Current season of NBC's Thursday night comedy line-up

this thread is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck

still have to vote 30R but community is definitely close

gillian jacobs vs aubrey plaza vs jenna fischer vs no-one in 30 rock is cute

yea cerie has been mia recently

what no rashida

no-one in 30 rock is cute

liz lemon is hot fu

she is elderly

what no alison brie

we could make this sitcom smash-off (via codie smulders)

cobie

epi

I went from watching and liking all of these shows every thursday night to not watching any of them because I missed too many episodes. community is the best, but I also feel like it's sorta overrated.

it's neck and neck with 30 Rock but i voted for Community. i usually wander away from the TV and check my e-mail between 8:30 and 9:30.

guess i'm the lone 30 rock non-watcher :)

Parks and Rec is my answer

My favorite changes every week, depending on the episode. It's probably between Community and P&R, though. One came from nothing and turned into a remarkably funny show, but the other came from a severely awful first season and completely reinvented itself into a remarkably funny show (which is surely a harder thing to do).

def community

Community has been killin' it lately.

http://www.harriscomm.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/5e06319eda06f020e43594a9c230972d/D/V/DVD289.jpg

Community

The real question is: Annie vs. April

Annie, no question. April would be fun for, like, two weeks, and then you'd start to resent her bored/boring approach to life.

She clearly wants to have fun, though! She is in a boring place!

troy and aped would be way more fun to hang out with than those two

^ this

Community. P&R a close second.

i think Jane Krakowski is kind of hot. anyway I'll stand up for 30 rock because I still have never seen Parks and Rec and I always miss community. I did see last week's office after missing it for a few weeks and even though it was marginally funny the thing reeked of phoning it in and it kind of seemed like the entire cast hated themselves for being on it.

I feel bad sort of overlooking 30 Rock now, because it was THE funniest show on television for three seasons. Community and P&R are fresh and new, though.

i think Jane Krakowski is kind of hot.

cosign.

I did see last week's office after missing it for a few weeks and even though it was marginally funny the thing reeked of phoning it in and it kind of seemed like the entire cast hated themselves for being on it.

They're just drawing paychecks now and little more. They don't even care.

30R is still amazingly funny, but obviously less fresh than "community".

no idea how ne1 could pick P&R over it.

P&R is a slow burn.

Parks and Rec is my answer

― Mr. Que, Tuesday, March 30, 2010 12:55 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

30 rock still my favorite by a wide margin. P&R has improved, the rest i don't care about.

Community for me. The recent scene where Jeff breaks down after seeing his exgirlfriend wasn't all that funny; getting consoled by Pierce over how he had to watch Glee in the relationship was _really_ funny.

I just don't understand the appeal!

xp community. only watch 30 rock and community tho and that probably won't change

no idea how ne1 could pick P&R over it.

― rip sarah silverman 3/19/10 never forget (history mayne), Tuesday, March 30, 2010 12:16 PM (32 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I like Community a lot but it still has too many "life lessons." Admittedly P&R has forced relationship b.s. but it takes up a pretty small proportion of show time.

I'd go P&R>community>30 rock>office

yeah that life lesson shit is horrible but then you have abed doing his don draper and vampire shit

community is corny no doubt (as as modern family, which I like just as much) but at least it has a steady stream of lols

if someone put a gun to my head and forced me to draw an analogy between ABC's "classic period" TGIF lineup (1989-1990) and NBC's current (2009-2010) Must-See Thursday lineup, I would probably do so as follows:

Full House = Community (laid-back sunny california vibe)
Family Matters = 30 Rock (popularity of each driven by nerd appeal)
Perfect Strangers = The Office (main characters hate each other but ultimately get along at the end of the day)
Just the Ten of Us = Parks & Recreation (basketball/recreation themes)

i have a pretty high life-lessons tolerance level, but ne way community sends 'em up most of the time.

the 'lessons' on Community are so clearly arch and intentionally corny, and so clearly a nod to both the educational theme of the show and all the meta references to classic sitcoms, that I'm not sure why people complain about them so much. it's just the structure they chose for the show, and it probably sets up more jokes than it gets in the way of.

xpost mayne otm

Community Community Community

Someday I will watch Parks and Recreation and Community. 30 Rock is better than The Office these days, though. (I know some people think it's always been better than The Office, but it's only really been this season that I've been down on the latter.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcD_Y838DXA

My friend auditioned for the role of Abed and I'm glad he didn't get it.

