NEW & IMPROVED What's on TV, ILX? It's the American Sitcom Tournament Round 1/Group 8

Cosby, Friends, M*A*S*H, All in the Family.

All in the Family should be a finalist, IMO.

That's my vote too.

Both Maude and The Jeffersons were spinoffs from All in the Family. It's kind of like the grandaddy of all 70's sitcoms. Plus, it's funny as hell, and transgressive enough that it would never see the light of day nowadays. Norman Lear is a sitcom God.

It's hard to even find it in reruns now. The most you usually see of All in the Family these days is in tribute shows or docs about the artform that all talk about how great and influential it is. That's all true, but are tv outlets to timid to show it?

Yep.

All in the Family was so good it spawned a second-order spinoff, Good Times -- Florida Evans was Maude's maid.

Right. Also Norman Lear.

The Cosby Show, Friends, M*A*S*H, All in the Family

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

Edgy. I mean, actually edgy. Nobody trusts a TV audience to get satire that bald anymore.

Maude, coin flip (BBT), MASH, Bewitched

Maude didn't have AitF's staying power, but dammit, it's first few seasons were maybe some of the funniest crap ever on TV.

It does pain me to vote against Maude, because... well... Bea. But Cosby is shared pop culture that is ingrained pretty deep, and let's face it, a very consistently funny show.

Bewitched has a sizable nostalgic pull on me, and there were four characters--Aunt Clara, Uncle Arthur, Doctor Bombay, and Abner Kravitz--I absolutely loved. (And, it goes without saying, I always had a crush on Elizabeth Montgomery.) But All in the Family, at its very best, was brilliant. I'm thinking of episodes like where the draft dodger is there for dinner, Archie and Edith on their anniversary, or Archie missing the last spot on the bowling team. When it was serious, maybe only Roseanne pulled off serious as well. Towards the end of its run, it wasn't even close to what it once was. But I won't hold the last two or three seasons against it.

When it was serious, maybe only Roseanne pulled off serious as well.

OTM!

I'm still crying on the inside over Rosanne's loss to South Park. Look, South Park can be funny. Even bad episodes still provide a chuckle or two, but Roseanne was uniformly fantastic from its second season through its next-to-last season. Even the first season was much improved by the end.

South Park? Not even in the same league.

It's not really the same sport, is the problem.

The only red flag I'd put up with regards to Roseanne would be the same one as with All in the Family: how far off the rails it veered its last couple of seasons. I think it peaked (in terms of its serious side, anyway) during the couple of seasons where Darlene was incommunicado. I'm trying to think of a movie that was as smart about the concept of "difficult teenager" and coming up blank.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

monday daytime bump

maude friends kotter all

done.

other than friends, the only one of these shows I've seen a full episode of is bewitched...and that was 10+ years ago

Does anyone even watch the Big Bang Theory?

It has fans here who show up whenever anyone asks that question (or they did, at least, the last time I asked it).

i saw it once and didn't appreciate it too much. i sort of hate friends but voted for it on the grounds of "historical importance", which is possibly unfair to the cosby show, but, maude was certainly historically important imo and i think dates better than the cosby show, to boot

cosby's subsequent late-nineties sitcom > the cosby show imo

one of the most painful things about trying to watch "friends" for me is that after the first few seasons they plainly looked like the overtanned undereating overpaid actors that they were, as opposed to struggling twentysomethings in nyc. blech

Seriously, when the winter doldrums kick in, we should have a final 64 of TV theme songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9NY8R-LmIw

Just realized that The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Good Times, and Maude all have opening credits that lead from the city to the neighborhood to the building where the main characters live. Soap does it, too. Does this still happen?

It's hard to even find it in reruns now. The most you usually see of All in the Family these days is in tribute shows or docs about the artform that all talk about how great and influential it is. That's all true, but are tv outlets to timid to show it?

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:30 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yep.

― “Going on tour with Midnight Oil” and more outmoded masturbation slang (kenan), Thursday, August 19, 2010 7:32 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't know about that. If it's not shown much anymore, it's probably just became there are more shows to compete against it. With the exception of Nick at Nite or TV Land or other channels specifically devoted to airing "classic" TV shows, older shows generally get crowded out of a station's programming schedule. Anyway, you can still find it in Chicago on Ch. 23 at 8:30 weeknights.

(xpost - oh, wait, The Sopranos opening credits also follow the same format as All in the Family, Maude, etc.)

So does The Simpsons.

The Cosby Show, Friends, Welcome Back Kotter, Bewitched

oh yeah and wtf at big bang theory even being in the running here isnt it like 1 1/2 seasons old?

I thought it was a bit odd that Big Bang Theory is on here and not HIMYM, which I thought actually had some ILX followers.

Ugh, South Park beat Roseanne? Savages.

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

The Cosby Show - 36
Maude - 10

Friends - 30
The Big Bang Theory - 16

M*A*S*H - 32
Welcome Back, Kotter - 14

All in the Family - 28
Bewitched - 18

I'm comfortable with these results, even though I voted Maude over the Cos.

Ugh, South Park beat Roseanne? Savages.

^ this.

Cos beating Maude is just fucked up. BOOOOOOOOOOO