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TV has been a singular boomer legacy like no other medium. It helped us laugh at and look at ourselves with progressively critical eyes.

Boomers are the first generation that grew up with television. In our early years, it was a new fascinating baby-sitter, influencing (some might say infecting) our generation until we got old enough to redefine it (as we did most of our culture). So it makes sense when considering what legacy we leave behind to reflect on the most popular medium of our times and the programs that made an imprint on our hearts and minds.

Picking seminal shows will always be up for argument (and we encourage your dissents or additions -- let us know what you think), but we offer these 10 great picks from the comedy and dramatic genres, leaving news, documentaries, sports and variety shows for future articles. Herewith a TV march in 10 great leaps through the decades of our becoming.

The Andy Griffith Show (CBS, 1960-1968)
The post WWII America we grew up in spawned what may be called the sweet predicament half-hours: sitcoms about ideal families or idyllic communities whose problems were familiar, but certainly not controversial. Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver were long running series starting in the '50s that gave us this "careful" nurturing. The Andy Griffith Show might be considered the last and most successful of this strain, having enough appeal to rank high in the ratings even though coverage of the Vietnam War was changing tastes. Still in syndication today, the show survives largely on the strength of Griffith's early stand-up formula, essentially a rural reinterpretation of both pop and smart culture. Like the others before it, one significance of the show is that it compelled a generation raised on nice, affable television to create productions almost exactly the opposite, as evidenced by the show's costar and future quintessential boomer moviemaker, Ron Howard.

The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959–1964)
Few broadcast formulas bridged the gap from radio to TV, but The Twilight Zone followed directly the tradition of successful radio programs like Weird Circle and The Inner Sanctum. The show was written by standout authors including Ray Bradbury, so it's no surprise it was a popular and critical success, producing spin-off productions for five decades. The brainchild of head writer, producer and host, Rod Serling, the show was groundbreaking for its tendency to incorporate issues of the day that networks and sponsors routinely, and infamously, censored from the then predominant dramas. The writers employed a technique that baby boomers would adopt for decades, essentially hiding controversial social commentary (i.e. horrors of nuclear war, a propensity for mass hysteria, dangers of McCarthyism) into (often paranormal) contexts unfamiliar to the older generation of decision makers.

Star Trek (NBC, 1966—1969)
In many ways, The Twilight Zone softened the ground that Star Trek then broke with its allegorical tales. For example, when racial segregation was still firmly entrenched in parts of the United States, Star Trek envisaged the goals of many social and cultural movements of the '60s in its multi-racial, mixed-gender crew. The show's creator Gene Roddenberry went even further in breaking down interracial barriers by featuring a mixed character (albeit half alien) in a leading role, as well as displaying the first interracial kiss on primetime TV between Kirk and Uhura (albeit forced by a higher power). The show has had a huge effect on popular culture by not only confronting social issues (in space) and inspiring endless sequels and Trekkie mania, but by especially engaging the generation's intelligentsia who lobbied to save NBC from axing it after the second season. And besides, who doesn't recognize that the famous flip-open communicator became the model (in ways good and bad) for cell phones? "Beam me up, Scotty!"

All in the Family (CBS, 1971–1979)
Like this generation, All in the Family proved to be groundbreaking in its unflinching resolve to challenge the staid status quo. It virtually brought issues that The Twilight Zone and Star Trek cloaked in otherworldly settings down to earth and right into our homes, using humor to make its truths palatable. Also like this generation, All in the Family left television a much freer and liberated landscape than it was before it arrived. The series kicked open discussion on issues previously deemed unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women's liberation, rape, breast cancer and erectile dysfunction (although it was not known as such at the time). Such bravery was appreciated by the television generation, which helped make the show wildly popular, ranking No. 1 in the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1972 to 1976, a feat only matched by another boomer breakthrough, The Cosby Show.

M*A*S*H (CBS, 1972–1983)
For 11 years, the show was one of the best written, acted and entertaining in television history, but its anti-authoritarian and humanist bent make it a landmark boomer production that verbalized a major sentiment of this generation like no other series before or since. The series moved more towards the mainstream from the Robert Altman movie that inspired it, but that didn't make M*A*S*H less unconventional for TV. For the first time, a nation watched an antiwar protest (the Korean War setting providing satirical relief for the follies of the Vietnam War) unfold with wacky, madcap humor on primetime.

