Poll: What is the all-time greatest sitcom?

Get Smart was my favorite for something like 25 years. I didn't think it would every lose its spot but Seinfeld knocked it off.

Here is how I'd order the choices

1. Seinfeld
   
2. Get Smart
   
3. All in the Family
   
4. Dick Van Dyck
   
5. Mary Tyler Moore
   
6. Cheers
   
7. The Simpsons
   
8. M*A*S*H
   
9. Something Else
   
10. Friends

I don't really like friends but I thought it might get some votes.

Other great ones

• The Bob Newhart Show
  
• Newhart
  
• Taxi
  
• Soap
  
• Married with Children
  
• The Honeymooners
  
• Burns and Allen

I'm sure I'm missing some I great ones.

I wouldn't even try to order them but I think Soap is still my favourite :)

The first two seasons were great and it only lasted three so it loses credit for not keeping it up that long.

Four! there are 4 seasons!
Soap is my all time favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Of course, the third was when Burt was taken by the aliens, right?

The thing that always got me was that Soap was great andinnovative didn't last and the spinnoff, which was so mundane, did.

What was the spin-oof?

(betting I'll feel dumb and say "oh, duh" when I find out)

Benson. :)

See there is a reason I like you.

I wonder if we've discovered the line at which you no longer like me if I let you in on the fact that I hate Seinfeld....:)

I'm counting to ten. I'm remembering good things about you. I'm gathering my inner resources.

OK, I still like you. Say three Hail Murrays and I'll forgive you.

No one has mentioned "The Cosby Show" yet? I don't know if it wa the all-time greatest, but it was really really good.

-- Pauley

D'oh!

Of course it belongs. I knew I'd forget great ones. I place it above Cheers.

Alex P Keaton rocks!

Lots of love for the Bluthe family.

WORD.
You beat me to it.

I third this motion. Kind of a recent choice, but it's definitely in my top 5.

I think it's in my top 1. :)

since halfway through season one ive told everyone i know that this is the best written, best acted, and overall best made sitcom of all time. i dont believe it's an exaggeration, but most people do.

I said something else but what I was really looking for was "I could never decide". There are so many I think are great for different reasons that I just can't pin it down.

What about "I Love Lucy"? Though I picked All in the Family cause it really did push the envelope for so many taboo issues in the 70s. And Meathead was in it!

News f'n Radio!

news radio was good. i wonder why it stopped airing... lol.

as much as i adore the first four seasons of this show, it went so far downhill after phil hartman's death that there's no way i could call it "the all-time greatest sitcom."

i feel similarly about seinfeld and the simpsons--seinfeld's last season was really weak, and lord knows the simpsons jumped the shark years ago. i think friends is highly underrated by people who would really dig it if they gave it a chance--when i was in high school and college, i hated it because it was just so popular, but once i sat down and actually watched it, i discovered how great the writing often was.

so it was a tough choice for me between dick van dyke and mary tyler moore--and as much as you could argue that dvd led directly to mtm and is therefore the "greater" sitcom, it also had the most annoying sitcom child ever. so mtm wins. go georgia engel.

I knew it would come down to those two for you.

You don't like Richie Rosebud Petrie?

What happened to him? Was he killed by a transvestite prostitute while he was holding up an liquor store?

you know very well how i feel about richie rosebud petrie. you're just using this forum as an excuse to show off the fact that you know his full name. :)

i had to look larry mathews up to see what actually happened to him. the answer is not bloody much.

Yes I am showing off. That's news?


the most annoying child actor of all time is Pamela Paulson of Robot Monster fame. They killed her character off to get her off the set.

I agree wholeheartedly on Friends.
"Either that, or Gloria Estefan was right, and one day, the rhythm really is going to get you!"

NewsRadio didn't go that far down after they lost Phil. I thought Jon Lovitz was about the best replacement they could ever hope to get, and it still made me laugh harder than about 95% of TV shows.

Yeah I've always loved Friends, even though I've felt so mundane for it. :) But it's highly funny. I did get frustrated sometimes, like how Ross became such a caricature when he wasn't bad at first, but I think it was very very good.

Don't know if I'd say best...but in terms of personal enjoyment it's right up there.

MTM is most definitely the greatest sitcom. And yes, I have the boxsets. *love love love* :)

Can you think Chuckles the Clown dying and not smile?

"Born in a trunk, died in a trunk."

Bosom Buddies always has a soft spot in my heart. I loved it as a kid.

Night Court!

Better yet, the John Larroquette Show. That show was so damn funny.

Will I be persucuted if I say "Perfect Strangers?" I mean, come on. Foreign guy? Zany circumstances? Don't be ridikkalous.

That depends, do you consider being tarred and feathered persecution?

I always liked Balki OK but I hated Cousin Larry with a fiery passion. Dude never learned.

Maybe I just identified with him . . .

In reference to this post, and the post above, did you ever see the movie Second Sight? John Larroquette as a straitlaced private eye, and Bronson Pinchot as the zany psychic who has to help him solve a case. Quite hilarious.

Yeah, I saw it.





. . . . and loved it. That movie wrote itself!!

For years after seeing that movie, my ex and I would make Balki's psychic sonar noise at each other.

How could I forget the Odd Couple? Felix, Oscar, Randall, Klugman.

As funny as it gets.

The early 70s were the golden age of sitcoms. There were so many great ones. CBS gave you a reason to stay home on Saturday nights.
8:00 All in the Family
8:30 The spot that someone couldn't get a hit show
9:00 Mary Tyler Moore
9:30 The Bob Newhart Show

I'm pretty sure that M*A*S*H was on at least one season on Saturday night.

Night Court
That 70's Show
News Radio
The Lone Gunmen (Funniest show ever on television)

That 70's Show?

That 70's Show. Seriously? In that case, I'd like to nominate Just the Ten of Us. Or maybe that show with Tom Arnold.

Hey, it's a damn funny show. Not in my top 5 (or 10, I think), but perfectly acceptable comedy.

"We just came for beer. And, I love Rush. Fly By Night, OW!"

werd.

Plus, I liked it before the show jumped the shark.

Something just occured to me.

I'm a self-professing Christian (read: Follower of Jesus Christ and His teachings) and yet, when the last quiz was up here about heaven, I didn't bother posting my opinions. And here I am, spouting off passionately (no pun) about TV shows.

Oh, Justin.

not the crap that's on now...the original TGIF line-up of the late 80's /early 90's was like totally cool man!

Perfect Strangers
Mr. Belvadere
Golden Girls
Empty Nest

I used to stay almost every weekend at my grandmother's and this was a friday night tradition...along with a homemade ice cream sunday...mmmmmm

other late greats were:
Cheers
Cosby Show
alot of early Nick at Nite (Donna Read, My Two Sons, Mr. Ed)
and the Best of the Best - The Monkees ^_^

aside from the occasional Two and 1/2 Men (when i remember its on) i really don't like the sitcoms of today.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOESHA!

The Andy Griffith Show?

Charles in Charge!

Now I have the theme song earwormed.

Fawlty Towers!

Sports Night! Lots of pretty and full of witty dialogue. What an amazing sitcom. It's one of the few TV shows that I can watch over and over again.

Scrubs and Arrested Development are also in my top 5.