Digging For Comedy Gold:
Sitcoms Worth Visiting/Revisiting
I am always interested in hearing about what my nephew and his wife are streaming. For the most part, it's been dramas, but the conversation turned to the sheer brilliance of Only Murders in the Building. If you love smart, character-driven comedy, you shouldn't miss this one. That Steve Martin and Martin Short are great in this should come as no surprise. Selena Gomez is the revelation here. She's brilliant as their stoic handler-cum-third partner, Mabel. Other favorites on thier queue included The Office and Friends.
Like many longtime watchers and fans of TV, a thousand suggestions came to mind when it came to what to stream next. I think I might have mentioned three shows at the time and promise you there are nowhere near a thousand entries on this list. What is here and what isn't? Some of these shows were wildly popular when they first aired. Others had moderate success. Most are American but there are also some shows from the U.K. and at least one show from Canada. I chose them because they all have some combination of good writing, on-point acting, beautiful videography/cinematography and art direction, and the characters seem to go somewhere in terms of growth. My only quibble with many of them is the presence of canned laughter. These shows are worth the annoyance.
WKRP in Cincinatti Initial run: CBS 1978 to 1982 4 seasons, 90 episodes Available on DVD, iTunes, and streaming on AppleTV.
People young enough to be my grandkids can cite the iconic scene when a Thanksgiving promotion when horribly awry even if they've never watched an entire episode. Why would you want to miss out on this gem of a sitcom? This workplace comedy about a last in the rock/pop radio station in Cincinatti, Ohio provided breakout roles for Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid, Gordon Jump, and Loni Anderson, and gave steady work and much-deserved appreciation to sitcom "that guys" like Frank Bonner and Richard Sanders.
Longwave FM radio might be a thing of the past, but the nascent culture of AOR (Album Oriented Rock) as a driver for American musical taste keeps this interesting. The writing is sharp and funny. The characters are so well acted you end up feeling like you know them and the time period they lived in. Episodes devoted to issues of the day such as racism, homophobia, the role of the media as information sources, and even the tragedy of The Who concert disaster at Riverfront Coliseum in 1979 never descended into very special episodes and yet they were able to create openings for talk about venue safety and our priorities when it comes to commerce and entertainment.
People young enough to be my grandkids can cite the iconic scene when a Thanksgiving promotion when horribly awry even if they've never watched an entire episode. Why would you want to miss out on this gem of a sitcom? This workplace comedy about a last in the rock/pop radio station in Cincinatti, Ohio provided breakout roles for Howard Hesseman, Tim Reid, Gordon Jump, and Loni Anderson, and gave steady work and much-deserved appreciation to sitcom "that guys" like Frank Bonner and Richard Sanders.
Longwave FM radio might be a thing of the past, but the nascent culture of AOR (Album Oriented Rock) as a driver for American musical taste keeps this interesting. The writing is sharp and funny. The characters are so well acted you end up feeling like you know them and the time period they lived in. Episodes devoted to issues of the day such as racism, homophobia, the role of the media as information sources, and even the tragedy of The Who concert disaster at Riverfront Coliseum in 1979 never descended into very special episodes and yet they were able to create openings for talk about venue safety and our priorities when it comes to commerce and entertainment.
Frank's Place Initial run: CBS 1987 to 1988, 1 season, 22 episodes Unavailable to stream as of this writing, has been offered on BET in the past and on pirated burn-on-demand discs
Frank's Place was a smart, gorgeous love letter to New Orleans, Black storytelling, and Southern U.S. folk culture. It shares some important origins with WKRP in Cincinatti: WKRP show runner Hugh Wilson helmed this lovely half-minute of great television. It starred and was the brain-child of Tim Reid and his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid. (Watch this show and tell me they weren't the late 80s' heirs to William Powell and Myrna Loy when it came to that all too rare mix of elegance and classic screwball comedy.) Below is a link to an episode on Youtube. While it's a badly botched editing job, it will give you a feel for the show. While there are no bad episodes, I'd recommend seeking out episode 15 after seeing the pilot. "Where's Ed?" is a brilliant New Orleans-ified Boulevard Farce that is laugh-out-loud funny. Also excellent is "Season's Greetings," episode 13, where Frank goes home to celebrate Shabbas with Bubba. Happy hunting and welcome to the club where we fervently wish for the re-release of Frank's Place, because to do so is to know what it means to miss New Orleans.
