Last night I posted this to Facebook: “I’m beginning to accept something about myself. I kinda hate most sitcoms. Like, for every sitcom I love, there must be 10 I can’t sit through a single episode of. Even the “greats” I can’t stand. This is bizarre to me, but I think it’s way more than just being incredibly picky.”
I recognize there are sitcoms that are legitimately great, but I honestly just can’t bring myself to care about them. M.A.S.H. would be one of those. It’s really good, and I don’t like watching it. Actually, the episodes I do enjoy watching barely qualify as comedy. The episode where Hawkeye has a complete breakdown because a woman smothers her own baby to death (at least partially) as a result of him telling her to keep it quiet is one I’ve seen several times, and could sit through again at some point.
Anyway, a few people asked what my least favorites were (Small Wonder, Hi Honey, I’m Home, and Dinosaurs, btw) and this lead me to finding this upsettingly long list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_situation_comedies
I decided to just focus on the shows that made me happy, because it’s just way too easy to spend time hating mediocrity, especially right now. I don’t know how many shows are on that list, but I looked through it, and I could only find 28 shows that I have fondness for. And there are a lot of shows not listed there that should be. Like, it makes sense that comedy sketch shows aren’t there, but I don’t think The Guild is listed there, and it absolutely should be. It might make sense if they were only making a list of broadcast television shows and not streaming shows, but Letterkenny is a streaming show, and its on there, so…
Not a complete list is what I’m saying. And I’m sure the list I’ve made below is equally incomplete. Also a lot of the shows listed below are shows I honestly don’t think I’d want to watch again, and might not even like anymore if I did, but these are the shows that actually make me happy when I think about them (with occasional notes if I feel the need to explain myself):
- Absolutely Fabulous
- All in the Family – There’s no possible way I could watch this show now. I hate audience laughter, canned or otherwise. But also, I’ve had my fill of verbally abusive old white guys for a thousand lifetimes. That said, the point of Archie was to point out how fucked he was, not to give a roomful of white men an “acceptable excuse” to tell a racist joke.
- Animaniacs
- Archer
- Arrested Development – First two seasons are amazing, but it’s not worth watching any of it if you’re also going to watch the last two seasons. Still.
- Blackadder – 100% love, forever.
- The Boondocks
- The Dick Van Dyke Show
- Fawlty Towers
- The Guild
- The Inbetweeners – In high school, you kind of love your best friends, and kind of hate them. This show captures that perfectly.
- It’s Your Move – This show is probably terrible, but I watched it with my grandma the one and only time it ever aired (way, way back in the day) and it made us both laugh insanely hard. I have nothing but good memories of it (and I won’t ruin those by trying to watch it again).
- The Larry Sanders Show
- Letterkenny – Currently the best sitcom out there.
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show – I will always be in love with her.
- The Mindy Project
- Monk
- NewsRadio
- The Office (UK) – Still pretty great even though I can’t stand Gervais now.
- The Office (US) – Even better.
- Parks and Recreation
- Reno 911! – Never watch the final season.
- Robot Chicken
- Scrubs – See Reno 911!
- Spaced
- Three’s Company – Objectively dog shit, but it made me laugh so hard as a kid, I can only ever have love for it.
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- WKRP in Cincinnati – I will also always be in love with Jan Smithers. Also, it was probably terrible, but I remember loving it.
- The Young Ones
I had South Park listed in there too, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don’t really give a shit about that show. It’s lazy, mean-spirited, and it pioneered the jaded, media-obsessed nihilist troll culture that’s ruined so many corners of the internet. I remember laughing my ass off watching it, but I think that just says terrible things about who I used to be.
Anyway, let me know what your faves are in the comments below. Oh wait! No comments! Hahahahahahahahahaha. #DickMove #FuckComments