Funniest one of the bunch obviously it's 30 Rock. Community is cute, but not really funny.

it's often cute, but lately it's been really really funny.

yeah i slept on it the first year, and just read or looked at the internet, but i've been watching this year and it's great.

this season of 30 rock's petered out pretty badly imo, definitely on the wane now. community has been a++ awesome though and i have lolled hard throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZJHamGNOFQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Qe7Tg4TTY (1st half)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dorSqi9JCTs (2nd half)

"Suck it, Nietzsche!"

I'd rank them:
30 Rock > The Office (most underrated on this thread) > Parks & Rec > Community (don't think this is very funny at all)

pretty much everyone on ILE is doing the "I'm so over it, it was funnier in the beginning" thing with The Office, which as far as I can tell has been at about the same level of funny for the past 4 years

I never liked The Office and now it is worse than ever.

I actually don't mind The Office, it makes me LOL sometimes but it's definitely the one show that if it didn't run in this block of shows I probably wouldn't bother watching it.

xp

How do you know it's gotten worse if you don't watch it? Or if you do watch it, why do you watch it if you don't like it?

I don't think it's gotten any worse. I don't watch it regularly, and I didn't watch it much at all in the first couple of seasons, but it seems to have maintained a constant level of funny since then. The past couple episodes I've seen have had a laugh count at least as high as the same night's Parks & Rec episode.

pretty much everyone on ILE is doing the "I'm so over it, it was funnier in the beginning" thing with The Office, which as far as I can tell has been at about the same level of funny for the past 4 years

Apparently ILE is already doing this w/30 Rock too, which is crazy mental.

Or if you do watch it, why do you watch it if you don't like it?

It comes on between Parks and 30 Rock, and sometimes I have nothing better to do than stick it out, or sometimes I'm watching it with friends who enjoy it.

I've watched maybe five episodes per season. There have been funny moments, to be sure.

I don't think The Office and 30 Rock have gotten worse, they just haven't really changed or developed at all so the characters/jokes/setups start to get repetitive and predictable. It's not as bad with 30 Rock because the jokes have always been more about the dialogue, but The Office particularly suffers from this because so much of the humor is about character interaction and relationships and they've pretty much explored most of those to death.

I guess I kind of think that development of characters/setups in sitcoms is overrated. It seems like most classic long-running sitcoms have succeeded despite (or because of) the fact that the characters are essentially the same in season 10 as they were in season 1. Was there much development in character/setup/etc in MASH, Seinfeld, the Cosby Show, etc? There's something comforting about characters that stay their same lovable, irascible selves as everything else in the real world outside TV changes, and good sitcoms should be nothing else if not comfort food.

uh definitely in the Cosby Show, kids got older, had different problems, changed relationships with parents/each other/etc

also would argue that Seinfeld isn't really a character/relationship-driven sitcom in the same way The Office is.

okay are you kidding me re: MASH? That whole show was one long overarching exercise in character development; look at Hot Lips over the course of the series if you don't believe me, or Klinger, or the interactions between Hawkeye and Frank vs Hawkeye and Winchester

ditto The Cosby Show, which turned as much into a coming-of-age show about the kids as it was a regular family sitcom

basically I agree that sitcoms don't need character development or relationships to be awesome, it just seems like that's where The Office in particular bases most of its humor

You could be right on Cosby, although the parents didn't change much. OK, I was bluffing with MASH. That's a bit before my time, but I disagree that Seinfeld is not character/relationship driven and that it would have worked better if the characters developed over time.

this season of 30 rock's petered out pretty badly imo

nah, no way

30R's had "worse" patches, like that season where all the early eps had massive guest stars (they still have guest stars obvi, but not like that seinfeld one), or the lame salma hayek arc. it's all relative. but the show is still immense.

