I think it’s a toss-up between “Seinfeld” and “Friends”.
“Friends” had a huge following and got terrific ratings. It also sucked balls.
On the other hand, “Seinfeld” got (if I recall correctly) not quite as good ratings but did get numerous accolades from critics. “Friends” was never, to my knowledge, critically acclaimed. “Seinfeld” was.
That said, I haven’t seen “Sex in the City” - the few moments I tried to watch made me want to stab several people in the eye with an icepick. Considering how remarkably hyped and critically acclaimed the show was, it almost has to be the most overrated sitcom of all time unless it’s the second coming of Christ.
from Futurama*:
Ralph Kramden animatronic: One of these days, Alice… to the moon!
Leela: I never knew ancient astronauts were so fat.
Fry: Oh, he wasn’t really an astronaut. He just used space travel as a metaphor for beating his wife.
*paraphrased, since I know someone will call me on that.
Will & Grace. One day Alias and I were in another room while someone was watching it in the livng room. All we could hear was the laugh track. It was surreal. The laugh track had to have come on every other line. Line/Witty Retort/Laugh Track.
When I actually watched an episode, I saw that I was right.
What’s the difference between “I think it’s overrated” and “I don’t think it’s funny?”
For my money I’ve never found eitherr The Honeymooners or Seinfeld funny, yet everyone raves about them. To my mind, they’re tremendously overrated.
I can agree that Friends and Frasier get more praise than they’re worth, but they both made me laugh a lot. I’ll take an epuisode of either over Honeymooners or Seinfeld.
And, to me, MAS*H was great, even factoring in Alda’s preachiness.
Seinfeld Just because everybody used to say it was the best show of all time. The only episode I ever saw was the finale, and I wondered what all the fuss was about.
I Love Lucy Sure, it was groundbreaking. But it was not timeless. It hasn’t aged nearly as well as the Honeymooners.
Will & Grace. It was funny and fresh for about a season. Then the gag got stale. The once edgy characters were written to be completely over-the-top. They weren’t characters any more; they were caricatures. And the show stopped being funny.
The last few seasons have served one purpose: to provide a vehicle for guest stars a la “The Love Boat.” It’s time for W&G to die already.
I found shows featuring people I didn’t want to die horrible deaths much more entertaining. I’ll second Night Court for one that I found amusing, but I could watch awful sit-coms and pass the time… but I couldn’t stomach Seinfeld.
Will & Grace is still on? I thought it got cancelled after Grace’s failed marriage thing…
I find a lot of sitcoms faded to pale shadows of themselves in seasons 3 through 7, with the occasional moment of wittiness, and the rare resurrection. Then again, most shows do that.
Around here, in between Jay Leno and Conan, they air old reruns of **Cheers. ** It might be that I’m tired and waiting for Conan to come on, but still Cheers sucks. Never have I once watched/seen an episode that was remotely entertaining. Along that line, Frasier sucks too. Let’s all laugh at the pretentious doctor and the hilarious, misplaced situations he finds himself in week after week!
In addition, all CBS comedies suck. Tremendously. Everybody Loves Raymond , King of Queens , and pretty much everything else make me want to smash my TV in with a tennis racket.
Well, that’s kind of like hearing only the punchline of a joke, without knowing the setup.
It took me a long time to warm up to Seinfeld myself. The first few times I caught a random epiode, it was always something bathroom related: no toilet paper in the ladies’ room; the sick guy pees himself on Jerry’s couch; the pizza chef who didn’t wash his hands, etc. I thought the whole show must be nothing but toilet humor, and I can do without that. Once I finally started watching the show regularly, during its last year or two, I loved that there would be as many as half a dozen seemingly unrelated plot threads in one episode that would end up tied together in some unlikely way.
Sex in the City is horrible. Seinfeld was overrated. Funny sometimes, but not the best.
I have to say I don’t agree on Third Rock from the Sun, though. Don’t get me wrong - I acknowledge it was unfunny to many people, but I really don’t think it got enough fame to be called overrated. I could be wrong.
I have to defend “Friends” - us Generation X’ers (and by that I mean people born between 1961 and 1981, NOT modern teenagers) were virtually un-represented on television before “Friends”, and people my age (including myself) found it struck a real chord with us. Yes, we were all aware that there were certain…leaps that had to be made, but I appreciated seeing aspects of my life that I was struggling with showing up on television with characters my age, not Boomers. I would say the appeal is probably similar for “Seinfeld.”
I simply can’t watch it. It makes my skin crawl. It combines all the ugliness of the 70s with whiny voices, loudmouth characters, and a point of view that makes me want to scream.
