[QUOTE]
Best of the West
Make that all four fans!
One I haven’t seen mentioned yet was **The Naked Truth ** with Tea Leone and Holland Taylor. At least the first iteration. They changed the format, not so good. They changed it again. Bad.
I don’t know if it’s really underappreciated, as they’re making a movie out of it, but I love Reno 911. My dad and I are the only people I know who watch it, so maybe it just seems underappreciated in my circle.
I also love Mama’s Family, It’s Always Sunny, and a short-lived show that I think was called Brothers and Sisters.
I am a mouse potato, for the most part, and don’t watch a lot of TV… but here is a list of shows that i actually will move away from the 'puter to see
The Young Ones (Punk Era Brit-Com… Anarchy and insanely funny at times)
Black Adder (All of them… the last episode (set in WW!) made me burst out in tears, and not because it was the last one… see it sometime your self and see if you don’t, other than that, insanely funny)
Keeping Up Appearances (Starriung my mother in law… well not really, but an incredible simulation)
Hmm… these are all brit coms…
Regards
FML
When Things Were Rotten, and The Nutt House, both from Mel Brooks. Loved them. Absolutely adored them!
When I saw the name of the show, a scene of skeletons playing rock music as a group called the “Dregs of Humanity” flashed into my mind. I had to check the link to make sure it was this show I was thinking about. It was. I too, loved that show and was disappointed when it was cancelled.
If Wonderfalls counts as a sitcom then I’ll put it on my list.
I also intended to post about Stark Raving Mad but someone beat me to it. I have to wonder if someone didn’t get some ideas for Monk from watching that show - Tony Shalhoub and germaphobe.
It was. Most of the interview segments were improv. They used to film the show on a soundstage, then it was screened for a live audience, to get the laugh track.
BTW Greg The Bunny is still running on IFC with new episodes.
I still miss Arrested Development.
Not *quite *a sitcom but often funny and I was sad to see it go: Cupid
Yeah! Fantastic show; Jeremy Piven is amazing.
I also second Sports Night and Andy Richter Controls the Universe.
And I’ll add two more: M.Y.O.B., a caustic sitcom written by the guy who did The Opposite of Sex and starring Lauren Graham. It aired four episodes in the summer of 2000, and I thought it was really underappreciated. And It’s Like, You Know, which was basically derided as “Seinfeld in L.A.,” but which had an outstanding cast (Chris Eigeman, Evan Handler, Steven Eckholdt, and A.J. Langer—Rayanne from My So-Called Life!—among them) and some extremely sharp writing.
I’ve always thought that King of Queens was underappreciated. From the beginning it has been 10x funnier than Everybody Loves Raymond, but for some reason ELR got all the accolades. Kevin James is laugh out loud hilarious, both in this show and in stand up comedy.
Spin City was consistently funny and intelligent right up until Michael J. Fox left the show (althought when Heather Locklear showed up it was teetering on the brink). Then it was unwatchable.
There is one joke I remember from this series – Matt Frewer spills a cup of coffee in his lap (or someone spills it in his lap) and he remarks “Man, I hope that was decaf, or I’m going to be up all night!”
One show I haven’t seen mentioned yet is Johnny Bago. It was a summer replacement series that was on about ten or so years ago. It was about some guy who is on the run from both the mob and his parole officer (who is also his ex-wife). While on the run he gets picked up by some old guy in a Winnebago who winds up dying on him, so Johnny takes the Winnebago and winds up driving all over the country and encountering many strange people and places. One of my favorite episodes was when he winds up in a trailer park / campground that turns out to be where Elvis has been hiding out all these years.
“Wings” apparently ran for 8 (!) seasons. But it was a sleeper–never The Hottest Thing on TV.
I was surprised to see an article about the show as it was ending–in The New Yorker. Apparently a lot of people learned to enjoy the character-driven humor. And lots more caught on during the continuing re-runs.
We are the Dregs!
Actually that show started strong but jumped the shark quickly. The episode when his mother discovered his schemes and he promised to stop was pretty much the end of the show.
Bringing in Garret Morris to play the principal was no help either.
One other, and I have no idea how popular it was in Britain, is The Vicar of Dibley. The cast is brilliant, and although they sometimes fall back on their catchphrases (nonononononono… yes), it never fails to amuse, and sometimes touch, me, right down to the final post-credit joke.
It’s because of that show that I learned that it’s a bad idea to mispronounce the word ‘succor.’
It’s underrated, perhaps, but not underappreciated. Despite having only what, 2 full seasons worth of episodes, it was voted the third most popular British sitcom ever by a BBC poll (granted it is recent so that explains a lot of it.)
I too think it’s underappreciated this side of the pond, though, and only your aforementioned character falls back on catchphrases, in my experience (although stereotypes abound of course.)
Does anyone else remember Keen Eddie - about an American policeman in the UK? It borrowed heavily from action/comedies like Snatch, but I really enjoyed all three (I think) episodes that they aired.
I love that one too, and catch it when I can on BBCAmerica. According to the BBC Vicar of Dibley homepage, there was 3 seasons, then 4 Christmas specials, and two Comic Relief specials.
I liked that one too: it was one of the few examples of a merely “adequate” comedy that I nonetheless enjoyed. It delivered consistent entertainment. it wasn’t the best. program. ever. but it was nonetheless underappreciated since it was cancelled so soon.
The Vicar of Dibley is a strange one - it was never a huge hit when it was in production, but somehow the BBC have parlayed it into becoming a “people’s favourite”, with heavily promoted one-off Christmas specials and so on. Much like the eighties sitcom Only Fools and Horses, except that that was actually popular before it “moved upstairs” to the Cherished Comedy department.
It almost seems like there was an orchestrated campaign to make “Vicar of Dibley” the new “Only Fools and Horses”. A few years ago, the Beeb ran this “Top Ten British Sitcoms” poll, and there was much scratching of heads at the appearance of The Vicar of Dibley at number three, among greats like Fawlty Towers and Dad’s Army.