1. The Office (US)
2. The Simpsons
3. Arrested Development
3. Newhart
4. Cheers
5. Family Ties
6. Friends
7. The Wonder Years
8. The Monkees
9. South Park
10. Bosom Buddies

I'm a huge AD fan, but I gotta say I love The Office just a bit more. Although from a writing perspective, AD is fantastic, The Office gets more big laughs out of me than AD does.

The Office definitely has some of the biggest laughs around. At its best (seasons 1-3), it was arguably perfect comedy. Unfortunately, though, I think the show's been in decline for the past couple of seasons. I think the writers are finally starting to feel the strain of keeping things fresh in a show that has basically one set. It remains appointment TV for me, but I'm kind of hoping The Office tries to think more outside the box in the coming season.

Perhaps the reason AD remains so untarnished is that it never had a chance to wear out its welcome. Whatever the case, I have yet to find a cast I like more or writing so consistently funny.

I beleive that the best sitcoms that only last 2-3 seasons are the best remembered.
Any sitcom that lasts longer than 7 years usually runs out of steam.

This is true of all sitcoms
consider the following.
Faulty Towers ( only 2 seasons).
The good life ( 3 seasons)
The rise and fall of Regional Perry (3 seasons)
Arrested Development (3 Seasons)
Porrige ( 3 Seasons)
Open all Hours (4 seasons) although this took place over 9 years.

Most sitcoms play too long and end up turning into comedy soaps. With stories arcs that take place over an intire season. It also gets to a point where if you haven't seen the previous episode then you can be lost. This is especially true of the likes of scrubs, friends.

Also the writing becomes predictbale , i give you Simpson's as a prime example of a sitcom that though was brilliant at the begining is now not the sitcom it once was. Very few sitcoms last longer than 10 years. There is a reasn for this.

There is only one example of a sitcom that lasted longer than 7 years and was as good as the first series and that is Fraser.

Fraser is the best sitcom ever not only becuase it is the best written, funniest and has some of the best charactor moments ever concieved, but because it remained consistantly brilliant for 10 years. It managed to have story arcs within each series but you could still find it hillarious even if you missed several episodes.

Also the writing becomes predictbale , i give you Simpson's as a prime example of a sitcom that though was brilliant at the begining is now not the sitcom it once was. Very few sitcoms last longer than 10 years. There is a reasn for this.

Watch episodes from '92-'96, then watch recent episodes. Notice how few laughs are found in between scenes in recent episodes and how you can laugh 2-3 times in one scene of an episode in its prime('92-'95).

I've seen a few episodes of AD and find it to be overrated. It's funny and alright but nowhere near the great show it's supposedly is.

Then you've seen the wrong few episodes. Start from the beginning and you will love it.

My advice; start again from the beginning of Season 2, and then watch either season 1 or 3 after this season. I say this because the show has already been fully formed by this point, and the inside jokes from Season 2 actually enhance the quality of Season 1, and vice versa (and don't forget the equally brilliant season 3, which continues this self-referencing brilliantly while adding even more brilliant twists and insanely perfect plot developments - Mole, anybody?). My, I think I have some TV-watching to do...

P.S. - I thought 'The Office' (US Version) was well and good until the third season, which was needlessly convoluted and featured two additional characters - one who makes the love plot even more melodramatic and is acted flatly, and the other who acts like a second Dwight (like we needed another one!) and made me laugh a grand total of one time (though, admittedly, it is the hardest laugh I've ever gotten from a hidden cell phone, ever). It has never recaptured the consistency of the first two seasons, and by no means is it coming close, despite still being funny and involving more than not. For one thing, I think Steve Carell is mailing it in more and more with each passing season, further revealing Ricky Gervais' singular grasp on the part.

Andy Bernard is one of the best characters on that show. I'm surprised you think Ed Helms does a poor job, I think he's great. To me though "The Office" won't last too much longer, with Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, and now even Ed Helms and Jenna Fischer getting roles in big movies, I think more will begin to mail it in. I think "The Office" is a better show than "Arrested Development" just because I for one laugh harder at more jokes on it, although I think "Arrested Development" is an overall better written show.

The start of season 2 is the weakest part of all of Arrested Development in my opinion. They lost sight of what made the humor so smart in the first season and hadn't yet fully committed to doing the inside jokes and self-referencing that would work so well later in the season and in season 3.
Still excellent though.

I have an instant cure for that: any episode featuring Franklin the puppet. You'll come around in no time.

I love Ed Helms' work, especially in 'The Hangover' (where I think he puts in arguably the best overall performance), but I disliked the way Andy's character was introduced at Jim's new workplace, and I immediately got a sinking feeling that he would be present in future episodes as part of the Scranton branch (U.S. shows have a tendency to do this, and there's usually little to no justification for it). If a cast is already IDEAL, which the first two seasons were, why add another character who is literally less than a shading of a pre-existing character? Ed Helms soldiers through with the character, but Andy has no compelling reason to exist.






In my humble opinion, while the show was excellent in the beginning of the first season, that the elements of the show hadn't yet been fit together seamlessly, and therefore the show could feel 'dry' on occasion. I think Season 2 represented a more comfortable but nevertheless still brilliant show (I think that Tobias' use of his blue make-up as a concealing cloak was brilliantly executed), and I think it's a much better way to break one in on the series rather than the first season, which is still a little raw at the outset, which, doubled with the edgy and complicated humor, could discourage a newcomer.

Can I just say..

Not one person mentioned The Honeymooners in this thread, and ONLY one person mentioned The Odd Couple... and someone actually had the nerve to mentioned Busom Buddies...

Wonders never cease.

I barely watch tv--so I'll give this a shot.

1. The Office
2. 30 Rock
3. Friends
4. I Love Lucy
5. Cosby Show
6. Family Ties
7. Everyone Loves Raymond

That is all I have...

1. The Larry Sanders Show
2. The Office (UK)
3. The Trailer Park Boys
4. The Simpsons (Seasons 4 - 11)
5. Seinfeld (Seasons 1 - 7)
6. Extras
7. Strangers With Candy
8. Frontline (1994)
9. The Family Guy (Seasons 1 -5)
10. Kath and Kim (Aus)

1 - The Beverly Hillbilies
2 - Friends
3 - Married With Children
4 - Fawlty Towers
5 - Are You Being Served
6 - Sanford and Son
7 - iCarly
8 - Get Smart
9 - Hogan's Heroes
10 - WKRP in Cincinnati

Your choice for # 7 must be a mistake. I must be dreaming; this has to be a Punk'd.

http://reelviews.net/reelviewsforum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=994

Read and be amazed.

Blackadder is just the best, funniest, scripted, well acted comedy of all time. Nothing compares.
My favourite Line:

Balderick: dont worry Mr B, I have a cunning plan...

Blackadder: yes Balderick but let us not forget the time you tried to solve the probem of your mothers low ceiling - by cutting off her head.

I am of the opinion that older British Sitcoms are far superier to any thing America has done.
They are better written and can be less chinsey.