obvi

obvi 115 up, 139 down love it hate it

buy obvi mugs, tshirts and magnets
something sorority girls say to sound cool, but in all actuality it makes them sound like pretentious high school sophomores
sorority girl - "im always willing to try something new"
guy - "in that case, stop by my house with a box of condoms"
sorority girl - "ok"
guy - "and bring a bottle of lube just in case"
sorority girl - "obvi"

people bag on the guest star stint of 30 Rock but the Oprah show was fucking brilliant from start to finish

obvi!

community - this is p good almost good enuff 2 b on abc really
parks & rec - has to be 1 of the worst shows on tv atm
30 rock - dont really watch this ne more guess its p funny
the office - didnt no this was still on nvr really liked it

xp - 1 of the best 30r episodes was the d.schwimmer one

that epi was obvi totes whatevs

lamp

30 rock had way more 'three-dimensional' characters who 'developed' more during the 1st season--its gotten a lot more static & jokey over the last 3. no judgment intended, its just the diff (like i think i said before?) btw simpsons s1 and simpsons s5

xp - 1 of the best 30r episodes was the d.schwimmer one

agree w this

i don't think there's a single dud 30 rock ep, just some that are less awesome than others.

^^^ agree with this

if this poll was "which of these shows is the most consistent," it would be 30 rock, hands down

30 Rock is still enjoyable, but has yet to match such previous high points as, "Would you call what we did last night sex?"

Parks & Rec is slowly getting better, mainly due to Aziz Ansari.

The Office either treads water or tries to out-wacky itself; both are equally dull.

Community...well, I despise Chevy Chase with a passion. Never once found him funny in anything. And the strength of the case and the writing is such that I can easily tune him out (or it makes him halfway tolerable).

case = cast

ken jeong is the better scene stealing asian

30 rock had way more 'three-dimensional' characters who 'developed' more during the 1st season--its gotten a lot more static & jokey over the last 3. no judgment intended, its just the diff (like i think i said before?) btw simpsons s1 and simpsons s5

this is mb dumm but i feel like 1st seasons of 30 rock was just more... dynamic in the way it handled stories & characters - not even that the characters "grew" or "developed" in the traditional sense as much as the show was refining its sense of itself? idk 1st season 30 rock is on some all time 4 me.

in some ways i think the exact of opposite of your analogy classic mid-period simpsons had the same sense of a show that was willing 2 do anything w/its characters & its world. it was a show that was developing itself in the same way 30 rock was. s1/2 simpsons in contrast was p constrained by its founding premises its characters p rigidly drawn. current 30 rock feels the same way 2 me. its lol but it never surprises me

yes i am the worst :/

i like ansari's dbag friend

the semi-hate for recent 30R is totally not toward

the fuckin boston ep! all time

I like Parks & Rec too, but I'm surprised anyone could see it as anything other than a pretty transparent spin-off of The Office. The style of humor, tone, etc. are all pretty much lifted directly from The Office. That's not to say you can't prefer it, maybe you think the setups or characters are funnier (or at least fresher), but I don't understand people who love one and hate the other.

^^^ agree with this, too

i can understand how someone would totally hate michael scott and not want to watch him.

the semi-hate for recent 30R is totally not toward

A few of the recent episodes have not been as funny to me, but it's still pretty great.

30R:

S2>>>S1>>>>>>>>S3>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>S4

i was just thinking that the office was the only one of these shows without a funny indian character and totally forgot about whatsherface! so, all four do. we should do a funniest indian person on thursday night poll.

i really like parks and rec and i like community too, but, man, 30 rock is still in another realm for me. that show can be jaw-droppingly good.

i was about to say P&R lacked a funny black character -- then i remembered none of the characters are funny*

*k, andy is but that's a burn right there

abed is palestinian btw (dad is in the falafel business), and his last name is arabic (nadir)

Wow, Maulik Pancholy is 36.

haha wow had I made a slightly different life choice, he would have been one of my classmates

All these shows got renewed, so we can have this poll next year, too!

agree w/ lamp pretty much re 30r.

will be pretty bummed out if the new series of party down isnt better than all of these tho btw.

Agree that Andy is funniest character on Parks & Rec.

enjoy all these shows, but for me P&R just edges out Community. could change next year

"abed is palestinian btw (dad is in the falafel business), and his last name is arabic (nadir)"

oops, right. sorry.

