What is the greatest half-hour US sitcom of all time?

Other:

The Jack Benny Program, 1950 - 1965.

I saw it in syndication, bitches.

The Dick Van Dyke show

The best ever: The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Runners-up: The Dick Van Dyke Show, Designing Women, Cheers, Seinfeld, All in the Family, Fraser, Will & Grace and I Love Lucy.

The Bob Newhart Show

Curb Your Enthusiasm

I loved The Nanny but I know no one will agree with me. Where are the Golden Girls queens?

MTM FOREVAH!

Voted for MTM but I have a soft spot for Frasier

Another absurd list of choices when none of them is The Golden Girls.

Here they are, all the Golden Girls fan girls who think they're a Blanche when they're really a Sophia

Designing Women

The No Dick Dyke Show

Golden Girls, Designing Women, The Nanny, Roseanne

Oh and I forgot Frasier!

Frasier

Some long-shot favorites:

Nanny and the Professor

That Girl

The Donna Reed Show

Leave It to Beaver

WKRP In Cincinnati. Smart, sharp, didn’t go for cheap laughs.

One Day at a Time (Just to make the Bonnie Franklin trolls angry)

Alice

Small Wonder

Gilligan's island.

R5 I loved The nanny too. It still holds up today.

The Office

Full House!

Golden Girls and Roseanne

You’re on DL and didnt even include Golden Girls?

You’re a bigger whore than Blanche!

Seasons 1-6 of Roseanne out of the options. Season 1 of Bewitched is about the best single season of a sitcom ever, for my money.

Just to add two more: VEEP and Frank's Place.

Great question. I say Arrested Development. But I do love Frasier. Nothing's great of late.

I will never get the Veep love, R26. It was so mean spirited.

No love for Taxi?

Taxi is great R29!

I was fond of the original Roseanne, before she and the show started going off the rails.

I was fond of the original Roseanne, before she and the show started going off the rails.

Bewitched.

Simpsons, all the way. They were truly revolutionary TV and were so on.

And by that, I mean maybe until like 2004 (at most).

Later they got too much into their running gag side characters and lost sight of some true superstars they never use anymore.

The first three seasons of SOAP are classic, I still laugh. Katherine Helmond was a genius.

Good Times

It’s THAT ‘70s SHOW.

But I wouldn’t expect Elderqueens to understand that. OP is going to get lynched for not including THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

I think they're all great. I probably would choose Seinfeld or Cheers, as those take me back to my childhood (so I can't be objective). I also loved Roseanne, but its namesake, unfortunately, pissed on its legacy. But I have to agree with R37. This is a gay site, so no Golden Girls is funny.

But, I think Mary Tyler Moore was absolutely classic. So, I have no problem with it being considered the greatest.

M*A*S*H though it plays horribly dated nowadays.

All In The Family? Also dated and not as funny as it was when aired.

How could you bitches forget Maude?!

Seriously, they did the political stuff and all, which had it's moments, but some of the non-political episodes are a riot. Bea, Bill and Conrad were on top of their game with some of those.

Jefferson’s

The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show

The Andy Griffith Show

always sunny

I know it's hated here, but Will and Grace was really fun.

Hog tits! That’s what I think of a list with no Golden Girls!

Homecoming!

Mainly because of Julia Roberts wig

It Had to Be You - four episodes of heaven

Friends had a perfect formula. It pleased the most people. It was a kind of narcotic. It made all its fans laugh and feel comforted. It made zillions of dollars and STILL has fans, around the world. It's near universal in relatability, it works across cultures, because its so blandly and perfectly conceived and executed. Like the great Hollywood movies. So I nominate Friends.

Friends was fucking garbage! Garbage

In no particular order:

M*A*S*H Frasier Seinfeld Arrested Development VEEP

Mary Tyler Moore.

Everything else is second. Not to say the others aren’t good, but Mary is far and away Number One.

MTM

Designing Women

Will & Grace

Uh, hello?

It is middle-brow and facetious to consider Friends garbage.

The Bob Newhart Show

All in the Family

Leave it to Beaver

R55 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I Love Lucy

Frasier

The Andy Griffith Show (first 5 seasons)

Bewitched (Dick York years only)

Leave It To Beaver (probably the best sibling relationship since....Frasier and Niles)

I Love Lucy

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Simpsons

Everybody Loves Raymond

And try Mom on Thursday nights. I'm almost willing to miss Rachel to watch it.

R37, I love That '70s Show. Silly, mindless fun. The decade was probably nothing like the show, but I don't think it was ever meant to be. It was a '70s show for a '90s audience, much the way Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were '50s shows for a '70s audience.

It also gave TV its first male-male kiss.

King of Queens.

