Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Lucille: If you're saying I play favorites, you're wrong! I love all my children equally. (cut to scene earlier that day) Lucille: I don't care for Gob.
I'd put that joke next to Archie Bunker's first racial epithet in terms of its influence on TV comedy. Here we have:
1.) The introduction of a character so self-absorbed and cartoonish that she makes Seinfeld gang look like the Waltons.
2.) A discrepency between a character's spelling (Gob, for George Oscar Bluth Jr.) and pronounciation (Job) that non-fans are sure to find confusing and that adds to the show's science-fiction-like cult status.
3.) A joke that depends on editing and that couldn't be accomplished on a traditional three-camera sitcom.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Taxi's Louie De Palma raises the question of whether despicable TV characters are supposed to be consistently despicable throughout a show's run. "Louie Goes Too Far," in which the title character talks about his personal appearance in a most embarrassing way, argues for some flexibility on the issue.
Making the token asshole seem more symphathetic (or "humanizing" him) runs the risk that a series will be accused of selling out. Some viewers were not pleased with the mellowing of Archie Bunker and NYPD Blue's Andy Sipowicz, for example, and the entire run of the just-completed House was accompanied by fans' concerns that the title character would get less misanthropic. Then there are characters like Mary Tyler Moore's Ted Baxter, and both Michael and Dwight on The Office, who seemed to lurch in and out of decency according to plot demands.
Not that consistent assholery has such a good record. M*A*S*H finally had to get rid of Frank Burns because his horribleness was so one-note (and because supposedly good-guy characters were being so sadistic toward him). And I don't think many people are complaining that Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson did not remain the jerk he was in the pilot episode.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
"Off to Florida" made my list partly for personal reasons (it's a favorite of a longtime friend) and partly because it's just a well-written and well-executed example of a classic sitcom plot. This is the episode where Lucy and Ethel hitch a ride to Florida with an eccentric, watercress-sandwich-loving woman who they eventually suspect of being an "hatchet murderess."
She's played by Elsa Lanchester (the original Bride of Frankenstein) in one of the great sitcom guest shots of all time. Most well-known film actors who guested on I Love Lucy played themselves, but Lanchester is so much more fun creating a new character. Her "Mrs. Grundy" manages to come off as both a fluttery-voiced ditz and a terrifying drill-sergeant type.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Squeamish readers beware: This episode includes family members yelling at each other. I don't find this to be a comedy killer, but maybe it's because of how I grew up: among relatives and neighbors (mostly Catholic or Jewish) who squabbled a lot and did it loudly, and without any thought of divorce or permanent estrangement. Cougar Town, where characters pout and mildly tease each other, makes me chuckle. Everybody Loves Raymond makes me laugh. These are my people!
"Baggage" is about the "Mexican standoff" (as Frank puts it) between Ray and Debra over who is going to carry a large suitcase up to the bedroom after a vacation. It sits for weeks on the landing between first and second floors, with both Ray and Debra not saying a word but deliberately walking around the suitcase, full of dirty clothes, several times a day.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Crossed signals have been the basis of sitcom plots since "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her," but the misunderstandings rarely had any long-term implications until Cheers came along. In "Diane's Perfect Date," one well-worn plot — a bet that goes bad — is cleared up at the end of the episode, but only to open the wider mystery of where Sam and Diane's relationship is headed. (Five episodes later comes the conclusion of "Showdown.")
It's hard to convey how much of a thrill this episode was when it first aired. There had been previous sitcoms that teased us with episodes suggesting romantic relationships between regular characters, but they had almost always set the reset button by the following week. (On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou dated Rhoda for one episode, and on Taxi, Alex and Elaine had a one-night stand and nothing more.) They could be charming, but Cheers was more like the classic romantic comedies of theater and film, where characters played for keeps.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
"Dinner Party" is not only a bottle episode (using one set and only series regulars) but a real-time episode, in which brothers Frasier and Niles begin the half hour by planning an "intime soiree" and end it by questioning their unusually close relationship. It came in Frasier's sixth season, the first one that wasn't showered with Emmys, but it's as funny as just about any of the more celebrated episodes, and you can't find a better showcase for Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce.
It's also got an exchange that's one of my favorite in the entire series, in part because it might set a record for the most highbrow reference in a prime-time sitcom (and Grammer is enjoying it so much):
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Before The Office, the sitcom that tried hardest to capture the meetings-and-memos hell of a desk job was NewsRadio. Appropriately for a show on which just about every attempt to improve a workplace failed spectacularly, NBC changed NewsRadio's timeslot 11 times during its four-year run without it becoming more than a cult success. Maybe the show became more surreal as it went on just because everyone involved got dizzy.
NewsRadio was technically about the crew at an all-news radio station in New York City, but the show rarely featured plots having anything to do with journalism. Indeed, a scene from last week's Community ("Curriculum Unavailable") would have been perfectly apt for the finale of NewsRadio: The revelation that WNYX existed only in the minds of a group of inmates at an insane asylum. (This explains "The Sinking Ship" episode.)
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Sitcom characters can't get drunk or high every week, and that's why we have the flu episode. Slurred speech, wobbly legs, hallucinations, sudden stupidity... the flu comes with every comic trick short of putting a man in a dress. (Though "Flu Season" gives us Rob Lowe in a hospital johnny, which is a different kind of pleasure.) Parks and Recreation checks off all the symptoms of a flu episode, but it ends with a curve that establishes Leslie Knope as a super-achiever.
