The Best Guilty Pleasure TV Shows
These are the best guilty pleasure TV shows, the most delightfully addictive series we love to watch and hate that we love from the past and present, including sitcoms, dramas, reality shows, and game shows. These are the TV shows you won’t admit to watching - even though you secretly do. Guilty pleasure television is addictive and often horrible, but it never fails to draw in viewers. This list includes the TV shows you can’t stop watching, the greatest guilty pleasure TV shows of all time. Although everyone has their own ideas about what should be labeled ‘guilty pleasure’ TV, it’s not hard to admit that these shows, while not the greatest examples of television, are one thing: addictive.
Why are we so ashamed to admit that we can’t get enough of these so-called guilty pleasure TV shows? Perhaps it’s because, deep down, we recognize that these ‘so bad they’re addictive’ TV programs are truly terrible. Guilty pleasure dramas take everything to the extreme, adding crazy plot lines revolving around forbidden love, backstabbing, or jealousy. Guilty pleasure sitcoms are so cheesy they’re funny. Guilty pleasure reality shows are usually, paradoxically, unrealistic and showcase the worst in human nature. But much like a train wreck, viewers can’t stop themselves from looking.
Some guilty pleasure TV shows have become so thanks to age. After all, millions of people watched Full House and Beverly Hills, 90210 when they first aired - but would you admit to watching them now? Even if you secretly do? What are television's best guilty pleasure shows? Vote up the addictive shows you think are the best and see where your favorites rank.
- Four older women share a house in Miami Beach.
- Friends (NBC, 1994) is an American sitcom television series created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The personal and professional lives of six friends (Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa ...more
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (UPN, 1997) is an American supernatural drama television series created by Joss Whedon, based on the 1992 film. Destined to slay vampires, a young woman (Sarah Michelle ...more
- Married... with Children is an American sitcom that aired for 11 seasons. It featured a dysfunctional family living in a fictional Chicago suburb. The series, notable for being the first prime-time ...more
- Three sisterly witches battle the supernatural.
- True Blood (HBO, 2008) is an American fantasy horror drama television series created by Alan Ball, based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a series of novels by Charlaine Harris. Telepathic waitress ...more
- Desperate Housewives (ABC, 2004) is an American mystery comedy-drama television series created by Marc Cherry. Secrets and truths unfold through the lives of female friends (Teri Hatcher, Felicity ...more
- A vampire with a conscience saves lost souls in Los Angeles.
- A witch marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typical suburban housewife.
- Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty have misadventures in Bedrock.
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (ABC, 1996) is an American sitcom created by Nell Scovell and is based on the Archie comic book series of the same name. The show chronicles the adventures of Sabrina ...more
- Xena helps people free themselves against tyranny and injustice.
- The two chipmunks fight crime around the world.
- Rescued from a bottle (and a deserted island) by a U.S. astronaut, a scantily clad genie named Jeannie becomes his slave and eventually falls in love with him. But unlike most genie stories, there ...more
- Accidentally frozen, pizza-deliverer Fry wakes up 1,000 years in the future. He is taken in by his sole descendant, an elderly and addled scientist who owns a small cargo delivery service. Among the ...more
- Homer and Marge Simpson raise Bart, Lisa and baby Maggie in Springfield.
- Wakko, Yakko and Dot perform classic cartoon humor.
- Frasier (NBC, 1993) is an American sitcom television series created by David Angell, Peter Casey, and David Lee, and a spinoff of Cheers. After his divorce, psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey ...more
- George, Jane, Judy, Elroy and their dog Astro, live the easy life thousands of years in the future.
- Pokémon (OLM, 1997), also known as Pokémon the Series, is a Japanese children's anime series based on the video game franchise and part of The Pokémon Company's Pokémon media franchise. With dreams ...more
- Doug Heffernan shares a house with his wife and father-in-law.
- Scholastic's "The Magic School Bus" follows Ms. Frizzle and her class as they set off on field trips. Based on the best-selling book series of the same name, "The Magic School Bus" takes kids on a ...more
- Laid-back Sam Malone, a former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, owns and runs Cheers, a cozy bar in Boston. He hires smart, uptight -- and jilted -- Diane Chambers as a server, out of sympathy, ...more
- The madcap antics of four cute boys -- Davy, Peter, Micky and Mike -- who make up the rock 'n' roll band the Monkees are captured in this freewheeling 1960s series. It employs all sorts of stylistic ...more
- An urban youth moves in with rich relatives.