Ordered TV Watchlist Creator
Having trouble switching between different shows? Click here for another app that will switch between them automatically
To use this App, just search for the shows you want to watch and press the "Add" button. When you're ready, click "Generate list" to generate your ordered watchlist. If you've forgotten to add a show, you can add it after a list is generated, and then click "Generate list" again. If you add a show by accident, start over by refreshing the page. Click on "Generate CSV" to download a Microsoft Excel compatible file you can use to mark off which episodes you have and haven't seen yet.
It does not matter what order you add the shows.
Be sure to type out a show's name fully before deciding that it's not able to be found.
Add New Show (Autocomplete)
Backstory
So when I first got Disney+ I wanted to rewatch all the sitcoms I watched growing up, starting with but not limited to That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, and Wizards of Waverly Place. I started watching those shows in rotation, one after the other, but the problem is that none of these shows started airing at the same time. So when the That's so Suite Life of Hannah Montana crossover episode happened, it happened out of sync. Completely killed my immersion. In addition, Season 4 of Good Luck Charlie starts off with Amy pregnant again, and I was all like, "when did this happen??" because I didn't have the Disney Channel original movies in the rotation as well.
So eventually I wanted to try it all again and wanted to create a watchlist that included all the shows I care about and every Disney Channel original movie that aired during that time. I copied the original airdates of every original movie and show that aired on Disney Channel from random tables on the internet and compiled it all into a spreadsheet. Then, I picked out the shows and movies I cared about (so everything except Sonny With a Chance) and sorted them by their original airdate. It took about an hour, but it was worth it to accurately experience the decade of TV I was familiar with. It was the definitive way to enjoy all of these shows.
Then I realized that this idea could be extended and automated for any show, not just for the ones on Disney Channel.
Think about the Arrowverse, spanning over 6 different shows that aired simultaneously for over a decade, crossing over with three shows set in a different universe. If you watched all these shows without knowing the order they aired in, it would be a nightmare. With this app, it will figure out the order for you, and you can download a spreadsheet to track what you have and haven't seen yet.
Or what if you wanted to watch all of Michael Shur's sitcoms? Could you imagine the tonal whiplash between Season 1 of The Office and Season 1 of The Good Place? The Office started airing in 2005, and The Good Place started in 2016. Despite both premiering on NBC, the landscape of network television had changed completely between those two shows. You need to watch these shows in the right order to see the gradual transition over time. Honestly it kind of bothers me how most people don't get that. Do you want to know why revivals like iCarly, or Girl Meets World, or How I Met Your Father are so bad?? It's because the TV landscape has shifted drastically from when the original shows aired. They're still using 90's writing in 2020 do you see the problem? And there isn't anything wrong with the multi-camera studio audience sitcom, it was obviously the most natural transition from stage to TV (hence the term "teleplay"), but the problem is that viewers have been spoiled by the single-camera format. And I can enjoy these shows but even I have to admit, even the most recent ones like The Neighborhood seem dated, despite the fact that it's still airing. See if you ask me, the late 2000's was the rise of single-camera sitcoms on NBC, and I often say it's one of the best era's of TV, despite it not counting as the "golden era" (which was also really good). Shows like Community, The Office, Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock. And with that change the multi-camera studio audience format began to die out. Sure, you still had high-performing shows like Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother, but this is really when people started to complain about this format. Yeah the laugh track is kind of distracting (except in How I Met Your Mother, cause unlike Chuck Lorre's sitcoms, they don't wait for laughter and instead dub over the laughter in post so it's less noticeable), but considering that it's a teleplay it makes sense. It's a stage play that's simply being put on film. 2009 was actually the last year a multi-camera studio audience sitcom (How I Met Your Mother) other than The Big Bang Theory was nominated for an Emmy in Outstanding Comedy Series. I mean if you look at years before and up to 2005, before the popularization of single-camera sitcoms, these categories are mostly dominated with shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, and Will and Grace. After that, audiences just seemed to lose interest, save for the shows created by Chuck Lorre. Which is a whole other thing entirely, like I always felt like most of Chuck Lorre's sitcoms often failed to have a satisfying denouement. There's no real satisfying third act, ya know? My point is, the rise of single-camera sitcoms on NBC in the late 2000's irreparably changed the course of television, for better and for worse, meaning that there is a legitimate noticeable change between different eras of television.
Oh plus, if you throw in New Girl, you get to see the crossovers between it and Brooklyn Nine-Nine together.
Even procedurals like 9-1-1 and 9-1-1 Lone Star, or NCIS:LA and Hawaii Five-O are greatly enhanced when watched in the right order. Network television was meant to be syndicated, not binged. Online streaming services like Netflix that are built around binging multiple episodes of a single show are broken that way. Honestly they've kind of ruined the way viewers watch TV. Do you know why seasons are 10 episodes long now? or why every episode has to end on a cliffhanger? Because Netflix started the whole "bingeable" format of TV, which is honestly kind of awful. They're not writing episodes now, they're writing 10-hour long movies that they just split up. And it makes it worse. Forgive me for thinking an "episode" should be "episodic". I'm not saying shows should never be serialized, but not every show needs to be Lost (and thank god it's not. Remember the ending??). Instead of each episode having its own pacing, the entire series has a pacing that needs to be followed, which means if you don't watch the whole thing all at once, it screws it up. At that point, it's not even a show anymore, it's a 10-hour long movie you watch an hour at a time. It's easy to see the transition from the teleplay to the single-camera show, the single-camera takes more advantage of the medium. It's like Darwinian evolution. And in a sad way, the "bingeable" format takes better advantage of its medium as well. See Netflix didn't just kill Blockbuster. It ruined network TV too.
It's like Abed says in the series finale of Community:
There is skill to it. More importantly, it has to be joyful, effortless, fun. TV defeats its own purpose when it's pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It's TV, it's comfort. It's a friend you've known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you. And it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day, or phone in a day. And it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back. Because eventually, it all will.