Are you ready for the biggest sitcom battle in history?
To start things off, we’ve put together a selection of what we think are the top sitcoms of all time. How did we come up with them? Well…
We started by putting together our own personal lists of greatest sitcoms and then scanned numerous “expert” lists that have been assembled over the years. Next, we looked at the top 30 ratings over the past 50+ years and then, added in any sitcom that lasted for at least seven seasons (they must have been doing something right!). Finally, we added in your suggestions. We may not have every show but we’ve got more than 200 top contenders.
In the case where there was some question about whether a show was a drama or a sitcom, we looked at the show’s Emmy history. For example, Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives have been nominated as “Best Comedy” so they are eligible. Boston Legal, on the other hand, was considered a drama.
Now, as we move on to the voting, we’re putting it all in your hands. There are lots of sitcoms to choose from but that won’t last long.
For this round, we’ve grouped the shows by decade. If a show initially aired in more than one, we put it in the decade when most of its episodes aired. For most decades, we split the choices up into two polls. For the 2000’s, we broke them up into four because there were just so many.
At the end of this round, we’ll take the top vote-getters from each decade and pit them against one another. The winners of those groupings will then compete against one another, and so on, until we have the show that you think is the greatest sitcom in TV history.
You can vote only once for each poll but don’t worry, we’ll start the next round of voting on Monday, April 19th. So, please get busy! You’ve got some tough choices to make!
NOTE: This round is now closed. Please go to round two!
Choose the best 1950's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 681  Loading ... |
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Choose the best 1950's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 743 Loading ... |
Choose the best 1960's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 794 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 1960's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 759 Loading ... |
Choose the best 1970's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 808 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 1970's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 779 Loading ... |
Choose the best 1980's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 855 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 1980's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 816 Loading ... |
Choose the best 1990's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 892 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 1990's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 879 Loading ... |
Choose the best 2000's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 836 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 2000's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 880 Loading ... |
Choose the best 2000's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 848 Loading ... |
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Choose the best 2000's sitcom from this list:
Total Votes: 864 Loading ... |
What do you think? Which show do you think will be the big winner? Any predictions?
It’s amazing how much junk has been on the air over the last 10 years.
I agree with you Joe Doc.
Well, let’s call this Favorite Sitcom since popularity will play a greater role than quality; witness Friends, a huge leader & decent show that few would argue the best ever. Barney Miller, Arrested Development, either Newhart & All in the Family are all superior shows that likely won’t make the first cut.
C’monnn, Andy Griffith!
What fun! Went down memory lane while reviewing each list. No complaints here. It was all just in fun, wasn’t it now!
Kind of agree with some of the polls!!!! Thought All in the family got a raw deal..That show for it’s time was awsome!! Maybe we had too many younger viewers.
I liked the poll, too bad we can’t vote on shows in this manner prior to them being canceled out of hand. If the networks got feedback from actual viewers instead of depending on Mr. Nielsen’s magic box shows would be more fairly judged. With 80 percent of today’s homes equipped with computers, representative counting is obsolete. Using polls such as the ones shown here would allow each viewer to have a voice instead of each Nielsen box being counted as 22,600 viewers.
the only issue i see is the decade that you categorized The Simpsons. It seems the series’ strongest seasons were in the 90s – Seasons 4-7. Also note that Time magazine’s December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century’s best television series,.
I’d just like to point out that you have several series listed as sitcoms that are NOT sitcoms and should not be listed as such. A sitcom is not just a comedy. It has parameters, and some of the shows listed do not fit them: Moonlighting, Freaks & Geeks, Northern Exposure are all classified by the television industry as hour-long dramas, even though today we like to use the term “dramedy” when describing them. Even Desperate Housewives is not a sitcom, it is an hour-long comedic soap opera. The Muppet Show is also not a sitcom at all, but a… Read more »
I am so happy to see all of my favorite shows on here!! I love Desperate Housewives and Reba, both of whom were not on the original list. Thank you so much for adding them!!
