Greatest American Comedy of All Time?

Go Figure!

Which of these would you consider to be the Greatest American Comedy of all time?

Samson

Oi.
Where's the Mork and Mindy option?

Capt'n Midnight

Once you mention the phrase "All time" most of the shows on the list don't cut it - they date too quickly - I can take Northern Exposure repeats more than most of these. Repeats of Friends fade very quickly.

How about Classics like:
The Phil Silvers Show (Bilko)
The Beverly Hillbillies

It's hard to believe that Will and Grace is the second biggest show in the US.

BTW: I love Lucy has got to be the worst show of all time - especially since it seemed to be on at all times...

Futurama - (beats the Jetsons)
What about the Greatest American Hero ? / Mork & Mindy (the first series)

Cork

Monk & Mindy, Murphy Brown, Seinfield, Top Cat (TG4 are showing it at around 6.30 - some weekday).

The Irish should be great at sitcom but

Leave it to Mrs. O Brien
Upwardly Mobile
The Cassidys
The one in the newspaper office

The only thing funny about RTE is how they get away with it.

antwalsh

Jesus, how could some of those choices even be considered as greatest of all time. 'Everyone loves Raymond' - does anybody even watch that? 'Curb your enthusiasm' (TG4 at the moment) is better a lot of them. What about 'The Larry Sanders Show'?

I agree that there should be some old classics there. Definitely 'Bilko', probably 'The Three Stooges', maybe 'The Honeymooners'.

But the biggest ommission is of course 'The Simpsons'.

I haven't seen 'Different Strokes' in about 20 years. Has it been repeated on tv since?

carbonkid

if i had to pick one of those it would probably be cheers(does anyone find will&grace are just usin the same material all the time?)
but you know what sitcoms i used to love...cybill and ellen.what the hell happened to them.i used to stay up really late when i was 14 to watch moonlighting on on ch4....is that a really weird thing for a 14yr old to do?:rolleyes:

Zombrex

Where is the option for "The Simpsons"? It is the greatest American television show ever created. It is not a sitcom, but then the poll was comedy not Situation Comedy.


Also, if we are talking about greatest American comedies, I definitly think there should be a option for "The Current American Government"

ixoy

As this poll doesn't contain any of the animated comedies - "Simpsons", "Family Guy", and "Futurama" - it's not worth voting in. Sorry!

byte

Ah The Greatest American Hero! That takes me back...

*Believe it or not, I'm walking on air....* :)a

Mork and Mindy was another favourite of mine, and currently, I'd have to say The Simpsons. And the occasional Scrubs.

Na-nuu, na-nuu! :horned:

Go Figure!

Ok hand's up Wicknight I should have clarified that it was situation comedies i was referring to therefore making all animated comedies ineligible. Also I chose situation comedies that I have watched, I'm afraid I am too young to remember many of the others suggested. Anyway this poll is not legally binding and was just a bit of fun, so don't take it too badly if your personal favourite isn't included.

smuckers

My vote goes for The Sein, a superb supporting cast, great variety of diff characters, Classic lines which avid fans like myself can remember and mulitiple storylines which could be cunningly linked into a whole half hour.
Curb is sublime too season 4 in January I think.

tman

wtf???
what is everybody loves raymond doing there???
seriously, replace it with scrubs!
(the only american comedy worth its salt imo)

smiaras

This post has been deleted.

Mossy Monk

from your list i choose Cheers

i was happy to find Mork & Mindy on Paramount at 3.30am after Cheers, 3rd Rock and Roseanne. essential 2 hours viewing

j0hnny

none of them m*a*s*h was the best

Elmo

For Consistancy I choose Friends, I mean Friends are friends.

Fraiser and cheers go through bad phase

Seinfeld is too american (maybe that is a reason i should have pick it)

Everyone Loves Raymond is good family fun, but should not win emmys or be in a poll of this kind

Family Ties as above

The Cosby Show as above

Spin City was good with the original cast Jennifer Esponalt (sp) etc.

But then theres Scrubs, Malcome In The Middle, That 70's show, 3rd Rock, roseanne, Taxi etc.

oneweb

Originally posted by tman
...scrubs!
(the only american comedy worth its salt imo)

Wot he sed.

Atari Jaguar.

BANZAI_RUNNER

Scrubs...............where is Scrubs

Tyrrial

Scubs!! oh baby!!

celticfc

Where in da name of God is Married with Children ??

Kai

Id second married with children and Larry sanders show. I voted for Seinfeld. why i dont know.
Friends is watchable but it is NOT funny, i nave never laughed at friends ever but i still watch it all the time.

phoenix2181

Where's Atari Jaguar??????

Damn you you vile man :mad:

Morgans

Have to agree with SMuckers. Making a clever funny sitcom is an art, with restrictions not there for animations. The best of teh lot is Seinfeld. Over 180 episodes. Second, beating CYE is The larry Sanders show, IMHO.

Sauron

Fraiser definatley..

smuckers

"Hanks Sex Tapes" was one of my fave ep of Sanders.:)
I was LMAO.

Morgans

Cant remember the details of that one Smuckers - is it teh one where Elaine talks into Jerry's tape..

I love the serenity now, backwards episode, bizarro jerry, and the one where Smuckers makes his appearance. Soup Nazi/schmoopy schmoopy episode had three great storylines.

Nothing comes near it.

