Favourite sitcom of all time

[Birdjaguar]

Best old comedy show: Fawty Towers
Best current comedy show: Big Bang Theory

 

[stormerne]

Black Adder II for wit.
Red Dwarf for sheer cheesiness.
Black Books for outrageous humor.
Waiting for God for poignancy.
Dinnerladies for slapstick.

Edit:
Father Ted for character identification.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Fawlty Towers. No other sitcom gets even close. And yes, it has stood the test of time.

This. Fawlty Towers, Seinfeld, and Newhart are my favorites.

I personally cannot stand garbage like Arrested Development. My girlfriend has gotten me to watch several episodes; not only was it not remotely funny ( I didn't laugh once) it was repulsively predictable and cookie-cutter. Big Bang Theory was amusing for a while, but it quickly got repetitive and nauseating. Same is true of the US Office.

 

[shadowplay]

Seinfeld

Cheezy has some literature in his car that will change our whole way of thinking.

 

[Darth Caesar]

The Cosby Show.

 

[Cutlass]

There is an amazing difference in what people find funny in here....

Wonder why?

 

[StittsvilleJame]

There is an amazing difference in what people find funny in here....

Wonder why?

That's because everyone is wrong but me.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Peep Show series 7 released a week early (could be Brits only)

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/peep-show/4od#3139622

 

[Shekwan]

In no particular order here are the best sitcoms ever:

The Thick of It
The League of Gentlemen
Peep Show
Flight of the Conchords
Arrested Development
Fawlty Towers

The only one I'm iffy about is Peep Show.

Generally well liked sitcoms that are in fact balls include:

The Office (UK)
Seinfeld
Friends
Two and a Half Men
How I Met Your Mother

Notice the fact British comedy is usually better. Although that said, Arrested Development is probably the absolute best sitcom ever. Its a slow burner but once you've got through a few episodes its extremely entertaining.

Interesting to see Father Ted mentioned. I would be tempted to put it on the best list, but I haven't seen it in ages and that means it would probably be a nostalgic inclusion more than anything else.

EDIT:
Crap I forgot Spaced. Well that simplifies things. Thats the best ever.

 

[_random_]

I personally cannot stand garbage like Arrested Development. My girlfriend has gotten me to watch several episodes; not only was it not remotely funny ( I didn't laugh once) it was repulsively predictable and cookie-cutter.

At the risk of sounding like every other Arrested Development fan ever, you really do need to watch a few episodes before getting into it. Of course, if you've done this and you haven't enjoyed it at all, it's possible that it's not your thing. Tobias teaching a ragtag group of thugs the power of dance will remain one of the funniest televised moments you'll probably never see.

 

[Atticus]

Frasier. It's humor is brilliant and smart, and not smart in a snobby "I know operas"-way, but clever slapstick and the exactly right phrasings of sentences and that kind of stuff. The series started like any other, with it's little curiosities, like maid who thinks she's clairvoyant, a helicopter reporter who shouts all the time etc, but it turned out to be very personal and unique. This is even more astonishing since they use the comedy of errors-scheme all the time. At times the series could be touching without being too sugary, although it had some weak moments too in that respect. One very special thing in the Frasier was, that the characters laughed. I haven't watched that much of sitcoms, and I don't like many of them, because they have a bitter feel, I think it's because the characters don't laugh at jokes thrown at them, instead they wait that the audience stops laughing and reply with a similarly sarcastic line. Why do these people bother hanging with each other, if all they do is try to make wry comments about others?

The Simpsons is really close to Frasier, but somehow it doesn't feel like a sitcom to me. Also it's already an institution, so it's very hard to estimate. The Simpsons was neither very unique when it started: it was rather typical "realism" about poor family (with way too much screaming and intertextuality). It however became very special. I like how the focus moved from Bart to Homer, Bart isn't after all so funny or interesting. Other characters became more funny, interesting and complex, like Ralph Wiggum, Chief Wiggum, Barney, the bullies, Krusty the Clown etc. Also I like the newer plots more: how they start with something totally unrelated, and reach the main plot in about half of the episode.

Special mentions go to the Fawlty Towers and Men behaving badly, but I don't like them any more so much, because the first one is almost too nervous, and the second too ugly (and I don't mean only visually).

 

[Plotinus]

One very special thing in the Frasier was, that the characters laughed. I haven't watched that much of sitcoms, and I don't like many of them, because they have a bitter feel, I think it's because the characters don't laugh at jokes thrown at them, instead they wait that the audience stops laughing and reply with a similarly sarcastic line. Why do these people bother hanging with each other, if all they do is try to make wry comments about others?

That is a very good point, and well observed.

 

[Cutlass]

Now to me, Frasier is actually an example of what I dislike most in sitcoms. Here are 2 guys who have doctorates from Harvard. Which should make them be among the smartest of the smart. And yet every episode is about them doing something outstandingly stupid. Or just generally looking like idiots and fools.

Frasier the character worked on Cheers because he was a smart guy surrounded by idiots, and and coping with ridiculous situations mainly not of his own making. Frasier did not work on Frasier, to my mind, because here is a brilliant guy who can't stop acting like an imbecile. And his brother was worse.

