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Your Top 5 Favorite Sitcoms


drawkcabi

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I hate sitcoms in general, but these are the few I hate least.

In no particular order-

Silicon Valley

Veep

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Seinfeld

The Chapelle show

Hon. men.-

Chris Rock show

Anything w/ Cher or Sarah Silverman in it.:D

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Most of my top picks have already had several mentions, so I'll sub in a few that I've not seen yet.

Parks and Rec

30 Rock

News Radio

Simpsons 1-12

Archer

I often wonder if News Radio holds up on re-watch.  It was a great show when Phil Hartman was alive.  Some incredible comedic talent on that show.  And also Andy Dick.

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Was pondering last night whether Police Squad should count as a sitcom. If so, it should surely get a mention.

"We're sorry to bother you at such a time like this, Mrs. Twice. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn't dead then."

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Frasier, King of Queens, the Office UK, Men of a certain Age, and 5th one yet to be decided on after I check out one of the many sitcoms recommended here. I will definitely look into Veep, AD, Bojack, Parks and recreation.

Remember seeing some of Yes Prime Minster, that was really good, should see all of it.

Everybody loves Raymond definitely has some funny moments, I think I watched nearly all seasons of it. Some of it is too cheesy but to say it is devoid of laughs.. no. Romano is quite funny.

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5 hours ago, mormont said:

Was pondering last night whether Police Squad should count as a sitcom. If so, it should surely get a mention.

"We're sorry to bother you at such a time like this, Mrs. Twice. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn't dead then."

I remember watching it as a child. It was enjoyable, but I wouldn't put it in my top 10.

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22 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

I hate sitcoms in general, but these are the few I hate least.

In no particular order-

Silicon Valley

Veep

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Seinfeld

The Chapelle show

Hon. men.-

Chris Rock show

Anything w/ Cher or Sarah Silverman in it.:D

Isn't the Chapelle show sketch comedy rather than a sitcom?

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3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Isn't the Chapelle show sketch comedy rather than a sitcom?

Yes. At least I was in the ballpark with Northern Exposure. :P

Mormont is right though, it was more of a dramedy, and was an hour long. 

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Realise I didn't actually make my list, whoops. This one is tricky because a lot of sitcoms I watched are wrapped up in those warm fuzzy nostalgia memories so I'm not sure how well they would hold up. I'll try though. In no particular order

  • Fawlty Towers
  • Parks and Rec
  • Blackadder
  • Catastrophe
  • Scrubs

Honorable mentions to: Are You Being Served?, The Royle Family, Dinnerladies (Victoria Wood :love: ), Community, Crazy-Ex Girlfriend (tbh I only omitted this from my list because I don't know if it counts as a sitcom), Black Books

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Scrubs is the one that I have rewatched the most, followed by Cheers so I guess those would be one and two.  Scrubs is a lot like the talk about ELR from above though, there is only nice character in the whole show and the main character is completely insufferable yet I can't stop watching the show.

I only got into Always Sunny recently but I have to put it on my list already.  There isn't much that is Laugh Out Loud funny out there but this one really does it.

I am going to put Newradio on my list with the caveat that I have not seen it in fifteen years; I have no idea how it has held up but it was much watch TV on its first run.

And for my fifth I will include one I haven't seen, the first five seasons of That 70's Show as long as I can skip anything with Fez from the first two seasons.  His casual dropping of whore every episode grates hard.  But Red and Kitty are completely underrated and are some of my favorite characters ever.

Barely missing are Titus, a show that was cut too soon, The Drew Carey Show which always made me laugh, Arrested Development which I got into way to late, Third Rock from the Sun, MASH, and Malcom in the Middle which at times flirted with being my favorite but wasn't consistent enough to make me binge it over and over.

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3 hours ago, SkynJay said:

Scrubs is the one that I have rewatched the most, followed by Cheers so I guess those would be one and two.  Scrubs is a lot like the talk about ELR from above though, there is only nice character in the whole show and the main character is completely insufferable yet I can't stop watching the show.

I only got into Always Sunny recently but I have to put it on my list already.  There isn't much that is Laugh Out Loud funny out there but this one really does it.

I am going to put Newradio on my list with the caveat that I have not seen it in fifteen years; I have no idea how it has held up but it was much watch TV on its first run.

And for my fifth I will include one I haven't seen, the first five seasons of That 70's Show as long as I can skip anything with Fez from the first two seasons.  His casual dropping of whore every episode grates hard.  But Red and Kitty are completely underrated and are some of my favorite characters ever.

Barely missing are Titus, a show that was cut too soon, The Drew Carey Show which always made me laugh, Arrested Development which I got into way to late, Third Rock from the Sun, MASH, and Malcom in the Middle which at times flirted with being my favorite but wasn't consistent enough to make me binge it over and over.

I concur with Scrubs. When it first premiered it became my #1 favorite show. It felt new and innovative at the time and "The Janitor" was the funniest character ever*. Then the series went on season after season and I still liked the comedy in the show but I got so sick of J.D. and his tedious relationships. I give the series points for actually bringing up in episodes J.D.'s annoying traits but he still didn't change until the last couple of seasons, which I found and still find more watchable then a glut of episodes from the 3rd season up until the sixth or seventh, though all seasons have episodes I really enjoy.

*I keep hoping that Zach Braff will do a cameo on The Middle where he's a surly character that gives Mike Heck nothing but trouble for no seeming reason. Ray Romano and Doris Roberts both had guest character roles on the series (as Patricia Heaten is a main star). Let Scrubs represent.

But speaking of a Scrubs cameo, has anyone watched Cougar Town? IMHO, its a mediocre show which is surprising since it came from the creator of Scrubs, but notable because of the cameos it did have.