Morgans

Sorry Blind spot - thought you said Seinfeld instead of SAnders which makes a lot more sense.

scojones

Cheers/Becker - I can't decide!

mike65

My list of Greatest American Comedies -

Your Show of Shows
Green Acres
Bilko Show
The Odd Couple
Rhoda
The Bob Newhart Show
Mary Tyler Moore Show
Mash
Taxi
WKRP In Cincinatti (well I loved it!)
Cheers
King of the Hill
Its Garry Shandling
The Larry Sanders Show

Mike.

smuckers

Morgans George is brilliant in The Tape ep.

Kramer: Okay , all right. I'm gonna take a look at this huh!.( leaves)

Jerry: Does she know?

George: NO!!

Jerry: How did it happen?

George: I can't say.

Jerry: Well, why can't you say it?

George: Because I promised her.

Jerry: I thought you just said she doesn't know??

George: She doesn't.

Jerry: So how can you promise her?

George: Because she asked me to.

Jerry: What is this, an Abbott and Costello routine?


The Contest and The Outing would be up there too absolutely superb The Yada Yada The Phone Message is true to real life how many times have people been in George situation like that?
Another great aspect of the show was unseen characters somehow the show wouldn't have worked if you saw Kramer's friend Bob Saccamanno and also stories which aren't seen in certain eps an example of this is The Paccidarm story in The Stand In from season 5, also if George got married to Susan it wouldn't have worked at all what did the creator Larry David do? killed her off licking toxic envelopes he then left the show to work on a movie and then came back to write The Finale.

FYI in The last Father Ted ep Ted does a line "and harrison Ford jumps out of the plane" that line was used 2 years earlier in The Engagement ep of Sein, Lineghan and Matthews are big fans of the show.

http://tvtome.com/Seinfeld/

smuckers

www.seinology.com.

Morgans

I'd consider myself a bit of a seinfeld freak, but I'd bow to your impressive knowledge. Lomes is another kramers friend that you dont see. The best thing about it is the lines that are brilliant that in fact shouldnt be funny at all. I suppose its because the characters are so well developed. Like CYE in a lot of respects.

Kramer asking george to take pig boy home in his car if he comes from the hospital. Ends up with Kramer telling George "Dont be ridiculous".

I think the best one-liner ever in any comdey Ive seen was when George says to Jerry that doing exactly the opposite of his instincts was to become his new religion, and Jerry replies that then his messiah would be the anti-christ. Superbly thought out comedy.

THe only thing, and its not a bad thing, but i think there is a stereotypical characterisation of foreigners throughout the series - Romanian gymnast - (Kramer "Chic-chau-who" LOL) Babu Bhatt. There are others that I cant think of. Just wondering what you thought of that.

Anyway - i know everyone has personal tastes, but i cant believe that anyone can leave this comdey out of their top lists. Everytime everyone slags off hte yanks for being stupid, moronic, etc, i always remember that not only did they create Seinfeld, but they made it the most popular comedy of its generation. Even TV3 has dropped it from its schedule over here. I dont know why it never took off. I dont know how many storylines Ive seen in other comedies that I've seen first on Seinfeld.

smuckers

Yeah I'm a huge fan have every ep on tape took me years to get them all also have most books, I remember RTE showed it back in 97 but didn't bother showing season 4 then TV3 picked it up and it started well but then they kinda messed it around perhaps the reason for this was when they showed it it was finished in The States lots of people wouldn't get the NY humour or Jewish refs.
Yea the stereoptypical characterisation of foreign characters wasn't a particulary a bad thing but nontheless I see your point.
The writers were brilliant at tapping into the characters insecurity an example of this would be George getting a massage off a man in "The Note" "I think it moved" LMAO.
Would you agree that George's character slightly changed in season 8 and 9? Larry David leaving played a factor in that.

Morgans

They made George angrier. Before he was simply resigned to being mediocre ( probably the philosophy espoused in CYE) apart from the very first episodes when he was a semi confident real estate agent, and Kramer was essentially a carbon copy of the mad neighbour (who died, stole a cat) in Friends.

IgnatiusJRiley

Should there not at least be an "Other" option. Some of the stuff in there is absolute sh**e!!! ............... imho

smuckers

But one thing which didn't go from the show was the characters selfishness, George trying to beat an Andrea Doria survivor to get an apt.
"It was my apt Elderide the stockholm didn't sink but I will ho ho"
I loved the past refs too in The Contest George sees the nurse giving the patient a sponge bath but in The Outing its a male nurse giving a patient a sponge bath.
The bench characters as I like to call were great too Newman was my fave closely followed by Jackie Chiles.
George's parents Estelle and Frank were hysterical.


The JFK parody in The Boyfirend ep was sublime.

Stark

I love the animated comedies like simpsons, family guy, south park

out of the list, I'd probably pick Frasier and Spin City.

Some of my favourite bits in Frasier:

Daphne: "Niles, you're taking me to the Bruce Springsteen concert"
Niles: "Okay, but I'm not going in the mosh pit"

Frasier's Dad: "In my day, if a girl got pregnant, her parents would ship her off for a year's holiday in Europe, and when she came back they would raise the baby as her sister. Things were different in my day, we had morals back then"

Daphne: "I used to walk with my head down low, till one day I decided to walk around with my head up high. A man came up to me and handed me a note. To this day I can still remember what I said to that man - 'That's not how you spell Felatio'"