The Best Sitcoms of All Time: Settled by Vote
Vote on the best sitcoms of all time and shove the order around until the argument feels settled. Qualifiers are fictional comedy series with a recurring cast and setting (no sketch or variety), a half-hour at the short end of their Wikipedia running time, and in English, any country, animation included. Three dated rankings count: SlashFilm's 30 best sitcoms (December 8, 2024), AARP's 25 best (September 22, 2021) and the Writers Guild's 101 best-written series (June 2, 2013). Each ranking is eligible for a show it postdates and whose kind it allowed; SlashFilm barred animation and dramedies (anything Wikipedia's lead or infobox calls a comedy drama). Shows named by all their eligible rankings, two or more eligible, fill the upper tier; remaining seats go to the highest share of eligible rankings naming a show, ties to the newer premiere. The rankings decide seats and tiers; votes reorder within a tier. Fewer than two eligible rankings bars a show from the upper tier, shutting out live action after September 22, 2021, and animation or a comedy drama after June 2, 2013.
Cheers (1982) is #1 on “The Best Sitcoms of All Time: Settled by Vote”.
- 1
Cheers (1982)
Thanksgiving Orphans, aired November 27, 1986, turns a holiday dinner into a food fight, and the pie Diane throws misses Sam and hits Vera in the face as she comes through the door. TV Guide ranked the episode 7th among its 100 greatest episodes. NBC ran the series for 275 episodes, and it took 28 Primetime Emmys. SlashFilm has it 6th, AARP 3rd and the Writers Guild 8th, which is 3 of the 3 rankings eligible to include it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083399/ - 2
The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970)
At Chuckles the Clown's funeral, Mary starts giggling, and the more embarrassed she gets, the less she can stop. David Lloyd wrote Chuckles Bites the Dust, which aired October 25, 1975 and won the Emmy for comedy writing, one of 29 Primetime Emmys the show earned on CBS. SlashFilm ranked it 7th, AARP 2nd and the Writers Guild 6th, so it's on 3 of 3 eligible rankings.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065314/ - 3
Seinfeld (1989)
Built around masturbation, The Contest never says the word, swapping in comic euphemisms after NBC executives decided the topic didn't suit prime time. The episode aired November 18, 1992, and won Larry David the writing Emmy in the comedy category. Every eligible ranking names the show, 3 of 3: 1st at SlashFilm, 4th at AARP and 2nd on the Writers Guild's 101.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/ - 4
All in the Family (1971)
Sammy Davis Jr. plays himself, and at the moment the photo is taken he kisses a stunned Archie on the cheek. Norman Lear developed the series from Johnny Speight's Till Death Us Do Part, and it topped Nielsen's yearly ratings from 1971 to 1976. AARP ranked it 1st, the Writers Guild 4th and SlashFilm 13th, which makes 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066626/ - 5
I Love Lucy (1951)
Put Lucy and Ethel in front of a speeding conveyor belt of chocolates they're supposed to wrap and you get the scene the Paley Center placed first of 30 in its 2013 Funniest of the Funniest special. The series was the first scripted show filmed on 35 mm in front of a studio audience, with 3 cameras rolling at once. It's on 3 of 3 eligible rankings, placed 3rd by SlashFilm, 7th by AARP and 12th by the Writers Guild.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043208/ - 6
M*A*S*H (1972)
Radar walks into the operating room to say Henry's plane home was shot down over the Sea of Japan, and the cast, Alda aside, didn't know the scene was coming until just before filming. Abyssinia, Henry aired March 18, 1975, in a series that spanned 256 episodes about a three-year war. AARP ranked it 9th and the Writers Guild 5th; Wikipedia calls it a comedy drama, which puts it outside SlashFilm's rules, for a tally of 2 of 2 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068098/ - 7
The Larry Sanders Show (1992)
HBO's fake late-night show gets two looks: four video cameras give the on-air segments a brighter picture, while everything backstage is shot on film, often hand-held, in a documentary style. In Everybody Loves Larry, Larry starts to suspect David Duchovny has feelings for him. Across 90 episodes it earned 3 Primetime Emmys, and SlashFilm (4th), AARP (5th) and the Writers Guild (20th) make it 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103466/ - 8
Arrested Development (2003)
Fox canceled it in 2006 after low ratings, two years after its first season took Outstanding Comedy Series at the 2004 Emmys, and Netflix revived it in May 2013. Pier Pressure, aired January 11, 2004, has Michael hiring Hot Cops strippers to stage a fake drug bust while flashbacks show George Sr. scaring his kids into lessons with a one-armed ex-employee. SlashFilm printed it 2nd, AARP 12th and the Writers Guild 16th, which puts it on 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279/ - 9