This is one of my most favorite things ever:

 

And that's not all. Since so many of us love Community we know of Abed's love of Cougar Town, but something he talked about in the episode "Critical Film Studies", his visit to the set of Cougar Town, his getting to be an extra in an episode, and the unfortunate "accident" he had, they actually made the corresponding footage on the other show:

 

Speaking of The Middle I do really like it, but like Modern Family and The Goldbergs it's gotten a bit tiresome and in the past I may have rated them in my top 20 or even top 10, I would put those series now somewhere in my top 30 or 40. Same with That 70's Show, Malcolm in the Middle, 3rd Rock From The Sun, and Mork & Mindy. The Drew Carey Show - which at one time might have held my #1 spot but has fallen probably even out of my top 50, for almost the same reason Scrubs lost some, but not as much, of its shine to me. Drew's character seemed to just do the same things wrong season after season and it got old and tedious, and Mimi who started out as a character much like The Janitor just became so mean it wasn't even fun to watch her anymore.

Titus, yes! I loved that show. Can't put it in my top 10, but it should go somewhere in my top 15. The Job is another great short lived show that's very rewatchable. Undeclared is one too, though while I don't think it's held up as well as the previous two I still enjoy rewatching.

I much prefer Freaks and Geeks to Undeclared though. But yeah, I think Freaks and Geeks, Northern Exposure, My crazy Ex Girlfriend, Ally McBeal, those are more in the dramedy category.  

Newsradio I think holds up moderately well, but a bit unevenly with some episodes really standing out over others.

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On Invalid Date at 6:16 PM, Dolorous Gabe said:

Yes, Minister is still unbeatable

 

I love it. I spent my entire Sunday watching the first season on YouTube. It seems like every full episode is on there and I could watch it from my TV.

 

I've also omitted The Drew Carey show which I loved. That might be the most recent live action comedy show I stuck with the entire run.

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I've never understood the love for Scrubs. Maybe its my age, but when it came out I was expecting something a bit funnier and cutting. But I can't say I've ever laughed at it. Its simply too sentimental and cheesy for me to enjoy it. 

Freaks and Geeks though was a genuinely great show that in some ways I'm glad didn't continue in case it got worse.

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2 hours ago, Arch-MaesterPhilip said:

I love it. I spent my entire Sunday watching the first season on YouTube. It seems like every full episode is on there and I could watch it from my TV.

I think it is a rare case of a sitcom that is objectively brilliant. So cleverly written and perfectly performed. Nigel Hawthorne's delivery is just perfect.

1 hour ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I've never understood the love for Scrubs. Maybe its my age, but when it came out I was expecting something a bit funnier and cutting. But I can't say I've ever laughed at it. Its simply too sentimental and cheesy for me to enjoy it. 

The first few seasons I loved immensely. I agree with some of the criticisms others have mentioned in this thread regarding the character of JD but at times, especially in the first few seasons, it was hilarious. Ted Buckland the hospital lawyer is one of my favourite comedy characters!

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28 minutes ago, Dolorous Gabe said:

I think it is a rare case of a sitcom that is objectively brilliant. So cleverly written and perfectly performed. Nigel Hawthorne's delivery is just perfect.

The first few seasons I loved immensely. I agree with some of the criticisms others have mentioned in this thread regarding the character of JD but at times, especially in the first few seasons, it was hilarious. Ted Buckland the hospital lawyer is one of my favourite comedy characters!

Sir Humphrey is my favorite part of the show. I loved the way he manipulated Hacker's daughter when she was planning her nude protest at Heyworth Spinney.

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2 hours ago, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I've never understood the love for Scrubs. Maybe its my age, but when it came out I was expecting something a bit funnier and cutting. But I can't say I've ever laughed at it. Its simply too sentimental and cheesy for me to enjoy it. 
 

It definitely is sentimental and cheesy but part of that is the use of pathos in an absurdist setting -- and pathos is important to really great comedy. 

The reason I loved Scrubs was that it freshened the sitcom genre after a very long period of laugh track, multi-cam, aspirational/fantasy (especially Friends) and/or canned kookiness (was Kramer opening a door really that funny?) by moving to single-cam, no laugh track, internal monologue (precursor to mockumentary interviews), rapid fire dialogue with lots of quick jokes that might get overlooked and embraced a new absurdism.  It's success led to comedy like Always Sunny, Happy Endings, New Girl, 30 Rock, Community and many more that moved the genre forward.  It was really innovative comedy that connected with a broad rather than niche audience. 

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I also love Yes, Minister, although it didn't make my top5 list for a similar reason to Frasier: the acting and writing are excellent but the scope of the characters and situations are too narrow and repetitive for true greatness.  It's a fantastic one-trick pony. 

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No sure if this is in a final order but it's close.

  1. MASH (great ending, one of the best ever)
  2. Cheers (ok ending, homage to the first scene but could have been more powerful)
  3. Family Ties (really good ending)
  4. Night Court (I liked the ending, but not sure if it was good)
  5. How I Met Your Mother (loved how it all tied together, but one of the worst endings ever.)

Yep, it's got a 70s/80s slant but that is when I watched more - over the last 20+ years I haven't been too consistent on a lot.

All in the Family - Carol O'Connor was fantastic in the role, weakest character was Gloria. the spin offs themselves were strong as well.

Cosby show should be in there, but I'm having a conflict in promoting Cosby given everything going on.

Barney Miller was amazing.

Frasier was a great show and never overused the tie to Cheers.

Friends - was fun, but was not great (just adding for commentary)

Goldbergs - not a great show, but I love watching the 80s portrayed.

Fox New at 6pm.  Comedy gold.

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