5 Best Ted Danson TV Shows, Ranked

There are TV stars, and then there are TV legends — actors who build such an immense body of work, across multiple eras, that they become interwoven with the very history of the medium itself. If anyone is worthy of the label, it's Ted Danson.

While "Cheers" could have been the single soaring peak of Danson's career, it instead became a launching pad. From "Ink" and "Becker" to "Damages," "Bored to Death," and "Mr. Mayor," these are just some of the series that have kept him a constant presence on television. It became inevitable that the moment a Danson show left the air, another would soon be ready to take its place.

All that said, some shows stand tall above the rest. Danson's greatest TV performances show his versatility, though they often lean toward the comedic and the heartfelt. Taking into account critical reception, cultural impact, and Danson's own work in each role, these are his five best TV shows.

"CSI" isn't the sort of show you'd typically associate with Ted Danson. While he certainly has range and has played many kinds of characters on the small screen, most primarily associate him with the comedy world. Add the fact that he didn't join "CSI" until Season 12, and it's understandable why many wouldn't even think to bring the show up in a conversation of Danson's best. Even so, it deserves a spot in the top five.

For starters, "CSI" is a piece of TV history, instrumental in establishing the model for the modern crime procedural. When Danson joined for the show's final four years, he brought an extra level of charisma, but his turn as investigator D.B. Russell has a lot of layers. The show's often gruesome subject matter gives him room to stretch, but he never loses the easy charm that fans expect. In short, it's a strong performance that gives him room to flex both his dramatic and comedic chops.

Still, the show doesn't warrant a higher placement here. While "CSI" is a titan in the history books of TV, and Danson is great in it, he's turned in more memorable performances.

Over the course of its 25-year tenure on HBO, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" became known for featuring celebrities as fictionalized versions of themselves. That started with series creator Larry David himself, but it eventually extended to everyone from the cast of "Seinfeld" to Wanda Sykes and Rosie O'Donnell. But no recurring guest is more iconic than Ted Danson.

Playing a version of himself that's often smarmy and mean-spirited, Danson is a friend to Larry who frequently becomes a foe, even dating Larry's in-show ex-wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), at one point. Danson's real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen, also appears throughout the series as a fictionalized version of herself.

While there are shows we could have picked where Danson is more clearly a star, his turn on "Curb" is too good not to include. The back-and-forth social combativeness that David turns into comedy gold on the show is never better than when Danson is his opponent, and the series takes every opportunity to poke fun at the actor's charming public profile. While this isn't really a show you watch specifically for Danson, it is absolutely one of the best that he's been a part of and one of his funniest TV performances.

If you're looking for a feel-good show starring Ted Danson that's all about relationships, life, and being good to each other, there are a few great options. This is one of them.

"A Man on the Inside" stars Danson as Charles Nieuwendyk, a retired man still struggling after the death of his wife, who takes a gig assisting a private detective. In the show's first season, that job leads him undercover at a retirement community, where he investigates a case of jewelry theft. "A Man on the Inside" Season 2 puts him on a college campus, where he and his boss look into a blackmail case.

The different cases keep things fresh, but it's the way the show — created by TV comedy legend Michael Schur — depicts the various relationships that make it such a standout. This is a series about people in the most grounded, relatable sense. It deals with grief, aging, family, and friendship, with Danson as the guiding force on screen. The word "cozy" gets thrown around a lot these days as a modifier for shows of this type, but it's appropriate here. "A Man on the Inside" is warm in its emphasis on kindness and compassion, but it never sacrifices substance to that end.

Few TV shows have captured the cultural consciousness the way "Cheers" did. Arguably the definitive sitcom of the '80s, the series ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993, earning a staggering 117 Emmy nominations (a record for a traditional comedy series) and winning 28. Of course, at the center of it all was Ted Danson, making a name for himself as bar owner and frequent scoundrel Sam Malone.

This is the role that built Danson into one of the most bankable faces on television, and he's great from the outset, carrying the part of Sam with equal parts charisma, chauvinism, sleaziness, and sympathy. Around his performance, the other "Cheers" characters congregate, and life at the eponymous Boston bar circles in an ever-entertaining cycle of special episodes, relationship drama, and general hijinks. 

"Cheers" is a show that helped expand the frame of the traditional sitcom, and it occasionally touched on broader social themes, using the compelling relationships at its core to explore the issues of the time. But while it may still be the definitive Ted Danson TV show, it's not our choice for number one.

"The Good Place" is, objectively, a strange show. It's the second show on this list created by Michael Schur, and it's equal parts supernatural fantasy, feel-good comedy, and moral thought experiment. The premise of "The Good Place" is that protagonist Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) dies and winds up in the supposed "Good Place," even though her life on Earth was defined by selfishness, scamming, and generally reprehensible behavior. Her efforts to fit in lead her down a path of higher learning in the realm of moral philosophy, and in short order, the entire supernatural fabric around her begins to reveal layers upon layers of secrets.

Danson enters as Michael, the "architect" of the "neighborhood" where Eleanor and the show's other characters have been sent in the afterlife. While he may not be the main character, he turns in one of the strongest main cast performances of his TV career. As Michael, Danson gets to explore his full comedic potential, from the zany to the subdued to the downright sinister. He's charming, childish, cruel, combative, open-hearted, desperate, and everything in between. The canvas that Schur lays out is rich in ideas, and no one in the cast — all of whom are outstanding — utilizes it to greater effect than Danson.