how i met your mother, the big bang theory to name a few.

Yes, it does. I just checked on the TV show Servant, episode 3. They are there, right beneath standard korean.

Sted Lasso

Yall keep brining more examples when I think there can't possibly be more lol

The first three seasons or so of My Three Sons are silly. The kids are cynical, and there's a lot of slapstick. It slows down over time. Andy Griffith has an unusually strong break after Season 5 which is not just Don Knotts leaving and not just switching to color. The comedy brakes are clearly on.

The whole raft of fantasy shows were driven by outsized characters and slapstick. The rural shows were just last of those to go. Mr. Ed, Gilligan, early Bewitched, the Munsters were replaced by family stuff like Here's Lucy, Julia, Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Doris Day. They just weren't giving any priority to comedy.

Rights issues, I believe. It took them a while to get all the stuff on the original Muppet Show cleared, I can only imagine what it costs to get the rights for something like Prince. Probably too much for a show that didn't do all that well to begin with.

So few sitcoms used canned laughter. MASH is an example of canned laughter, because it was impossible to have an audience follow those episodes as characters moved from set to set, then cut to footage of characters moving from tent to tent when they were on the exterior set.

The reason The Office picked up steam was because of the ability to watch the show on an iPod.

Agree. Thought the 2nd was significantly better..but still a B

interesting that Gilligan didn't get submitted for either writing or directing considering his episode got the DGA nom

I’m liking it but I have an English degree and work in English education so I may be biased

I've liked a lot of their stuff, but maybe theyre in 'greenlight everything' mode now. Would make sense to grow the library.

I suspect tempo is a big problem with a lot of sitcoms. I can't say that categorically. But really, a great sitcom isn't engineered - it's lightning in a bottle. There are too many factors. But timing is really significant in comedy in general.

A lot of the newer sitcoms, they're "working too hard" or something. But that has to be quite individual or possibly generational.

To me it's the opposite, knowing actors usually work for the whole season means they have "plot armor", i.e. they won't die until maybe the last episode of the season, so if it seems like something dangerous is going to happen, or if they get shot or something, I know the next scene is probably them in the hospital at worst. I hate plot armor.

Writer rooms are now a combination of nepotism hires and forced diversity hires. Everyone is afraid of offending any demographic now too so every joke has to be as milquetoast and inoffensive as possible as well. Doesn’t make for great comedy. Same issue is happening with movies.

It was less a bolt from the blue than The Rural Purge. Was My Three Sons ever really funny? I do not recall. And yeah - the longer And Griffith ran the less funny it was.

Green Acres was pretty much brilliant the whole time. It morphed into a sort of surrealism and all the performers had incredible timing.

Yes, it says networks are airing fewer comedies.

Superstore was really good. But overall I agree with you.

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I’m just curious if you zealously point out the hypocrisy of the other side of the aisle as well

https://youtu.be/3vuT8ki9yM4?t=129

When that show debuted, it was definitely a little frustrating to hear people talk about how awful it was that they were gearing the Muppets more towards adults... as if that wasn't how they were initially. One of the earliest Muppet specials was titled Sex and Violence, because they wanted to make it clear that it was geared more towards adults.

Though, I suppose, it just goes to show you how Disney has bungled their ownership and how much they frequently misunderstand them.

The biggest factor is probably streamers which lean more dramedy than a joke every few seconds and overall seem to be better at making 7/10 or 8/10 level shows than true classic. Furthermore they take away comedy talent from the networks, and also means a comedian like Bill Hader, Nathan Fielder or Eric Andre can be doing their own experimental things instead of grinding it on a sitcom. Or another example Seth Rogen hits stopped coming in the movies but instead of converting to TV he was able to build a producer resume.

The political climate affects it a bit but probably less for the already sterilized TV than movies or stand up. I don't think Barney Stinson could happen today and new animations having some of South Park and Family Guy more offensive jokes couldn't happen, the main reason they get away with it now is they were grandfathered in from a previous time. Another factor is we cancelled some comedians taking some talent off the board including ones that were likely going to be very active making shows like Louis and Aziz.

I still like a lot of comedies currently on like Shrinking, Ted Lasso, Ghosts, Night Court, Velma, Harley Quinn, Hacks however the last ones I considered true classics were in late 2010s with Mindy Project, The Good Place and Broad City. I don't have many true top tier dramas that started in 2020s either so I guess it's not that much worse.

I mean miss piggy was pretty much Jenna and Kermit was Liz. Rizzo the rat and Pepe the prawn were the writing guys. I basically describe the 2015 show as the 30 Rock muppets. Which is why I loved it

Dr Frasier Crane on Cheers was supposed to around for just a few episodes as Diane's love interest.

He was so liked that his role was expanded leading to one of the best TV characters ever, who appeared as Dr. Frasier Crane on 3 different shows.

Many guest starts make shows better, and I don't think they ruin the TV at all.