P&R=30 rock>community>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>office

Whilst 30 Rock is still funny community has a pace and timing that sets it apart. I think that is something 30 rock has lost a little. Also it's not using the ensemble as well as it used to, (last week was a notable exception in this regard). I like P&R a lot, it comes in a close 3rd behind 30 rock, but I like the way its shaping up, the Leslie/Ron dynamic is fantastic. Office aside it makes for a great evening's TV.

you guys dang!! sometimes i think the jezebel starred commenter goober dictatum that heterosexual men can't be trusted on account of just being in it for the poontang is accurate. i love aubrey plaza too but sometimes i think that parks and rec love is a test to see just how strongly i will allow the internet to influence my opinion of comedy night done right

i think that if i put it all into a spreadsheet community might suck but i love it anyway. also the decline of 30 rock has been vastly overstated

really don't get the "community" love

It would be good if it was funny.

I can't think of anything about Community I don't like. Even the feelgood endings (regardless of how tongue-in-cheek they are) seem integral to the show working as well as it does.

Also, it is mad funny.

even tho i think you can see that they have pretty talented writers, i just think that all of the peripheral characters bring nothing to the show & aren't funny, esp compared to the non-lemon/donaghy characters on 30 rock or the non-michael scott/dwight/jim characters on the office

it's funny

i don't see what laughs britta or shirley bring to the show compared to say jenna & kenneth

britta is a bit of a sour puss and shirley is not that funny--the funny stuff comes from troy, aped, senor chang. like i said upthread, i ignored it at first, but i've really come around to it.

xxxp You don't like Senor Chang, the Dean, or Starburns?

(Granted, Starburns doesn't do much, but he has SIDEBURNS SHAVED INTO STAR SHAPES!)

Agreed that Britta is probably the least funny of the core cast, but every once in a while she pops a good zinger and I like her again. I always like Shirley.

Maybe I just don't "get" what Community is trying to do. There are def. moments (like the song & dance sequence at the end of that one episode a few weeks back) where it seems to be starting to touch on something awesome. I hope it slowly grows into whatever it's trying to be over the next few seasons ala It's Always Sunny.

Also 30 Rock is set up to satire all kinds of shit + tons of meta stuff w/political humor. Community feels like a throw back to 80's style sit coms or something with sort of stock characters.

Community is 30 Rock w/o the absurd element. The joke jokes are still there, though.

Bagg-ull

30 Rock is satire?

it isn't?

even tho i think you can see that they have pretty talented writers, i just think that all of the peripheral characters bring nothing to the show & aren't funny, esp compared to the non-lemon/donaghy characters on 30 rock or the non-michael scott/dwight/jim characters on the office

― hipster puddy (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, March 31, 2010 4:42 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't see what laughs britta or shirley bring to the show compared to say jenna & kenneth

― hipster puddy (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, March 31, 2010 4:44 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is kinda apples and oranges -- Jenna and Kenneth are 4th/5th billed characters on 30 Rock, and Community has a less clear pecking order in terms of billing or screentime, but has a core group of 7 where all but maybe one or two characters do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of the comedy, which leaves...5 really funny main characters.

i wouldn't watch any of these shows if my life depended on it

also MOST sitcoms have at least one kind of mostly not very funny straight man lead character like Britta, 30 Rock is an exception and not the rule

xpost

also Shirley has brought some big lols lately. ok i'll stop now.

i wouldn't watch any of these shows if my life depended on it

― big (surm), Thursday, April 1, 2010 2:18 AM (8 minutes ago)

Thanks for participating!

yah j0rdan idk wtf ur on - shirley is a solid b+ character and the episode where she bonds w/ jeff over gossip is 1 of the best episodes to date~~~

i mean a lot of what makes her a good character is how she serves as a foil to the other zanier characters but shes got sum good lines too like in the above episode and also the xmas party one. oh & shes rad as the captain in the episode where they take a sailing class - her reaction to letting pierce drown = a++++

xp ur welcome! i felt it was my obligation to make a contribution.

it occurs to me that i know really nothing about surm's taste in television comedy, so to each his own i guess

my bf watches this shit on the reg, so i'm all for harmony in differences <3

Shirley's one of the characters I feel most protective of for some reason. I mean, if you came in and dissed Abed or Troy, I'd just think you're being challopy. But if you pick on Shirley, it just seems completely unfair.

surm, your taste in television teenage dramas is superb tho

haha my bf h8s these shows and scowls at them when i watch & hes around (xxp)

Gotta admit that the x-mas Community episode was kind of awesome. The best shows have been when they let themselves get weird and not too comfy in standard situational comedy land.

