I knew I was on to something special with this topic when a generic Google search for “adventure TV shows” brought up Acapulco H.E.A.T. on the first page!  Anyone?  Acapulco H.E.A.T. fans out there?  The Hemisphere Emergency Action Team fighting a secret war on terrorists while posing as swimwear designers in Mexico?  No one, really?  Oh well, no real harm done as it is more likely a candidate for the worst adventure show of all time and this list is about the best of the best.  The Daniel-san to H.E.A.T.’s Cobra Kai if you will.

The best adventures are full of risk and danger, arousing one’s physical and emotional response and heightening the senses.

 Do you choose page 151 and die in a sand trap, or do you flip to page 67 and rescue the girl!!  God I loved those books.  I digress.  This is about television, and while all good adventures have uncertain outcomes, networks prefer to have their stars live another week.  That doesn’t stop these shows from being a thrilling ride!

5. Doctor Who

Now, this slipped down a couple notches because I am including the entire 30 plus run of seasons dating back to the sixties.  If it was just about the latest revamp, it’d be higher, but some of those old ones are so marvelously hokey, I just cannot take them that seriously.  As an adventure however, how can you back down from an immortal alien with a time machine (the coolest ship ever, the TARDIS!) and the universe at his feet?  A time lord!  What an incredible character to explore well, literally everything.  And the good nameless Doctor has a quirky fashion sense that makes the Hot Topic faithful green with envy!  20 foot scarf anyone?

4. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

The greatest adventurer of all is clearly Henry Jones Jr., or “Indiana” to his friends.  In 1992, George Lucas thought it’d be a great idea to ride the wave of Indiana madness with a series about the adventures of the young Indy aimed squarely at being an educational tool for children and packed with enough suspense and plot to entertain all ages.  While too many out there have never spent the time to watch any of the 28 produced episodes, trust me, they nailed it.  This is a fantastic look into the the making of a fictional legend and featured great performances from a newbie named Sean Patrick Flanery.  Now, George, if we could just talk about why the DVDs are so expensive.

3. Mission: Impossible

IMF's femme fatale Barbara Bain

Listen up Tom Cruise, you can climb mountains, jump out of cars, and pal around with Jean Reno all you want, for me, the only Impossible Mission Force is this Mission: Impossible force!  Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, Martin Landau, Lesley Ann Warren, Peter Lupus, should I go on?  The IMF team was comprised of or met with some of the most famous names in T.V. from 1966 to 1973, getting its start with the legendary Desilu Productions shingle.  Hard to find greater adventures than those executed by a crack team of undercover operatives so secretive, they’d be officially denied by their own government if caught!  Added bonus, best theme song ever.

2. Star Trek

Now, just go ahead and group all of them together in one heading here because Roddenberry did really envision this as one giant continuing narrative.  Except for Enterprise, throw that out.  My favorite is Deep Space Nine, but for most fans it’ll come down to one timeless question: Kirk or Picard?  I grew up Picard but my brother is a staunch Kirk and neither one is the wrong answer.  With a spaceship and limitless worlds to explore, the crews of Star Trek never failed to uncover the greatest adventures in the final frontier.

1. Xena: Warrior Princess

While space and archeology and the C.I.A. are all fascinating adventure stories, how can you ever get bigger than Greek Gods?  None of us knew what to expect when Hercules: The Legendary Journeys burst onto syndicated TV back in the nineties, but it gave us one of the greatest female characters of all time in Xena.  Each episode was jam packed with action, adventure, laughs, Whoosh sound effects, and even song.  It has become a huge cult phenomenon, spinning off books, comics, cartoons, video games, and some very ill fitting Halloween costumes.  Eight years after its cancellation, and forgiving the thinly veiled Jesus arc, Xena marches on as one of the biggest tales of adventure ever told.