The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961)
Some weeks Rob trips over the ottoman in the opening credits and some weeks he steps around it, and you never know which you're getting. Carl Reiner created and produced the show after a 1960 pilot called Head of the Family, and CBS aired 158 half-hour black-and-white episodes from 1961 to 1966. The Writers Guild placed it 14th, AARP 8th and SlashFilm 18th, giving 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054533/ - 10
30 Rock (2006)
Live Show, from the fifth season, was produced as a live broadcast and performed twice on the evening of October 14, 2010. Tina Fey created it for NBC, and Outstanding Comedy Series went its way at the Emmys in 2007, 2008 and 2009. SlashFilm put it 5th, AARP 18th and the Writers Guild 21st, a clean 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496424/ - 11
Friends (1994)
A trivia game with an apartment on the line: in The One with the Embryos, Chandler proposes the women give up their place, Monica agrees without asking Rachel, and the writers made the swap stick so the stakes weren't fake. It aired January 15, 1998. By seasons 9 and 10 the cast was paid $1 million an episode. It counts 3 of 3 eligible rankings: 12th for SlashFilm, 15th for AARP, 24th for the Writers Guild.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/ - 12
Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)
Larry David writes an outline for each episode and the actors largely improvise the dialogue, and HBO's running times go anywhere from 26 to 59 minutes. In Palestinian Chicken, aired July 17, 2011, Larry and Jeff find Al-Abbas Original Best Chicken, whose plan to open beside a Jewish deli outrages Larry's friends, and Larry starts a fling with one of its employees. SlashFilm had it 25th, AARP 10th and the Writers Guild 30th, so 3 of 3 eligible named it.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264235/ - 13
The Office (2005)
Dwight seals the exits, cuts the phone lines and starts a fire in a trash can, all for a drill, and Stanley has a heart attack. Stress Relief aired straight after Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009, to 22.9 million viewers. It sits 11th at SlashFilm, 16th at AARP and tied with Dexter at a printed 66 among the Writers Guild's 101, which listed the British original separately, for 3 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/ - 14
The Golden Girls (1985)
Problems get talked out at the kitchen table, often over cheesecake or ice cream, and Sophia tells outrageous made-up stories. Susan Harris created the show for NBC, and each of its 4 lead actresses won a Primetime Emmy. It ran 1985 to 1992 and draws 3 of 3 eligible rankings: 29th for SlashFilm, 14th for AARP and 69th for the Writers Guild.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088526/ - 15
Sex and the City (1998)
Berger comes back and then breaks up with Carrie on a Post-it note in The Post-it Always Sticks Twice, written by Liz Tuccillo and aired August 3, 2003. Of the 7 Primetime Emmys HBO's series collected, one was Outstanding Comedy Series. AARP put it 20th and the Writers Guild 39th, and since Wikipedia's lead calls it a romantic comedy-drama, SlashFilm's no-dramedy rule leaves it on 2 of 2 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159206/ - 16
Modern Family (2009)
Message Received, aired May 7, 2014, has Mitch and Cam's wedding running over budget and Jay arguing against inviting his golf club friends, since he wouldn't feel comfortable bringing them to his son's gay wedding. ABC's mockumentary took the comedy series category at the Emmys 5 times. Its infobox lists comedy drama among its genres, so SlashFilm's rules exclude it; AARP ranked it 17th and the Writers Guild 34th, for 2 of 2 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442437/ - 17
Veep (2012)
Testimony, aired June 7, 2015 and directed by Armando Iannucci, plays every scene as taped footage from the characters' depositions, a break from the show's usual documentary-style camera. Julia Louis-Dreyfus won 6 consecutive Primetime Emmys for her performance. SlashFilm ranked it 17th and AARP 19th, while the Writers Guild's June 2013 list could have named it and didn't, for 2 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1759761/ - 18
Will & Grace (1998)
Lows in the Mid-Eighties, Jeff Greenstein's double-length episode from November 23, 2000, flashes back to college, when Will proposed to Grace and met her whole family as her fiance before coming out. In a May 2012 Meet the Press interview, Joe Biden credited the show with doing more to educate the American public than almost anything else. AARP ranked it 22nd and the Writers Guild 94th; SlashFilm passed on it, leaving 2 of 3 eligible.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157246/
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
