Jeffrey Dean Morgan names his favourite TV shows: “Those are all great”
You might not be aware of it, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan has been in some pretty big films.
He played Edward ‘The Comedian’ Blake in Zack Snyder‘s highly polarising adaptation of Watchmen, the character whose death kicks off the story. He played a major role in the Dwayne Johnson-led monster movie Rampage and re-teamed with Snyder for an uncredited cameo in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, playing Thomas Wayne, the doomed father of Ben Affleck’s caped crusader.
However, the medium in which Morgan has most excelled has definitely been television. Fans of Supernatural will know him as John Winchester, the deceased father of main characters Sam and Dean. He joined the cast of Amazon’s The Boys for its fourth season, but his best-known and most infamous role is easily that of Negan in The Walking Dead, The bat-swinging antihero was one of the last major characters from the comics to appear in the TV show, and Morgan’s performance more than lived up to the hype.
Considering the impact he’s had on the small screen, it’s no wonder that people are so keen to know his opinions on the subject. In a video posted to the NOWAYFARER YouTube channel, the Seattle native was asked what his favourite TV shows were during an appearance at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Luckily for all of us, he was more than happy to oblige.
“I’m going to say Lost,” he began, which prompted his red carpet colleague to mock him senseless. He would also go on to list The Wire, Deadwood and The Sopranos, saying, “Those were all great”. His friend then mentioned The Simpsons, which set him off on a mini-tirade. “The character that I hated the most – Mr Burns is a great villain. Oh, Mr Burns. But I like Mr Burns. I don’t hate him. I wouldn’t want to live under his reign.”
For those who somehow don’t know, Mr Burns is the most recurring antagonist in The Simpsons, being both the richest and cruellest man in Springfield. Morgan is one of the five people on Earth who have somehow never been a guest star on Matt Groening’s animated juggernaut, but the show has parodied his work on a number of occasions. ‘Don’t Have a Cow, Mankind’, a segment from ‘Treehouse of Horror XX’, is set during a zombie apocalypse, some of which is certainly inspired by Robert Kirkman’s world of walkers.
It certainly seems as if Morgan is a fan of the classics. The four shows he mentioned prior to the legendary sitcom are all widely regarded as some of the best TV shows ever, with many of their episodes appearing in lists of the all-time greatest. They all come from a time when the actor would have been working, but just before he hit it big. This was an era where so-called ‘prestige TV’ was emerging as a force to be reckoned with. Morgan would have been right at the centre of this movement, which would explain why he holds these memories in such high regard.
They might not have been particularly insightful or unexpected, but his picks show that he has a taste for the mainstream hits, and he isn’t afraid to show it. And if you think that’s wrong, he’ll introduce you to his good friend Lucille.
