They are some of the most popular TV shows of all time but all the while they were pushing the liberal agenda of their makers onto viewing audiences worldwide, a new book has claimed.

Ben Shapiro argues in Primetime Propaganda that some of Hollywood’s top TV executives, writers and producers used their positions to effectively exclude the conservative camp from their shows.

He bases his argument on 39 taped interviews, some of which have been released on YouTube.

In one clip, "Friends" creator Marta Kauffman said she “put together a staff of mostly liberal people” to make the hit comedy show.

One of the show’s best known episodes was of a wedding between two lesbian characters. The casting of Candace Gingrich, half-sister of the Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, was deliberate.

“I have to say, when we cast Candace Gingrich as the minister of that wedding, there was a bit of a ‘f*** you’ in it to the right wing,” said Kauffman.

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Susan Harris, creator of hit 80s comedy show "The Golden Girls," told Shapiro that conservatives and those who fear TV has become too liberal are “idiots” who have “medieval minds.”

Leonard Goldberg, producer of "Charlie’s Angels," said the liberal agenda was “100 percent dominant” in Hollywood.

“Anyone who denies it is kidding, or not telling the truth,” he said. “There’s no question what the agenda is.”

Shapiro asserts that even children’s favorite "Sesame Street" was used to project a progressive agenda.

In his book, which has been seen by the Hollywood Reporter, he writes: “Television has been perhaps the most impressive weapon in the left’s political arsenal.

“My whole book is a plea for openness in the industry. Hire people from the other side of the aisle once in a while, or at least stop mocking them.”