Following Part 1 of my annual Alternate Ten Best list in yesterday’s column, here are five more shows that stood out in 2014 but likely won’t show up on many (if any) best-of year-end lists. (Actually there are ten shows mentioned below, carefully cobbled together into five positions.) Good news: They will all be with us in 2015 (at least for a while)!
“Face Off” (Syfy) and “Project Runway” (Lifetime) – Syfy’s make-up challenge “Face Off” and Lifetime’s fashionable “Project Runway” turn up on this list every year because they continue to champion and celebrate hard work and creative talent. It doesn’t hurt that they both remain exciting to watch, more so than the many other similarly structured competition series that come and go on basic cable channels. (I would also reference Bravo’s “Top Chef” here, but it just doesn’t do much for me, maybe because the food that the contestants prepare never looks all that appetizing. But if anyone else wants to call it one of TV’s best reality efforts I won’t argue.) I wish “Face-Off” would follow the lead of “Project Runway” and expand to 90 minute episodes, at least during the first half of each season when there are so many contestants, because it often feels quite rushed. Similarly, I think “Project Runway” could give us shorter episodes once the first few contestants are voted out, because it often feels padded. Beyond those suggestions, they’re all good.
“The Waltons” (Hallmark Channel) and “Father Knows Best” (Antenna TV) – We are undeniably in some sort of New Golden Age of television, with more high quality scripted programming and reality fare coming at us from every direction all of the time. It’s more than anyone can hope to keep up with or fully process. Sometimes there is nothing better than turning away from it all and enjoying popular television shows from the past on such retro networks as Me-TV, This TV and Cozi TV. This year I found two vintage series to be particularly soothing at the end of the day: “The Waltons” (on Hallmark Channel) and “Father Knows Best” (on Antenna TV). Forty years after the legendary run of “The Waltons” on CBS (and 80 years after the time period in which it is set, give or take a few) the daily details of life as it was lived by John and Olivia Walton, oldest son John-Boy and the rest of their family seem almost impossible to comprehend. But Richard Thomas’ deeply moving performance (especially in the first two seasons) as the smart, sensitive and sincere John-Boy is, in hindsight, a revelation. Also, the family’s dysfunction-free dynamics remain as powerful as ever, even if they seem somewhat alien in today’s world. The same is true of “Father Knows Best” (pictured below), a genuine, black and white golden oldie that ran on CBS from 1954-60 (after a successful run on radio from 1949-54). It’s not particularly funny (although some of the scrapes young Bud Anderson gets himself into are amusing), and it is so dated as to feel utterly (and unfortunately) unreal. But it captivates as pure, innocent nostalgia. This show came and went before my time, and I don’t recall ever watching it in reruns as a kid, so it’s been a totally new and distinctive treat for me and one of the most welcome diversions any medium has offered this year.