Where do I begin?
10.
Friends - Come on, this one's a given. I enjoy the show a lot less each year, but early episodes like "TOW The Blackout," "TOW The Boobies" are plain funny. And besides, they're MY AGE, and early on, it was established they were TV addicts. I think I could relate to them all-too-well...
9.
The Larry Sanders Show - At a time when talk shows were trying hard to be funny, this talk show spoof actually
was very funny. And it was amusing to get celebrities willing to parody THEMSELVES on the show. David Duchovny's Sharon Stone impression is hysterical.
8.
Three's Company - Yes, in 90% of the episodes, the formula was "Character A hears parts of a conversation between characters B & C and misinterprets it, to madcap results." But it WORKED. And I'll always fondly remember The Ropers... but not Mr. Furley.
7.
Soap - The classic soap opera parody. CTHE's announcement that this title will soon be on DVD actually excited me. Infidelity, alien abductions, invisibility issues, murder-in-the-shower, mafia princesses, talking dummies, a wisecracking black butler, a baby possessed by the devil,
and Billy Crystal as Jody. What more do you need?
6.
Married With Children - The ex-jock shoe salesman, his useless wife, hot but stupid daughter and wisecracking youngest son. Plus neurotic (but horny) neighbors. It was the perfect antidote to "The Cosby Show", "Family Ties", "Growing Pains" and the other "perfect families" represented on TV shortly before its debut.
5.
Frasier - The spin-off that actually succeeded since instead of making it merely an extension of a hit, they actually created an entirely different show with a different brand of humor.
4.
Bewitched - Sure, Samantha Stephens was never as sexy as Jeannie. But she was also never as ditzy. And she was very independent, especially as a woman of the 1960s. She was there to save the day, and unlike Jeannie, she was rarely actually to blame for the messes she was cleaning up.
3.
Coupling (UK version) - To dismiss this show as a "Friends"-clone would deprive you of such mind-blowing concepts as "The Nudity Buffer", "The Giggle Loop", "Unflushables", "Porn Buddies", "Bi-vegetarianism" and "Loss of Elasticity". Trust me, once you hear what those are... you're unlikely to ever forget them! But now there's an American version. After seeing what those Yanks did with "Fawlty Towers" and "Men Behaving Badly," I'm scared... really
really scared!
2.
Police Squad! - In Color! Outrageous parody played with a straight face. Half the jokes from the first NAKED GUN movie came directly from this series. "Cigarette?" "Yes, it is." (Sorry, you had to be there!
)
1.
Seinfeld - "The show about
nothing." But honestly, it was truly
something. Seinfeld was really the "Master of his Domain."