One of the most overused tropes in sitcoms is the smart person being an idiot all the time. Now while this obviously appeals to a large audience, witnessed by how often shows like that are commercial successes, it completely turns me off. I would much rather have a Married with Children, where all the characters really are idiots.

 

[J-man]

Now to me, Frasier is actually an example of what I dislike most in sitcoms. Here are 2 guys who have doctorates from Harvard. Which should make them be among the smartest of the smart. And yet every episode is about them doing something outstandingly stupid. Or just generally looking like idiots and fools.

Frasier the character worked on Cheers because he was a smart guy surrounded by idiots, and and coping with ridiculous situations mainly not of his own making. Frasier did not work on Frasier, to my mind, because here is a brilliant guy who can't stop acting like an imbecile. And his brother was worse.

One of the most overused tropes in sitcoms is the smart person being an idiot all the time. Now while this obviously appeals to a large audience, witnessed by how often shows like that are commercial successes, it completely turns me off. I would much rather have a Married with Children, where all the characters really are idiots.

I loved Frasier and actually because the 'smart' person was an idiot. That way ,it satirized elitism and snobism, for me.

I can't think of many sitcoms that poke fun of the intellectual instead of "blue collar workers" (like married with children, which also really good.)

 

[Plotinus]

It was more complex than that, though. Neither Frasier nor Niles is presented as simply a figure of fun; that would get tiresome. Of course a lot of the humour comes from the fact that they over-intellectualise everything, and that their uneducated father is often a lot more sensible than they are with their psychiatry degrees, but also they are not just straightforwardly stupid. Frasier may be pompous but he's also kind, well-meaning, and often right - if only his ego wouldn't keep getting in the way. That's what makes the characters more rounded and sympathetic than typical American sitcom characters - it also makes them more versatile, as different characters can play the part of "idiot" and "sensible" on different occasions.

 

[Zelig]

It's very refreshing when, on occasion, they don't do this. I was disappointed when Reaper finished, because it was absolutely superb, but I preferred it to finish while it was good rather than just drag out interminably until it got mercy-killed, as usually happens with American programmes.

Yes! Reaper was great, not many people seem to have watched it, however...

 

[Loppan Torkel]

Probably Seinfeld. I really liked Black Adder, Frasier, the 3rd Rock from the Sun and the earlier Spin City, the Simpsons and Friends.

 

[Vordeo]

Coupling is way up there, IMO.

 

[Virote_Considon]

The Simpsons - I know everyone complains that it's not as good as it used to be, but it's still brilliant and really it sweeps all other sitcoms before it.

Whether or not it is as good as it used to be, people always seem to forget just how good it was. That football in the groin joke the film festival episode, for instance, will always hold a special place in my heart. No amount of worsening of quality in the newer series affects the value of the earlier series, and most of them, I believe (maybe as a biased 90s kid) haven't grown any worse with age. Just this summer, me and a couple of friends of mine started watching them again, new and old. And the old ones are still as good as ever, IMO.

Red Dwarf - was consistently brilliant until one of the writers left and it went sharply downhill. The best thing about it was that it looked like a sci-fi show but was really character-driven - the best episodes were ones in which nothing really happened.

I liked all the series, although I absolutely agree that it was better, especially in the earlier series, when nothing much was going on in their "world", especially the first two series. The magic of the show was that it was just a few guys forever alone in side a huge otherwise empty spaceship in the vast emptiness of space, with nothing to do. But the characters themselves gave them something to do. When events started being driven by more external factors, such as when practically every week they had to face a new monster landing on the ship, or when practically every week they were landing on a new planet in Starbug, IMO, it lost a lot of its charm, and just became a good sitcom (as opposed to a magically good sitcom).[/QUOTE]

the exception being the American Office, which is arguably the equal of the original or even better - though it's not quite the same, being a bit more sitcom-like and not as excruciating

I attempted to see what there was about The Office that everyone was so hyped up about and whole episodes would go by with nothing even vaguely entertaining to be seen....

Glad to know someone else can't stand that abomination of a comedy

My favourite ever is probably Extras. It was brilliant week after week.

You mean the other Ricky Gervais show? *shudders*

I haven't seen many. Of the few I've seen Yes Minister does it for me.

Not my favourite by no means, but a good show none the less. Kudos for mentioning it!

It stars David Mitchell and Robert Webb.

It is also a very good show. Its not the funniest "laugh out loud" comedy, but its consistently both entertaining and humorous at the bare minimum. The same reason why I like "Jeeves & Wooster" so much, in fact; its not necessarily consistently "funny", but it is consistently humorous and entertaining, the characters are well designed and written, the funniness is just an added bonus to the overall show, and I would certainly go out of my way to watch an episode (which, seeing as I don't generally watch telly anymore, is a very big bonus).

 

[Camikaze]

You mean the other Ricky Gervais show? *shudders*

Yeah, it was great. Admittedly, it went a little downhill in the second series, but the first was top stuff.