I'm a big fan of How I Met Your Mother, and I just finished watching through Arrested Development. One of my favourite things about both is how plot-driven they are, with the episodic storylines and jokes often tying into and progressing the ongoing plot threads.

I know a lot of sitcoms do this to varying degrees, but I'm wondering if anyone can recommend some others that are particularly plot-focused?

HIMYM is more of a normal sitcom with an over reaching story arch (a seemingly endless one too). Arrested Developement actually had a plot that was advanced from episode to episode (probably why it didn't last despite being genius.

Each season of Curb Your Enthusiasm has an underlying storyline.

Scrubs.

Friends

I think it's Season 4 of Seinfeld that really exposed me to the plot-driven sitcom for the first time.

Newsradio has a certain amount of episode to episode plot growth (more than Friends and maybe about as much as HIMYM).

My Name Is Earl

Entourage

Parks and Recreation has always been pretty tight and forward moving while building on previous episodes, this last season in particular did a great job with it.

Soap

The Simpsons

JK!

Alias...Lost...I guess Abrams likes to string people. I do like HIMYM, but honestly, it needs to end. I think it was 2 seasons ago they promised we'd finally see her.

Alias and Lost are HILARIOUS sitcoms.

Cheers always had one underlying plot each season, mixed in with stand-alone episodes.

I'm pretty sure that never happened.

The Office and 30 Rock are plot driven and are great shows.

You can get in on the ground floor of Happy Endings, which has had one 8 or so episode season... it's plot driven and it feels like it could be a show that lasts for a few years.

And while I don't like it all that much, The Big Bang Theory is pretty popular.