It’s hard enough for a TV show to be greenlit for a pilot and then officially ordered to series, let alone run for many seasons. Many of these shows don’t make it past their first season, and those that end up running between five-10 should definitely be considered successes. But over the decades, there have been a handful of shows that have achieved the incredible feat of lasting more than 10 seasons. Most have been live-action programming, whether we’re talking exceptional dramas or the best sitcoms of all time, and some are among the best-animated TV shows of all time. Whatever the case, these 32 TV shows deserve to be spotlighted as small-screen programming that ran for amazingly long times.
NCIS
The series about agents solving crimes for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service spun out of JAG, which had its own impressive run from 1995-2005. However, it’s safe to say that NCIS far surpassed its predecessor’s level of popularity, as not only did the main show end up running over multiple decades, but it also launched a franchise encompassing many spinoffs, one of which will be mentioned later.
The Simpsons
The satirical depiction of suburban life in Springfield centered around Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, Maggie and their family members and friends quickly became a pop culture phenomenon after it started in 1989. As the longest-running American animated series, longest-running American sitcom and longest-running primetime show, The Simpsons has become a beloved TV staple to multiple generations.
Cheers
From 1982-1993, viewers could visit a Boston bar where everybody knew their name… or rather they could pretend they were hanging out with folks like Sam, Carla and Norm. Cheers proved to be a sitcom sensation that earned numerous accolades, including winning 28 Emmys out of 111 nominations and six Golden Globes out of 31 nominations.
The Big Bang Theory
What started out as a show about a group of scientifically gifted young men and and the gorgeous blonde woman who lived across the hall from two of them became something so much more by the time its 12-season run was finished. Not only did The Big Bang Theory spotlight geek culture in a way that made it more than just the butt of jokes, but its legacy lived on through the prequel spinoff Young Sheldon.
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke achieved popularity as a radio program from 1952 to 1961, but in the middle of that run, it was additionally adapted for TV, and that was an even better success. With a 20-season run, plus five TV movies made after it ended in 1975, the series about Marshal Matt Dillon protecting the citizens of Dodge City, Kanas in the post-Civil War era ranked for a long time as the longest-running, primetime, live-action TV series.
Law & Order
Police procedurals obviously weren’t anything new when Law & Order debuted in 1990, but the Dick Wolf creation about New York City police detectives and prosecuting attorneys has arguably become the most well-known of this type of programming from its own merit and the massive small screen franchise it launched. The show originally aired on NBC for 20 seasons, and then the network revived it in 2022.
Family Guy
Family Guy didn’t get off to the best of starts, as it was canceled by Fox in 2002 after just three seasons. However, thanks to syndicated reruns and DVD sales. Peter Griffin and his family and friends from Quahog, Rhode Island returned to the network in 2005, and the show has since delivered so many hilarious episodes, though it’s not without its controversies. We’re lucky there’s still a man who positively can do all the things that make us laugh and cry.
Dallas
The primetime soap opera about the Ewing family, which owned the Ewing Oil company and Southfork Ranch, captivated audiences over its 14-season run, which is also just as long as the spinoff Knot’s Landing lasted. Dallas would later receive a revival that ran from 2012-2014, though it ignored the events from the two TV movies that followed the original series.
American Dad!
In 2005, the same year Family Guy returned to the airwaves, Seth MacFarlane also delivered American Dad!, which started out as the first show on Fox’s Animation Domination block, and was then moved to TBS years later. It might not have quite the name recognition as Family Guy, but the hijinks of Stan Smith and his family and associates have assembled their own sizable fanbase.
Bonanza
Bonanza is another Western that had a lengthy run in the earlier years of television, running on NBC from 1959 to 1973. Week after week, viewers turned in to watch the stories centered on the wealthy Cartwright family who lived near Virginia City, Nevada in the 1860s, and the series was followed by three made-for-TV movies, as well as a short-lived prequel called The Ponderosa that ran in 2001.
