I’d have to say “Oh my God, they’re turkeys!” from WKRP wins it.
However, one I’m surprised hasn’t been mentioned was the scene in “Family Ties” when Alex P. Keaton, trying to impress his artsy girlfriend, does an interpretive dance about the 1929 stock market crash.
Herman’s head was an amazing sitcom. Herman is a fact checker for a newspaper. The woman who does lisa on the simpsons is the secretary, Jane Sibbett from friends is the office slut…
But it’s called HERMANS head because inside Hermans head is 4 people.
There’s Intellect (Like a Frasier Crane)
There’s Sensitivity (Granny dressed sensitive woman)
There’s Nervous (Bowtie wearing guy)
There’s LUST (Fat backward baseball cap guy)
Lust, of course, gets all the good lines. They, of course argue at the best course of action.
Anyhow, in one episode, Herman has the chance to have amazing sex, but he does the right thing and later wonders why.
We see, inside Hermans head that the three characters have ganged up on Lust, and have tied him to a chair.
There is a Cheers episode where Cliff is selling mail order shoes that squeak. In one scene, there is a prank from the people at Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern where everyone is led to believe there are rats in the bar. Everyone gets up to leave and the sound of the shoes all squeaking is so beautifully done that I can hear the sound in my head as I type this. Wordless humor.
Oh, we loved Herman’s Head.
[sub]And where’s the damned DVD? It only ran a season and a half, didn’t it?[/sub]
One bit sticks in my mind from that show. Herman meets a woman, who is, basically, his dream girl, both physically and mentally. As he gets to know her (and the folks in his head do the same) she makes some great personal revelation to Herman (no idea what is was, now) and Sensitivity (who is always trying to calm Lust down with talk about pure, platonic love) faces the camera, and says, “I want this woman now!”
It plays out much better than it reads. We were literally rolling on the floor at this one.
Frasier: “Jesus!”
Absolute favorite of all time: Doctor, Doctor. Short-lived sitcom in 1989 starring Matt Frewer (FKA Max Headroom). He’s a doctor that has a gig on local TV news. He’s explaining whiplash, and has a baby doll on the counter in his hands. “First, your body goes BACK” (whips the doll backwards) “then your body goes FORWARDS” (whips doll forewards, dolls’ head goes flying off.) (Pause a beat.) “Then, your head comes off.” ‘News anchor’ next to him cracks up uncontrollably, and I’m LOL, nearly ROTFLOL. [Subsequent ‘bloopers’ show show suggests that the bit was improvised, and the ‘anchor’ didn’t know what was coming.]
Doctor, Doctor honorable mention: He’s in the apartment of his would-be love interest, Dierdre, she appears in a slip (I forget the exact circumstances). He addresses her as, “Deardressless”.
Second absolute favorite: another WKRP scene. Might be from the ‘programming consultant’ episode. Andy (program director) is summoned to the home of Mrs. Carlson (retired station owner.) Byplay between Mrs. Carlson and her equally aged butler Hirsh is priceless deadpan. Best line: Hirsh is sent to fetch coffee, returns some time later, rather later than Mrs. Carlson was hoping.
Mrs. Carlson: Hirsh, where have you been?"
Hirsh: “Mardi Gras, Madame.”
Honorable mention for this scene, roughly paraphrased:
Mrs Carlson: Hirsh, this coffe is delicious. Usually when you make it, it tastes like mud. **Rather cool **(ie, cold) mud.
Hirsh: Yes, we have a visitor. Usually, I make it rather…differently.
Many Python and Fawlty moments rank nearly as high (or AS high) but the more obscure ones rate particular mention here.
That ** Fraiser ** shaving cream scene. Once again, David Hyde-Pierce does amazing physical comedy.
The ** Roseanne ** masturbation episode also has a scene where Roseanne and Dan are discussing it, David walks in, gets a bowl of cereal and sits down, Roseanne says “We just talking about masturbation, Dan” and David gets up and leaves. It’s funnier when you see it.
And this immortal exchange between Jerry and Elaine about her blind date. She takes off her glasses and grabs a Kleenex:
Elaine: How do I put this. He took (blows on lens) it (blows on other lens) out.
Jerry: He took it out?
Elaine: He took it out.
Jerry: What it?
Elaine: IT.
Jerry: He took it out?
Elaine: He took it out?
Jerry: It?
Elaine: It.
Jerry: Out?
Elaine: Out.
Jerry: He took it out?
Elaine: He took it out.
Jerry: That can’t be.
Elaine: Oh, it be.
Jerry: He took it out.
Elaine: He took it out.
Any episode of MASH* involving practical jokes.
