Since the qualifier for this thread is “don’t suck” there’s also the show which introduced all you David Spade fans to the majesty of Patrick Warburton.
Better Off Ted is fantastic. Not traditional, but who cares? It’s funny as hell.
Since we’re going off the thread’s original direction, may I suggest you gentlemen give MTV’s Awkward a chance? You’d seriously think it was a British show about teens and not a US one. Which if you know me is very high praise.
Caution, Diablo Cody haters need not apply.
I have all the doubts in the world as to whether it actually holds up (probably not), but I remember Grounded For Life having its weird, dysfunctional charms. And kevin Corrigan’s genetic Christopher Walken impression writ large.
I guess I’d define modern as anything since Friends was airing, since I consider that show a bridge between the old sitcoms and the modern kind.
Spin City by Bill Lawrence starrring Michael J. Fox as deputy mayor of New York was great. A stellar cast including Richard Kind, Alan Ruck, and a young and foxy Connie Britton. Barry Bostwick was The Mayor. Don’t watch the Sheen years, Fox’s last episode (A season finale) is a great way to end it.
Another nominee: ***Titus.***I don’t really care for Christopher Titus’ standup, but this was a damn fine show. Stacy Keach was fantastic as Titus’ dad.
Titus was kind of fucking brilliant. Surprised that was allowed on the air - Stacy Keach was all sorts of gnarled nastiness. Also, that one episode where the mother was welcomed back home from the institution for Thanksgiving, proceeding to drug the turkey, knock everyone out and rob them. Somewhere along the line, Fox went from most to least likely network to feature such a storyline.
off tangent segue to give props to “The Mighty Boosh”…
BoT was freakin’ great.
this just reminded me that I have to pick it up on DVD
case in point (OK, so what if this is an outtake, they must have had a blast filming this episode.)
very NSFW dialog
What shits me about Ted is not that it was cancelled (we’ve learned to expect sitcoms of a certain intelligence to get cancelled quickly as often as not), but that I haven’t seen anyone in it pop up in anything since. Okay, De Rossi is going back to Arrested Development, and there’s certainly no shame in that. But Jay Harrington’s agent should at least be signing him to every project Jon Hamm drops out of. Andrea Anders is terrifically game, and while she does seem to be becoming the female Ted McGinley, being Ted McGinley hasn’t stopped Ted McGinley from getting work. And Lem and Phil played so well together that they could just drop the same characters into any other workplace sitcom that needs a boost.
I understand it not being a runaway success, but I can’t understand how it could have been anything but a boost for all the performers.
I have to second the love for Better off Ted. A shame it only got two seasons in.
Since the focus of this thread is more traditional sitcoms, post-Friends, do hour long comedy/dramas count? Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me specifically comes to mind.
There was a great video floating around not long ago where the laugh track had been digitally removed from a long scene in a 3-cam sitcom (possibly TBBT), that showed just how long those pauses between material can be, and yeah, it cuts into story and humor big time. These days it’s just impossible to tell how much is genuine auidience laughter, and how mush is ‘sweetened’. Then again, I’ve been around since the original days of All in the Family’s live studio audience taping, and those audiences definitely enhanced the experience.
I will also add, in my defense, I’ve never seen an episode of BBBT when it aired, or even on Demand or Hulu or whatever. I’ve only recently started watching it in syndication.
OK, no more self-defensive apologies, I swear.
Oh, and Better Off Ted was awesome indeed. We had a decent little Chewer group devoted to it.
I still love the hell out of “Sports Night,” and it’s equally interesting as a laff-trak study. ABC didn’t know what to do yet with a single-cam sitcom and insisted on a laff-trak being flagrantly tacked on. Sorkin et al. naturally hated that, and gradually lowered its frequency and even volume, until by the end of the first season it’s practically nonexistent. And I think it’s gone entirely for the second season (though it’s been several years since I revisited). The pacing and editing in the early eps are definitely done around the laffs piped in, and it feels so awkward.
I’m also proud to say that I’m one of apparently 10 people in the U.S. who watched the shit out of and evangelized for Tim Reid’s “Frank’s Place” for the all of 30 seconds it aired (felt like). Another single-cam sitcom but with no laff-trak slapped on it; wall-to-wall sharp, funny, unpredictable (the homeless man ep killed me), and talked up to the audience.
I remember watching the News Radio pilot purely out of Dave Foley interest (Kids in the Hall were HUGE to me at the time), and by the end realizing I’d actually seen an American sitcom that reminded me in pace and quality of nothing less than Fawlty Towers (the gold standard, all-time champ, no arguments to be brooked, though this thread seems to be sticking to U.S. fare) (ETA: not to mention newish to modern, duh-doy).
Aw man, KUDOS for the reminder of Frank’s Place. I even remember thinking at the time, “This is terrific! And it’ll never last!” I wonder how it’s aged?? I need to look that one up online.
No. Must be 30 minutes, with a live audience or laugh track to count.
Checking out Better Off Ted based on the recommendations here.
Portia de Rossi is really good in this. A really fun show. Love the show’s different ‘opening titles’ in every episode.
I don’t get why the show is called Better Off Ted though. Hahahaha
You’ll love Ted, Nooj. The racial sensitivity episodes is one of the funniest half hours of TV in the last decade.
Seconded. When I hear people talk about this show, they always reference this particular episode.
Oh, I already saw that one. I just finished the last episode of season 1.
You’re both right about the racial sensitivity episode (the episode where the sensor ignores black people, right?).