The Finest Circumstantial Humor

Yesterday's Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN2 featured a fun discussion between Mike Greenberg and guest host Tim Kurkjian about their favorite sitcoms of all time. Audio for the segment is available here. For the record, Greenberg's number one was Seinfeld while Kurkjian's choice was Get Smart.

This got me thinking about what my list of top sitcoms (or at least favorites) would look like. Without question the two best sitcoms of all time are Seinfeld and Cheers. Seinfeld is quite possibly the best written comedy to ever grace the airwaves (especially those seasons with Larry David at the helm). Cheers had solid writing for all its 11 seasons, but what I think really made it work was the chemistry among all the actors and most of all their comedic timing. Even when a joke was less than stellar (which wasn't very often), the delivery more than made up for it.

After those two, I have trouble with the rest of my top five. I'm tempted to immediately throw Arrested Development, The Office, The Simpsons, and Curb Your Enthusiasm into the mix. But does that have more to do with how fresh they are in my head? What about all those shows from decades past that I know and at least remember loving at the time? That brings up another dilemma. Are those oldies as good as I remember, or is nostalgia clouding my rearview?

Fortunately, we have a number of outlets like Nick-at-Nite, TV Land, YouTube, and sydnication to judge how well many of these shows have held up. Some shows I remember watching religiously when they originally aired, I find almost unwatchable now: MurphyBrown, Frasier, Mad About You, The Brady Bunch, Three's Company. Perhaps these shows were great in comparison to their contemporaries, but for whatever reason these guys just don't stand the test of time. (An aside here- John Ritter was fantastic on Three's Company, but the writing was just too simple and redundant to make the show a classic).

Other shows have aged better, but still don't quite reach the level of classic: Family Ties, The Cosby Show, NewsRadio, Wings, Newhart (the 80's version), Happy Days. Actually, most of these are still really funny, but there's just something there that doesn't quite elevate them to that next level.

Then you have the classics: Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart (the original from the 70's), The Odd Couple, All in the Family, I Love Lucy, and The Honeymooners. These are all great shows which continue to be funny 30, 40, and 50 years later. They have truly stood the test of time, but only one will make my top five. (A lot of people would add M*A*S*H* to this list, but I have never once actually laughed during an episode of that show.)

For some reason I felt compelled to add The Mary Tyler Moore show to my list. Though I hadn't seen it in a while, I remember it being very well written and acted, and most importantly, hilarious. I thought I would refresh my memory at YouTube, and after watching the two clips below I put it at number three without hesitation.

So my final top five looks like this:

1. Seinfeld
2. Cheers
3. Mary Tyler Moore
4. Arrested Development
5. The Office

Time may change my mind on 4 and 5, but it'll be tough. Think about what these five shows all have in common and you can see why each is a classic in its own right.

Have your own top-five or want debate my list? Leave a comment below or send an email to cathoderadiation@gmail.com.

For more fun, check out the Mike and Mike segment where they play name that tune with TV sitcom theme songs, it's pretty good. Also take a peek at this list of sitcoms from Wikipedia. There were more than a few in there I had completely erased from my memory banks.