My Sitcoms

We all love TV. Unfortunately I don't get to watch so much of it anymore because I am currently enrolled in my fifth college and my time is consumed with exercise physiology textbooks. Yay, right? Anyway, I still love TV and always have. Reality TV seems to have taken over the tube right now and I can't stand it. Save the sitcom, is what I say. That being said, this list deals with my favorite sitcoms, post 1980. I say after 1980 because I was only 5 that year and while I still see quite a bit of reruns from shows aired prior to that, I didn't have the opportunity to enjoy them while they were originally airing. So that means there will be no Welcome Back Kotter, WKRP, or Brady Bunch.

6. Scrubs: This show would be further up the list had it not been for the last couple of seasons of the show. The first 5 or 6 seasons were absolutely hilarious. I am a huge fan of shows where I am not taught any lessons and I don't have to think. Which is why my number 1 show is where it's at but I'll get to that later. What really helped me with this show is that my wife is a nurse so I get to see how the show puts a comedic spin on what she does, albeit extremely exaggerated. Dr. Cox is one of my favorite all-time classic characters and never ceases to entertain.


5. How I Met Your Mother: Is it possible that one supporting character completely carry a show by himself and make it his own without actually going away from the supporting role? YES! Barney Stinson is an absolutely classic character and carries this show beyond what anyone expected. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't even watch the show. Doogie Howser certainly outdid himself in this one.


4. Saved By The Bell: How could I write any list dealing with TV and not include Zac Morris and his pals. When I had broken my leg in high school and basically immobile for a couple of weeks, I am pretty sure I saw every episode of the show. Between WGN and TBS, they aired the show from 1:00 in the afternoon to about 4:00. That's right, 3 hours of Kelly Kapowski. This was fairly good entertainment for a 17 year old full of testosterone.


3. Cheers: Come on, a show set in a bar. What better place for a tv show center itself around. I was a little kid when this show was originally airing but I still remember when Coach left the show and Woody came in. This show was also very personal to me since it reminded me of the old Rusty Nail back home in Davenport. It was a bar I grew up near and I knew a lot of the people there and people in Cheers reminded me of people at the Rusty Nail (of course my dad was Norm). The final episode where Sam Malone turns out the lights as he leaves was incredible. Great show, great cast.


2. Cosby Show: Cliff Huxtable always reminded me of my dad a little bit. Granted, my dad was a little grumpier and not a doctor, but they each had the same sense of humor. Sure the Cosby Show was very idealistic and everything just seemed to work out perfectly for the Huxtable family and it wasn't very realistic but they seemed like a family you knew from down the block. I always liked Theo and always related well to him. Perhaps the funniest, and most real, line I've ever heard on any tv show is when Cliff tells Theo "I brought you into this world and I'll can take you out". In the stand up performance Bill Cosby goes on to say that he'll make another one just like him. Classic.


1. Seinfeld: The Contest is possibly the greatest sitcom episode ever. There is so much this show contributed to the lore of the sitcom world. When I say Art Vandalay, Soup Nazi, shrinkage, yada yada yada, master of your domain, puffy shirt, or sponge worthy, you know exactly what show I'm talking about. Seinfeld and company hit a grand slam with this show about nothing. Critics talk about how the series finale of the show was such a disapointment but it was exactly what the show was about, nothing. The finale wasn't supposed to be much more than what it was, nothing. Which to me is what made it that much better.