30 Rock

The COSBY Show is not in this poll? The caucasity!!

Racist much , Op?

How about Honorable Mention?

30 Rock

Get Smart

MTM is the best.

Another sentimental favorite is Newhart. So many good characters.

Why aren't there any black shows on this list. I've been fuckin triggered.

Fuck off Boris @ r64 and r67

Mary, forever.

[quote] ...of all time

And yet the OP's list (excluding the final "Other") shows only "I Love Lucy" from the 1950s & 1960s. And that only because Desi Arnaz insisted on methods of recording the shows so that they have been viewable for decades.

Listing too much of the dreck that passes as comedy in recent years.

The "greatest" IMHO should be one where the humor is timeless and is still fresh and laugh out loud funny to audiences over multiple decades.

Kudos to the poster who mentioned "Leave it to Beaver".

But my vote has to go with the still hilarious, original and never to be copied "Burns and Allen".

r64 r67 Would you be OK if we added "Amos and Andy" and "Beulah?"

Arrested Development - and it had what I consider to be the two greatest Lucilles in television history.

BLOSSOM kicks ass!

Kath and Kim

More proof old white gay men are very racist

Beavis & Butthead.

30 Rock

# 2 - Frasier

# 1 - Curb Your Enthusiasm

The Odd Couple

Additions to the very good OP list:

"30 Rock"

"Leave It to Beaver"

"The Jeffersons"

"Frasier"

"Will & Grace"

"The Middle"

"Curb Your Enthusiasm"

"The Office" (first 3 seasons)

"Strangers with Candy"

I love lucy, the Jefferson's and Seinfeld.

The Jefferson’s

Love That Bob

Sanford and Son

The Brady Bunch

The Partridge Family

Frasier (this one I'm serious about)

Mary Tyler Moore (and this)

The Dick Van Dyke Show (an this)

Sanford and Son

Whoever said 30 Rock, I second that.

Whose the Boss

Three's Company

Evening Shade

Alice

R70 makes a great point. The 60s were synonomous with sitcoms, and the decade has NO representation on this list? Any list without The Andy Griffith Show, Bewitched and Leave It To Beaver is just incomplete.

[quote]But my vote has to go with the still hilarious, original and never to be copied "Burns and Allen".

IMHO it is Burns and Allen that were great but not the show (although I certainly do enjoy it).

So much of the show depends on jokes rather than situations. It seems as if it were being written for radio rather than TV.

Gracie is wonderful but the constant, incessant, "ditzy " shtick prevents her from ever becoming a real person. She's funny to listen to, but she's totally unreliable.

And while "I Love Lucy " somehow maintains a contemporary feel, Burns&Allen seems like a throwback to vaudeville.

*but she's totally unrelatable

Don't know about the greatest, but the two funniest are Curb Your Enthusiasm and Frasier.

Although in retrospect, I HATE the way the characters on Frasier demonised women for laffs.

Why do the gays like Frazier so much? It seems so pompous and theatrical to me. I hate the stiff, strident acting so much I can scarcely manage two minutes.

But yes to 30 Rock, Bewitched, early Roseanne, I Love Lucy, Arrested Development, BoJack Horseman, and Mary Tyler Moore. MTM created a warmth that has never quite been replicated in sitcom form.

I’d give at least honorable mention to Good Times, Archer, The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, and Kimmy Schmidt.

No love for "I Dream of Jeannie"? I love Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman and Bill Daily.

[quote] IMHO it is Burns and Allen that were great but not the show

But you could say that about any sit-com.

Remove MTM from the MTM Show?

Remove Lucy from ILL?

Remove Seinfeld from Seinfeld?

Or Cosby or Friends or Jeannie or Beaver, etc.

The good thing about Mary Tyler Moore was that it was both a workplace comedy (like the Cheers bar) and was also an at-home comedy (neighbors Rhoda and Phyllis).

Also, Bess sometimes. Plus Mary had her co-workers over to her apartment sometimes for her hilariously disastrous parties.

Peyton Place. Can't wait for the reboot.

For once I'm in the majority! I thought that would NEVER happen!

[quote]Why do the gays like Frazier so much? It seems so pompous and theatrical to me.

For me, that's the whole point.

It makes fun of pomposity.

Think of every DL post where a subsequent poster says "MARY!" - that triggering preceding post is our version of Frasier.

Best Vintage Sitcom :The George Burns And Gracie Allen Show

Best Modern sitcom: Seinfeld

Best Sitcom Still Airing: Curb Your Enthusiasm

My favorite sitcoms are the ones that have both home and work settings:

The Dick Van Dyke Show

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Bob Newhart Show

Frasier

Thank you, r98. I probably still won’t watch Frasier, but you made a strong case for what I like least about it. Bonus for using DL and MARY! posters to make it relatable.

