Welcome to the “100 Best Sitcom Episodes of All Time,” a countdown for winter 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.
I have been asked by acquaintances whether certain sitcoms are going to show up on my Top 100. It would be no fun to list all the shows that made it, but I can let you know some of the ones that fell short:
Are You Being Served? I’d probably enjoy a cabaret act with the characters of Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe. But when I’m sober, I get my fill of pussy-based double entendres pretty quickly.
Bewitched. Samantha isn’t a witch; she’s as omnipotent as God. And she doesn’t age, so she’s just playing at being a housewife for the mortal equivalent of five minutes. None of this would matter if it were fun to watch her drive people insane. It isn’t.
Corner Gas. Some people think this is the greatest of all Canadian sitcoms. There are no Canadian sitcoms on the Top 100 Episodes list.
Diff’rent Strokes. Nope, not even the one with WKRP’s Mr. Carlson as a pedophile.
Family Ties. Michael J. Fox is one of the most appealing sitcom stars in history. But he’s working with better scripts on The Good Wife. (See, I do like your show, Julianna Margulies!)
The Golden Girls. A pleasant enough way to spend a half hour, but you’ll be hearing rimshots in your head for days.
Hogan’s Heroes. If you want to make Nazis look ridiculous, call Mel Brooks or Monty Python.
I Dream of Jeannie. Makes Gilligan’s Island look unpredictable.
The Jeffersons. Sorry, George and Weezie, your scripts aren’t as fun as you are.
The King of Queens. This show actually had some clever stories. But not very compelling characters.
Laverne and Shirley. Remember when this was the highest-rated series on TV? No, I guess most of you don’t.
Murphy Brown. See above, but change to “the third-highest-rated series on TV.”
Night Court. I did like some of the sight gags, like the judge scolding an unseen defendant for standing up and causing a commotion in a moving vehicle … who turned out to be the Pope. But I still associate the show with the homework I’d do between Cheers and Hill Street Blues.
On the Air. Much as I’d like to include David Lynch’s suitably bizarre follow-up to Twin Peaks, it’s more a historical curiosity than a cult favorite. (But judge for yourself below.)
Police Squad! Very funny. Just closer to a half-hour comedy sketch than any kind of story.
Quark. NBC’s 1978 attempt to capitalize on Star Wars, this was a comedy about an intergalactic garbage scow with humans and various aliens on board. Cute, but no Futurama.
Red Dwarf. Another sci-fi sitcom, this one from Britain. Extremely annoying lead character.
Soap. There’s the obvious difficulty of picking out one episode of a show when every installment is a cliffhanger. Also, not very funny. And Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was a soap opera parody; this is just a conventional sitcom with bizarre storylines.
Two and Half Men. Surprised?
United States. A highly regarded (at the time) sitcom from 1980. NBC promoted it with the tagline, “It will do to marriages what M*A*S*H did for war.” Astonishing that Americans didn’t want to be told that marriage was an evil institution perpetuated by sexually repressed old men.
Valerie. I was going to put Veronica’s Closet here, but Valerie lets me point out that its later versions, Valerie’s Family and The Hogan Family, aren’t on the list either.
Will & Grace. Will was boring. Jack started out as fun, but neither NBC nor GLAAD were ever going to let him be a real circuit party queen.
The X-Files. Would you believe Xena: Princess Warrior? Sorry, Chief, not even Wikipedia could help with this one.
Yes, Dear. No contest.
Zorro and Son. If the title alone doesn’t put you off, how about Barney Martin (Jerry’s dad on Seinfeld) playing twin monks named Brother Napa and Brother Sonoma?
Thank you for not including The Golden Girls. I have been fighting that lonely fight for far too long.
But Soap not funny? Preposterous!
Posted by: Todd VanDerWerff | January 29, 2012 at 07:34 AM
Corrine's baby was funny, I'll grant you that.
Posted by: Robert David Sullivan | January 29, 2012 at 08:50 PM