Sitcoms

[David L]

Dad's Army
Open All Hours
Porridge

All three were superbly written (Perry and Croft/Roy Clarke/Clement and La Frenais)

[Fishy]

The Liver Birds
Allo allo
Bottom ,?
Just Good Friends
Hi de Hi

[pxr5]

All my favourites have already been mentioned (Steptoe and Son, Fawlty Towers etc.) so I'll turn my attention to US ones, which are few tbh:

Married... with Children I always liked, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show was worth a watch. But the one my wife and I have always loved was Malcolm in the Middle and I've watched all the episodes more than twice - the recent remake wasn't bad but felt a bit too forced. MASH was superb too. What I hate with US shows is the formulaic format like Friends/The Big Bang Theory/Roseanne - the way they jump from scene to scene. Malcolm in the Middle wasn't like this at all which is why I probably liked it. Still, none of them are a patch of the best UK shows though.

[The Picnic Wasp]

The one I don't get (yet) is Seinfeld. I'd heard and read folk raving about it for years and always looked forward to catching up with it, but I watched a couple from the first series and hated it. Does it improve, or is it a bit Marmite?

[The Picnic Wasp]

Some mothers do ave em
Sorry
Reggie Perrin

Sorry was good sometimes. "Language Timothy. Oh shut up father".

I quite liked Rev. Not sure if that qualifies as a sitcom. 

Fleabag was mental, but that does the fourth wall thing. Never been too keen on that aspect.

[Slim]

Well The Young Ones occasionally broke the fourth wall.

US sitcom culture is quite different from the British tradition. They sometimes run for hundreds of episodes and they're rarely the work of a single writer or writing team.

I think my favourite one ever is The Phil Silvers Show, often known as 'Bilko' of course. Brilliant, and seventy years old now. Watched all 142 of them in 2023.

I was also a big fan of M*A*S*H in my teens. The early ones are much more sitcom-ish, the later ones go the way of most US TV series and go overly sentimental. Watched all 256 of them in 2007, then again in 2022.

What else .. I suppose the old ones are my favourites. Tyne-Tees used to show Barney Miller in the late '70s / early '80s, set in a NYPD police station. Most episodes were based completely, or nearly completely in a squad room set, in front of a studio audience which gave it a real theatrical charm. Funny characters, very witty.

I was quite fond of WKRP in Cincinnati as well, actually downloaded them all about a year ago but only watched the first one.

I liked Cheers but Frasier, a spin-off of course, was even better.

[David L]

Frasier was excellent. Again, superb writing even though it was probably by committee

[The Picnic Wasp]

Cheers was an all time favourite of mine but fell into the slapstick trap in many later episodes.

Frasier could also be brilliant but the writers very often became lazy and decided it was easier to churn out English farce play routines rather than create storylines.

I had an English teacher who although very strict realised his nickname was Bilko due to an uncanny resemblance which I only much later became aware of. He wore the old fashioned black teachers' robe and would sometimes mention his (never named) alter ego and strut about comically using an American accent. I missed the point but enjoyed the tension release from my very stressful early teenage school years.

It's difficult when you visit here regularly not to form a subconscious impression of the other visitors here based on their writings. Some things shock me. Mainly Fishy enjoying Hi-de-Hi. 😁

[The Picnic Wasp]

Up Pompeii!

I was reminded of this by my comment in the Andy Burnham thread. Another fourth wall breaking unusual one but I think the lack of channels and content meant I watched most things back then. The usual typical farcical plots of mix ups and innuendo. Like a Latin Carry On series.

Frankie Howerd it seems was a very complicated character offstage.

[dom]

Lots of my favourites mentioned already.

Graham Linehan was brilliant producing Father Ted and then IT Crowd which was possibly even better.

Frasier was probably my favourite US sitcom just so well written.

Think in general BBC is ahead of ITV.

Good Life, Reggie Perrin, Fawlty Towers. The only thing ITV produced in comparison that U can think of would be Rising Damp.

The 2 seasons of Extras were more recent works of brilliance as was The Office

[David L]

Lots of my favourites mentioned already.

Graham Linehan was brilliant producing Father Ted and then IT Crowd which was possibly even better.

Graham Linehan

[Fishy]

Ever Decreasing Circles

[Nick]

Detectorists - great stuff

[R6GYY]

So many to mention, but I will single out Bottom.

This caused me actual real pain from laughing. I was on the floor bent over with stomach pains and having trouble breathing - I think during an episode called Digger.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Detectorists - great stuff

I considered this too precious a gentle work of mostly humorous drama to mention. Perhaps my favourite piece of TV that I can remember. I think a part of this feeling is due to the setting and the recollection of the wonderful 90s when I would regularly be there, but mostly the writing, the acting and the beautiful music. The yellow TR7 too.

Bliss. I wish I could go back.

Didn't a Canadian band write a song about that?