-r91

Most famous sitcom I liked but really wish it were better than it really was: Rhoda

Big Bang Theory, Seinfeld. I'll always watch a rerun of one of those 2.

Veep was terrible. I loved The Thick of It and looked forward to Veep, but it was just not watchable.

Frasier

Either I Love Lucy or the Simpsons - no other sitcoms were as transformative.

R99, hello! Didn't know I'd run into a George & Gracie fan here! I originally watched Seinfeld and occasionally watch a rerun, but he's a self-centered cad. Michael Richards is a racist jerk. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was great in her role. Jason Alexander and the people who played his parents were neurotic and did a great job, but I never liked Stiller or his son. Shrinkage! You stopped short? You speak Korean? LOL

R105, you're not alone and this isn't personal, but Kelsey Grammer is a right-wing extremist & real jerk. Never heard a good word about him. Alcoholic, drug abuser, 4 marriages & 7 children. In my state's last election, voters put on the ballot a referendum to restore voting rights to former criminals who served their sentences. Grammer appeared in TV ads in opposition to it, stating criminals violated him/his family. The referendum passed. Regardless that I adore Bebe Neuwirth and there were 2 gays on Frasier, I don't watch it because it's not amusing.

I have a point about "bad people". With modern programs in syndication, most actors get royalties. With cable TV & digital boxes, what we watch is "known". I refuse to watch/contribute to people who are bigots, racists, right-wing extremists, etc. If it's on Fox channel, forget it. If almost everyone did that, things would change for the better. Did I read insignificant Katy Perry got $25 million to do American Idol? Doesn't matter she's a feminist & supports LGBT, that is fucking insanity!

'Allo 'Allo!

There wouldn't be any sitcoms without I Love Lucy. It invented the format.

Dennis the Menace, at least the 3 seasons with Joseph Kearns.

Since Bonnie Franklin is a DL goddess, I'm shocked One Day at a Time hasn't owned this thread l!

[quote]There wouldn't be any sitcoms without I Love Lucy. It invented the format.

No it didn't.

The Goldbergs, Mary Kay and Johnny, The Life of Riley.... all predate I Love Lucy.

Pete and Gladys starring Harry Morgan and Cara Williams, 1960-62.

Hazel (played by Shirley Booth) and her employers, the Baxters, September 28, 1961, to April 11, 1966,

Green Acres starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, September 15, 1965, to April 27, 1971.

The Beverly Hillbillies, 1962 to 1971.

Rhoda

Phyllis

Designing Women

MTM

Cheers

The Lucy Show of the 1960s with Lucy, Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon

Very recent but Schitts Creek gives me more pleasure than any other show. From classic era, The Dick Van Dyke Show.

tFuck outa here, yall aren't just going to disregard my black shows like The Jeffersons, Goodtimes, The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air--which were not only critical darlings but wildly popular with high ratings.

Roseanne and The Golden Girls. Though I've been warming up to Friends and The Middle. All in The Family and I Love Lucy were good too.

Sex and the City is clearly Number One, you crazed bitches.

Frasier

I liked Amen with Sherman Hemsley, hot Clifton Davis and adorable Anna Maria Horsford.

Even with all its' faults, I loved Bette Midler's short-lived sitcom 'Bette.'

Oh Madeline starring the late, great Madeline Kahn that aired on ABC from September 27, 1983 to March 13, 1984.

High Society (1995 TV series) aired Monday nights on CBS from October 30, 1995 to February 26, 1996. Hilarious!!

Starred Jean Smart and Mary McDonnell.

Filthy Rich aired on CBS from August 1982 to July 1983.

Starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke and Ann Wedgeworth.

The Powers That Be aired on NBC from March 7, 1992 to January 16, 1993. One of Norman Lear's funniest shows ever!

Starred John Forsythe, Holland Taylor, Valerie Mahaffey and David Hyde Pierce.

I actually liked The New Adventures of Old Christine, I felt like it was Selena Meyer "lite,"

The Bob Cummings Show (aka Love That Bob)

r126, don't forget Charles Frank!

The Andy Griffith Show

The Pruitts of Southhampton - and love the theme song too.

Frasier!

Lucy is winning this poll, which is a joke.

I love Lucille Ball, and the series had a lot of charms, but it’s much too slow to register as the greatest of all time.

Greatest should have been sitcom: Viva Viv!

Didn't look at all the comments because I figured that OP must be an idiot to have left off the best comedy of all time -- Frasier.

Silicon Valley

I just watched the last episode of the series, R136. It was confusing and depressing. Since the #metoo departure of Ehrlich Bachman, the show has been an empty shell.

MTM

Enough said.

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