Favourite American Sitcoms

gscully

Most people would have Fawlty Towers, Only Fools And Horses or Father Ted as their favourite comedies - all from this side of the pond.

So, what American sitcoms have you enjoyed watching?

For me...and in no particular order:

Friends
The Fresh Prince
Three's Company (John Ritter - the world is poorer without him)
Two and a Half Men (risque - Jake makes the show)
Will and Grace (some of the episodes with stars like Matt Damon and Kevin Bacon were funny)
In Living Color (more of a sketch show, but hilarious)

zuutroy

Will and Grace is atrocious. The alco woman's character comes across like its written by a 15 year old. All the 'jokes' are lowest common denominator rubbish devoid of wit.

Frasier ftw. I like King of Queens to but a lot of people hate it.

Mr E

Will and Grace - nope, sorry - as soon as Megan Mullally opens her squeaky mouth, I change channel.

Threes Company has aged very badly, but you're right - John Ritter is sadly missed.

Friends was great in the early days (first 5 or 6 seasons).

Of the current batch, I think The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother are both great and worth checking out.

ziedth

Mr E wrote: »

The Big Bang Theory

I'LL +1 this for def, well worth a look espically if your of the closet geek variety like me

cashville

King of Queens, 2 and a half men.

chalkitdown1

The fact that 2 and a Half Men has been mentioned twice already upsets me profoundly.

Anyway....

Arrested Development
Action
Undeclared
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The Office
30 Rock
Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Friends(season 1-5 before it went shít)
Fraiser
Cheers
Flight of the Conchords
The Venture Bros
Sports Night
Spin City(The MJF seasons)


And if we're counting "dramedys"...

Weeds
Californication
Entourage
Freeks and Geeks
The Larry Sanders Show
Dead Like Me




I watch too much television. I'm probably forgetting loads, too.

godtabh

Mr E wrote: »

Of the current batch, I think The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother are both great and worth checking out.

I like The Big Bang Theory but wouldnt mind if I missed it.

How I Met Your Mother is class. Some of the lines and set ups are class.

I'd add to that list the Office and Its All Ways Sunny in Philadelphia

120_Minutes

chalkitdown1 wrote: »

The fact that 2 and a Half Men has been mentioned twice already upsets me profoundly.

Anyway....

Arrested Development

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
The Office

Seinfeld
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Friends(season 1-5 before it went shít)
Fraiser
Cheers

The Venture Bros




I watch too much television. I'm probably forgetting loads, too.

+1 on all those, though i've not watched a lot of curb.

the missus is always watching will and grace repeats, and y'know....its not that bad.

I'll add my name is earl and +1 the big bang...although i've only seen a handful of episodes too.

Has anyone else ever seen greg the bunny? it only lasted one season and was never aired here....that had a few moments. great cast too, eugene levy, seth green, sarah silverman, bob gunton. i'll be surprised if others here have seen it.

Mr E

I like Eugene Levy and Seth Green, but Sarah Silverman is as funny as a root canal.

Shryke

30 Rock beats the crap out of all competition.

HalloweenJack

Frasier
Two And A Half Men
King Of Queens
How I Met Your Mother
Wonderfalls
Arrested Development
3rd Rock From The Sun (John Lithgow was brilliant in that show)

Zaph

M*A*S*H
Cheers
Frasier

Mr.Nice Guy

I used to watch Friends and I hate myself for it. A turd of a show. I can't stomach Will and Grace either. Never come across a sitcom with more dislikeable characters. They should all be shot.

My favourites would be...

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Everybody Loves Raymond
Cheers
King of Queens

I agree The Big Bang Theory has its merits. It's not the wittiest show but the characters are likeable at least.

Jazzy

seinfeld is king.

georges answering machine is probably the best thing ever

120_Minutes

Jazzy wrote: »

seinfeld is king.

georges answering machine is probably the best thing ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UH59CrRZLY

CyrildoSquirrel

I used to like Scrubs. I even watched all of the 6th season. But I couldn't get through the 7th. I'm not a fan anymore. And I hear they're going to carry on the show without Zach Braff or Bill Lawrence. IMO that's a mistake.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Sitcoms:

Married With Children
That '70s Show
Friends
Fresh Prince Of Bel Air
Boy Meets World
Big Bang Theory
Quintuplets
Mork and Mindy
The Monkees
ALF
Grounded For Life

Other Comedies:

Scrubs
My Name Is Earl

tman

Curb your enthusiasm is fantastic stuff, watched all 6 seasons of it for the first time recently.
Arrested Development

Both of the above were cut a bit short for my liking, but I guess that's for the best when compared with other shows that I loved which went to ****e after a certain point (Scrubs and My name is Earl to name a couple)

grumpytrousers

Frasier is the high watermark of comedy, i think. It's just head and shoulders above the others in terms of the sheer breadth of stuff that's been done. Classic farce. Silent comedy and every now and then stuff that has genuine emotional heart, like in the episode Frasier Grinch.

Seinfeld gives it a good run for its money though; the rules were different in that there was to be no learning and no hugging, so it didn't really compete with Frasier in a lot of senses. It's the best comedy i know of that has such unlikeable characters.

Curb your enthusiasm, is just the nastiness maxed out and it's really really good too.

