Babylon 5 is my favorite scifi show ever. The vast majority of TV shows are written week to week, that's why some shows don't have great endings. The writers knew how they wanted to start off the show, they just didn't know how it would eventually end. The guy who did B5 wrote the entire five year story arc in advance. It's really different to see episodes years apart tie into each other or 3 or 4 seemingly unrelated plot lines converge. The special effects were a little low budget but the writing was amazing.
Better than what? Better when it was on vs now? Or better than any other show? I liked Sliders when it was first one, but in reruns (the 3 times a decade it's been on TV since) it hasn't held up. I liked My Name Is Earl, but when the strike happened (whenever the fuck that was), it's like the writers had just given up and the show really sucked. MST3K is about the only show I liked when it was on and like it still today. Maybe STNG too.