- Arrested Development
- Newsradio
- Seinfeld
- Scrubs
-
The Office
Come to think of it, 3 of my 5 favorite live-action sitcoms are from this decade. I’m not a fan of 30 Rock though.
Seinfeld ended in 1998.
Is *Weeds *on Showtime considered a sitcom? That’s a great show, and some how manages to get even better the more absurd the plot gets; it surfs the shark. If so new list…
1)South Park(?)
2)Arrested Development
3)Always Sunny / The Office
4)Scrubs
5)Weeds
6)30 Rock(on [del]second[/del]twelfth thought, better than Reno)
7)Reno 911
8)Big Bang Theory(on the rise)
9)My Name is Earl
…Chappelle Show is not a sitcom right? skitcom?
Well, if we’re making lists…
- Arrested Development
- The Office
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Then we’d have the second tier, no particular order
- Reno 911
- The Simpsons (I’ve warmed up to the years I used to hate)
- Frasier
- Newsradio
- Family Guy (yes, I’m one of those who likes Family Guy. I’m a sucker for non sequitor humor…I blame it on MTV and my love for absurdism.)
Scrubs is another one, like 30 Rock, that I feel I should like, but I’m just tepid about it. I watch it when there’s nothing else on, but I just can’t get into any of the characters or the storytelling. There’s also something about the way it’s shot that annoys me, but I can’t put my finger on what it is.
And Newsradio ended in 1999.
Dang, well, scratch Newsradio, and, upon thinking about it, drop It’s Always Sunny into the second tier. If we’re making distinctions between US and UK Offices, I’ll put both in the top tier, with a slight preference to the US version, although they’re almost apples and oranges to me, in terms of style of humor.
I hope Peep Show comes out on Region 1 DVD sooner than later (only Series 1 is out) because it is quite possibly the best sitcom of the decade.
HOWEVER…I say that as a person firmly planted in the show’s demographics. Shows like Always Sunny and Trailer Park Boys are also fantastic but I think they have a very narrow demographic as well.
30 Rock, The Office (UK and US) and Arrested Development have that wider appeal so while I love Peep Show to death I think those three are better all-around shows.
I got a big laugh out of his impression of Tracy Jordan. Alec should do more of 'em.
I knew I was forgetting something. It’s painful to watch though.
Wow - this thread really surprises me. Because I would have assumed that I had a favorite sitcom, yet I do not watch a single show that has been listed yet. Which got me thinking - and I was surprised at how hard of a time I had coming up with a favorite sitcom.
The only sitcom I make a point of watching - set the recorder for - is The Big Bang - but seeing as that is only in its second season, I hesitate to call it the best of the decade. Tho we do not get HBO my wife and I very much enjoyed renting the first 4 seasons of Entourage. That’s all I could come up with.
I really really liked the first couple of seasons of Earl, but then for whatever reason I lost interest. Was a big fan of the Office up until this season, but I no longer watch it. I’ve tried to watch 30 Rock - mainly out of inertia when I used to watch The Office, but it just never really did anything for me. How I Met Your Mother is more miss than hit for me, which made me decide it was not worth wasting 30 minute a week on.
It really surprised me to find that I liked so few sitcoms, because dating back to The Odd Couple, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, etc., through MASH, WKRP, Fernwood Tonight, and up through Seinfeld I always had a few sitcoms I watched regularly. And my friends and family still tell me I on a regular basis how immature I am and how sophomoric my sense of humor is. 
Why, because you know you’re a Mark? I’m a Mark…and I make myself sad. 
“I’m doing excellent shopping!”
*30 Rock is aweird one for me, because for the longest time I just didn’t get into it. But I dunno, suddenly it all seemed to click for me and now I love it. best of the decade? Not yet, it’s still The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm for me.
IMHO:
Earl jumped the shark a year or so ago.
**The (American) Office **is in that process now. Used to be great. Now I don’t fret if I miss it.
While the last episodes of Scrubs were mediocre at best, Scrubs is the only show that I can think of that made me laugh out loud at a joke so much that I missed the subsequent joke. And not much makes me laugh out loud anymore.
I’m a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother. It’s rare that a joke misses its mark, but every time it happens, it turns out that it sets up a better joke. Plus I like the characters.
30 Rock is great. Definitely in the top 10. Probably not the top 5.
Again, IMHO
I’m not sure what Peep Show’s demographic is, exactly, but I’d put it way up there as well (at least, the first several seasons). Though ultimately, I am still a greater Arrested Development fanboy.
Gotta chime in for Arrested Development. It’s astonishing to me how tightly written that show is. It’s one of the very few shows I could watch over and over again and each time I notice more and more subtleties and foreshadowing.
Nothing else is even in the running, as far as I am concerned.
My favorites of the decade
30 Rock
Arrested Development
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Scrubs
I put them in alphabetical order- because, well… I just don’t think I could figure out which one I like the best.
As for 30 Rock- Jack Donaghey is an amazing character. Alec Baldwin is fantastic. The episode where he rollplays Tracy Jordan’s parents in therapy had my dying. If he wasn’t mentioned in the “All-time great sitcom character” thread- he deserves to be.