Of the current crop, I have to say that i absolutely love How I Met Your Mother. If I'm honest, if it was merely a half hour show of Alysson Hannigan reading words from the dictionary I'd watch it anyway; as it is, it's cracking comedy with a fine ensemble cast and everything that was *good* about friends without the anemic boring turgid crap. *This* gang spends FAR too much time in the pub...and some of Barneys lines are inspired.

I like flight of the Conchords, but sometimes i think it's trying too hard to be 'lo-fi' for my liking.

MagicMarker

Am i the only one who hates Seinfeld? I think it's the biggest load of shíte!

Friends
Curb Your Enthusiasm
That 70's Show
Scrubs
King of Queens

jaycen

That 70s show
Friends
Cheers

KnifeWRENCH

zuutroy wrote: »

Will and Grace is atrocious. The alco woman's character comes across like its written by a 15 year old. All the 'jokes' are lowest common denominator rubbish devoid of wit.

Mr E wrote:

Will and Grace - nope, sorry - as soon as Megan Mullally opens her squeaky mouth, I change channel.

Ha, Karen Walker was the only reason I ever watched Will & Grace. I thought the character was hilarious (especially in the early episodes) and Megan Mullally was a brilliant actress. The rest of the characters were annoying though.

The first 4 seasons of Friends were absolutely fantastic. Likeable characters, sharp dialogue, semi-realistic plotlines. Then it all went downhill - Ross became irritating and unlikeable, Monica became too crazy, Phoebe turned into a bit of a bitch, Chandler became less funny and Joey just became unrealistically dumb. Rachel was the only consistently good character imo.

I also love Arrested Development, Scrubs and Flight of the Conchords. I like Frasier but I haven't seen that many episodes of it.

Also, even though it's not a sitcom, I think The West Wing deserves a mention. Some of the dialogue is absolutely hilarious, which is quite an accomplishment for a "serious" drama.

smcgiff

2 and a half men is the only current US comedy I watch - used to watch scrubs, but wouldn't go out of my way to watch it now.

flutegirl

According to Jim.
Everybody Loves Raymond.

Mr E

tman wrote: »

Curb your enthusiasm is fantastic stuff ... cut a bit short for my liking

Curb Season 7 begins production in December.

villager

cheers, frasier, two and half men, 3rd rock from the sun, rosanne(the early stuff), seinfeld. I also love bostonm legal william shatner is a legend.

absolutely hate everybody loves raymond and king of queens

40coats

Arrested Development
The Office
Larry Sanders show
Curb your Enthusiasm
30 Rock
Seinfeld
The Tick (not the animated version)

K4t

M.A.S.H anyone????? Possibly the greatest US sitcom of all time!

Fraiser is genius. I never saw much of Seinfield but of what I did see, it was fantastic.

Curb your enthuasiasm. Can't watch it!

Zaph

K4t wrote: »

M.A.S.H anyone????? Possibly the greatest US sitcom of all time!

Ahem

And I agree, nothing has ever come close to the greatness of M*A*S*H imo.

gernon

Gotta agree with the sister Cheers, Frasier and MASH in any order, 2 and a half men of the current crop.

todolist

Family ties.Michael J fox was superb in that.:)

Aidric

Spin City
Seinfeld

Dman001

I'm surprised to see Quintuplets on your list. I liked it too but I thought I was the only one. 8 Simple Rules and My Wife and Kids were other good family comedies, along with Everybody Hates Chris.

bnt

I'm enjoying taped reruns of The Nanny (Living TV, early morning), because it's a sitcom that has fun with sitcom clichés. Rich uptight Brit bloke vs working class Jewish lady from Queens: you know they're going to hook up but they somehow keep avoiding it, as you do in sitcoms.The Nanny always has flashy new clothes, despite being on a small salary, her love life's a mess, and so on. There's a butler, his arch-nemesis (the woman producer) who keeps calling him Benson (!), and you can tell they're going to hook up, at some point - you can cut the tension with a fish knife. The one-liners are excellent, and it's almost a meta-sitcom = a sitcom that comments on sitcoms. :pac:

"Trust me, there is only one man who can satisfy a woman in two minutes - Colonel Sanders. "

cooperguy

Scrubs
Arrested Development is genius. Should not have been cancelled, looking forward to the movie

lostexpectation

well there are sitcoms and then there are sitcoms.

brayblue24

The Phil Silvers Show
ALF
Sledge Hammer
Police Squad
Cheers
Friends
Frasier
In no particular order (although I do have almost 20 Frasiers waiting to be viewed on the Sky+)

Crash

Of the current crop, How I met your mother and 30 rock are the two that i'm finding funniest.

Of all time?

Friends, spin city and seinfeld probably.

Passenger

The short-lived though much loved Freaks and Geeks was always a favourite that I revisited recently.

JP Liz

Friends

Married With Children

Spin City

Newsradio

Just Shoot Me

Will and Grace

Kitchen Confidential

King of Queens

Arrested Development

The 70's Show

Cheers

I Love Lucy

Roseanne

Faith and Hope

Two and A Half Men

The Facts of Life

How I Met You Mother

Penn

Arrested Development. Bought all 3 seasons on DVD and watched it over one weekend. Possibly the funniest show ever

Also, I used to love The Drew Carey Show. The earlier seasons anyway.