Seinfeld has to be the most overrated pile of effluent evar. The characters are too annoying to be funny.
we're talking sitcoms. I mean the shows were extreme, but plenty people my age find shows like "beverly hill billies", and "the munsters" funny. is it a different type humor? sure. but think about how extreme that is, someone actually thought to put a family of munsters on t.v., and invested money in it. and the humor to me is classic comedy, its the definition of situational comedy. a family of hill billies, in beverly hills. that sounds funny to me, just the description. but I guess it depends on taste.
The premises of 60's sitcoms were pretty silly, but some of them were still funny. The Beverly Hillbillies and The Addams Family were delightfully cheesy.
I go with the 90's. Seinfeld, Simpsons (Is this considered a sitcom?), Friends, Sports Night, Frasier.
That's mostly my personal taste. I prefer sitcoms that have a little edge to them. The 80's was overloaded with too many generic wholesome family stuff. Personally, I always thought that The Cosby Show was really overrated. It started sucking REALLY hard the last couple of years when there were about 50 cast members and the Simpsons was kicking Cosby's ass every week. Nothing in TV history really comes close to The Simpsons in it's prime in the mid 90's, IMO... To defend the 80's a little bit, though, Night Court is probably one of the most UNDERRATED sitcoms of all time
I'll go with the 90's: Seinfeld, Mad About you, three seasons of cheers, The nanny, news radio, spin city, ER, Friends. In close second place is the 80's Why anyone have mentioned "The Wonder Years" and Perfect Strangers (that is 70's or 80's??) I dont remember.
Even though I watched them, I hate most of the 80's sitcoms these days. I kinda see Seinfeld as the Nirvana of sitcoms and the 80's "family values" sitcoms as the generic hair bands, even though the 80's sitcoms were long gone by then when Seinfeld came on. Strange though, that I hate Friends and have never watched a full episode but have started to watch Everybody Loves Raymond, which seems like the 80's type of sitcom. Also, I have a theory about Seinfeld/Friends fans... True Seinfeld fans cannot be Friends fans also (in my best Mia Wallace of Beatles fans cannot be Elvis fans and vice versa explanation). The shows and the characters are so polar opposites that one true fan of one series will find something annoying about the other....although I can see Friends fans watching Seinfeld as I imagine alot of that demographic are trendy bandwagoner types. oh, I guess the 90's but that's just because all the other sitcoms representing the other decades I never really liked.
damn, i had forgotten about newsradio. i just saw it on nick at nite 2 nights ago. maybe that means they'll be playing it throughout the rest of the summer. i forgot just how strong that cast was. no huge stars (though hartman was pretty big), but damn near everyone of them did or has done other stuff on tv or in movies (mr. james) since then, and not just bit parts. damn funny show. plus as A-Train mentioned, Home Improvement was good, and even though i was never a huge fan, roseanne was a long-lasting, popular show. one of the more drama and seriousness-laden sitcoms of recent memory (which might be why i didn't like it so much, i like all humor, all the time). add in coach, spin city, and some others and the 90s were loaded with sitcoms. like also mentioned, too many of the 80s family sitcoms were just way too goody goody (ESPECIALLY Cosby). it makes it hard to stomach sometimes. maybe 90s sitcoms have too much of the generic stupid, out of shape dad who gets into typical trouble with the "will-put-up-with-anything-way-too-hot-to-be-married-to-him" wife by telling some stupid lie while always dealing with backtalking kids type of shows, but since i tend to like most of them (home improvement, everybody loves raymond, king of queens (minus the kids), still standing, etc) i guess i just ignore it.
Simpsons and Seinfeld in my book are the two greatest sitcoms of all time. News Radio, Friends and all the rest are just icing on the cake. 90's dominated.
Are you people saying Mama's Family isn't one of the top sitcoms of all time? It is hard to decide between some of those because there seems like a few really good ones from each. I shall have to think about it.
