5 Best Steven Spielberg-Produced TV Shows, Ranked

Steven Spielberg is known for his big-screen blockbusters –- arguably the greatest cinematic talent of the last 50 years –- and overall impact on Hollywood. But what gets a lot less attention is just how much time the three-time Oscar-winner has spent in television. Spielberg is most famous as a director, while his TV work tends to be more behind-the-scenes. He hasn’t gained a new TV directing credit since 1985 (for the criminally underrated anthology series “Amazing Stories), but he’s served as a producer or executive producer on dozens of shows since then.

The range here, as you’d expect from Spielberg’s work in film, is eclectic. There are science fiction shows like the 2010s hit “Falling Skies” and the (perhaps overly) ambitious “Terra Nova,” musical series like the Broadway-adjacent “Smash,” war shows like “Masters of the Air,” and a whole slew of animated children’s series, from “Tiny Toons Adventures” and “Freakazoid!” to the more recent “Jurassic World” shows. That’s without getting into all of the sitcoms, documentaries, and Westerns, not to mention the “Halo” show (yes, that had a Spielberg touch as well).

Today, we’re sorting through the best of the best — the greatest, most influential TV shows produced by Steven Spielberg.

Given Spielberg’s penchant for bombastic genre fare, it might be surprising to some for a sitcom to take the first spot on this top five. But this is more than your average sitcom. “United States of Tara” wasn’t just produced by Spielberg; he came up with the core idea.

That premise — the familiar American family sitcom format, but with a mother dealing with dissociative identity disorder (DID) — immediately made the show stand out. And as a Showtime series, rather than a standard network sitcom, there was a bit more room to stretch the bounds of the genre. Toni Collette gave a career-defining performance across three seasons as Tara Gregson, winning both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her efforts. In retrospect, the show also had an absolutely wild supporting cast around her, including Brie Larson and Patton Oswalt.

While the show only lasted three years, it made its mark. Series creator Diablo Cody, who’d already gained fame for films like “Juno” and “Jennifer’s Body,” solidified her reputation as a foremost writer on TV as well, and stars like Collette and Larson went on to even bigger stardom after the show ended. And while “The United States of Tara” ended before the era of streaming originals took over television, its novel blend of comedy and drama certainly influenced the modern wave of shows in that mold, like “Fleabag” and “Shrinking.”

While his oeuvre is wide and varied, Steven Spielberg has dabbled in certain genres more than others, and none more so than stories of alien visitors. From “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” to “Falling Skies,” Spielberg has continued to return to the genre, but one of his strongest outings therein — the 2002 miniseries “Taken” — often goes ignored.

Spanning decades and a huge cast of characters, “Taken” looks at all common sides of the abduction genre. Humans are experimented on, ships crash, and strange artifacts leave connections to the extraterrestrial assailants. By taking such a long-term approach, “Taken” becomes just as much a story about the lasting impact of these close encounters as it is a story about the aliens themselves. Plus, with such a large ensemble, modern-day audiences will recognize some stars-in-the-making when going back to the show, from Elle and Dakota Fanning to the late Anton Yelchin.

Spielberg was a major force behind the show, which he called “a character story first and foremost” in a piece published by The Daily Times in 2002. In the same article, then-Syfy president Bonnie Hammer explained the significance of Spielberg’s involvement, saying, “With a storytelling legend behind you, you’re not going to throw it away on a four- or six-hour miniseries… we wanted to give him time to tell the story.” The vote of confidence paid off, earning Spielberg and the rest of the producers an Emmy win for Outstanding Miniseries.

The middle entry in Steven Spielberg’s trilogy of World War II miniseries, “The Pacific” is both a deeply powerful show and a feat of film craft. It’s also one of the most expensive TV shows ever produced, even after the last decade of streaming jacking up budgets.

Airing on HBO in 2010 — nearly a decade after “Band of Brothers” set the high watermark for both World War II shows and the miniseries as a format — “The Pacific” earned similar acclaim, securing Spielberg his third Outstanding Miniseries Emmy win and earning other victories at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards for makeup, sound, art direction, casting, and visual effects. That laundry list is apt given the scope of production, which employed huge groups of extras for its massive battle scenes, along with live pyrotechnics and other large-scale practical effects.

“All of this starts with the people,” Spielberg said in a 2010 interview with Entertainment Weekly, discussing his continued pull to tell stories about World War II. “The battles and the historical events almost become incidental.”

In fun full-circle momentum, one of the show’s three leading Marine protagonists — Eugene Sledge — was played by actor Joseph Mazzello, who co-starred as a child in Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” as the young Tim Murphy. “I didn’t ask to see Joe,” Spielberg told EW. “And I swear to you, he earned this role.”

Steven Spielberg is best known for his high-budget, effects-heavy blockbuster style, or otherwise, his cerebral brand of human drama. But he also has a long and successful history in the realm of animation, with the ’90s superhit “Animaniacs” being the clear king of an impressive animated resume.

Spielberg had just helped revitalize the Looney Tunes brand for the ’90s with “Tiny Toons Adventures,” which was originally conceived as an animated film collaboration between Warner Bros. and Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment. When the project transitioned into a TV show, Spielberg stayed involved, even lending his name to a special “presents” tag at the front of the title. The show was a hit, and a couple years later, the team followed it up with “Animaniacs,” which took a more irreverent, satirical, variety show approach to its predecessor’s cartoon style.

“Animaniacs” was a huge hit. Today, it’s still remembered as a defining show of the ’90s, influencing well over a decade of TV animation. Spielberg eventually won an Emmy in the Outstanding Animated Program category for “A Pinky and the Brain Christmas,” a special based on the “Animaniacs” spin-off “Pinky and the Brain.”

After “Saving Private Ryan” won Spielberg Best Director at the 71st Academy Awards, it seemed unlikely that he would quickly outdo himself with another World War II story. But with star Tom Hanks stepping behind the scenes with him, and a whole team of incredible talent on both sides of the camera, Spielberg wound up producing one of the greatest HBO shows ever.

There was nothing else like “Band of Brothers” when it came out in 2001. HBO had started investing more and more in higher-brow, long-form shows like “Oz” and “The Sopranos,” but the Hollywood scale of the 10-episode miniseries was on a whole other level. Critics compared it favorably to the top material playing in theaters at the time, and audiences loved it, with nearly 10 million people tuning in for the first episode.

From the costuming and cinematography to the personal characterization of a massive ensemble, the show remains a feat of filmmaking two and a half decades later. The series was nominated for a staggering 20 Emmy Awards and won in seven categories, including Sound Editing, Picture Editing, Casting, Direction, and Outstanding Miniseries.