Most overrated series ever?

[rtrombone]

Does anyone else think this about "Friends?" How often did you laugh out loud while watching?

"Seinfeld" reruns are losing their charm, too. It's amazing how a guy whose stand-up is so bad was able to develop a fairly decent show.

My nomination for most underrated: "NewsRadio." Anyone with me?

[Clarkmeister]

Friends was successful because it addressed a demographic that had largely been ignored. It was a decent show, not great.

Seinfeld is IMO in the Big Three, along with Cosby and Simpsons. All due respect to MASH, Cheers and All in the Family, I just like the first three I listed a bit more.

[daryn]

seinfeld overrated? no. it is the best sitcom ever and will remain as such until the end of time.

[Chris Daddy Cool]

Call me a little teenage girl, but Friends is/was my all time favorite sitcom.

[andyfox]

Probably a generational thing. I never liked Friends much, I think I'm too old. And MASH, All in the Family, and Taxi do it for me more than Seinfeld, the Simpsons, and Cosby, all though I liked all three of those too.

I don't think people realize the impact All in the Family had at the time. To hear someone say such outrageous things, to belch, flush the toilet--sounds ridiculous, but those things were never on TV before.

Raymond's my current favorite, Taxi my all-timer.

[andyfox]

Probably a generational thing. I never liked Friends much, I think I'm too old. And MASH, All in the Family, and Taxi do it for me more than Seinfeld, the Simpsons, and Cosby, although I liked all three of those too.

I don't think people realize the impact All in the Family had at the time. To hear someone say such outrageous things, to belch, flush the toilet--sounds ridiculous, but those things were never on TV before.

Raymond's my current favorite, Taxi my all-timer.

[thirddan]

me too...me and most of my friends have copies of all the episodes downloaded from the net...its great stuff to have on in the background while working...the old ones are much better than the last two years...

[sam h]

NewsRadio is probably among my top two or three sitcoms of all time, though really only the Phil Hartman years.

[Vehn]

Phil was all years except the last.

Frankly I don't think ANY tv sitcoms stand the test of time.

[jdl22]

I think Friends was a good show the early years. It was basically a Seinfeld copy but was quite funny. Then the show changed its focus. If you just followed the ads they shifted from "See what funny [censored] happens when blah blah blah" to "See what happens when so and so [censored] so and so." They shifted the show from being a comedy to a soap opera. This caused the show to go from 3 or 4 times laughing out load per show to hopefully having it happen once or twice. There of course has been the odd show in the last few seasons that were funny but for the most part that's not the case.

I wouldn't really have a problem with the Soap Opera element except that I don't like most of the characters. I certainly wouldn't have most these people as my friends. The only likable characters imo are Joey and Phoebe who are meant to be total idiots. Rachel is crazy and overemotional but I guess not too bad. Monica is a super annoying anal controlling bitch. I couldn't stand to be around her for more than 5 minutes. Maybe some find it endearing, perhaps my problem is knowing two too many people like her. Ross is super whiny and annoying and Chandler is a weak bitch.

On Seinfeld it was a good thing that you don't like any of the characters. Part of the show wasn't watching hoping good things happen to them, it was find out how the [censored] George gets screwed when he is trying to screw somebody else. That was the beauty of the show - you didn't like the characters and it was fun to see bad (and hilarious) things happen to them.

If Friends had stayed close to as funny as it was early I would say it isn't overrated but it got terrible and I think the very reason it was popular was the same reason it got shitty.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

I don't know about "Seinfeld" losing its charm. Kramer is one of a kind, and the more I watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm", the more I appreciate Jason Alexander's talent in portraying George Costanza/Larry David.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

[ QUOTE ]
Friends was successful because it addressed a demographic that had largely been ignored.

[/ QUOTE ]

The demographic's key members...

the david schwimmer whiner type lovers

the phoebe "I'm pretty but so incredibly stupid that I should be shot" lovers

twas a shame. the show might have been likeable for me, save for these two. I like Courtney Cox and a couple of the others on the show.


Really I think it was the "hurry up, let's go, starsbucks is almost open!" demographic that they tapped into.

al

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Jason Alexander portrayed George so well that there were times when I wanted to climb in the TV and punch him upside his @!#$%@#@# head for being so W#$ #$%^% irritating! He was great!