South Park
Y’all ever come down to South Park to meet some friends of mine? Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Comedy Central show started out as two animated short films before it was ordered to series in 1997. South Park is unquestionably one of the most controversial pieces of programming on this list thanks to its many outrageous episodes, but there’s no questioning how much of an impact it’s left on pop culture… when it’s not making fun of it, that is.
Blue Bloods
While Tom Selleck will always arguably be best known for leading the original Magnum P.I., he spent a lot longer on the CBS procedural Blue Bloods. He played NYPD Commissioner Frank Regan in this series following the Reagan family and their various jobs in law enforcement that lasted for 14 seasons.
Supernatural
As one of the pieces of programming that weathered The WB’s transition to The CW, Supernatural, which followed brothers Dean and Sam Winchester battling demonic creatures across the United States, had an impressive 15-season run and assembled a passionate fanbase during that time. It’s the longest-running live-action fantasy series and was followed by the short-lived prequel The Winchesters.
Criminal Minds
This procedural is about the criminal profilers who work for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. The original incarnation of Criminal Minds ran on CBS for 16 seasons, which is obviously a big deal on its own. Then just two years later, it was revived as a Paramount+-exclusive show, albeit now titled as Criminal Minds: Evolution.
M*A*S*H
In 1972, two years after the M*A*S*H movie achieved critical and commercial success, the same-named TV series inspired by the same premise first featured in the 1968 novel MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors started airing on CBS. This comedy/drama about doctors during the Korean War ran for 11 seasons, and its finale was the most-watched TV broadcast in the United States from 1983 to 2010.
Law And Order: Special Victims Unit
In 1999, nine years after Law & Order began, this TV property officially became a franchise when Law & Order: Special Victims Unit began airing. This series specifically focused on sexually-based crimes became just as popular as its predecessor, if not more so. Mariska Hargitay anchors SVU as Olivia Benson, with her being the only main cast member to have been around since the show started.
Grey’s Anatomy
Viewers have spent a long time with the employees at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, which was later renamed the Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. Grey’s Anatomy began on ABC in 2005 with Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey leading the large cast, and other notable cast members who’ve appeared on the show over the years include Katherine Heigl, Patrick Dempsey, Kate Walsh, Eric Dane and Jesse Williams, among many others.
Frasier
Frasier Crane didn’t appear on Cheers until Season 3, but after that show concluded, Kelsey Grammer’s character took center stage for the spinoff that saw him moving to Seattle, Washington to host his own radio show. Like Cheers, Frasier ran for 11 seasons and racked up a lot of Emmy wins. Nearly two decades after the series ended, Grammer returned to lead a revival/sequel on Paramount+.
Modern Family
Over the course of 11 seasons, Modern Family followed along with three kinds of connected families: nuclear, blended and same-sex. The result was the series starring Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Sofia Vergara and Ed O’Neill, among many others, becoming one of ABC’s most popular pieces of programming, and by the time it ended in 2020, it had won 22 Emmys.
ER
While not the first medical show to be called ER (though the first was written as E/R), this drama hailing from the mind of Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton obviously left a much bigger stamp on pop culture. From George Clooney and Angela Bassett, to John Stamos and Ming-Na Wen, as well as a lot of ER cameos, this NBC series about the staff of the fictional Cook County General Hospital highlighted a lot of major talents during its 15 seasons on the air.
Bob’s Burgers
Fox strengthened its lineup of adult animation in 2011 with Bob’s Burgers, which is about the Belcher family running their hamburger restaurant and their interesting clientele. The series has spawned a theatrical movie and a comic book series, but the show more than holds up on its own, as evidenced by its Emmy wins and nominations, among other accolades.
