It seems reality TV has killed sitcoms...and it didn't help that quality sitcoms have been on the decline regardless...but...

Do you miss the days of good sitcoms? I'm not talking 50 years...I'm talking about ten years ago...you had The Cosby Show, Simpsons in it's prime, Seinfeld, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Boy Meets World, Martin, Family Matters, etc just to name a few.

I can't think of five really good sitcoms on the air today...there definitely are some, but I remember loving to watch sitcoms now...I probably watch two faithfully now....

Do you miss them, or you could care less?

Lets see according to the fall schedule for 1995 I was watching these sitcoms:

Sister Sister, the Nanny, Murphey Brown, Roseanne, Newsradio, Frasier, Home Improvement, Friends, Single Guy, Seinfeld, Caroline in the City, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Step by Step, hanging With Mr. Cooper

Sitcoms I watch now... Joey.

Yikes.
I hope they make a return.

They were good, but at some point it just felt like they completely ran out of ideas for new sitcoms. In the 80s they were mostly family sitcoms, in the 90s they became racier and were about single folks in the city. After that, people didn't really know where to go. Seinfeld helped breathe new life into the genre, and you can see the influence of that show in sitcoms today.

There are still a handful of good ones though. Arrested Development comes to mind first. Everybody Loves Raymond is great when its clicking. But yeah I can't think of any others that will really go down in history as great shows.

I don't mind. There are plenty of sitcoms on the air still, and some of them are pretty good. I'm glad that there are also numerous offbeat comedies like Scrubs and Arrested Development instead of mindless formula clones like Family Matters and Full House.

das

I think the 70's had the best sitcoms

Happy Days
Laverne and Shirley
Sanford and Son
All in the Family
Threes Company
Good Times
The Jeffersons
Alice
One Day at a Time
Taxi
MASH

Some sitcoms I really miss (Frasier, Wings, Seinfeld, Newsradio, Mad About You, Friends, all back when NBC was in its prime), and now there are few sitcoms on and way fewer that are any good. Thank goodness for Arrested Development and Scrubs, the only two great sitcoms on (well, I don't know if I'd call Curb Your Enthusiasum a sitcom or not). I definitely would like to see reality TV vanish, so we can get some good scripted shows once again.

Half hour comedies currently on network tv:

King of the Hill
Malcolm in the Middle
The Simpsons
Arrested Development
Still Standing
Listen Up
Everybody Loves Raymond
Two and a Half Men
One on One
Half & Half
Girlfriends
Second Time Around
My Wife & Kids
George Lopez
According to Jim
Rodney
Scrubs
Committed
All of Us
Eve
That 70's Show
The King of Queens
Joey
Will & Grace
8 Simple Rules...
Hope & Faith
Less Than Perfect
What I Like About You
Grounded for Life
Reba

There are still plenty of sitcoms out there, so no need to blame reality tv for this one. Sure, most of them suck, but there are some good shows in there. Compared to ten years ago? Well, in all fairness there was also a bunch of crap then too...

Some of the half hour comedies on the air in 1995

Bless This House (US)
Bringing Up Jack
Brotherly Love
Can't Hurry Love
The Crew
Double Rush
Dweebs
First Time Out
Fudge
The George Wendt Show
Get Smart (1995)
The Home Court
Hudson Street
If Not for You
In the House
Kirk
Maybe This Time
Minor Adjustments
Misery Loves Company
Muscle
My Wildest Dreams
New York Daze
Partners
The Preston Episodes
Pride & Joy
The Pursuit of Happiness
Women of the House

I don't remember the majority of these, and the ones I do remember, the memories ain't too fond. I do see your point to a degree... there are few *great* sitcoms on right now. Of course, I'd take Arrested Development over Family Matters any day. Hell, I'd take Committed or Joey over Family Matters but that's a whole 'nother story entirely.

"reality" shows are crap

No, I hated most sitcoms just like I hate most reality shows.

I noticed that alot of people her have Tivo's...and Tivo's are MUST HAVES for hour-long, storyline driven dramas.

Sitcoms however, are standalone events, which are not as important to record on Tivo, so you just "Will catch it whenever its on in reruns"

Is the Tivo mentality making us ignore sitcoms to the point that we never even START watching them in a season?

How about DVD? ALOT of people here have discovered 24, Nip/Tuck, Shield, Wire and Alias through DVD. Besides Arr. Dev. is there any current show that you could sit through an entire season of unrelated 22 minute stories in order to 'catch on' to the show?

Just wondering.

as long as there is no laugh track I would not mind more sitcoms in prime time.. Sep after shows like Scrubs and Arrested Development etc it better be something new and interesting.. Some guys with 2 kids and a job etc is not going to really cut it anymore..

When I was younger I hated the laugh tracks but put up with them being I never thought shows would do away with them.. Then shows started to leave the laugh track or or at least tone it down and I saw that, yes, you can do a show with out: Hey [HAHAHAAH!].. Sorry I'm late [HAHAHAHA!!!].. Yeah I guess I can stay [HAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAAH] for a little bit [HAHAAHAHA!!!!!]

repeat for 30min.... BLAH!!

or in "sitcom mode" that would go: repeat [HAHAHA!!] for 30min... Blah! [hahahaahah!!!]

There are a few good sitcoms

Corner Gas
Arrested Development
Malcolm in the Middle
The Simpsons
That 70's Show
Two and a Half Men

and of those only "Two and a Half Men" do I believe I'll think what did I ever like about that. I can see it getting too cheesy and repetitive.

oh, and come May 1st I'll be watching Family Guy again.