Roots (ABC, 1977)
No other miniseries has had the lasting effect of Roots. For its novel depiction (an African-American perspective) of the history of U.S. slavery, the Alex Haley-based series challenged the country's collective identity. It also broke new ground by proving that long-form TV could hold its audience enthralled over several consecutive nights and firmly established TV as a medium that could rise above its tag as an inartistic, culturally ineffectual means of communication. For better or worse, docudrama became a new cultural means of educating Americans about both their noble and ignoble history.

Hill Street Blues (NBC, 1981–1987)
HSB took cop and crime shows in a whole new direction of gritty, multi-character, multi-story reality that has served as a blueprint for much of TV drama since. In place of the stolid Sergeant Friday of Dragnet, we discovered that crime solving detectives had problems of their own to solve. TV quick cuts, handheld cameras, long tracking shots that picked up and moved with different characters as they crossed paths gave rise to a gutter realism that executives didn't think would attract viewers. But its debut season was honored with eight Emmy awards, a record surpassed only by The West Wing debut season over a decade later. TV execs had to catch on that baby boomers' weren't babies anymore, and that pabulum was not the TV dinner they wished to eat.

The Cosby Show (NBC, 1984–1992)
Except for Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, and, of course, Roots and its sequel, primetime TV before The Cosby Show was something of a vanilla expanse. With the exception of the above-mentioned shows that featured a majority of leading black roles, programs had produced little crossover appeal. Bill Cosby, one of the Civil Rights movement's most visible leaders in the entertainment industry (who also broke ground two decades earlier as a co-lead of I Spy), carried the cause forward in grand inclusive, boomer style. The show epitomized two of the basic baby boomer tenets learned during the Civil Rights struggle: knocking-down barriers and blowing away stereotypes. It showed white America something it hadn't seen on air before: integrated black upward mobility.

Cheers (NBC, 1982–1993)
The sitcom triggered the catchphrase "must-see TV" long before Friends and ER established NBC's Thursday night dominance. With witty dialogue and a multi-talented ensemble cast in archetypal roles exposing honest flaws, Cheers confronted boomers with the decade of the '80s, the decade of facing responsibility and workaday commitment. When the isolating conformity of making a dollar was subtly (disturbingly) taking primacy over our socially engaging previous decades, it was comforting to retreat to the bar and get its overriding communal message in a place where "everyone knows your name."

Seinfeld (NBC, 1989-1998)
The part Seinfeld played in '90s pop culture cannot be overstated. The show established irony as the nation's primary comedic vehicle – not just on television, but everywhere. (So beloved was Jerry Seinfeld's brand of ironic neurosis, there was something of a comedic backlash when the show ended and television writers felt released from trying to tool Seinfeldian quips into stock characters.) The satirical obsessive tendencies of the ensemble cast played on some not-so-fresh stereotypes, but yet they still managed to reveal new heights of utter self-involvement. Its social commentary might not have been as biting as, say, All in the Family, but by outing some previously tabooed personal concerns, it struck very close to home for many baby boomers, which is just one of the reasons it was so funny.

BONUS UNAVOIDABLE MENTION:

Saturday Night Live (NBC, 1975 — )
SNL is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American television history and launched the careers of many of comedy's major stars of the last 30 years. Its significance lies in the show's ability to reinvent itself every few seasons. Begun with comedic pillars like Belushi, Chase, Aykroyd, Radner, Murray, Curtain, and even Steve Martin to some extent, the show was seemingly doomed once the first cast started to depart for Hollywood. But Lorne Michaels and the show's creators continued to mine the generation's wealth of talent. Where the first cast embodied the generation in the '70s, future casts, largely baby boomers (like Eddie Murphy) until recently, effectively reflected the generation as it aged through the decades. Though it could be classified as a variety show, it is the iconic satirical skits such as "The Coneheads" and "The Samurai Chef" that have burned themselves in our memory as we still confront everyday absurdity.