What is your Favorite Sitcom of All-Time?

[cinemalover]

Anne,
Friends started about the time I was losing interest in all sitcoms, so it never intriqued me very much. There were a couple of the cast members whom I really disliked so it never really caught on with me. Jennifer Aniston's not bad though.

[jdb1]

I agree, Chris. I lump Friends in with Seinfeld and Raymond as hit shows I just don't get. I've tried watching Friends many times. Ordinary, bland, and decidedly unwitty things were happening, and the audience was laughing and guffawing hysterically. Except for Lisa Kudrow, the charm of any of the others, including Aniston, eludes me. I feel no warmth at all from any of them; no connection.

Now, perhaps someone would like to try to explain to me why Larry David is so popular. I don't think I've ever seen a more unappealing or unamusing man on TV. I'd rather spend an evening with Bill O'Reilly. I find him funnier.

[Lzcutter]

Favorite sitcom: Barney Miller.

Part drama, part comedy, part pathos combined with a great ensemble cast to create a memorable television show that seems under appreciated when put alongside All in the Family, Maude, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H and other sitcoms that were on during the same era.

[ChiO]

During a typical weekday, I watch: Seinfeld (2 or 3 episodes -- was and still a fan), The Andy Griffith Show (2 episodes, but only if Don Knotts is involved), The Dick Van Dyke Show, Taxi, and Cheers.

Of current sitcoms, I do enjoy (though not a rabid viewer): Scrubs, 30 Rock, The Office (right there are the 3 shows with the 3 hottest women on TV) and The Simpsons.

Sitcoms remembered most fondly: The Life of Riley, My Little Margie, The Bob Cummings Show, The People's Choice, The Honeymooners, Leave It to Beaver, My Three Sons (the pre-Ernie years), The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, The Paul Sand Show, Hot L Baltimore, and Barney Miller.

My Favorite: It used to be The Dick Van Dyke Show, but as I age, the gentleness and universal wisdom of The Andy Griffith Show wins out -- provided it is the seasons with Don Knotts because, after all, a sitcom should be funny.

[Bogie]

I freely admit i'm a child of the '80s so most of my favourites are '80s shows but here goes (in no particular order)

Night Court - The closest thing American TV ever got to the style and sensibility of Brit-Coms. that show was just off the wall and was quite raunchy for its time. There were loads of great one liners and the situations were often outlandish but they made it work. The Dan Fielding character is probably one of my favourites of all time. Oh and Markie Post was very easy on the eyes

Cosby Show - The stereotypical family sitcom but I loved it. The main problem with that show is that by the tail end of its run Cosby got way too preachy with his pet interests and once the kids grew up the material was just gone.

WKRP in Cincinnati (I hope I spelled Cincy right!) - THE workplace comedy IMO. It's interesting how that show was shuffled up and down the lineup during its original run but has become a cult favourite since it's been off the air. Mr. Carlson was such a lovable befuddled guy especially in the Turkey Day episode but my favourite moment in regards to him was when he was given cocaine and he thought it was foot powder ROFL! Les Nessman was my hero as a kid. (I know i'm weird)

Perfect Strangers - This is a show that is very underrated IMO. Mark Linn-Baker and Bronson Pinchot played off each other so well. In many ways they were the 80s equivalent of Laurel and Hardy or Abott and Costello. If you think situations were crazy on Night Court then just take a gander at the stuff that regularly went on on Perfect Strangers. I just found out that the first 2 seasons will be coming out on DVD next month.

I CAN'T WAIT!


Well that's all for now.

[melwalton]

Hi, Moira.
I don't know about those shows being on TVland. I'd love to see them again. The one where the police set up a trap for a fortune teller and Toody was to talk to his dead uncle. He said, 'My uncle wouldn't talk to me when he was alive'. Paul Reed said, 'Your uncle was a wise man'.
And the Christmas show, Mickey Deems and Carl Ballantine were good.
The one policeman was wearing brown shoes with a tuxedo and when asked about it said, 'Is that what I got on?'
I saw and liked 'Top Banana'. the clown ( don't know his name, short stature, ) should have been called 'adhesive', kept sticking to people. I laughed till I coughed. .... mel

[MissGoddess]

Without a doubt, The Dick Van Dyke Show. I have all five seasons on dvd and adore everything about it: the writing, the theme music, the cast and the guest stars. Perfection.