But my fav is the one where he goes into the ocean after the whale, who had Kramer's golf ball stuck in its blowhole.

al

[imported_Chuck Weinstock]

It's definitely an age thing...

My top four: The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The George Burns & Gracie Allen Show, and "You'll Never Get Rich" (Bilko).

Of the current crop I have to go with "Two and a Half Men".

Interesting piece on NPR this morning about the end of Friends and the end of Frasier. Their reviewer said that Frasier was the better show...but ran out of ideas, and that Friends started out extremely weak but evolved into a soap opera (as someone else in this thread noted) aimed squarely at its demographic.

I stopped watching Frasier about 2 years ago. I only occassionally watched friends over the last several years. I really started to get annoyed with their titles: "The one where..." as if they expect us to love the show so much that we'll remember them by some event in them. (Never would have known the names except for Cable's/DirectTV's program guide.)

[sfer]

Taxi is absolute genuis.

I still think nothing on TV has been funnier than the early Moonlighting episodes, but maybe that's just nostalgia.

[adios]

Since I assume we're including drama as well, my favorite all time was LA Law by a landslide. Don't have any opinion on the most overrated.

[mosta]

I also think Newsradio is a somewhat overlooked gem, an all-time great, in fact. What strikes me most is the outstanding quality of most of the cast--Phil Hartman, Andy Dick, Stephen Root, Vicky Lewis, and Khandi Alexander! Compare Seinfeld, which has excellent performers in minor roles (Wayne Knight, Patrick Warburton, Jerry Stiller), but for the core of the cast was carried by the writing. Aside from Michael Richards, of course (even though he overdoes it once in a while), and Seinfeld, who would never claim to be an actor (usually perceptibly trying not to stifle laughter), pay close attention to Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander physically sometime. Whenever they are trapped on camera not moving, they become so physically awkward it's painful to watch, and time and again the only way they can find to do something with their hands and bodies (to relieve themselves) is to pantomime their lines. Just horrid. Nonetheless, for me it's probably the best ever. Cheers probably had more depth, but it's been so long now that my memory of the show has faded. MASH had some great stuff in the very early years (with Trapper), but it didn't last very long. The older shows, I don't know as well. Cosby, definitely excellent, but again faded in my memory. Now Friends--I have to admit I never saw the show a single time until three or four years ago, so maybe it was different when... . But as of recently, the show is complete and utter shite, indistinguishable from any other mass consumer sitcom pulp. I wouldn't get in a car with anyone who ever laughed at a Friends episode. The problem with the writing is it is never plausible that the characters in their actual situations could seriously mean their lines, but they act like they are supposed to. And it's just idiotic. It's the kind of jokes we all make every day, when you make a really obvious ironic comment, and it's not really very funny, and you say it in a fake voice. Well the whole show is in that fake voice, but with characters who are supposed to really think that way. If there really were people that stupid, I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch them. I think Frasier is pretty much the same, and the Simpsons every time I've seen it in the last few years. Really stupid formulaic jokes where a character says one thing and then does the opposite, without themselves appreciating the irony. I remember watching the show in 92 and 93, in college, and thinking it was the greatest show ever (I hadn't seen a single Seinfeld at that point). Then I was away from a TV for a few years. And now the show I see is so stupid and lame that I don't trust my memory.

One last thing, I don't get why so many people say the Seinfeld characters are so dislikeable. Sure, if you knew George and Elaine in real life you'd probably find them annoying, and pathetic, and choose to avoid them. But they weren't motivated by malice. They weren't bad, mean people. (Except in the final episode, which I thought was really false to the show.) What got them into their situations was their social ineptitude and over self-consciousness. And while I might find that tiresome in real life, on the show I find it endearing. And regardless whether you see any charm in them, what makes the show and the humor is that you can see how the irony of the situations they get themselves into is plausibly motivated by the actual characters. And as far as debunking their supposed meanness, just think of how for all the times Jerry curses Newman, he never refuses him a favor or a kind turn when he actually needs something.

