Mental Floss

TV







Ellen Pompeo stars in Grey's Anatomy.

'Grey's Anatomy' is the longest-running primetime medical drama on TV. Not bad for a show that creator Shonda Rhimes didn't think would get picked up for a second season.

Stacy Conradt




Pictured: The 1980s.

In the 1980s, shopping malls across America hosted everything from video game demonstrations to fans screaming for Patrick Duffy.

Jake Rossen




Tom Hanks appears during the 2020 Carousel of Hope Ball benefiting the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.

You know that Tom Hanks is an Oscar-winning actor, and that he recently played Fred Rogers on the big screen. But did you know that he's actually related to Mr. Rogers? (And to Abraham Lincoln, too.)

Dana Rose Falcone


RuPaul hosts RuPaul's Drag Race.

From its humble beginnings on Logo TV to its current status as an awards show darling (19 Emmys and counting), 'RuPaul's Drag Race' has been on our TV screens for over a decade now.

Meg Fozzard
(L to R) Law & Order stars Jerry Orbach, Angie Harmon, Sam Waterston, and Jesse L. Martin pictured in 1999.

Though NBC called it quits on 'Law & Order' in 2010, after 20 seasons and more than 450 episodes, the series lives on in reruns and spinoffs. In fact, it's probably playing somewhere on TV right now.

Randee Dawn




Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox go head-to-head in HBO's Succession.

Audiences and critics have been captivated by the deeply dysfunctional—and bleakly hilarious—antics of the Roy family on HBO's hit series 'Succession.'

Sarah McGrath




(L to R) ROBERT SHEEHAN, JUSTIN H. MIN, ELLIOT PAGE, TOM HOPPER, DAVID CASTAÑEDA, and EMMY RAVER-LAMPMAN STAR IN NETFLIX'S THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, WHICH LANDED IN THE NO. 10 SPOT.

One committed number-cruncher spent the last year monitoring Netflix’s top 10 list every day to see which shows reigned supreme.

Ellen Gutoskey