After that, it's I Love Lucy, That Girl, Family Affair (which was partly dramatic), Leave it to Beaver, The Andy Griffith Show (ONLY the Barney Years), The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Honeymooners, and The Bob Newhart Show.
The only fairly recent comedy shows I have been able to find funny is Frasier (I can just tolerate it) and the English show, As Time Goes By (I like its gentle tone).

But they aren't nearly so funny to me as the older shows.

[jdb1]

Bogie, I forgot about Perfect Strangers. There were some episodes run on cable recently, and I enjoyed them as much as I had the first time. The show was more like sketch comedy than a sitcom.

The two principals are very skilled comic performers - as close to Laurel & Hardy as anyone can get in this day and age, I think. Very in control, but very broad and slapstickish at the same time. And the dialog was quite witty. Who can forget "Oh, how could I have been so blonde?!!" or "Hah!! When pigs walk!!" And those bibibabkas.

I also enjoyed LaVerne and Shirley which, though it looked rather rough-edged and working-class, was very smart, and a great example of "professionally" executed comedy. It gave its two female leads a chance to do more than just stand around in support, affirming whatever the male stars said, as in most other sitcoms of the time.

[mrsl]

Chris and Judith:

Friends was the type of show you had to watch from the beginning to appreciate IMO. The first one or two episodes introduced the characters and how they evolved over the years. Watching two of the six friends turn into lovers and keeping it from the others, the other two, always meant for each other constantly being on and off, unless you knew and liked them, the stories meant nothing to you. It was kind of trying to watch one episode of a soap opera - there is no way to understand it because you don't know what the characters have gone through to get to where they are now. That's my problem with a lot of movies, I like to know the characters, and why they do what they do. Oddly Jennifer Anniston was my least favorite character and actress and my favorite was and is Matthew Perry.

I don't recall if I ever actually said it, but M*A*S*H* is really my all-time favorite comedy, drama, love story, human interest half hour. For drama and thought provoking issues in an hour show, there is no other like The West Wing and I doubt there ever will be. But for a half hour of pure entertainment, M*A*S*H* is the best. You never knew what you were going to get, comedy or drama, but in most cases you could pretty much bet your eyes would be teary either from laughing, or crying at the end.

Anne

[bradtexasranger]

Good points, Anne! Friends depends an awful lot on character development, you almost have to start from the beginning. And I don't know if any show ever did a better mix of comedy, drama and tragedy than M*A*S*H, but I would venture to say no other show came close.

[jdb1]

It's still a matter of taste and personal reaction with a show like Friends. Co-workers who followed it told me about what was happening, and I would watch an episode here and there, but I just did not warm to the actors, and I simply didn't give a fig what happened to their characters. I didn't find the writing funny, either. To me, these characters were the same self-absorbed, overindulged, and superficial people I have to deal with every day in NYC. As they were presented on Friends, I found nothing lovable, laughable or iconic/heroic about them.

Now M*A*S*H - that's a whole other story. Pretty good at first, and increasingly excellent as it went along. This was an example of the rare coming together of all elements: writing, ensemble acting, directing (few other shows looked as good - was it HD film they were using?). Such things happen only rarely on TV. I don't think the show would have gotten nearly as far as it did creatively and in terms of popular success without Alda as the pivotal character and power behind the scenes.

[cinemalover]

Judith,
I couldn't agree more on the greatness that was M*A*S*H. First of all, it was one of the few television series that were ever able to take a very good movie, and make it better! The casting was fabulous. I remember the episode where MacLean Stevenson's charatcer was killed off screen. That was a very emotional moment that really hit home with me, and it was handled so well. Support characters came and left over the course of the show and they never missed a beat. I think the only loss they wouldn't have been able to withstand would have been Alda. This series seems to have been his destiny.

[mrsl]

I promise, this is the last I will say on this subject:

Judith said:

"I found nothing lovable, laughable or iconic/heroic about them. "

That is just the point. These 6 people were absolutely devoted to one another. It didn't matter what two were discussing something, it was as if all six of them were there. No one ever made a move without discussing it with the other 5. Through births, deaths, happy times, and sad times, the six units all melded into one unit with no separation.

As for M*A*S*H*, the TV show was a hundred times better than the movie, and I liked Alda, and both BJ Hunnicutt and Trapper John, as well as both Colonel Blake, and Colonel Potter. I still get a shock at the pit of my stomach when Radar announces that Col. Blake was shot down. He was such a lovable fool, you couldn't help love him.

Anne