I quite liked the Top 3 ITV sitcom thread so I thought I'd rip it off and ask what peoples top three American imports are? Mine are:

1. Cheers - People often say Frasier is better than Cheers, but I've always preferred the Boston based comedy. And it's set must surely be the greatest in sitcom history.
2. MASH - still as funny today as it was thirty years ago. And strangely relevant to America's recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
3. Seinfeld - Brilliantly subversive for a mainstream American comedy. And Jason Alexander's performance as George Costanza must be one of the greatest ever.

1.) Seinfeld - best sitcom (both UK and US) of all time.

2.) The Simpsons - at its best, a feast of brilliant writing and great comic timing.

3.) Cheers - great performances, razor sharp scripts and one of the best sitcom theme tunes.

Honourable mentions to: Arrested Development, Frasier, The Phil Silvers Show, M*A*S*H, The Larry Sanders Show and Taxi.

1. Scrubs - Probably my favourite sitcom ever, did go down in Season 5 and is yet to pick up in Season 6.

2. The Simpsons - Up until season 9 but thet are still some gems. Great homages and and references though.

3. Friends - Yep, i said it. Some may not agree but the first 5 or 6 series were absoltue brilliant. It kind of picked up in the last series though. Chandler is one of the greatest characters ever.

I'm cheating a bit here but I'm going for three from each decade.
In the 50s my absolute favourite was The Honeymooners. 39 episodes; started as a sketch in the Jackie Gleason Show. Wonderful stuff once you get past the problems created by The Great One not alway showing up for rehearsal.
I Love Lucy for the three camera technique and the great characters, but not the slapstick so much.
The Phil Silvers Show - Classic stuff we could soon be losing.
60s The Dick Van Dyke Show, Make Room for Daddy and Green Acres (By the Bev Hillbillies team)
70s The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller (He was a cop, writing was superb) and Happy Days (No, really, when Garry Marshall, Belson, Babaloo Mandell were writing you'd hold this up against anything.)
80s Cheers, Taxi, Newhart (He bought an Inn in Connecticut)
90s The Golden Girls, Friends, Seinfeld.
Now Scrubs, Arrested Development, The New Adventures of the old Christina (The Dreyfus woman out of Seinfeld)
The Honeymooners is still celebrated in the States; books, tributes and on Sat Night Live they frequently harked back to the Brooklyn appartment with the icebox - especially in the early days. And Jackie Gleason who was a huge star before he made the show said 'The reason people like us is because we ARE them!
Forgive my enthusiasm which I couldn't quite curb.

i still think that home improvement is worth a mention, but i suppose that is just my taste, scrubs has been consistantly good in fact i challenge you to find a scrubs that wasn't good, and seinfeild and curb all absolutly excelent shows.

The three best U.S. sitcoms of all time are NewsRadio, Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show.

Right behind those are Frasier, The Simpsons, Arrested Development and Scrubs.

Hmm, interesting. Happy Days has to be up towards the top somewhere (although perhaps not in the top 3), purely because it has the Fonz.

Let's think... Very hard choice. I can't say I've seen any of those much-loved only shows (apart from Silvers), so it'll have to be a collection of newer stuff. There's a handful which I really couldn't pick between for a top 3 though (alphabetically) - Becker, Family Guy, Frasier, Jake in Progress, The Simpsons, and probably some others I'm forgetting.

Seinfeld was good, top 10 certainly, but I never managed to really get "into" it, so I won't list it as a specific contender; just worth a mention.

Controversial choices? Probably.

Happy Days was good during the early years. It also had a character called Mr Wanker and for that reason alone it deserves a place in the top 10. But it went on for way too long. Who can forget the Fonz inventing the phrase 'jump the shark'? Not to mention those bizarre episodes where he discovered Mork (Robin Williams) at the bottom of his garden and got in to all sorts of amusing scrapes with his new alien buddy.

For dragging on too long, it doesn't deserve to rank alongside Seinfeld, Cheers and the other US greats. And, yes, I'm aware that I listed The Simpsons in my top three, but the latest episodes still make me laugh, even though they're not as good as seasons 1-8.

1) MASH
2) Fraiser
3) uuhmmm.....darn...Arrested Development, probably.

Friends is very well done, yet too much of a popcorn. Scrubs would be another contender, but I discovered it only recently. Mad About You, great one, but not top 3 material.

Seinfeld
Frasier
Malcolm In The Middle

Ill also give an honourable mention to friends, the simpsons, scrubs and family guy.

Bilko:
Because it was the best writing of its era.

Seinfeld:
Because it's simply the best comedy of all time.

Malcolm In The Middle:
Because it's the freshest programme to come from the other side of the pond in recent years.

ah yes that reminds me, malcolm in the middle, i have only latched onto this in recent months but it is very good, and the acting is also pint pot, can someone tell me who writes it and what else he/she has written
(i'm sure one of you comedy boffs can tell me)

Malcolm In The Middle is the brainchild of Linwood Boomer and is written by a team of writers.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212671/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_in_the_Middle

1. Seinfeld: Far and away the best show ever. Brilliant writing, great characters. Nothing comes close.
2. The Office: Don't know if this counts seeing how it originated in the UK (are the pretty much the same or do they differ. I would really like to see the UK version, i'm sure it's just as good.)
3. The Simpsons: A classic. Sure, it's not as good as it used to be but when it's on it's game few shows beat it.

Honourable Mentions:
Friends: I kind oflost interest in the last few seasons. It just wasn't the same for me when everyone started getting married. The first few seasons were great though.
Home Improvement: Not as clever as Seinfeld or The Office but I still can't help laughing at someone glueing their head to a table. Tim Allen and his grunting still makes me laugh.
That 70's Show: There doesn't seem to be alot of fans of this show on here but it's deffinitely on of my favourites. It's great how they found kept finding new way for Red to call people a Dumb Ass.
Scrubs: I'm still pretty new to this show. A friend just turned me on to it recently and i've grown to like it. I have a feeling it will be moving uo my rankings shortly. Dr. Cox's rants are brilliantly funny.

1. Scrubs
2. Malcolm in the Middle
3. The Simpsons/Futurama (they come joint for me)