It looks like some of the western states (Utah, Wyoming, the Dakotas) are a blank as far as sitcoms go. I thought F Troop (1965-67) would fill one of them, but apparently, the location is just “the Old West” (though one site claims it is set in Kansas).
However, I found a sitcom set in Colorado, Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats (1966-67). So that pushes the earliest Colorado sitcom back significantly.
They returned to the present midway through the first (and only) season. Unfortunately I Dream of Jeannie had already taken the Florida spot a year earlier. I suppose you are positing the idea that they were in Florida very long ago in the time of “cavemen”. The trouble is that the show was on in 1966, not 10,000BC, but even ignoring that there’s no knowing where they landed their damaged spaceship on prehistoric Earth, could have been anywhere. I don’t remember the small portions of the show that I saw when it was on but possibly they included their location as part of story. If that location is in the current US and the rules were changed it should count for whatever state determined. Good point to bring up though, other shows have been set in the past.
Drexel’s Class was the show that brought AJ Langer into the public eye, leading to her being on My So-Called Life.
Perhaps more famously, it also introduced the world to the late Brittany Murphy.
I remember one for South Carolina, set in the fictional town of East Peck. Trial and Error aired from March, 2017 to August 2018. John Lithgow was great in his over-the-top way.
Massachusetts - Sabrina the Teenage Witch - 2003
It couldn’t have been that long ago since the cavemen spoke English.
I’d never heard of that one. I popped in to say The Cleveland Show - from 2009 to 2013, though it’s set in a fictional town (Stoolbend) and is animated, so it might not count.
Updated list with nominations from the last few posts, as well as Young Rock, which someone had nominated for Hawaii without having provided a date:
| State | Earliest sitcom | Starting year | Latest sitcom | Ending year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Hart of Dixie | 2011 | The Wonder Years | ongoing |
| Alaska | The Last Frontier | 1996 | The Great North | ongoing |
| Arizona | Alice | 1976 | The Last Man on Earth [first season only] | 2015 |
| Arkansas | Evening Shade | 1990 | Evening Shade | 1994 |
| California | The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show | 1950 | Grown-ish | ongoing |
| Colorado | Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats | 1966 | South Park | ongoing |
| Connecticut | I Love Lucy [last season only] | 1956 | B Positive | ongoing |
| Delaware | Whatever Happened to… Robot Jones? | 2000 | Whatever Happened to… Robot Jones? | 2003 |
| Florida | I Dream of Jeannie | 1965 | Fresh off the Boat | 2020 |
| Georgia | Carter Country | 1977 | House of Payne | ongoing |
| Hawaii | The Little People | 1972 | Young Rock | ongoing |
| Idaho | Napoleon Dynamite | 2012 | The Grinder | 2016 |
| Illinois | The Chicago Teddy Bears | 1971 | The Conners | ongoing |
| Indiana | One Day at a Time | 1975 | The Middle | 2018 |
| Iowa | Nancy | 1970 | Drexell’s Class | 1992 |
| Kansas | The Phil Silvers Show | 1955 | The Phil Silvers Show | 1959 |
| Kentucky | Call Me Kat | 2021 | Call Me Kat | ongoing |
| Louisiana | Frank’s Place | 1987 | The Haunted Hathaways | 2015 |
| Maine | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | 1968 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | 1970 |
| Maryland | Hot l Baltimore | 1975 | Cuts | 2006 |
| Massachusetts | Cheers | 1982 | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | 2003 |
| Michigan | Home Improvement | 1991 | Bob Hearts Abishola | ongoing |
| Minnesota | The Mary Tyler Moore Show | 1970 | The Louie Show | 1996 |
| Mississippi | Tammy | 1965 | Tammy | 1966 |
| Missouri | AfterMASH | 1983 | The John Larroquette Show | 1996 |
| Montana | Best of the West | 1981 | Best of the West | 1982 |