Yeah, the x-mas party and billiards class episodes are an even higher level of goodness than the usual episodes.

wtf is community

i just watched the april fool's day episode & it was p funny, much better than the other ones i've seen -- but i still think it's more "cute" than funny in the way 30 rock is -- that episode had a great plot tho -- also the show needs more troy imo

in general tho i think if you like 30 rock but now think that community is better that you prob got bored of your own opinions or something

but i still think it's more "cute" than funny in the way 30 rock is

i feel this

the april fool's day episode had some good gags tho

wtf is community

the loneliest dog blogger alive

Parks and Rec is my answer

― Mr. Que, Tuesday, March 30, 2010 12:55 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

― A capella key change in "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips (Pillbox), Tuesday, March 30, 2010 5:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol lamp

this thread is going to suuuuuuuuuuuuck

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, March 30, 2010 9:38 AM (Yesterday)

britta has leveled way the f up since the beginning of the season. i wanted her to die on the way back to her home planet c episode 2 but now she's making me lol at getting spanked etc. i feel protective of shirley as well

some TV blogger dude said that the writers of Community are "turning into the skid" with Britta's character, which I think is OTM. she's not really any different than she was in the first episode, but they let up on the love interest stuff and allowed her to be funny within her killjoy role (my fav = the horribly awkward way she high-fived Annie and then turned it into a snake).

idk i enjoy 30 Rock and Community pretty equally when i watch them, but i'm kind of interested in Community as a show more. it takes odd risks and its really dedicated to the ensemble.

guys shirley can be funny! "heeeeere's BROWNIES!" is making me lol as i type this thinking about it.

Parks and Rec is my answer

― Mr. Que, Tuesday, March 30, 2010 12:55 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

― A capella key change in "Hold On" by Wilson Phillips (Pillbox), Tuesday, March 30, 2010 5:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

― 69, Wednesday, March 31, 2010 2:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

http://i.imgur.com/F2Xcy.gif

i like this thread coincided with the week NBC decided to run 2 HOURS OF OFFICE RERUNS

all 3 of the other shows are winners simply because they will never have hourlong wedding/birth episodes

Five years from now, I don't know if that'll be the case, assuming they haven't been canceled

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The Office only got four votes! Wow.

these results are in fact correct

Well, based solely on the current season, it's pretty hard to argue The Office against any of the other three? The shocker for me is that 30 Rock AND P&R beat Community - I guess it's just got more vocal fans on here.

these results are in fact correct

These results are, in fat, incorrect. This is proven scientific fact and CANNOT be argued with.

...in fat...

itt, loud vocal challops that were squashed by lurkers

re-poll

http://i28.tinypic.com/rgw041.jpg

Yeah, these results are wrong based on the current season. Community should have been number one. The Office got 4 votes too many though.

i am fine with the results

so this is back tnite???

maybe i'm crazy but office is pretty funny??

wtf is community

― nijolian dynamite (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, March 31, 2010 5:47 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

loooooooool

New ep of Up All Night was good. I usually hate it when shows "reset" but I see some things about this I like. Also, I've gone from zero to 60 on loving Maya Rudolph over the last year or so.

Also yeah, Office is good so far.

wtf how could you ever be at 0 on loving Maya Rudolph? she is a national treasure.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-Rock-Inside-Rise-Fall/dp/0307739767

comes out this week, co-written by the former snr exec of nbc who oversaw cheers, seinfeld, friends, er and a load of other stuff, and charts nbc's rise and fall. i am going to read the absolute shit out of this book.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51c8DanVsxL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_SX225_SY300_CR,0,0,225,300_SH20_OU01_.jpg