My All-Time Favourite TV Comedy Series
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http://ramblerwithoutborders.blogspot.sg/search/label/Film%20Review
I love comedies, and this list contains my faves in the descending order from the most to the least.
About 90% of the series in this list, I had watched almost all episodes. About 5% I had watched at least 30% of the episodes. And only less 5% that I had watched only a few episodes, and decided to stop watching because they turned out to be time wasters.
It's no easy task to rank them. The top 10 are relatively easier, but the rest are hard. This is my best shot FOR ME (as comedy is totally subjective, and are subject to further changes). For examples, classics like Happy Days maybe very funny in its days, but simply not that funny today. We may like it for nostalgic reason - I found it funny once when I grew up with it - but it's just not the same TODAY, TO ME. That's why the list title is All-Time Favourite, not Favourite of the Year or Decade.
Boy! Just realise how much comedy I've watched.
http://ramblerwithoutborders.blogspot.sg/search/label/Film%20Review
I love comedies, and this list contains my faves in the descending order from the most to the least.
About 90% of the series in this list, I had watched almost all episodes. About 5% I had watched at least 30% of the episodes. And only less 5% that I had watched only a few episodes, and decided to stop watching because they turned out to be time wasters.
It's no easy task to rank them. The top 10 are relatively easier, but the rest are hard. This is my best shot FOR ME (as comedy is totally subjective, and are subject to further changes). For examples, classics like Happy Days maybe very funny in its days, but simply not that funny today. We may like it for nostalgic reason - I found it funny once when I grew up with it - but it's just not the same TODAY, TO ME. That's why the list title is All-Time Favourite, not Favourite of the Year or Decade.
Boy! Just realise how much comedy I've watched.
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- CreatorJames L. BrooksMatt GroeningSam SimonStarsDan CastellanetaNancy CartwrightHarry ShearerThe satiric half-hour adventures of a working-class family in the misfit city of Springfield.It's a toss-up between The Simpsons and Seinfeld for my most fave comedy series. As I'm a sucker for well-drawn, well-rounded animated characters, it pushes The Simpsons to the numero-uno spot.
Comedy relies on - more than any other genre - originality. Few could retain its freshness beyond 8 seasons. The Simpsons could still pull it off after 15 seasons, but after that the staleness begins to permeate the series except for the new audience. I suspect it's the fresh audience, not the freshness of the show that kept it alive. There's just no TV series - sitcoms or anthing else - that run remotely this long. That's a testimony of its popularity.
This comedy series is so popular that I in my travel I had watched them spoken in Italian, Chinese, French and Japanese. It's really funny to watch my most fave comedy without understand a single word ! (ok I understand some of the foreign languages to various degrees). - CreatorLarry DavidJerry SeinfeldStarsJerry SeinfeldJulia Louis-DreyfusMichael RichardsThe continuing misadventures of neurotic New York City stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York City friends.Seinfeld knew when to exit the stage on a high note after 8 seasons.
Seinfeld is the pioneer of post-modernism in Hollywood. By that, I meant specifically that he created the Seinfeld's cast of characters from real life. There's nothing revolutionary about arts imitate life, but it's the extent he applied this formulae to this sitcom that's novel. The line between Seinfeld the character and Seinfeld the person, including the name, are so blurred that it's almost impossible to draw.
This sitcom was produced at a time when reality TV shows were new to and popular on TV. Perhaps this is the show creator's brilliant satire of that genre. It also parodied it with sketches of recuring theme on how every day trivial matters were being elevated to soap opera proportion as they did so in reality TV shows. It's a mirror reflecting the whole of 1990 decade.
It's like The Simpsons, quite 'cutting edge'. - CreatorRowan AtkinsonRichard CurtisStarsRowan AtkinsonMatilda ZieglerRobin DriscollBumbling, childlike Mr. Bean has trouble completing the simplest of day-to-day tasks, but his perseverance and resourcefulness frequently allow him to find ingenious ways around problems.
- CreatorSeth MacFarlaneDavid ZuckermanStarsAlex BorsteinSeth MacFarlaneSeth GreenIn a wacky Rhode Island town, a dysfunctional family strives to cope with everyday life as they are thrown from one crazy scenario to another.Like the extremely successful The Simpsons, it's a social satire about the modern America. Much more than a copycat of The Simpsons, it has a few elements that are totally original. Political incorrectness that are previously taboo on TV, it celebrates it with great relish. Along with this breaking of social acceptabilty is the breaking of type cast of characters: the dog that speaks yet retains many canine characterstics, the baby who is in many way is still a baby but also an evil genius.
It extensive uses of long flash backs is also a original element in the series. - StarsJohn CleesePrunella ScalesAndrew SachsHotel owner Basil Fawlty's incompetence, short fuse, and arrogance form a combination that ensures accidents and trouble are never far away.This social satire done at a time when the Monty Python gang started to do their magic. John Cleese is 1 of the most well known of the MP gang. This TV series probably has a lots to do with it.
With only 2 seasons, it whets your apetite, and leaves you wanting more. - CreatorDavid X. CohenMatt GroeningStarsBilly WestJohn DiMaggioKatey SagalPhilip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy, is accidentally frozen in 1999 and thawed out on New Year's Eve 2999.Sitcoms are based on almost exclusively in the domain of real life dramas. And so sci-fi and sitcom don't usually cross path. In Futurama, it does, and with brlliant creative sparks fly. Too bad that's it's a one-of-its-kind endangered species (3rd Rock from the Sun is the other notable of sci-fi comedy. It isn't an animation, however).
