British Comedy Guide

Great Sitcom List - American Edition Page 2

Cartoon shows excluded:

1. MASH
2. Frasier
3. Friends
4. Arrested Development
5. Scrubs
6. Mad About You
7. Everybody Loves Raymond
8. Dharma & Greg
9. 3rd Rock from the Sun
10. Grace Under Fire (underrated!)
11. That 70s Show
12. Perfect Strangers
13. Spin City
14. Saved By The Bell
15. Veronica's Closet
16. Cybil
17. 8 Simple Rules
18. Roseanne
19. Married with Children
20. Just Shoot Me
21. Less Than Perfect
22. Alf
23. King of Queens
24. Three's Company
25. Cheers
26. Caroline in the City
27. Two guys, a Girl (and a pizza place)
28. Joey

3rd Rock! I own the DVDs, how could I forget it?! Great show.

And Just Shoot Me. And...

Shit, I loved Two Guys and a Girl can't believe I forgot that. I miss that program!

Quote: Aaron @ June 11 2008, 4:11 PM BST

I own the DVDs, how could I forget it?!

It really pays to have a list of DVDs in Excel. and list of divx'es as well, and keep it updated. For such occasions as this.

I stress it - updated :)

I've memorised most of my DVD collection. Just that one's at the back of one of many piles, hidden from view. The 'acquisitions' are all thoroughly catalogued, but in nothing as neolithic as Excel. ;)

In no particular order;

Seinfeld
MASH
The Office (US)
Get a Life
The Honeymooners
I Love Lucy
The Andy Griffith Show
Cheers
My Name is Earl
All in the Family
Soap
Taxi
Friends
The Bob Newhart Show
The Cosby Show
Gilligan's Island
Married with Children
The Dick van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Seinfeld
The Cosby Show
Roseanne
Fresh Prince
Ellen
Big Bang Theory
Family Guy
Perfect Strangers

And I'm going to say Flight of the Conchords, cos it's made in America.
And really belongs on all lists.

It might even be on mine if they'd cut out the music!

In No Order...
1) Curb Your Enthusiasm
2) Get Smart
3) All In The Family
4) The Dick Van Dyke Show
5) Police Squad
6) Barney Miller
7) The Larry Sanders Show
8) The Addams Family
9) Sgt. Bilko
10) The Honeymooners
11) The Simpsons
12) The Andy Griffith Show
13) I Love Lucy
14) Get A Life
15) Leave It To Beaver
16) Arrested Development
17) The Bob Newhart Show
18) Strangers With Candy
19) The Beverly Hillbillies
20) The Odd Couple
21) King Of The Hill
22) I Dream Of Jeannie
23) The Munsters
24) The Mary Tyler Moore Show
25) Gilligan's Island
26) Sanford And Son
27) Bewitched
28) Gomer Pyle USMC
29) MASH (up to '75-'76)
30) It's The Garry Shandling Show
31) My Name Is Earl
Only 9 of these shows are from the 80's and beyond.
The golden age of tv has well and truly passed :(

Cartoons excluded, and with the usual proviso that we are talking about shows in their prime.

Barney Miller
Becker
Benson
Bilko
Cheers
Grace Under Fire
Ellen
Frasier
Friends
The Larry Sanders Show
Mad About You
Married With Children
M*A*S*H
Newhart
My Name is Earl
Police Squad
Rhona
Soap
Taxi
Third Rock

1. Cheers
2. MASH (the early years)
3. Frasier
4. Becker
5. Everybody Loves Raymond
6. The Phil Silvers Show
7. 3rd Rock
8. Dharma and Greg
9. Two and a Half Men
10. Scrubs

What a great platform Cheers was for actors. Shows that quality really does count. Those are more or less in order with Cheers in a class of its own. It's a bar with people. How claustrophobic and how brilliant.

Whatever happened to the wonderful Bakersfield PD? That was a big favourite of mine.

the yanks love their studio comedies more then us.
i'll have to say.

Hmmm, big choices. I guess one way to decide is to ask yourself if you would purchase the series on DVD.

I use to watch Phil Sivers, but I didn't include it on my list. It was latter turned into a cartoon called Top Cat. There are others I didn't list as well that I thought were funny, but did last long.

In alphabetical order:

3rd Rock from the Sun - 1996-2001 – John Lithgow is brilliant. Dare I say, an American John Cleese
The Addams Family - 1964-66
All in the Family - 1971-79 – This and M*A*S*H, two shows that could never be produced today
The Bob Newhart Show - 1972-78
Cheers - 1982-93
Get Smart - 1965-70
Green Acres - 1965-71
The John Larroquette Show - 1993-96 – The darker First season is my favorite
M*A*S*H - 1972-83 – The early years, prior to Season 7
McHale's Navy - 1962-66
Newhart - 1982-90
NewsRadio - 1995-99
Night Court - 1984-92
The Odd Couple - 1970-75
Our Miss Brooks - 1952-56 – Well before my time, but a classic
Scrubs - 2001-
Seinfeld - 1989-98
The Simpsons - 1989-
WKRP in Cincinnati - 1978-82 – Like the radio station the portrayed, under appreciated.

One thing I like to do is take people to the Bull & Finch pub, the inspiration for Cheers. They all have the same inital reaction; "It doesn't look anything like the Cheers bar."

A pub was the inspiration for Cheers? Not a bar. Seems so wrong. Take me anyway :D

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