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100 Best Sitcoms of All Time

TonyTexas

By TonyTexas
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Apep

Apep 645

Posted
Posted
On 5/17/2021 at 3:34 PM, closetohumping said:

Yeah, Cheers can't be ahead of Seinfeld.  

There are a couple of  reasons to put Cheers ahead of Seinfeld:

1) It repeatedly, and successfully, dealt with cast changes.

2) It was good from the beginning.

The best reason to put Seinfeld ahead of Cheers is that it was better, maybe much better, for longer.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28788

Posted
Posted
52 minutes ago, Apep said:

The best reason to put Seinfeld ahead of Cheers is that it was better, maybe much better, for longer.

Well, yeah, isn’t that sort of the point?

I didn’t get into Cheers from the start because when it came out I was too young to have ever had a drink or been in a bar. I didn’t get the premise and thought it sounded dumb. I can’t recall exactly when I watched it for the first time. Maybe by the end of the first season, definitely by the second season. Whenever it was, I got it. But originally I assumed it would be nothing but a bunch of drunk humor. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Apep said:

There are a couple of  reasons to put Cheers ahead of Seinfeld:

1) It repeatedly, and successfully, dealt with cast changes.

2) It was good from the beginning.

The best reason to put Seinfeld ahead of Cheers is that it was better, maybe much better, for longer.

fair points.  Cheers started stronger, and probably finished stronger than Seinfeld.  But pound-for-pound...Seinfeld was the tits mcgee for 9 seasons with 7 of those being absolutely superlative.  The cast change thing is bullshit.  Coach died, horrible tragedy.  Woody Harrelson took over and nailed it, but it's not Seinfeld's fault no principal cast member died.  Cheers picked up and moved on in wonderful fashion.  Rebecca for Diane does not make or break a series.  If anything, Rebecca was a downgrade comedically/chemistry wise from Diane.  And don't claim Frasier.  Frasier was a great character but he was just a bit player who audiences resonated with and he got promoted.  He's just Puddy with a PhD  

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

Posted
Posted
On 5/17/2021 at 9:56 PM, longhornmatt said:

But you can do this with earlier seasons, too.  There was a multi-episode arc in one of the early seasons about Kramer moving to Los Angeles and being a suspected murderer, with the gang all ending up in LA.  It’s a myth that every episode was about nothing.  Season 4 and Season 7 had actual season-long storylines.

KRAAAAAAAA--MER.........

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Deej

Deej 76828

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Frasier and Lilith ruled and were a huge addition to the cast of Cheers. They improved the show immensely. Frasier was hardly a bit player.

If anything, Puddy was the bit player, only appearing in 11 episodes. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Posted
10 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Frasier and Lilith ruled and were a huge addition to the cast of Cheers. They improved the show immensely. Frasier was hardly a bit player.

Yes, I know he was hardly a bit player...but only in hindsight.  At the time he was cast and written into the show, it was intended that Frasier would be a handful of episodes character arc with Diane (rebound boyfriend to meet her level of sophistication).  But he had such great chemistry with everyone else at the bar, except Diane, that he was written into the show permanently.  And then when another female was needed to foil Carla and Rebecca, Lilith came along on a semi-permanent basis.  Neither was ever conceived of being a full-time player until into the show's 4th season.  

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WBT

WBT 20606

Posted
Posted
29 minutes ago, Mac8111 said:

I turned on Episode 1 of MASH and 10 min into they have referred to the black guy on the cast as Spearchucker and they are raffling off a weekend pass to Japan with one of the nurses, against her desires.

George Costanza Seinfeld GIF

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Felix

Felix 607

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Mac8111 said:

I turned on Episode 1 of MASH and 10 min into they have referred to the black guy on the cast as Spearchucker and they are raffling off a weekend pass to Japan with one of the nurses, against her desires.

Yeah but he was a spearchucker.  That's what made it funny.  He threw the javelin in college.  It's not like they were making fun of him.  It was intended to be ironic.  The character was a neurosurgeon, so no exactly marginalized.  They were poking fun at the stereotype. 

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RPM

RPM 26322

Posted
Posted
47 minutes ago, Mac8111 said:

I turned on Episode 1 of MASH and 10 min into they have referred to the black guy on the cast as Spearchucker and they are raffling off a weekend pass to Japan with one of the nurses, against her desires.

Spearchucker was a character from the source novel. He lasted 6 episodes in S1.  There was much speculation as to why he was cut, but according to Larry Gelbart  "Extensive research indiated (sic) there were no black surgeons in MASH units in Korea. We were not interested in empty tokenism. We also had to cut down on the number of characters in the series for budgetary reasons."

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, RPM said:

Spearchucker was a character from the source novel. He lasted 6 episodes in S1.  There was much speculation as to why he was cut, but according to Larry Gelbart  "Extensive research indiated (sic) there were no black surgeons in MASH units in Korea. We were not interested in empty tokenism. We also had to cut down on the number of characters in the series for budgetary reasons."

Hope that guy doesn't read Huckleberry Finn

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Lhorn

Lhorn 4914

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, RPM said:

Didn't make the list because it was only on for 2 seasons but Sledge Hammer was greatness.

 

And yet Frank's place made it with only 1 season.  One of the many head scratcher's on the list.  Haven't seen Sledge Hammer since it was on originally but remember it being funny and being upset it was cancelled.

Saw this minimally interesting factoid about Frank's Place on IMDB:

According to Tim Reid, Walter Cronkite, who was a member of the board of directors at CBS, told him that the series was cancelled because of the final episode. In "The King of Wall Street", a Wall Street tycoon condemns junk bonds. Laurence Tisch, the CEO of CBS, was offended by this episode because he had bought the network with junk bonds. He demanded that the series be cancelled despite the objections of Cronkite and other board members.

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Saint Tacky

Saint Tacky 1614

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 5/7/2021 at 11:43 PM, shadow_operative said:

how many people tuned in for the GOT finale? i feel like that's got to be the biggest TV event (and bomb) of my lifetime.

I’d put the Seinfeld finale right there in that category. The culmination of the tailspin that began when Larry David checked out. 
 

I was relieved to see the Larry Sanders Show in the Top 10. “Hey Now!”

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Deej

Deej 76828

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Saint Tacky said:

I’d put the Seinfeld finale right there in that category. The culmination of the tailspin that began when Larry David checked out. 
 

I was relieved to see the Larry Sanders Show in the Top 10. “Hey Now!”

Except Larry David wrote that finale. 

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28788

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Saint Tacky said:

I’d put the Seinfeld finale right there in that category. The culmination of the tailspin that began when Larry David checked out.

Tailspin? Go Festivus yourself.

Jesus. It’s like some people don’t think Jerry Seinfeld had anything to do with a show based on Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy. AND WAS FUCKING NAMED AFTER HIM! Jerry and Larry were close friends and partners. They went over and rewrote the scripts together. It was a brilliant collaboration and it’s not like Jerry was some poor hapless puppet dangling from Larry’s strings.

Oh yeah, the whole “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” was pure Seinfeld. That was all his idea. 

Edited by WhatTheBuck
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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28788

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Looks like Seinfeld is going on a little streaming break after June 23rd. It’s going off Hulu, but Netflix has said it won’t be available until “September at the earliest”. 
 

Time for to fire up that DVR on TBS. 

I’ve got them all on DVD. From 12/23/19 (starting with The Strike aka the Festivus episode) to 12/25/20 I watched every episode, all the deleted scenes, every “Inside Look,”’ and rewatched every episode with commentary if it was available. When the commentary was from Larry David and Jerry, there wasn’t a lot of commentary. There was a lot of laughter. 

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