All American sitcoms are rubbish apart from Frasier. End of story.

Erm, OK. Thanks for sharing your brilliantly thought out argument with us. I now accept that I've been wasting my time with so called classics like Seinfeld, Arrested Development and The Simpsons, because (as you so rightly point out) they are rubbish. I have seen the light and will go back to proper English humour like Two Pints and After You've Gone.

Quote: Dave @ January 24, 2007, 12:51 PM

All American sitcoms are rubbish apart from Frasier. End of story.

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Question, now it's common knowledge what you dislike - and why not because that is your inalienable right to damn the complete history of American comedy - what is it that does it for you?

What is also concerning is that the US are buying our tripe like According To Bex. Couldn't they make that idea up themselves in half an hour? They're doing the I.T Crowd too, which was better but no more than average.

I posted this thread back in December, but the current dearth of great American comedy seems even worse now, as highlighted by the fact that the only new shows discussed in this section over the past month has been Ugly Betty, which doesn't even really count as a sitcom. Where have all the great American imports gone?

I think Becker is quite mainstream. I think it's great (or at least, was, it's been taken off Paramount now), and Less Than Perfect is quite mainstream, I suppose. As was Spin City and Two and a Half Men. Friends, as well. Mash still lingers on in the memory, as do Cheers, The Cosby Show, The Wonder Years, Boy Meets World, Taxi and Seinfeld. Frasier, of course, is kind of mainstream, I guess, or Home Improvement and The Geena Davies Show, That 70s Show, Joey, According to Jim, The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond, Out of Practise, 8 Simple Rules, Rodney, Hope and Faith etc. Arrested Development, Scrubs, The Office: An American Workplace and Curb Your Enthusiasm aren't really mainstream. But I suppose all genres go through a bit of a bad patch every once in a while.

Quote: chipolata @ February 14, 2007, 10:10 AM

Where have all the great American imports gone?

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Scrubs is first rate as is The Office USA. I've only seen a couple of episodes but It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The New Adventures of Old Christine are also very funny. That's four examples for you.

I've seen a couple of episodes of Hope And Faith and it's American comedy at its cheesiest.

There must be so many shows like that or worse airing in the US.

I'm sure that there is a lot of rubbish on American TV. But there are also plenty of quality shows, both drama and comedy. Compare that with the current state of British TV - Benidorm, Bonkers and After You've Gone. Great.

America has a whole channel dedicated to comedy, comedey central which is where the Sarah Silverman Programme is aired, while all we get in the UK is Comedy Shuffle.

In the America vs UK argument I have to say America wins hands down with its production and amount of writers on each sitcom. However this makes UK sitcoms which are good even better as they don't have the same resources.

If you want to watch some dodgy American sitcoms watch ABC1, except for scrubs the rest of there stuff is arse clenchingly bad.

Like David said hope and faith sends shivers down my spine as well as less than perfect that is strange in that it can have the odd good episode but this is a rare occurrence.

I personally can't agree on what's better as both america and the UK come out with some pretty good stuff (as well as bad).

paul i agree with most of what you said, less than perfect has a few good episodes so i tune in for more and it's tripe, hope and faith, lets not go there, but home improvement is good, and of course scrubs is just fantastic, rodney is shocking and that 8 simple rules can be o.k until the lead died, (i think his name was john ritter or paul ritter) then they drafted that guy from just shoot me in and it went down hill IMO

I wrote this post around this time last year, but one year on I've changed my mind. I think American comedy is in a pretty rude health nowadays, with great new shows like Flight of the Conchords, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and 30 Rock. And shows like American Dad, Family Guy, My Name Is Earl and Scrubs carry on churning out high quality product... Then I look at British output and want to cry.

Definitely agree Chipolata, I'd also add The Office US, Californication and Curb Your Enthusiasm to that list. Plus there's meant to be a great new show called 'Chuck' but I haven't checked that out yet.

But don't worry here in the UK we've got our very own Curb Your Enthusiasm wannabe returning for a second series tomorrow night in Lead Balloon.

Chuck's a drama with alot of comedy but it still looks good. I just wish some UK channel would pick it up.