I’ll also add a vote for the turkey episode of WKRP, but it’s now even funnier for me. A couple of years ago, a sales rep I knew was walking across a plaza in downtown Pittsburgh when a turkey fell dead at his feet. It had apparently flown into the side of the skyscraper above him.
As God is my witness, turkeys can fly. They just can’t always navigate. 
CJ
oh, man, such a wealth:
“Y’know, Father Mulcahy, for a priest you have no sense of rhythm.”
(wrapping up a drunken stag party for Pinnopscot)
Radar (slurring): Col. Potter, permission to go outside and get sick?
Potter (slurring): Granted!
(Radar gets up, goes through the door, collapses face down outside the tent. A few minutes later, Potter leaves too, encountering Radar on the ground.)
Potter (bending over, slurring): G-G-Get up, Radar, you'll get dirt in your nose.
[I don't know why, but that one folds me up every time I think about it, and I haven't thought about it in years]
(Hawkeye and Potter, travelling back from a field hospital, are drunk and caught in a combat zone. Search party finds them)
Searchers: Sirs, what are you doing out here?
Hawkeye: Lookin’ for broads. (falls down in dirt).
Ah, well, they are funny to me anyway. I'm also glad to see there is at least one *Doctor, Doctor* fan in the audience. I think that's the last sitcom that made me laugh out loud Every Single Time.
"Well, I graduated Much Too Loudly from Harvard!"
and, at no extra charge, one obligatory Simpsons reference (and a seasonal one to boot), 'cos it's my fave:
"Yep, heah's yer problem....somebody's set this doll ta EVIL"
'vark
Hawkeye: Well, apparently the army is covering this over in manure in the hopes that something beautiful will growHow about that Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns gets a girlfriend and requires a boost to his libido.
He injects himself with a syringe full of “fox serum” in front of Homer, who witnesses Mr. Burns’ sudden transformation.
As Mr. Burns confidantly strolls away to his love interest, Homer picks up the syringe, still containing a small squirt of fox serum.
He slowly guides the needle to his own arm…
…and we cut to a growling Homer with Marge tossed over his shoulder, taking three steps at a time running upstairs to the bedroom.
“Oh, Ohh, OOOHHHHHH HOMIE!!!..Oh, I hope we didn’t make too much noise.”
Cut to Bart in bed staing at the ceiling in shock.
Cut to Lisa also in shock.
Cut to Flanders ACROSS THE STREET in shock!
oh, man, such a wealth:
“Y’know, Father Mulcahy, for a priest you have no sense of rhythm.”
(wrapping up a drunken stag party for Pinnopscot)
Radar (slurring): Col. Potter, permission to go outside and get sick?
Potter (slurring): Granted!
(Radar gets up, goes through the door, collapses face down outside the tent. A few minutes later, Potter leaves too, encountering Radar on the ground.)
Potter (bending over, slurring): G-G-Get up, Radar, you'll get dirt in your nose.
[I don't know why, but that one folds me up every time I think about it, and I haven't thought about it in years]
(Hawkeye and Potter, travelling back from a field hospital, are drunk and caught in a combat zone. Search party finds them)
Searchers: Sirs, what are you doing out here?
Hawkeye: Lookin’ for broads. (falls down in dirt).
Ah, well, they are funny to me anyway. I'm also glad to see there is at least one *Doctor, Doctor* fan in the audience. I think that's the last sitcom that made me laugh out loud Every Single Time.
"Well, I graduated Much Too Loudly from Harvard!"
and, at no extra charge, one obligatory Simpsons reference (and a seasonal one to boot), 'cos it's my fave:
"Yep, heah's yer problem....somebody's set this doll ta EVIL"
'varkFavorite Roseanne scene:
By some miracle Dan and Roseanne have paid off all their montyly bills and find they have $50 left over. After much debate, they vow to put it into savings and not spend it on a treat. Roseanne immediately runs out and buys a $50 bottle of perfume and Dan buys a brass bell for the boat he’s building. Dan finds the perfume and confronts Roseanne.
Roseanne: “Oh yeah? I want you to look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t go out and buy that bell.”
Dan (about an inch from her face): “I did NOT BUY THAT BELL!”
At that time DJ walks through from the garage loudly clanging the brass bell.
Dan (very somber): “Ask not for whom the bell tolls!”
Roseanne: “It tolls for thee, BUTTHEAD!”
Also the scene from Friends where Chandler goes to Joey’s tailor who fondles him while taking his inseam measurement. Joey explains that first you measure one side, then you move “it” over and measure the other side – that’s how you measure for pants.
Ross: "Yes Joey, that’s how you measure pants…IN PRISON!!!