Two And A Half Men
Jon Cryer and Charlie Sheen, two actors closely tied with the Brat Pack, teamed up in 2003 for Two and a Half Men, which followed Cryer’s Alan Harper and his son Jake, played by Angus T. Jones, moving into the Malibu house of Sheen’s Charlie Harper, Alan’s brother. Both Sheen and Jones eventually left the show, and Ashton Kutcher came aboard as Walden Schmidt, but in the end, Two and a Half Men had a great run with 12 seasons.
NCIS: Los Angeles
Just like how JAG aired the backdoor pilot for NCIS in 2003, in 2009, NCIS aired special episodes to set up its first spinoff, NCIS: Los Angeles, which followed the Office of Special Projects in the title city. The procedural starring Chris O’Donnell, LL Cool J, Daniela Ruah and more ended up running for 14 seasons on CBS.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
In 2000, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation premiered on CBS, and it quickly became a worldwide phenomena, both in positive and negative (the show’s violence and graphic imagery being a frequent source of criticism). The show ended after 15 seasons, and then in 2021, a revival called CSI: Vegas aired on Paramount+ for three seasons, following previous spinoffs Miami, NY and Cyber.
Hawaii-5-O
Although the Hawaii-5-0 reboot had a healthy run of 10 seasons, the original, spelled Hawaii 5-O, lasted just a little longer at 12 seasons. From 1968 to 1980, viewers spent time with characters like Steve McGarrett, Danno Williams and Chin Ho Kelly as they tracked down and apprehended criminals around the Hawaiian Islands, and the series’ popularity led to “Book ‘em” becoming part of the pop culture lexicon.
Murder, She Wrote
Having already made a name for herself on the stage and in movies like The Manchurian Candidate, Angela Lansbury left her mark on TV when she played Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. For 12 seasons and four made-for-TV movies, her character, mystery writer Jessica Fletcher solved murders that were being committed in her town of Cabot Cove, Maine and other locations around the world.
Bones
Bones stood out from other procedurals by focusing on forensic anthropology and forensic archaeology, as Emily Deschanel’s Temperance “Bones” Brennan would study the human remains brought in by FBI agent Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz, for investigations. Clearly audiences liked this approach, as the show ran for 12 seasons on Fox.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Originally starting out on FX, and then moving to FXX in 2013, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has spent years chronicling the exploits of Charlie, Dennis, Mac Dee and Frank, a.k.a. “The Gang.” They run the Irish dive bar Paddy’s Pub in Philadelphia and are some of the worst people who’ve ever walked the Earth, but their misadventures have produced some of TV’s greatest comedic moments, and it’s become the longest-running live-action sitcom.
The X-Files
The X-Files originally ran on Fox from 1993 to 2002, with David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully looking into cases involving paranormal elements. While the show in its original run wouldn’t have qualified for this list, The X-Files came back for two more seasons from 2016-2018. A theatrical movie, also just called The X-Files, was additionally released in 1998, and The X-Files: I Want To Believe followed in 2008.
King Of The Hill
In yet another example of how much Fox has killed it with adult animation, King of the Hill earned critical acclaim during its 13 seasons originally on the air. The looks at the lives of the Hill family and those in their orbit earned two Emmy awards, among other accolades. In 2023, nearly 15 years after the series ended, it was announced that King of the Hill would be revived, which those with a Hulu subscription could watch.
Will & Grace
Will & Grace originally ran on NBC from 1998 to 2006, and thanks to returning for three more seasons between 2017 and 2020, it makes the cut for this list. The lives of best friends Eric McCormack’s Will Truman and Debra Messing’s Grace Adler, plus cohorts Jack McFarland and Karen Walker, played respectively by Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally, earned 18 Emmys and 96 total nominations.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Following his time show running all but two seasons of Seinfeld, Larry David took center stage for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which was based on his 1999 one-hour special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm and saw him playing a fictional version of himself who frequently found himself in awkward social situations. While Curb Your Enthusiasm didn’t air consistently between 2000 and 2024, it racked up 12 seasons in the end.