| Nebraska | Bless This Mess | 2019 | Bless This Mess | 2020 |
| Nevada | Blansky’s Beauties | 1977 | LA to Vegas | 2018 |
| New Hampshire | Willy | 1954 | Ichabod and Me | 1962 |
| New Jersey | Charles in Charge | 1984 | Bob’s Burgers | ongoing |
| New Mexico | Guestward Ho | 1960 | Guestward Ho | 1961 |
| New York | Mary Kay and Johnny | 1947 | Ghosts | ongoing |
| North Carolina | The Andy Griffith Show | 1960 | Bless the Harts | 2021 |
| North Dakota | ||||
| Ohio | Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman | 1976 | United States of Al | ongoing |
| Oklahoma | The Torkelsons | 1991 | Center of the Universe | 2005 |
| Oregon | Delta House | 1979 | Everything Sucks | 2018 |
| Pennsylvania | The Tony Randall Show | 1976 | The Goldbergs | ongoing |
| Rhode Island | Doctor, Doctor | 1989 | Family Guy | ongoing |
| South Carolina | Trial & Error | 2017 | Trial & Error | 2018 |
| South Dakota | ||||
| Tennessee | Filthy Rich | 1982 | Still the King | 2017 |
| Texas | The Rounders | 1966 | Young Sheldon | ongoing |
| Utah | ||||
| Vermont | Newhart | 1982 | Newhart | 1990 |
| Virginia | American Dad! | 2005 | American Dad! | ongoing |
| Washington | Here Come the Brides | 1968 | Tacoma FD | ongoing |
| West Virginia | The Real McCoys | 1957 | The Real McCoys | 1963 |
| Wisconsin | Happy Days | 1974 | That '70s Show | 2006 |
| Wyoming |
It doesn’t count only because we already have Virginia-based sitcoms that pre- and postdate it.
For Massachusetts, the latest was The McCarthys, though that didn’t even make it a whole season. For multi-season, the latest was probably The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, which was on Nickelodeon and geared towards tweens, but was definitely a sitcom.
Making History aired in 2017 and was set in Massachusetts.
(And if a dark comedy counts, Kevin Can F**k Himself aired in 2021. Not thirty minutes though.)
So has there every been a show classified as a “sitcom” that lasted more than thirty minutes?
Sure, there’s Fawlty Towers, whose episodes were of different lengths but often exceeded 30 minutes. I expect a great many more British sitcoms are like this, as British TV is (or at least was) not so anal about fitting all their programming into grids of 30 minutes.
There’s no official sanctioning board for sitcoms, so it comes down to how you want to define it. Certainly there have been hour-long comedies with a) a continuing cast in b) a continuing situation. The Love Boat is one example. There were also some experiments in the late 60s-early 70s like That’s Life (about a couple who meets, falls in love and gets married while singing and dancing) but some critics considered that to be a variety show.
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour was clearly a sitcom, but it was actually an irregularly scheduled group of specials that only later were grouped together and put on the schedule.
The Last Precinct, starring Adam West and Enos, a Dukes of Hazzard spin-off were pretty clearly 60-minute sitcoms. However, both of them, and most 60-comedies in general, were giant failures. There’s an old post on Reddit that argued if you combined all the episodes of all the one-hour situation comedies that all the networks have tried since the dawn of American TV, you still wouldn’t have as many episodes as 60 Minutes.
Reposting from upthread because you either didn’t see it the first time or ignored it because I didn’t include a date. Superstore ran from 2015 to 2021 and would be the latest for Missouri.
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis was set in Minneapolis and ran from 1959-1963
Sorry, incorrect. According to Wikipedia:
Dobie Gillis is set in Central City, a fictitious city in the Midwestern United States (the original short stories are explicitly set in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area).
Maybe. The short stories by Max Shulman that the series was based on were set in Minneapolis. (Shulman grew up in the area.) But the TV series was set in a fictional city in an unnamed state.