(PS Another favorite--Beavis and Butthead.)

[mosta]

[ QUOTE ]
Since I assume we're including drama as well, my favorite all time was LA Law by a landslide. Don't have any opinion on the most overrated.

[/ QUOTE ]

I always remembered LA Law (and Miami Vice!) as being stylish and cool and dramatic and high quality production, etc, etc, and then I saw one more recently, and, well--let's just say it didn't live up to my memory. I'm most disappointed with losing my image of Susan Dey (I think I was in 6th or 7th grade at the time), and can no longer bring myself to pose the choice, Dey or Lara Flynne Boyle, in casual conversation.

[Philuva]

I have Seinfeld and Simpsons as my top two easy. Cheers and Cosby are probably tied for 3rd.

Night Court was also fairly underrated.

Friends never did it for me.

[andyfox]

I agree it's an age thing. I never like Friends much; I'm too old. While I enjoyed Cosby, the Simpsons and Seinfeld, I prefer All in the Family, MASH, and Taxi, with Taxi being my all-time favorite.

I don't think people realize the impact All in the Family has on TV. To hear Archie Bunker rant, belch, and flush the toilet, was something new for TV. The show was electrifying in terms of dealing with issues. I remember one show where a father who had lost a son in Vietnam had dinner at the Bunkers with a draft dodger who had fled to Canada. Great television.

[andyfox]

"Is is a Titleist?"

[andyfox]

Moonlighting was so unique, I also thought it was great. Once Maddie keeps imploring Davis to come closer to her and finally he says, "Any closer and we'll be on cable."

[offTopic]

I never liked Friends that much.

My favorite sitcom night was, I think, Wednesdays, when a bunch of people would gather around the tube for Dream On followed by Larry Sanders.

[M2d]

Not sure why, but everyone seems to over-analyze the shows they're writing about. For me, the bottom line with sit-coms is: does it make me laugh? Cheers did. constantly. Night Court and Taxi did as well (except for the stupid night court final season). cosby at times (more often than not) when bill wasn't trying too much to be the great teacher. Different World did. Wings did for the most part. A lot. Saved By the Bell (I'll admit it: it was "check your brain at the door time") made me laugh at times, and the girls (Tiffiny Amber Thiessen before she got ugly and Leah Remini) didn't hurt.

Sienfeld made me laugh for the first season. After that, it was kinda stupid. maybe it's overwhelming popularity and my disdain for the rest of its run says something about the country. Maybe it says something about me.

Friends did make me laugh. Not all the time, and not as often at the end as it did at the beginning, but it still makes me laugh. I think it was a good show.

Overall, Cheers sits on top of my list followed by Taxi, Night Court and Wings. The rest of the shows I mentioned fall somewhere below that, with most of the unmentioned shows falling in the "unwatchable drivel" category. Except, of course, for Green Acres, Sanford and Son, Dick Van Dyke and Gilligan's Island=)

[Dynasty]

[ QUOTE ]
I agree it's an age thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

So is forgetting you made essentially the same post last night- twice.

I'd put All in the Family as my #1 sitcom by a good margin. I'm the same age as Clarkmeister.

[andyfox]

I couldn't tell what I was posting last night, what with the forums performing at glacial speed.

But it indeed could be my failing memory.

I couldn't tell what I was posting last night, what with the forums posting at glacial speed.

But it indeed could be my failing memory.

[rtrombone]

[ QUOTE ]
the very reason it was popular was the same reason it got shitty

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is spot on.

The Sports Guy also has a good take:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/040507

[Ed I]

Never have been able to watch a whole episode of Friends, just don't like the characters. Seems like a soap opera.

I do like Mash, Taxi,All In The Family and Cheers. I still catch Mash before bed on some nights.

[XlgJoe]

I guess nobody likes the Beverly Hillbillys. I still think that show is a classic, you can watch it today and still laugh even though its 30+ years old.

As far as over rated I could never stand "I Love Lucy"

[BeerMoney]

My Favorites are: (In no particular order.)
Cheers
Family Ties
Wonder Years
Seinfeld

I watched the first part of the show last night, and did not even chuckle once.

