Agree with most of the ones on your list with a few exceptions.

Here's my adds:

Arrested Devolopment (possibly all time best, except for added season 4)
Modern Family
30 Rock

so I guess I'll have to check them out!

I would have added Big Bang Theory, too, but I ran out of room. LOL

30 Rock has added fun because Alec Baldwin's character is very corporate and RW and has really funny lines skewering the right. And there's an episode where John Slattery plays a tea bagger running for office. I didn't know he had that comedic ability in him. lol.

Arrested Development requires you full attention. There are a lot of gags you'll miss if your eyes are off the screen.

I watched an episode of Big Bang Theory and wasn't impressed. You're the second person on here to have mentioned it though. I did watch a lot of How I Met Your Mother episodes and that's pretty likeable. Doesn't make the list though.

Oh, maybe Malcolm in the Middle. Bryan Cranston is so weird on it, the whole family is weird. That might make the list even though I never watched it regularly.

My Name is Earl! That was really good.

Plus there were little tie-ins on Breaking Bad back to MITM.

1) Tighty whities, I don't think I've ever seen any other man in TWs as much as I have Cranston.
2) Malcolm publishes a school paper called "The Chrystal Ship," a name given to the RV in BB.
3) Louboutins, need I say more?

One of the funniest shows EVER!

Wait til you get to the Blue Man episodes.

"The turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement!" "One just went through the windshiled of a parked car!"

That was classic

"Mooshy...mooshy...mooshy"

May be rest in peace

He was so dry and pedantic-- with a wonderful wit!!

And Harris

And Wojo

And Barney was a fox!!

And I loved Dietrich, too. So dry and intellectual.

OMG, I forgot about the inspector who would drop in...he was a riot! James Gregory played him. And Lt. Scanlon - brilliant!

What a trip!! He'd always corner Barney in his office to reminisce about "Brownie" and "Foster," and the good old days.

Very cool program-- it still makes me howl!!

a.

of Munch from "Homicide" and "Law and Order SVU".

After that I can't put them in any particular order:

Taxi
Roseanne
Seinfeld
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Golden Girls
Seinfeld

but I was kinda young when it was on. I don't think my mom wanted me to watch it (though I did occasionally).

Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiam
Nurse Jackie
Police Squad
Frasier
Taxi
Barney Miller
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Bob Newhart Show
M*A*S*H (the first 72 episodes)
Cheers

was that the satirical show, like the Frank Drebin movies? I have a vague memory of that - I love that kind of OTT humor.

Great list!

according to Wiki:

"According to the DVD Commentary, then-ABC entertainment president Tony Thomopoulos said "Police Squad! was cancelled because the viewer had to watch it in order to appreciate it."

What Thomopoulos meant was that the viewer had to actually pay close attention to the show in order to get much of the humor, while most other TV shows did not demand as much effort from the viewer. In its annual "Cheers and Jeers" issue, TV Guide magazine called the explanation for the cancellation "the most stupid reason a network ever gave for ending a series."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Squad!

I loved that show.



As for OP, Damn near everything mentioned already in this thread I agree with but I would add Family Ties. I'm still in love with Mallory Keaton.

I thought the acting was pretty good. Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, Dave Madden, and even Danny Bonaduce, along with some talented guests. The scripts were kind of lame though.

but the characters were fun. The Reuben/Danny stuff was funny.

And the episode with Richard Pryor and Louis Gosset Jr. was great!

But just have it David Cassidy, Dave Madden, and Danny Bonaduce. That's where most of the comedy and friction was coming from before anyway. What would they be doing 15-20 years later? I'm thinking Danny's working for Reuben's failing talent agency and Keith's at the top of their B-list talent lineup (kind of a Broadway Danny Rose bunch).

Just goes to prove that Bryan Cranston is an acting genius. Often after watching Breaking Bad, I'd go back and watch an episode of MITM, just to get back to my happy place. My favorite is the one where Hal teaches Malcolm how to roller skate. I also loved the Dewey character, and the episode where Bea Arthur babysits him is hilarious!

I do remember people talking about it, but I've never watched it. Looks like another one to add to my list!

Imagine raising 4, and then 5, rough and tumble boys. Mom was the drill sergeant. Dad, while smart, very loving and fiercely loyal to his family and friends, was often tempted by his sons to being a big kid himself. Another favorite ep. was when the family went to Burning Man.

I liked it better than Roseanne.

And Little Britain and Keeping Up Appearances.

I should make one list for American shows, and another for British ones!

I could do a top 10 for both countries!

I LOVE THEM!!!

but it's not exactly a sit-com.

Seinfeld
MASH
Fawltey Towers
Cheers
Barney Miller
All in the Family
Big Bang Theory
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Will & Grace
Night Court
Mary Tyler Moore Show
Malcolm in the Middle
The Bob Newhart Show
Taxi
Community

Newhart was good (and a classic final ep)!

I watched Leave it to Beaver years after it was originally on...either on afternoon TV in the 70s, or on Nick at Night - can't remember. THe parents were always so reasonable and wise. And I like how Wally would wear a suit to go to the movies. And Eddie Haskell was a classic character - everyone knows what you mean if you say someone is like Eddie Haskell.

Green Acres for its other worldly bizarre style. Dobie Gillis for the fast-paced style, rapid dialog and quick cuts that was really unusual for a sitcom of the time.

That was my first choice. I adored that show. I was the perfect demographic.

It's pronounced "Bouquet" after all.

