shows just kind of went away after the turn of the century

You might be right there denis. I am probably remembering the eighties and nineties ( and showing my age).