Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 10 2012, 5:47 AM GMTthe weird title makes no sense to me (30 Rock?????????????)
30 Rockefeller Plaza is the address of the skyscraper where the show takes place. Shows like Saturday Night Live and the NBC national news are broadcast from within.
That title did REALLY annoy me before I watched it. (Even though someone had explained why).
Once you've watched it (and loved it) you never think twice about the title.
The only american comedies I enjoyed were:
Seinfeld
The Office
South Park
Quote: Grace Murphy @ March 10 2012, 7:03 PM GMTThe only american comedies I enjoyed were:
Seinfeld
The Office
South Park
I hope that's because you've only seen five American comedies.
Quote: DaButt @ March 10 2012, 12:31 PM GMT30 Rockefeller Plaza is the address of the skyscraper where the show takes place. Shows like Saturday Night Live and the NBC national news are broadcast from within.
Ah, then it's not for me anyway. Shows about shows break the biggest rule in TV writing for me and I will not indulge them. Was appalled to see 'Episodes' being given a top commission recently over a host of proper sitcom projects, and apparently it sucked, as you say over there. Wish they'd stop it!
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 12 2012, 11:44 AM GMTAh, then it's not for me anyway. Shows about shows break the biggest rule in TV writing for me and I will not indulge them. Was appalled to see 'Episodes' being given a top commission recently over a host of proper sitcom projects, and apparently it sucked, as you say over there. Wish they'd stop it!
What's wrong with shows about shows? You'd be right to skip Studio 60 but a fool to miss out on Larry Sanders. Ignoring a show based on your preconceived notion of the premise seems perverse.
...Episodes was total shit though.
Brilliant and at times absolutely hilarious:
M.A.S.H.
The Big Bang Theory
Family Guy
The Simpsons
Excellent:
Frasier
Cheers
Taxi
Soap
My Name Is Earl
Good:
Scrubs
Friends
Two and a Half Men
Roseanne
That 70's Show
Liked what little I have seen of:
30 Rock (Mainly due to Tina Fey -Yum!)
Seen little of:
Seinfeld
How I Met Your Mother (Can't take the Neil Patrick Harris character seriously - if you know what I mean).
Haven't seen:
Curb
The Office (Amercian)
Arrested Development
I do think Californication is terrifc. Very witty if you can get through the crudeness.
Quote: garyd @ March 12 2012, 3:13 PM GMTB
How I Met Your Mother (Can't take the Neil Patrick Harris character seriously - if you know what I mean).
What, 'cos he's gay he can't play a womaniser? I've not seen his medical degree but Doogie Howser was still funny.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 10 2012, 5:47 AM GMTThey do make the occasional good sitcom, but there are many others that just seem too smartarse or too indirect for my taste, or just that the weird title makes no sense to me (30 Rock?????????????) I avoid all of these, even if some mistakenly say they are good. It's getting the American thing I usually stumble on, but ones I would watch and enjoy regularly as if they were British are
The Big Bang Theory
Frasier
Taxi
Roseanne
Not many then. Rule Britannia da doo de doo doo doo...
I think it's because you're so old you can't relate and have no sense of that transatlantic thing. Whereas us younger folk grew up watching American comedies so there's not so much of a huge cultural gap.
I can't imagine you having the quite the same opinion on American music. I assume you would have grown up with Rock n Roll, Blues, Jazz, (whatever else there is).
I can see you prefer the more traditional sitcoms and I'm sure America is still the master of this. They must produce more studio based sitcoms than we do, especially as they like to link a big name star to a show. Not sure how popular that is nowadays but in the 90s it seemed all the standup comedians had their own sitcom at one point.
Ha ha, I'm not that old at all but grew up watching the best sitcoms ever made, they were all British and there were only a few US sitcoms on TV then, but some very good ones like MASH, Bilko, Taxi, Cheers, and a few average ones like Mary Tyler Moore Show etc. especially in the 70s. We got the very best they made but they still couldn't hold a light to our very best at the time. IMO of course.
I like traditional studio sitcoms the best yes, but American studio sitcoms were widely considered corny and unsubtle here. I certainly don't view the US sitcom as superior to our own, but since the mid 80s they've developed a new stream of cooler, sharper sitcoms both with laugh track and without, and that has coincided with the vast expansion of channels here and therefore found a large British audience, of which many are young enough to have had no great memory of our own golden age of sitcoms to accurately compare. The rest is down to taste, and I just prefer our earthier humour to the more cerebral humour of US shows, and our style of strong narrative based comedy over their style of wisecracking cetrepiece comedy, to widely generalise.
Fair enough. Old man 
Quote: Vince Ives @ March 12 2012, 5:19 PM GMTWhat, 'cos he's gay he can't play a womaniser?
Exactly.
Quote: Vince Ives @ March 12 2012, 5:19 PM GMTI've not seen his medical degree but Doogie Howser was still funny.
And you're entitled to your opinion.
Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ March 10 2012, 5:47 AM GMTThey do make the occasional good sitcom, but there are many others that just seem too smartarse or too indirect for my taste, or just that the weird title makes no sense to me (30 Rock?????????????) I avoid all of these, even if some mistakenly say they are good.
You are a comedy character.
Friends, Frasier, Two And A Half Men, American Dad, South Park, The Simpsons
Apart from The Simpsons, they are all shown on Comedy Centeral pretty much ALL DAY!!!
The Simpsons is on once a day on C4 and several times a day on Sky1.
Frasier, M*A*S*H, Cheers are my favourites.
Dont mind Everybody Loves Raymond, The King of Queens.
Never liked Friends.