I'm not certain I'd lump AiTF and S&S in as slob-coms. Archie may have been a slob, but he was surrounded by those who could play off his nature for comic effect. And while S&S took place in a "slob" environment, I don't think the nature of much of the humour was derived from the environment as much from the nature of the man who would live in that environment.

Whereas Al's hand-down-the-trousers, toilet-based humour was almost the point of MwC. Though I will grant you that you could point to those shows being early progenitors of the MwC style.

Nowhere did I intimate the MwC was a "smart" comedy (though early seasons had some fairly witty, if for-the-times risqué, banter). Just that it had some of the precepts that you said made Seinfeld unique and it had them 2 years beforehand. I made the same point with Rosanne having tackled taboo topics.

Finally, if we are going to discuss "clichéd b.s." then "wacky next-door neighbour", "on-again, off-again girlfriend" and "constantly unemployed wacky schemer friend" are clichés that have been done to death.

Again, I'm not arguing the point that Seinfeld wasn't fantastic once it hit it's stride. :)

Interesting that "John Adams" is ranked #28 when the final episode hasn't even aired yet.

For all we know, it could devolve into dancing musical with Jerry Lewis playing Monroe.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

:up:

Mary Tyler Moore? Golden Girls? First few seasons of Scrubs? Sex and the City?

Carter Country? Filthy Rich? Battle of the Network Stars?

The problem with AD is that it is only watchable in order. Once you don't see it in order, you miss the multi-episode set-ups for punchlines. I saw AD when it first aired and thanks to its weird schedule, I never saw consecutive episodes. Or I'd see a marathon of two or three episodes and by the time it was on again I was seeing something that was much older or newer.

Watching it on DVD completely fixes that. Doesn't mean that you're a troglodyte if you don't get AD after seeing it all in order on DVD, but it does make it slightly better.

M*A*S*H

It's the only show that could consistently get you to laugh out loud and cry in the same 22 minute episode.

That having been said, Seinfeld was a brilliant show. I never really cared for it all that much, but I also think it's got to be on any short list of smartest show ever.

As for Sports Night, I loved that show and was bummed when it was canceled. But it really wasn't around long enough to be in a best ever category.

I'll nominate the same show I added to the "no one is watching" list: Shameless. It's criminally underrated on this side of the Atlantic.

I hit the Back button right there

A couple of network sitcoms that don't belong at the top of this list (tho Taxi might) but that I'm partial to:

Buffalo Bill: but no one watched it because the main character was such an absolute bastard.

Taxi: especially the episodes with the O.Henry endings.

for me in this category all-time: "Cheers"
runner-up: "Sienfeld"
honorable mention: "Arrested Development"
right now: "30 Rock"...hands down
or though not technically a comedy, more dramedy: "Californication"...most surprisingly crisp, wittiest show i have seen in a long time.

silliest with heart in its prime: "Scrubs","Friends"

By that definition, the movie Dumb and Dumber is the smartest comedy of all time. (If by annoying hipster, you mean me.)

Arrested Development i find to be average at best. The funniest and most intelligent comedy i have ever seen is without a doubt "The Day Today" or maybe even "Brass Eye". Most things that Chris Morris is involved with tend to be very funny, intelligent and many times shocking (the Brass Eye special on child Peadophiles). No laughter tracks (which i despise and is only ever used for morons), well written and well acted out. I tend to think that a hell of a lot of comedy these days is utter trash. I was never a fan of shows like Friends or Roseanne as i found them to be lowest common denominator humour. I would also say that the Blackadder series was totally incredible in its originality and scripts/storylines.

Southpark and M*A*S*H

I cant believe nobody mentioned The Larry Sanders Show... probably the first real HBO breakout hit, and helped spawn the way for Sopranos, Sex and the City and other acclaimed HBO hits... that would be my top choice easy

AD and Seinfeld would round out the top 3

Honorable mention to All in the Family... talk about your flawed main character and contriversial storylines

That's My Bush!