I could care less if there aren't any good sitcoms today. I watch Scrubs but thats about it as far as new sitcoms go. There is probably quality stuff out there that I'm missing but whatever.

The reason I don't care is because I was too young to appreciate classic sitcoms. Now shows like All in the Family, Taxi, even I Love Lucy are new to me. I could just grab an ep here or there and be done with it. Same goes for Cosby which I did watch when I was younger, but have an all new appreciation for now. A Different World as well.

I don't blame reality shows for the lack of good sitcoms. I blame bad writing for the lack of good sitcoms.

The 70s was the heyday of sitcoms. The '00s is the heyday of dramas.

The 70's did have some good sitcoms, but keep in mind network TV was basically the only game in town at that time. The 3 major channels were it, and had no competition as we do now from such things as cable and videos.
So TV viewers were kind of a captive audience.

A lot of the shows that were considered "hits" back then don't hold up that well I feel. Other then maybe All In The Family and Taxi, most of them (including MASH) are virtually unwatchable now.

And it's not just a then vs. now aspect. At this time I could much easier sit through and laugh at an episode of Leave It To Beaver then I could Lavern & Shirley.

I strongly disagree. I think many of the 70s sitcoms hold up very well. All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H, The Jeffersons, Happy Days (which holds up because the show was set in the past to begin with) and Three's Company all hold up quite well.

The fact that broadcast TV was the only game makes it all the more impressive that there was a strong lineup of sitcoms. You would think more competition would mean more quality. Hardly the case today, at least when it comes to sitcoms.

Do we have to have the "All Reality shows are cut from the same stone and 100% of them are crap" discussion in EVERY thread? Let's focus on sitcoms.

I miss the days where you could turn on the television and see familar faces like Opie, The Fonz, Elaine Benice, and the like. I even have a soft spot for lesser known characters like David Hogan or Hank Kingsley.

Yeah, I really do. I grew up watching the 80's and early 90's sitcoms, plus reruns of classic sitcoms. Now there's only dramas and after a while they get tiring to watch.

I don't think I really miss the sitcoms since a lot of them are being rerun right now. And some of them haven't really aged well. We are definately in the era of the dramas now. I would rather have a few quality sitcoms then a whole bunch or rejects.

Well, this is what I meant by reality tv shows, in part, killing sitcoms...

They are taking the time slots that sitcoms typically would have. The 8pm slot...sometimes 9pm depending on the show/network. So, if reality tv is successful, they'll just keep churning out 10 Survivors and a infinite amount of Fear Factors. That's less opportunity for new sitcoms to be on the air.

Also, I am curious how it will be 20 years from now. Who's going to want to watch a 20 year old reality show in sydication. I don't think we'll be looking back on the first Apprentice, and talking about how Omarosa was such a good villain, etc. She's pretty much already forgotten. When you think of reality TV stars, you roll your eyes because, for some reason, they are still in the limelight. When you look back on quality comedies, though, you love the characters as much as you did when the show was pumping out new episodes. Reality TV won't be profitable in the future. But, people are still making money off shows from the 50's.

I don't hate reality tv at all. I watch Survivor and the Amazing Race and others. I do, though, wish quality sitcoms could make a comeback. There are definitely a few good ones still out there. Only a few, it seems.

I liked Grounded for Life but I though it was canceled a long time ago. I saw it on WB once now I have no idea what happened to it.

sitcoms i hope they dont make a return. 99.9% arent funny and i hate the fake laugh or live audence laugh. I would rather have shows like Arrested development that are filmed like dramas.

I'm old enough to have been around when these shows were all current. I thought Three's Company and The Jeffersons were foolish shows even then. M*A*S*H was excellent but I can't sit through a half hour of it now. Mary Tyler Moore and All In The Family are still fun. Happy Days? Eh, I don't know. I don't think I ever really though Fonzie was cool.

I think it's the opposite. Back then the 3 major networks had a monopoly on prime time entertainment. They could put up a show like Alice and probably have it return decent numbers. Why? Because it was a great show? No, it's because what the hell else was there for a family to do on a tue. night? You were pretty much stuck with it.

I occasionally watch this

don't watch but am sure I would like them

the only one I usually watch - though I am starting to slip away.

some of the others don't even ring a bell, and I couldn't tell you what network/night most of the rest are on or anything about them.

I don't miss sitcoms, I get enough entertainment from what I watch now.

I think that there are more good shows on today than most people give credit for. If shows don't get the ratings they once did, maybe the introduction of classic shows and great movies on DVD is deterring from people watching TV as much as they used to. I know people who are of the opinion that they will catch up with a show if it gets put out on DVD rather than hassel with trying to watch it every week.

Of the current list above, there are a good half dozen or more shows on there that I watch and really genuinely enjoy. Of course, we saw the end of a good one last week with the cancellation of Grounded For Life, but I know there are mixed feelings on the quality of that show since it moved from Fox, but I personally watched it more on WB than I did on FOX. I counted over a dozen shows on that list that I either liked or have heard that a lot of people do like and are quite successful.

So I guess I am just saying good sitcoms are still on the air. What I Like About You, for example, is a smashingly funny show, yet it hardly gets any talk back threads on this board. I think WB has had some great comedies on Friday nights over the last few years that just don't get a lot of attention. Maybe It's Me is one I genuinely feel would have had a great following if people caught on to it, but it was on after a miserable season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (the last season, which sucked) and didn't do too well. But just because you aren't watching these shows doesn't mean good comedies out there don't exist.

I would rather watch my half dozen shows on regular TV now than watch a dozen of those older shows from the 90's on TV Land or Nick at Nite any day.