I've already written about "one false move" episodes, in which a small decision or action has regrettable consequences. But while just about anyone would feel stupid for sticking one's head where it doesn't belong, people react to sickness in all kinds of different ways. Some of us feel guilty for neglecting our health (or touching a door handle in a rest room), some feel a kind of relief at having an excuse to slack off, and some just refuse to acknowledge being sick.
Leslie:I'm not sick, I just have allergies, OK? I took a Claritin, and i threw that up, so I took another one, I threw that up, and then I took a third and it stayed down. I'm getting better.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here (and on Pinterest), and an introduction to the project is here.
Sitcoms are often about the "one false move," or little mistake, that begins a chain reaction of unfortunate events. Take, for example, Lucy Ricardo's joke about her new hat in "Lucy and the Loving Cup," or Frasier's quick peek into "Daphne's Room." Maybe we like to be reassured that while our own missteps can make us feel stupid, they're rarely as catastrophic as they are on TV.
Exploring the ripple effects of different possible decisions — that is, alternate timelines — would seem to be a natural for sitcoms, if not for the difficulty of writing them. Community did it last fall with "Remedial Chaos Theory" (it aired too late to be considered for this list), which became an instant classic both because it was good and because sitcom fans appreciated the complexity that sci-fi fans take for granted. (Indeed, it became the first sitcom episode to be nominated for a Hugo Award by the World Science Fiction Society, unless you count the BBC's adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.)
But 10 years earlier, it was a "kidcom" that successfully took on the alternate timeline challenge. Malcolm in the Middle was something of a modern spin on Leave It to Beaver, in that its point of view was from children befuddled by the adult world. The big difference was that on Beaver, grown-ups were mysterious but presumed to be wise, while on Malcolm, the adults often were as stupid as they seemed. And they didn't have much to hide, as proven by the opening-credits shot of Mom shaving Dad's back hair in the kitchen.
"Bowling" is about the different parenting styles of permissive Hal (Bryan Cranston) and overbearing Lois (Jane Kaczmarek). Depending on the timeline, one takes brothers Malcolm and Reese to a bowling party (with girls!) and the other stays home with little Dewey, who's been grounded for unspecified actions involving a neighbor's parakeet.
Lois:(to herself, after she decides to stay as a chaperone) You could cut the hormones around here with a knife. What kind of parent would leave these kids alone with themselves? Hal:(in the alternate timeline, going off to play by himself at the opposite end of the bowladrome) OK, kids, see you in a couple of hours!
The episode keeps alternating timelines, with Dewey having no trouble manipulating Hal but having to be more subtle with Lois. (In the end, he gets to stay up and watch TV, but only C-SPAN.) At the bowling alley, we see a different mob scene in each scenario, one cheering on Hal as he approaches a perfect game and the other jeering Malcolm, at his most Charlie Brown-like, as he throws gutter balls.
Malcolm:(holding a bowling ball with the inscription "Connie") Can't I at least use a boy's ball? Lois: No! You've knocked down five pins since switching to that one!
At first, it seems more fun with Hal at the bowling alley, but Lois's discipline does prevent Reese from telling a girl a stupid joke that ends with him spitting in her face. And Malcolm does get his first kiss with a pretty classmate, even if Lois puts an abrupt end to it.
So there's no real "dark timeline" the way there is in "Remedial Chaos Theory," but to a teenager, practically every moment with your parents is a dark timeline. And as "Bowling" shows, no matter what they decide, you're going to be embarrassed.
•Hal's insistence on following a complicated good-luck routine every time he rolls the ball (taking a sip of soda, unzipping his fly, etc.) is a hilarious foreshadowing of Bryan Cranston's role as the routine-obsessed Walter White on Breaking Bad.
•On the other hand, I rarely find it funny when an adult beats up a child, as when a stranger thrashes Reese for accidently hitting him with a bowling ball, and this episode is not an exception to the rule.
•Malcolm in the Middle streams on Netflix, but I could find only the briefest of clips on YouTube.
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here and an introduction to the project is here.
This is the ultimate "Twonky episode" (see "The New Car," from The Odd Couple, for an explanation and other examples), as well as an excellent introduction to the Honeymooners characters. The destructive household object is a television set that Alice finally nags Ralph into getting. (He claims he's just been waiting for "3-D television.") Because the Kramdens can't afford one on their own, they share ownership with Ed and Trixie, so the TV ends up theatening Ralph's relationships with both his wife and best friend.
Alice: (complaining about Ralph's nights out with Ed) I'm left here to look at that icebox, that stove, that sink and these four walls. Well, I don't want to look at that icebox, that stove, that sink and these four walls! I want to look at Liberace!
Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for 2012. Each episode will get a separate blog post, counting backward toward No. 1. A list of the programs revealed so far is here and an introduction to the project is here.
James Poniewozik recently theorized that Sally Draper is the "secret protagonist" of Mad Men, noting that series creator Matthew Weiner "has used Sally to present a dark but believable view of growing up, as the gradual revelation of the world’s mystery, horror and shame." It's a compelling argument, and Mad Men isn't the only recent series to use adolescent female characters this way.
Fifty years ago, pop culture was full of stories about teenage boys learning what it means to be an adult (see The Andy Griffith Show, Leave It to Beaver, The Rifleman, and countless westerns and war movies). Now we're at least as likely to see things from a young woman's point of view, even on TV series that are mostly populated by older adults. On Six Feet Under, Claire gradually became the character who drove the show (and, yes, the hearse) as the others repeated self-destructive behaviors. And Mad Men is not the only series to pair a clueless, comic-relief boy (anyone want to stick up for Bobby?) with a confident and perceptive girl like Sally.
