Glee - it may be trite, over the top and cheesy, but it certainly has a very unique approach to sit-comedy.
Inspired by the Liz Lemmon thread, I am going to set up a poll on the best sitcoms on TV. In advance of that poll, I am taking nominations. I think we should probably limit this to broadcast TV because of everyone's easy access to it. But, if you want to make an argument for something on cable, I'll listen.
Already nominated are: The Office, 30 Rock, Modern Family, Cougar Town, How I Met Your Mother, and Big Bang Theory.
If you want to write an elloquent essay supporting one of those shows or some other show, go for it!
--Jason "I'll take nominations and discussion of the nominations for a few days with a goal of having a vote early next week" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Glee - it may be trite, over the top and cheesy, but it certainly has a very unique approach to sit-comedy.
Please no. I was forced to watch an episode of this for the first time a couple weeks ago when I was stuck in a waiting room with a TV that didn't change channels.
This show is an example of how dumb the average audience is. It is nothing but lame sexual innuendo and jokes that would never be made in normal conversation. A truly awful awful show.
That it is so popular simply shows how mindless this country is.
This says more about you than the show IMHO. You've clearly spent no time around the people the main characters are supposed to be - highly intelligent, socially awkward post-doctoral research fellows in an esoteric field of research. I spent a decade around these people, and Big Bang may as well be a documentary. Not only do those jokes get made regularly in normal conversation in that crowd, the lame sexual innuendos are pretty par for the course in that crowd. It's brilliantly written by someone who clearly spent time in and around the research community.
I have to agree with the negative on The Big Bang Theory... I was forced to watch an episode, and I don't think I cracked a smile even once... it was so obvious and heavy handed, and the laugh track didn't help.
Jason, I've got to put Parks and Rec forward for a nomination... I think it is really very funny, and very understated... one of my current favorites, to be honest.
Jason, on another note, I would LOVE to do another of these for Best HBO show... they have had some AMAZING shows through history... some great stuff!
You guys obviously need to take more physics classes, play more MMOROPGs, read more comics and watch more Star Trek. It's been a long time since I've laughed so much at jokes about the Doppler effect, Schrödinger's cat, Warcraft, JJ Abrams and other things relevant to my life.
I second the motion. I think it's terrific. Like the best sitcoms, the comedy arises from the characters rather than the situation (ironic, no?). Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons) is a wonderfully drawn and truly hysterical character. Besides, any show that features an appearance by George Smoot and works as hard as it does to get the physics right deserves a second look.
Nope, Dukies aren't arrogant at all. NosirreeBob.
Leaving aside the fact that your actual critique, such as it is, consists of a whopping one sentence...
1) You were in a waiting room, which generally doesn't put people in the best or most relaxed of moods.
2) You really meant it when you said "forced," as you didn't even have the option of changing the channel.
IMHO, under those circumstances there was no way in Chapel Hill that you were going to enjoy anything on TV that you didn't already love. And as such, it's a little unfair to label those who do enjoy the show as dumb and mindless. I don't care if you think I'm dumb, but at least give me credit for having a mind
I have to nominate Community. Have been on board with the show since it started.
I will be honest, I had a hard time with Big Bang also because the one guy clearly has aspergers. I know he is written just to be funny, but it was hard to just watch him as a "funny" character without being totally blinded by what seemed to me to be an obvious disability...
I don't know... as a bit of a nerd myself, I didn't think it was funny at all
. . . two time Grammy winner John Prine. "Blow up your TV."
Other than live sports and to watch movies I barely use mine. Once I broke the habit I never missed it. And it was a habit (and is for many people - they just turn the damned thing on automatically when they enter the house).
As far as I'm concerend "what is the best sit-com" is about as good a question as "what is the best fast food". None of them are good, some simply less horrid than others.
Personally, I love Big Bang Theory (and I work with Physicists)...
What I can't believe is that Cougar Town is in this mix. My spouse and I tape it and watch it just to see how long we can go before the painful dialogue makes us turn it off. Typically we last about 7 minutes or less. When compared to Modern Family - this show is truly awful.
The ratings are backing this up...as it is consistently slipping, and 4 of the last 5 weeks it has had a rating of below 4.0
This show has already been renewed for next year...but unless it turns things around (and pronto), this thing will die a slow and painful death next year.
In terms of shows to add - I think you have to put Two and a Half Men (even though I don't like it), and I would also add Glee. Yes, it is partially a drama...but it is mostly comedy.
This Asperger's sufferer loves the show and loves that Sheldon is "one of us." Slate loves it too and comments on Asperger's:
"It's a series laughing with geeks, not at them—and it's humor that finds its perfect vehicle in the geekiest of neurological conditions.
"...While characters like Mr. Spock and Data hold a certain honorary status in the Asperger's community, Sheldon is different: He's a human puzzling over the fascinating life-forms of Pasadena. And with Big Bang now shown everywhere from Iceland to the Philippines, he's poised to become a pop-culture emblem of the Aspie. That might not be such a bad thing. As exasperating as he can be, Sheldon's remarkably well-adapted to his world. Beneath the sitcom pratfalls, The Big Bang Theory is a meditation on how bright people work with the absurdly mismatched abilities that they've been given. For a comedy, that's an inspired—even noble—premise to work from."
Hm, see, I found that the show was playing him off just as a funny, weird guy and to be laughed at more than anything else.
Plus, I found the humor very basic. I would expect smarter humor, but I found the "smart" humor as very broad and not very smart.
Different strokes
Agreed on both points. I think mostly the laugh track on BBT irritates the hell out of me.
Parks & Rec started out very sloppy, but it has gotten a lot better in season 2. They should just rename it "Tom Haverford and Ron Swanson Show". Does it count as a sitcom or mockumentary? I guess it's a pseudo-mockumentary (mock-mockumentary?) at best, like the Office anyway.
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100% agree with this as well. I was a CS grad student for 2 years FWIW.
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I second the vote for Community (which also should be renamed the "Abed and Troy Show"). I want to also nominate The Middle - it's a very underrated show that I fear will be axed due to low viewership
Last edited by hc5duke; 04-28-2010 at 01:47 PM. Reason: edit #2
I am guessing you did not watch Arrested Development. Heck, did you ever watch MASH?
We could do a poll for best sitcom of all time, but MASH would win in a walk (IMHO).
-Jason "unless we get a glut of other nomninations, I am fine with adding Community and Parks & Rec to the list" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
worse and thank god for the long-overdue cancellation?
I could easily be compelled to remove Cougar Town from the list. While I mostly enjoy it, it is not even in my top 5 sitcoms right now and is clearly overshadowed by Modern Family right before it.
Question, because I do not watch Glee (though I probably should) - is it really a sitcom? The hour-long sitcom is an extremely rare thing and I want to be careful about not being too braod in our definition. I mean, some folks could have considered Boston Legal to be a sitcom while I think it was clearly not the same type of program as the more traditional sitcoms we are going to be voting on here.
Glee is, by all acocunts, a wonderful program, but I ask the folks who watch it regularly, is it a sitcom?
--Jason "frankly, I am starting to think FlashForward is a sitcom because it makes me laugh at how absurd it is" Evans
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?
Put me on the "love Big Bang Theory" list. It's the only sit-com I actually watch so I can't really comment on the rest. I generally lose my interest in TV shows pretty quickly but BBT is one of the few that I look forward to every week. I'm pretty sure the X-Mas episode of BBT was one of my favorite episodes of anything on TV. In particular the last scene was maybe the most I have ever laughed.
Also I agree with Jason that MASH was awesome. I was pretty young when it was regularly on TV but whenever it was on I would watch and it is still funny today.