I agree, the poll setup is idiotic. In some sections, one struggles to select the best of the hardly-great, while in others it’s annoying to see several exceptionally good shows. If you continue on in this fashion, you’ll get a result, but it will mean nothing. Congratulations on a pointless poll with a presumptuously inflated title.
Also, “comedy” does not equal sitcom. No matter what awards were given out to whom, you have bizarrely inaccurate choices in your lists. For example: Desperate Housewives is not a sitcom, and The Muppets was more of a variety show.
@blue: Thanks for your feedback, though far from tactful. You are not obligated to take part. Ultimately, the most popular shows will rise to the top because people will vote for them over others, regardless of the groupings. As mentioned, we’re not taking only one from each grouping to the next round. I think the Muppet Show could be considered either a sitcom or variety show. Unlike the Carol Burnett Show, it had characters and stories taking place around the production of a variety stage show. The acts were often heavily influenced by what was going on off stage. You… Read more »
I love the poll but do think the alphabetized list and breaking up decades is not the most accurate way to do it. In the 70s for instance, you have some amazing shows in the early half of the alphabet that will get cut whereas the second half of the list is much weaker allowing lesser shows to get through. I mean, WKRP in Cincinatti will make the cut but not The Brady Bunch or The Bob Newhart Show?
@Ryan: There’s no easy way to do it. We’ve got a ton of shows to vote on but, even at this point, it looks like there are some clear favorites. We’ll see how it goes.
I would have arranged the poll perhaps like this:
– put the 200-300 shows randomly in groups of 20
– in each group of 20: let the voter give out 5 points (to at least 3 shows)
– next round 40 best shows: 4 groups of 10 (arranged randomly), the voter gives out again 5 points to at least 3 shows
– last round, top 10: The voter gives out 5 points to at least 3 shows. The winner is declared.
No Larry Sanders? The best sitcom ever…
It was very hard to choose. I didn’t realize how many shows there were, and how really great so many of them were. It was fun, Thanks.
I know I’m not supposed to take this all too seriously (and I don’t) but voting based on a partial list in alphabetical order seems kind of pointless. Why not set them up to vote by entire decade?
Also, how do you qualify the Simpsons as a 2000s series? The show started in the 80s but really the best of it was in the 1990s and the only show that could come anywhere near it during that era (or possibly any other) would be Seinfeld.
@Gregg: We broke them up because the polls would be so long otherwise — 60+ shows for the 2000’s. The way the plugin is set, you can vote only once. That seemed too limiting. In the future rounds, there will be just 2-3 shows per grouping (unless we decide to add the “sorry we forgot” category). We included The Simpsons in the 2000’s because it’s still running. As mentioned in the post, we put shows in the grouping where most episodes had aired. Since the 2000’s includes a bit more than a decade, it seemed the most appropriate place. No,… Read more »
Where are Absolutely Fabulous, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, Archer, Bottom, Corner Gas, Curb Your Enthusiam, Eastbound and Down, Entourage, Father Ted, Flight of the Conchords, How Not To Live Your Life, I’m Alan Partridge, Men Behaving Badly, Spaced, The Brittas Empire, The League of Gentlemen, The New Statesman, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister etc.? Perhaps this poll should have been about US sitcoms.
Seinfeld is spelled Sienfeld.
@imoth: Thanks for catching the typo and your feedback. Unfortunately, the shows you mentioned didn’t make the list. We solicited reader input for weeks and nobody mentioned them. If we get enough other comments like yours, perhaps we’ll add a special “let’s not forget” poll. Thanks.
Sorry. I did not notice that this poll was coming. Here’s a list of Britain’s Best Sitcoms (2004): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain's_Best_Sitcom 1. Only Fools and Horses, 2. Blackadder (only this one is on your list), 3. The Vicar of Dibley, 4. Dad’s Army Also, not on your poll these shows: One Foot in the Grave, Peep Show, Green Wing, Shameless, Trailer Park Boys, The Young Ones and The Thick of It. Also not listed these favourites of mine: The Larry Sanders Show and The Newsroom. There are really great non-English sitcoms like Finnish shows Tankki Täyteen and Reinikainen, but I understand why… Read more »
It’s spelled Seinfeld.