- CreatorRichard CurtisStarsRowan AtkinsonBrian BlessedElspet GrayIn the Middle Ages, Prince Edmund the Black Adder constantly schemes and endeavors to seize the crown from his father and brother.Rowan Atkinson is far far more well known as Mr. Bean than The Black Adder. The 2 characters couldn't be more different.
- CreatorDavid AngellPeter CaseyDavid LeeStarsKelsey GrammerJane LeevesDavid Hyde PierceDr. Frasier Crane moves back to his hometown of Seattle, where he lives with his father and works as a radio psychiatrist.
- CreatorDavid CraneMarta KauffmanStarsJennifer AnistonCourteney CoxLisa KudrowFollows the personal and professional lives of six twenty to thirty year-old friends living in the Manhattan borough of New York City.It could easily earn number 5 spot in somebody else' list. Being able to be ranked within top 10 in this impressive list is nothing to sneeze at.
- StarsRonnie BarkerRonnie CorbettThe Fred Tomlinson SingersThis long-running BBC comedy show consisted of sketches and humourous musical routines.Like The Bennyhill Show, this show comprises of comedy sketches, but with more elevated humour.
- StarsPaul EddingtonNigel HawthorneDerek FowldsJames Hacker was propelled along the corridors of power to the very pinnacle of politics - Number 10.
- StarsBenny HillHenry McGeeJackie WrightA skit based show with Benny Hill, often containing smutty humour.Bennyhill isn't a British comedy show, it's a British insitution. So good that it had been referenced in The Simpsosns a few times.
Strictly not a sitcom, but comedy sketches. If you ever want to know what wacky British humour looks like, perhaps this gives a good frame of reference. The jokes are somewhat broad, and plenty of lowbrow bawdiness. This is the reason for viewing.
"No sex please! We're British!" is the slogan. - CreatorLarry GelbartStarsAlan AldaWayne RogersLoretta SwitThe staff of an Army hospital in the Korean War find that laughter is the best way to deal with their situation.Probably the best and most 'realistic' war-comedy (an Oxymoron in term). Others came before it included Hogan's Heroes, McHale's Navy, etc.
- CreatorTrey ParkerMatt StoneBrian GradenStarsTrey ParkerMatt StoneIsaac HayesFollows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
- CreatorGeoffrey AtherdenStarsRuth CracknellGarry McDonaldHenri SzepsThe story of Maggie Beare, an elderly woman suffering from dementia (or so she says), and her faithful, yet long suffering son, Arthur. Despite all of Maggies manipulative ways, he is her carer, even if they don't always get along.A household name Aussie sitcom that made Garry McDonald - a stage actor - one of the notable Aussie comedian.
McDonald is also well known for his perona as Gunston to pose his satirical provocations. - CreatorJim HensonJack BurnsStarsJim HensonFrank OzRichard HuntKermit the Frog and his fellow Muppets put on a vaudeville show at their theatre, bringing in a famous celebrity to help out for each episode.
- CreatorJoseph BarberaWilliam HannaStarsAlan ReedMel BlancJean Vander PylThe misadventures of two modern-day Stone Age families, the Flintstones and the Rubbles.
- StarsDawn FrenchJames FleetTrevor PeacockA boisterous female minister comes to serve in an eccentrically conservative village's church.A British social satire.
- StarsRowan AtkinsonMel SmithPamela StephensonBritish sketch comedy starring the likes of Rowan Atkinson and Mel Smith.
- StarsMark MitchellMary-Anne FaheyIan McFadyenSketch show launched from the success of "The D-Generation." The show was disbanded after the first season, but was given another shot in 1990 to become a well-loved hit comedy show. It went on to transition into "Fast Forward" (1991).A TV comedy series from Down Under. While not a sitcom, the many comedy sketches are based on many colour contempary Aussie characters.
Like Seinfeld, the artists in this show went on having their own comedy shows after they left. - CreatorBonnie TurnerTerry TurnerStarsJohn LithgowJane CurtinKristen JohnstonA group of aliens is sent to Earth, disguised as a human family, to experience and report life on the third planet from the sun.
- CreatorDavid LittMichael J. WeithornStarsKevin JamesLeah ReminiJerry StillerDeliveryman Doug Heffernan has a good life: He has a pretty wife (Carrie), a big television, and friends with which to watch it. Then Carrie's goofy, annoying father Arthur moves in with them.Jerry Stiller - Ben Stiller's real life dad - playing Doug Heffernan's father-in-law, is a delightful addition to this sitcom. It provides a wonderful dynamic to the relationship of the couple.
- CreatorRon LeavittMichael G. MoyeStarsEd O'NeillChristina ApplegateKatey SagalAl is the quintessential working class dad. Peggy, his wife, always wants more from him. With their children, they go through the highs and lows of ordinary life.
- StarsGlenn ButcherRoss WilliamsKim GyngellFull Frontal, a sketch comedy series, followed the format of its predecessor Fast Forward, rapid-firing skits to simulate channel surfing after each punchline.Another TV sletch-comedy similar to The Comedy Company that satirises contemporary Australia.
- CreatorPhil RosenthalStarsRay RomanoPatricia HeatonBrad GarrettThe comical everyday life of sports columnist Ray Barone and his dysfunctional family.