January 22, 2013 Tuesday 10: Favorite Sitcoms From The Last 20 Years
I had to narrow the range down on this or someone would give me grief because I Love Lucy or M*A*S*H isn’t on here, and nobody wants any grief. I’ve also limited it to half-hour shows because I still don’t know where to categorize Freaks & Geeks and Wonderfalls.
10. The Office – I’m still watching it all these years later, but I don’t watch reruns and I don’t own any seasons on disc. I’m the only person I know who still likes Jim & Pam together and am glad they’ve been together all this time.
9. Friends – Honestly, Chandler makes this for me. I bought the series on disc for my wife, but I will admit to enjoying the watchthrough. I won’t need to watch any more episodes for a long while, though.
8. Futurama – The scifi humor scratches me where I itch. The Star Trek crew episode is one of my favorite episodes of any show of all time. I own all of the seasons on disc, though I haven’t watched the latest one yet. I’ll watch reruns of this any time I see one on.
7. The Simpsons – I’m still watching and I still love it. In fact, I think the two most recent seasons have been pretty strong overall, and I risk the Internet’s wrath just for suggesting it. I don’t own any seasons on disc, but that’s just because it’s so daunting a prospect to buy all 20+ seasons. Besides, it’s on TV all the time, and eventually we might get that All Simpsons All The Time channel people keep hinting at.
6. Community – Now I’ve risked even more Internet Wrath because I haven’t ranked this one higher. Honestly, these next four rankings were tough to organize. I love this show and am looking forward to (and am nervous about!) its return in a few weeks.
5. Better Off Ted – I hope you’ll see soon just why I enjoy this one so much. I’ve watched through it four times already, but am looking forward to starting #5 this week. I don’t own the first season on disc yet, and they haven’t released the second one at all… which is part of why I haven’t bought the first season. I want the whole thing!
4. Scrubs – No other show on this list does as good a job at mixing heart with humor as this one. There isn’t a character on this show that I dislike (well…except for one or two in the final season), and I can watch this one over and over. I love the characters, I love the stories, I love the music – I’ve bought at least three separate albums because of this show (Colin Hay, The Blanks, and the soundtrack). I have every disc on season and have watched through them at least three times.
3. 30 Rock – Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are fantastic, and they are surrounded by other fantastic actors, and they somehow got some of the best guest stars ever to appear on a TV show. Somehow I only own the first two seasons on disc, but I will eventually get the whole set.
2. Arrested Development – What can I say about this show that hasn’t been said a hundred times before and in better ways? Sure, it’s funny, but the storytelling is just fantastic – the tightly-woven arcs are amazing and satisfying. I’m excited about the upcoming new “season” on Netflix, while worried at the same time, since it’s “not going to be how it was.” I’m sure it’ll still be great, but I like my great things to stay the way they were great, you know? Of course I have all these on disc.
1. Seinfeld – I am constantly surprised by the number of friends I have that don’t like this show. It literally makes no sense to me. I can watch almost any episode of this show at any time and still laugh out loud several times throughout. I have all nine seasons on disc and have watched them through at least 3 times, but when you count how many times I’ve seen episodes on repeats on TV I’m sure that number is higher. Honestly, I’ve thought about doing a top ten of my favorite episodes of this show, but I don’t think I could do it. It would just be too difficult. I love this show, and I want to hug Jerry Seinfeld for making it. Somebody arrange that for me.
It’s funny to me how these lists shake out some times. Most of the time going into them I have a pretty good idea where things will end up, but getting down into the specifics between a 3 and a 4 or an 8 and a 9 can take a while. Good thing it doesn’t matter much, I guess!
Tags: 30 Rock, Arrested Development, Better Off Ted, Community, Friends, Futurama, Office, Scrubs, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Tuesday10
Written by: Mark
- 5 comments
- Posted under TV
Permalink # d4v34x said
I view the Netflix only season as an alarming idea.
Permalink # Michael said
The other netflix-only thing they did (Lillehammer), I thought was decent enough. I’d watch a second season
Permalink # Mark said
That show’s been on my “maybe I’ll watch it some day” list for a while.
Permalink # d4v34x said
And I don’t even watch network TV anymore.
Permalink # Mark said
That reminds me of a scene from Friends:
Scientist: “I don’t even have a TV.”
Joey: “What’s all your furniture pointed at?!?”