Updated table with a few new entries from recent posts:
| State | Earliest sitcom | Starting year | Latest sitcom | Ending year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Hart of Dixie | 2011 | The Wonder Years | ongoing |
| Alaska | The Last Frontier | 1996 | The Great North | ongoing |
| Arizona | Alice | 1976 | The Last Man on Earth [first season only] | 2015 |
| Arkansas | Evening Shade | 1990 | Evening Shade | 1994 |
| California | The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show | 1950 | Grown-ish | ongoing |
| Colorado | Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats | 1966 | South Park | ongoing |
| Connecticut | I Love Lucy [last season only] | 1956 | B Positive | ongoing |
| Delaware | Whatever Happened to… Robot Jones? | 2000 | Whatever Happened to… Robot Jones? | 2003 |
| Florida | I Dream of Jeannie | 1965 | Fresh off the Boat | 2020 |
| Georgia | Carter Country | 1977 | House of Payne | ongoing |
| Hawaii | The Little People | 1972 | Young Rock | ongoing |
| Idaho | Napoleon Dynamite | 2012 | The Grinder | 2016 |
| Illinois | The Chicago Teddy Bears | 1971 | The Conners | ongoing |
| Indiana | One Day at a Time | 1975 | The Middle | 2018 |
| Iowa | Nancy | 1970 | Drexell’s Class | 1992 |
| Kansas | The Phil Silvers Show | 1955 | The Phil Silvers Show | 1959 |
| Kentucky | Call Me Kat | 2021 | Call Me Kat | ongoing |
| Louisiana | Frank’s Place | 1987 | The Haunted Hathaways | 2015 |
| Maine | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | 1968 | The Ghost and Mrs. Muir | 1970 |
| Maryland | Hot l Baltimore | 1975 | Cuts | 2006 |
| Massachusetts | Cheers | 1982 | Making History | 2017 |
| Michigan | Home Improvement | 1991 | Bob Hearts Abishola | ongoing |
| Minnesota | The Mary Tyler Moore Show | 1970 | The Louie Show | 1996 |
| Mississippi | Tammy | 1965 | Tammy | 1966 |
| Missouri | AfterMASH | 1983 | Superstore | 2021 |
| Montana | Best of the West | 1981 | Best of the West | 1982 |
| Nebraska | Bless This Mess | 2019 | Bless This Mess | 2020 |
| Nevada | Blansky’s Beauties | 1977 | LA to Vegas | 2018 |
| New Hampshire | Willy | 1954 | Ichabod and Me | 1962 |
| New Jersey | Charles in Charge | 1984 | Bob’s Burgers | ongoing |
| New Mexico | Guestward Ho | 1960 | Guestward Ho | 1961 |
| New York | Mary Kay and Johnny | 1947 | Ghosts | ongoing |
| North Carolina | The Andy Griffith Show | 1960 | Bless the Harts | 2021 |
| North Dakota | ||||
| Ohio | Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman | 1976 | United States of Al | ongoing |
| Oklahoma | The Torkelsons | 1991 | Center of the Universe | 2005 |
| Oregon | Delta House | 1979 | Everything Sucks | 2018 |
| Pennsylvania | The Tony Randall Show | 1976 | The Goldbergs | ongoing |
| Rhode Island | Doctor, Doctor | 1989 | Family Guy | ongoing |
| South Carolina | Trial & Error | 2017 | Trial & Error | 2018 |
| South Dakota | ||||
| Tennessee | Filthy Rich | 1982 | Still the King | 2017 |
| Texas | The Rounders | 1966 | Young Sheldon | ongoing |
| Utah | ||||
| Vermont | Newhart | 1982 | Newhart | 1990 |
| Virginia | American Dad! | 2005 | American Dad! | ongoing |
| Washington | Here Come the Brides | 1968 | Tacoma FD | ongoing |
| West Virginia | The Real McCoys | 1957 | The Real McCoys | 1963 |
| Wisconsin | Happy Days | 1974 | That '70s Show | 2006 |
| Wyoming |
Looks like we are missing only North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. I looked through Wikipedia’s “Television shows set in…” categories and didn’t find any unambiguous sitcoms for these states. The closest I got was The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange. I’ve never seen the show myself, and am familiar with the Annoying Orange only from its original YouTube videos. But Wikipedia claims the spin-off TV series is set in North Dakota, and while the show in general is not a sitcom, the episode guide indicates that several individual episodes were written and shot in the sitcom format.