Beer Money
Look Drunk, Play Drunk

[bernie]

I have to agree. Cheers, Wings, Taxi and Seinfeld. Though only 1 had a real good final show. (i didnt see Taxis final show, so im not sure on that one)

I stopped watching friends about 2-3 years ago. I dont know if it was different writers or what, but it just sucked. Frasier i used to really like. But stopped watching around when Niles married Daphne.

Saved by the bell. Ill admit to that one too. Even the stupid college years. Thank god that only lasted maybe 2 seasons. It was a show you had to put your brain on hold for 1/2 to watch. Leah Remini makes me friggin' gag. God, what a bitch. Easy on the eyes, tough on the ears.

Oh, and the Simpsons still kick ass. One of the few shows that can appeal on many levels across the spectrum. From adult to kids. I wish id seen more of em.

Another vote for Wings though. Gotta love Roy Buggins, er, biggins. One weak spot on it was the new mechanic. Lowell kinda grew on ya, then he left.

Would Wonder Years count? Not sure if it's in this category, but that show rocked.

b

[Eihli]

most overrated is definitely friends.

most underated? The Office. hand's down the best series ever made. everyone who reads this MUST go out and find this show or you will live your life in regret from this day forward.

[John Cole]

Taxi: "Dad! I didn't know you liked Stevie Wonder, too."

Archie: "The Statue of Liberty says give us your tired, poor, and other bums. So the Chinks, Hebes, Wops, and Micks came to America and lived in their own separate neighborhoods. And that's what made America great, Meathead."

Both quotes are very rough approximations.

[John Cole]

Taxi: "Dad! I didn't know you liked Stevie Wonder, too."

Archie: "The Statue of Liberty says give us your tired, poor, and other bums. So the Chinks, Hebes, Wops, and Micks came to America and lived in their own separate neighborhoods. And that's what made America great, Meathead."

Both quotes are very rough approximations.

[Diplomat]

[ QUOTE ]
Call me a little teenage girl, but Friends is/was my all time favorite sitcom.

[/ QUOTE ]

You little teenage girl.

-Diplomat

[Oski]

No discussion of BEST sitcom ever is valid without including "Fawlty Towers".

1. Seinfeld;
2. Fawlty Towers; (only one season)
3. All in the Family.

ON the bubble (in no particular order)
Cheers; Taxi; Roseanne; Family Ties; I Love Lucy; Simpsons; Mash

I am sure I left a few out; but from here, you can just divide "good" from "bad"

Overrated:
1. Friends;
2. Brady Bunch;
3. Cosby Show

Darkhorse (underappreciated) - That wonderful piece of cheese called:

Three's Company.

Dark Ages: 1970's - early 80's.

[youtalkfunny]

MIKE: Do you know that in many countries--England, for instance--there's a law that says whatever two consenting adults do in private is their own business?

ARCHIE: Listen, dis ain't England. We trew England outta here a long time ago. We don't want no more part of England, and for your information, England is a FAG country.

MIKE: WHAT????

ARCHIE: Certainly. Ain't dey still pickin' hankerchieves outta their sleeves, huh? Their whole society is based on a kind of a fag-dom.

(Remember, this was 30 years before "South Park".)

ARCHIE: I'm not saying your Black Beauties is lazy, I'm just saying they're geared slower than the rest of us.

MIKE: Why do you have to call them "Black Beauties"?

ARCHIE: Now THAT'S where I got you, Mr Liberal! There's a guy at work who's got a bumper sticker on his car that says "Black is Beautiful", so there ain't nothing wrong with me calling them "Black Beauties".

EDITH: Besides, it's nicer than when he calls them "Coons".

(As tough as it must've been to get that on the air in 1974, I bet it would be even tougher today. How ironic.)

[scotnt73]

rosanne was funny the first season and then it was just several years of her being a total bitch.

sienfeld, south park and the simpsons are my 3 favorites of all time.

underrated=futurama

[B Dids]

Another cronically underrated show- King of the Hill.

Put me down for Seinfeld and early seasons of the Simpsons.

[Punker]

I never would have guessed you and Clarkmeister to be the same age. I would have guessed you at least 5 years older.

Personally, I have a real soft spot for Married with children.