Frasier
Mensa Says: The repartee was sensational; the main characters were very good. Even though they portrayed people who were likely of high intelligence, they also showed their weaknesses. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: Since Frasier and Niles would have been the poster boys for Mensa, this only makes sense. Well played, Mensa leader guy.
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The West Wing
Mensa Says: You had to pay attention to stay up with it. The repartee was fast and furious and you needed a fairly high level intelligence to keep up with it. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: Yes. Uh-huh. We agree with what he said. Especially about needing to be smart to keep up with it. Which we definitely were.
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Boston Legal
Mensa Says: It's primarily because of the characters. The story lines are OK, but the characters are incredible and the writers give them great dialogue. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: Sure, David E. Kelley consistently delivers quirky, complex, deeply-flawed characters. But "Boston Legal" is so goofy and over the top that we would never rank it in our top 10 smartest list -- if we had been smart enough to come up with one.
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Jeopardy!
Mensa Says: It's about the only game show that really tries to test people's intelligence. There's very little luck involved, and there are few game shows like that. I don't watch it all that much honestly, but from what I've seen it tests more than knowledge, it tests intelligence too. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: "Jeopardy" seems like it was handcrafted for Mensa by Mensa. Like the smart guy says, there are very few game shows that require book smarts to win the big prize; a couple of our other favorites would be "Cash Cab" and "Win Ben Stein's Money."
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Cosmos
Mensa Says: [Carl] Sagan was able to communicate something extremely complicated to the layman and do it well, and that's unusual for a scientist at his level. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: At first we gave ourselves extra smarty-pants points for having watched Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" as children. But when we learned that over 600 million people worldwide have seen it, we revoked our points and issued each other a layman's gold star.
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House
Mensa Says: Again, it's high level type of show; it's the personality that makes it a winner, plus it deals with science. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: Does this endorsement mean all the crazy medical mystery stuff that happens on "House" is actually possible?
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CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Mensa Says: The way they use science to solve their programs is intriguing to viewers. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: More science. We've identified a trend.
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All in the Family
Mensa Says: The show dealt with social issues before its time and was on the forefront of trying to show people's feelings, beliefs and the complexities of personality, in both a serious and comedic way. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: We find it ironic that a show that featured the most infamously ignorant TV character found its place on Mensa's Top 10 list. We not only agree with this decision, more importantly we hope we used the word "ironic" properly.
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Mad About You
Mensa Says: It’s a personal favorite, I loved the characters and the back and forth. It was very smart. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: This is surprising. "Mad About You" is a very sweet and likable show, but not overly brainy. Maybe we were distracted by Murray the dog. That happens sometimes.
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M*A*S*H
Mensa Says: It had smart repartee and was so much more than a comedy. (Read the full interview on Fanscape.com)
Yahoo! TV Says: We 100% agree. M*A*S*H was brilliant in its ability to intertwine deep moral issues with laugh-out-loud comedy.
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