Yes the Britcoms believe in quality over quantity, take Fawlty Towers, the Young Ones, Men Behaving Badly, Office, Coupling, fucking classics and so rewatchable

The other reason for less episodes is that generally British sitcoms are usually the work of only 1 or 2 people. Compare that with the teams of writers that say Friends has.

There are good shows both sides of the Atlantic but i generally prefer British shows

Since I didn't even find the 12 episodes they did to be consistently funny, I can't imagine them doing a 20+ episode run, either.

I agree with you on this.
It's like that for me with SPACED: two great seasons of 6-7 episodes, no real plans for a third season... I want more, but I could not stand to have the memories ruined!

Not that The Office is going to be everyone's cup of tea (ooh, I'm so anglo), but it isn't actually supposed to always be funny, per se. There's a lot more going on than in the average Seinfeld episode, and while much of it is straight ahead humor, much of it is also very dark, so you will cringe nearly as much as you laugh. But I absolutely love both rections, and they are intentional. It's sort of like sweet and sour being better than just the sweet or just the sour I suppose.

It also helps to be acquainted with British culture and lingo.

That being said, if you don't find Keith funny, then sir you have no funny bone!

“I watched that Peak Practice.”
“Yeah, I’ve never seen it.”
“Bloody repeat.”
“Annoying innit?”
“Not for me, I hadn't seen it.”

Cracks me up every time.

I really meant "consistently good' rather than "consistently funny" as I didn't enjoy all of the 12 episodes. There was far more good than bad (and some seriously great stuff there), but it wasn't as if there were 12 consistently great episodes over the two seasons.

Even with so few episodes, they didn't hit it out of the park in every episode. Some were weaker than others.

Hard to disagree with that. Any show has it's ups and downs, but the sheer uniqueness of The office is amazing. I knew nothing about it before watching, and after the first few minutes thought I wasn't going to be into it. But by the end of the first episode I was completely hooked.

I compare it somewhat to Curb Your Enthusiasm, in the painful-cringe-for-cruel-laughs department. Both Curb and Office tend to drive my wife nuts, because she can't get past her empathy for those horribly embarrassing and awkward moments that they take such advantage of for laughs. Yet she finds the more straight-forward comedy of Coupling to be hiarious (as do I) even though the embarrassment factor is a huge part of the humor of that show as well.

I could watch the employee review between David and Keith 10 times in a row and still be laughing.

I actually haven't seen the Specials yet. I have been waiting for the DVD. It is nearly time...come on shipping!

Hasnt America been slowly moving toward a similar television season though? It seems like a lot of shows, mostly reality shows, are starting up at different times in the year (for example, The Amazing Race just started a new season tonight). Of course America is still a long ways from this model...still way too many reruns and "filler episodes" and whatnot...but it makes me wonder what American television will be like in another 5-10 years.

I think we could see more of that sort of thing in the future, though even with the different starting times (other than Fall) for a lot of these scripted shows, it isn't directly leading to fewer episodes, just fewer reruns or gaps when something else is shown (i.e. despite the start time, '24' is still going to have 24 episodes).

In a way, American television has been slowly moving toward a shorter production schedule for decades. In the 1960s, a full season could be nearly 40 episodes. Now, it seems like 22 episodes is about the norm for a full season (and fewer than that for a reality show, most of which have concepts that couldn't fill a full season and have no rewatchability, meaning no reruns. So new seasons are quickly produced just to fill the schedule, which is why we're on Amazing Race 6 even though it's only been three years since the show debuted).

It matters to me when I consider purchasing it on DVD. These 6 episode series feel like rip offs.

Why?

Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of British sitcoms are written by the cast's main players. Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson wrote Spaced, and Black Books is mainly Dylan Moran. There are a few shows like this in the states, but most of them have a group of writers. When the DVDs are usually $10-$20, and I can't see them on regular TV, then it's hardly a ripoff.

Black Books

This show is a classic- thanks to Amazon.uk for making all 3 seasons available to the US.

It's interesting that such a thing is the case since American sitcoms often take a few seasons to hit their stride and produce their best episodes. It's relatively rare to see an American television show where the first season is considered the best (and probably even less so the first six to eight episodes).