My Favorite Sitcoms

Believe it or not Christians watch TV and I have seen a great deal of it in my life. I regret greatly the demise of the TV Sitcom in recent years. Are there any good ones anymore? I've liked a wide variety of them over the years. Some were loved TV critics and other adherents of "Quality TV" and some have been absolutely despised by the critics. Here are my Top 10 favorites of all time (and I've tried to remember when they were on and what network they were on but my memory may be shaky on a couple of those).

10) Green Acres (CBS: 1965-71) You have to love a show where the characters were always saying things that made no sense at all but you still laughed because it worked well. Oliver and Lisa Douglas buy a farm in Hooterville and the locals are crazy. My favorite was Mr. Kimball who had a wonderful way of talking: "Good morning, Mr. Douglas. Well, it's not really a good morning but it's not really a bad one either; actually it's not really still morning either...." . This was the type of thing he would say. And don't forget Arnold the Pig.

9) The Brady Bunch (ABC: 1969-74) Had I not loved this show when I was a kid I probably would not have liked it, but I have wonderful memories of the vacations to the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, and to King's Island theme park. Also, any episode where Bobby was in crisis was usually good, and wouldn't everyone like to have Alice around. Yeah, it had really corny dialogue at times, but it's still a sentimental favorite.

8) Home Improvement (ABC: 1991-99) I especially loved all the conversations Tim had with Wilson and then Time would mangle whatever story Wilson had told. And Al was a perfect character: more competent than Tim at work but desperately needing Tim's help with his personal life (and Al's mom was one of TV's greatest unseen characters ever). However, sometimes in their disputes Jill needed to get over herself and try to see something from Tim's perspective for a change.

7) Perfect Strangers (ABC: 1986-93) Larry and Balki were one of the funniest comic duos in TV history (and easily the most underappreciated). It was a great setup as on first glance it appeared that Balki was the crazy one but in reality Larry was the lunatic. For those who don't remember this one, it was about two cousins sharing an aparment: Larry the neurotic American and Balki the fun loving native of a mythical Mediteranean country. They had girlfriends as well.

6) Family Ties (NBC: 1982-89) Alex P. Keaton was a great character and the writers of this show were among the greatest comedy writers ever. The setup of former Hippie parents with conservative children was fairly lame but the actors and writers rose above the setup to create a very funny show. One of the best lines ever: in the episode where the kids rent the house out as a hotel while the parents are out of town and Dad comes home to catch them...Alex asks his dad if he's planning to stay mad at them for the rest of their lives; Dad's response "That is my plan". It loses something in print, but trust me, it was hilarious.

5) Frasier (NBC: 1993-2004) Frasier and Niles were the funniest brother act in TV history and Maris Crane, Nile's wife, was also a great unseen TV character. The show declined in its later years, but in its first few seasons it was one of the best shows ever on TV. Picking the best episode of this show would be hard because there were so many classics (Niles and Frasier open a restaurant; Niles and Frasier try to write a book together; the Ice Fishing trip; the RV trip; and Niles and Frasier confront their childhood bullies is a list that starts it off) but probably the best was the show where they recreated the radio drama with disastrous results.

4) The Andy Griffith Show (CBS: 1960-68) Mayberry was the ultimate hometown and what a parade of classic characters: Ernest T. Bass, Briscoe Darling, Otis Campbell, Gomer and Goober Pyle, Floyd Lawson, and the funniest lawman in TV history: Barney Fife. It declined during the years after Barney left but at its height it was always good to go to Mayberry.

3) Gilligan's Island (CBS: 1964-67) Another childhood favorite with so many classic episodes: the time they made the silent movie; the one where the rock band the Mosquitos landed on the island; the one where the robot landed on the island; virtually any episode with a dream sequence; and virtually any episode where they were invaded by hostile natives.

2) M*A*S*H (CBS: 1972-83) It had its faults: It was too pacifistic, it was stupid for the characters to wonder why they were there when the reason was so obvious, it had stupid high concept episodes from time to time (i.e. the dreams episode) and virtually every supporter of the Korean war was depicted in a negative light. But it's strength was in the interesting and well-developed characters it created: Hawkeye, BJ, Colonel Potter, Radar, Klinger, and Father Mulcahy. Though show was a bland cartoonish sitcom when it started but gradually strengthened into a quality ensemble comedy-drama; in its later years the drama was over-emphasized. Of the eleven seasons, Seasons three (the last with Trapper and Blake) through Season eight (when Radar left) feature the show at its highest quality.

1) Newhart (CBS: 1982-90) An overlooked gem that never makes anyone elses Top list even though it should. This was (contrary to popular opinion) a much better show than the Bob Newhart show. The Stratford Inn, the Minuteman Cafe, WPIV-TV, and the craziest small town in history were the setting for a show with great major and minor characters: George, Stepanie, Michael, Larry and the Darryls, Officer Shifflet, Jim, Chester, Harley, JJ, and the rest joined innkeeper Dick Loudon in an ensemble that produced some of TV's funniest moments. A true classic (not to mention probably the most memorable final episode in TV history).

Maybe one day they will make good sitcoms again.