I’ve got to agree with elf6c on the Seinfeld “reservation” exchange. I’ve even had a similar conversation and no matter how angry I was at the time, I left with a smile on my face just thinking of the episode.
From the same episode (since he was renting a car due to his car being stolen), the very last scene when Kramer shows up at Monk’s and puts his gloves on the table. Jerry picks them up and says “Oh, for crying out loud.”, when he realizes that they were the gloves that Kramer left in the stolen car and he got them back from the thief, although Jerry never got the car back.
And, the conversation between Jerry and the thief when he calls his own car phone was great, too:
Jerry: Are you going to bring it back?
Thief: Um…no.
Best. Episode. Ever!
I second Crusoe-
Bottom is one of the most hilarious shows I have ever seen- but my vote for episode goes to the Halloween episode where they are trying to raise the Devil-
That bathtub Homebrew and the Sprouts of Evil slay me every time I watch it- lucky for me I taped the first two episodes off of BBC America a couple of years ago!!
I always watched Newhart when it was on, but I somehow missed the last episode, and I’ve still never seen it! This displeases me.
Anyway, the funniest thing I do remember seeing on there was the episode where everyone in town panics on Halloween because of a War Of The Worlds broadcast. Eventually Larry, Darryl and Darryl show up where everyone’s gathered and when they find out people think there’s a Martian invasion happening, Larry says, “What a bunch of rubes!”
The “Big Sandwich” episode on Wings sends me into conniption fits. The final scene, which you actually do not see because the camera stays out in the hall, involves the entire group bursting in on the soon-to-be-newlyweds in the romantic bed and breakfast room. They’re carrying the huge sandwich that the natives have insisted is the de rigueur party menu item, despite the horror of the snooty sister who has been planning it all.
Obviously the couple are, ahem, not dressed and also, ahem, being intimate. There is a big scream of horror and everyone is aghast but you hear the man (why is my brain so fried that I can’t remember names) say with disbelief and joy and excitement “Say, is that a big sandwich?” Perfect line, perfect delivery, perfect end to the episode.
NED AND STACEY
Which starred dumb guy from WINGS as an asshole ad exec and
Grace from WILL AND GRACE (second unfunniest show ever IMO, Number one being any show on the HOLOCAUST)
Borrowing from the 50s (or maybe 60s) sitcom MY OCCASIONAL WIFE. A young corporate type, Ned, needs to impress his boss in order to get a promotion. The boss is big on family men so the young man finds a female friend, Stacey to masquerade as his wife. Stacey is desperate to get out from under the thumb of her parents but lacks the funds to get her own place so she takes Ned up on the offer. So they live as tempustous room mates for awhile. They have a real married couple (one was Fish on Ally Mcbeal) as friends. During the second season Stacey has found a steady boyfriend and is thinking of moving in with him while Ned can play the sympathy of being divorced at work.
One day Ned realizes that he does really love Stacey. He’s out on a balcony and a animated little blue bird lands on his shoulder.
His friend convinces him to tell Stacey how he feels. The problem is that Stacey is visiting her new boyfriends family out in the country. So they drive out there. The boyfriend has just proposed to Stacey when they burst in. The friend says Ned has something very important to say. Ned steps up and looks at the faces of the family and Stacey and the boyfriend, all smiling and curious. Ned stammers and then blurts out “I love pie!” he then turns and leaves. The friend left alone says something like “Well, I guess we’ll be going now.” He looks out the window. “Ned! Ned that’s my car Ned! Wait! Don’t leave me” We hear the car drive away. The friend turns back to these strangers. “Hi.”
My friends and I always used the phrase “I love pie.” as a non-sequitor but we couldn’t figure out where we got it from. I then saw that episode again in syndication and figured that must have been it.
I have such a fondness for that show. It has one of the sharpest Jump the Shark lines ever. Out of the blue the characters decide to run a Muffin shop.
Ah, Ned and Stacey, you left us too soon. Several episodes written by Charlie Kaufman of Being John Malkovich fame.
One of the better laugh out loud moments came when Ned was pitching a commercial idea to a show company. He was presenting a mock-up video of what the campaign would look like, which showed him playing basketball in a Big Game. As the clock runs down, he makes a final shot at the basket and misses. Looking distraught, he then rips off his own head and scores the winning points with it.
Soap was a fantastic show. My favorite scene is when Burt, Danny, Jodi, Chuck and Bob (the dummy) went out and got stinking drunk.
Bob kept saying he was going to be sick. Then he passed out. The rest of them left him there, his head on the table and his wooden legs hanging off and swinging. When the bartender said they needed to pay, Burt thrusts his thumb towards Bob, saying he’d take care of the bill.
What’s a “sitcom” and what are you people talking about?
::blinks::