I like how there are a lot of British shows on Amazon Prime - I'll have to look for that one.

Patricia Rutledge is excellent as Hyacinth, she does great physical comedy worthy of Lucille Ball. Geoffrey Owen was excellent as Onslow.

When I think of my favourite sitcoms three British shows immediately jump to mind:

- Chef!
- Red Dwarf
- Coupling

Chef could make Gordon Ramsay cry...

I loved that show!!

The episode when Jeff wanted to date the woman from Israel made me LOL.

Never saw Chef! - will have to look for it...

The writing was great and Jeff got some of the best material.


As for "Chef!" you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChateauAnglais/videos?view=1&flow=grid

Series 1 & 2 are absolutely brilliant. Season 3 is more hit and miss, but it has it's funny moments.

...to add a couple more.

I had no idea what a dufus Bush was at that point. lol.

I have that saved somewhere...

Let me add Hogan's Heroes, simply because nobody's mentioned them yet. A brilliant and controversial concept and still very watchable today.

Yes - that was a great show. It was another one I watched on afternoon TV in the 70s. It wasn't until years later that I saw Stalag 17, the show that inspured HH. I need to see if I can track that one down to show my kids.

I'd explain but I'm not done talking to my therapist about it.

My mom knew Bob Crane. She told me he was lewd.

My grandpa was a U.S. Army Air Force officer doing something high-tech and mysterious during World War II.

One of my best friend's dad was German, amazingly relocated to the U.S.A. and working in the aerospace industry after the war. We watched Hogan's Heroes with his dad a few times. He laughed.

My girlfriend-from-hell spoke German as her fully fluent second language, a Slavic language her first, French a third, Spanish her fourth, American San Fernando Valley Girl her fifth, with a few languages after that... German was my university foreign language requirement because I'd seen her naked and she was speaking German. I was smitten... It ended very badly.

My German has faded, just as the Latinate binomial names I used to know for California native vegetation.

Back to Hogan's Heroes, I met Richard Dawson too. Me and my siblings tried out for Family Feud but the chemistry wasn't right. Probably weird autistic spectrum silent me, or my brother who says things that were not allowed on early 1980's television.

It took me an hour to write this.

As well as how every single Dickinson poem can be sung to their intro.

I watched it every day after school in the 70s. The comic timing of the actors on that show was terrific - even though the plots were silly. I loved the one when they were the mod rock band...and don't for get the Honeybees! LOL!

and the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

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Everyone on that show was great, including Cousin It.

As a kid I loved the 60s sitcom The Hathaways starring Jack Weston, Peggy Cass, and the Marquis Chimps. It was about a childless couple who adopted a trio of performing chimps and raised them like real children. I remember the letterwriting campaign in the early 60s when they took the show off the air.

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
MASH
All in the Family
Barney Miller
WKRP
Soap
Parks & Rec
Community (because I love Joel McHale)
Dick Van Dyke
I Love Lucy

I can't think of any more right now. I reserve the right to modify this response when more come to mind.


Can we do cable? Definitely Weeds. Oh, Married with Children, too. Three to go. Hmmm...

Get Smart
The Beverly Hillbillies
Green Acres
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Sanford and Son
Gilligan's Island
Home Improvement

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Love Barney Miller, especially

David Hyde Pierce was perfectly cast.

was/is that Grammer is a repuke

I was so disappointed when I found that out.

M*A*S*H
Umm Thats about it. Watched a lot of others but would never consider them great.

WKRP
Taxi
Cheers
Quark
Mork and Mindy
Uncle Croc's Block
H.R. Pufnstuff
Dead Like Me
Northern Exposure
Bob Newhart/Newhart

The talking flute was awesome!

I also liked Lidsville, The Bugaloos, and Sigmund & the Seamonsters. Can you imagine being a writer for one of those shows?

Never saw it until it was into syndication but it is so wrong, and so very funny.

I was joking with him about DU coming up with our own top 15 list. I couldn't limit it to 15, so I came up with 26:

3's Company
Alf
Alice
All in the Family
Ally McBeal
Benson
Different Strokes
Family Ties
Gilligan's Island
Greatest American Hero
Growing Pains
Happy Days
Kate & Alley
Laverne & Shirley
Love Boat
M*A*S*H
Moonlighting (technically considered a "dramady&quot
Mork & Mindy
Newhart
News Radio
Night Court
Roseanne
The Brady Bunch
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
Who's the Boss
Will & Grace

I forgot about that one - Robert Guillaume was so dry and deadpan.

And early Happy Days was really good. We loved that show at my house when I was a kid.

News Radio was really good, too - full of kooky characters. I miss Phil Hartman.

The Cosby Show
Hogan's Heroes
My Family (UK)
Two and a Half Men (Charlie Sheen era)
Mother and Son (Australia)
Different Strokes
Seinfeld
The Golden Girls
Perfect Strangers
Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister
The Nanny
Family Ties
Happy Days
Bewitched
I Dream of Jeannie
The Charmings

I know there are more but those are the ones that come to mind

Barney Miller
Night Court
Designing Women (before Charlene and Suzanne left)
Murphy Brown
Mary Tyler Moore
Bob Newhart Show
WKRP

And two little known sitcoms that ran only a short time but which were both hilarious: Eisenhower and Lutz and Open All Night.

Beverly Hillbillies
Petticoat Junction
and Green Acres, already mentioned.

Beverly Hillbillies was the number one television show the first two years it was on the air. All three were cancelled in 1971 because they wanted a more urban audience for advertisers.