Does anyone else feel like sitcoms today are not nearly as funny as in the past?
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Anonymous
| Going waaaay back: I Love Lucy. |
Anonymous
| Sitcoms today are toned down for a dumber audience. Ever catch an old episode of The Golden Girls? They were constantly talking about sex, homosexuality, orgasms, and other "adult" themes that wouldn't fly today, because of some puritanical person screaming "but think of the children!" The show is hilarious when I can watch it, often dark and suggestive even sometimes vulgar. These days people freak out if they hear an an academic discussion with real, biological terms - it's like we've gone back in time. |
Anonymous
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The earlier sitcoms had more fresh material. Sitcoms of today are mostly the same fucking story line with difference characters and sets. Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc., are a little outside that norm.
I stopped watching sitcoms when Raymond started. It was so demeaning to men. I found it infuriating and it had no comedic redeeming qualities. I say this as a feminist, btw. |
Anonymous
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Different*
DYAC! |
Anonymous
| What I miss are the sitcoms that a family can watch together. I remember being allowed to stay up and watch The Cosby Show on Thursday nights at 8pm with my parents and then hgoing to bed. Other nights it was Growing Pains, Family Ties, Different Strokes etc. We don't have that anymore. All of the sitcoms are clearly for adults while the shows on Disney Channel are clearly not. Sitcoms in the 80's were for the whole family. |
Anonymous
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I like The Middle, Modern Family, Raising Hope and Mindy. All of them make me laugh out loud.
Can't say the same about so many others I tried to like. They put in that canned laughter in the background which is completely distracting as whatever was said was not even remotely funny, yet you can hear the laughter in the background. |
Anonymous
I still love How I Met Your Mother. I'm so sad it's the last season 
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Anonymous
| Big Bang Theory funny for me and my fellow nerdlings |
Anonymous
| Good Luck Charlie on Disney is great and fun for adults too. Reminds me of Growing Pains or Home Improvement but without the "very special" issue episodes. |
Anonymous
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For me, one of the things that I miss is that sense that EVERYONE ELSE in American was watching the show with you. We've the rise of cable, internet, and everything else, audiences are so fragmented. I'd go into school the day after a big episode and be able to talk about it with the other kids.
Today, besides maybe the Super Bowl, there is little else that "everybody" else watches. The closest thing to it was American Idol in its early years, but there is nothing like it today. Which is evident in the low numbers of people who watch series finales today and why the record broke by the MASH series finale will likely never be broken. |
Anonymous
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?
New Girl Big Bang Theory Community How I Met Your Mother Arrested Development These shows are streets ahead of "Everybody Loves Raymond." (I shudder to think anyone actually laughs out loud at that inanity.) |
Anonymous
love love love the golden girls! i have to admit there were a couple episodes of everybody loves raymond that i laughed out loud. king of queens too. but not all. i tried to watch trophy wife when it aired and it was horrible. i went online the next day to see it actually had some pretty decent reviews so maybe i just expect more. i will watch the cosby show, seinfeld, friends, good times everytime i see it on. also i will second or third whoever has listed arrested development and curb your enthusiasm. well curb isn't really appropriate for kids but i'm fairly sure my mom would've let me watch it growing up. |
Anonymous
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I still watch King of Queens syndicated on TV Land! Have tickets to see Kevin James live in Nov. - can't wait!
King of Queens Seinfeld Married with Children All in the Family Laugh until I pee in my pants. I think we had great sitcoms in the 70s: Gilligan's Island, the Brady Bunch, I love Lucy, All in the Family. |
Anonymous
I agree - Everybody Loves Raymond is just the WORST. I thought 30 Rock was quite good. Arrested Development, definitely. What I've seen of Parks and Rec has been funny...any show without a laugh track is miles ahead of "old" sitcoms already. I really don't need a laugh track to tell me when to laugh, I'm capable of figuring jokes out on my own. |
Anonymous
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Three's Company, anyone? And Taxi? I miss those shows.
Today, my favorites are probably Raising Hope and Community. I watch Modern Family, but I find a few of the family members VERY annoying (Phil especially bugs me). I watched the premiere of The Crazy Ones last week - that has potential. Whoever mentioned Everybody Hates Chris - I agree with you. That show was great. Another really good one in recent years was Better Off Ted, but apparently no one else liked it. This is why we have so much reality shit on TV - the masses don't want to THINK about their programs...at all. They just want to be vegetables. |