Frank's Place was a smart, gorgeous love letter to New Orleans, Black storytelling, and Southern U.S. folk culture. It shares some important origins with WKRP in Cincinatti: WKRP show runner Hugh Wilson helmed this lovely half-minute of great television. It starred and was the brain-child of Tim Reid and his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid. (Watch this show and tell me they weren't the late 80s' heirs to William Powell and Myrna Loy when it came to that all too rare mix of elegance and classic screwball comedy.) Below is a link to an episode on Youtube. While it's a badly botched editing job, it will give you a feel for the show. While there are no bad episodes, I'd recommend seeking out episode 15 after seeing the pilot. "Where's Ed?" is a brilliant New Orleans-ified Boulevard Farce that is laugh-out-loud funny. Also excellent is "Season's Greetings," episode 13, where Frank goes home to celebrate Shabbas with Bubba. Happy hunting and welcome to the club where we fervently wish for the re-release of Frank's Place, because to do so is to know what it means to miss New Orleans.
Taxi Initial run: ABC 1978 to 1982, NBC 1982-1983 5 season, 114 episodes Streaming on Freevee, Tubi, and Paramount+, also available on DVD and blu-ray.
Before Kinickie (Grease,) PopPop (The Goldbergs,) Frank Reynolds (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia,) Trudi (L.A. Story,) Andy Kaufman's general weirdness, and Doc Brown (Back to the Future,) there was the comedic gestalt that was Bobby Wheeler, Alex Reiger, Louie DePalma, Elaine Nardo, Latka, and Reverend Jim Ignatowski. Taxi was a workplace comedy that was adept at stirring a little sugar with all of that grit. The sweetness was never cloying (lookin' at you, Night Court) and there was not the stone-faced ride or die commitment to no signs of softening up (Barney Miller) In the space of 22 minutes, most episodes would make you laugh, feel a pang of sympathy and sometimes even infuriate you. You almost always felt something by the time the end credits rolled.
Before Kinickie (Grease,) PopPop (The Goldbergs,) Frank Reynolds (It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia,) Trudi (L.A. Story,) Andy Kaufman's general weirdness, and Doc Brown (Back to the Future,) there was the comedic gestalt that was Bobby Wheeler, Alex Reiger, Louie DePalma, Elaine Nardo, Latka, and Reverend Jim Ignatowski. Taxi was a workplace comedy that was adept at stirring a little sugar with all of that grit. The sweetness was never cloying (lookin' at you, Night Court) and there was not the stone-faced ride or die commitment to no signs of softening up (Barney Miller) In the space of 22 minutes, most episodes would make you laugh, feel a pang of sympathy and sometimes even infuriate you. You almost always felt something by the time the end credits rolled.
Little Mosque on the Prairie Initial run: CBC 2007 to 2012, 6 seasons, 91 episodes Available to stream on Roku, Tubi, Amazon Prime, and AppleTV, also available on DVD
Frank's Place was a smart, gorgeous love letter to New Orleans, Black storytelling, and Southern U.S. folk culture. It shares some important origins with WKRP in Cincinatti: WKRP show runner Hugh Wilson helmed this lovely half-minute of great television. It starred and was the brain-child of Tim Reid and his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid. (Watch this show and tell me they weren't the late 80s' heirs to William Powell and Myrna Loy when it came to that all too rare mix of elegance and classic screwball comedy.) Below is a link to an episode on Youtube. While it's a badly botched editing job, it will give you a feel for the show. While there are no bad episodes, I'd recommend seeking out episode 15 after seeing the pilot. "Where's Ed?" is a brilliant New Orleans-ified Boulevard Farce that is laugh-out-loud funny. Also excellent is "Season's Greetings," episode 13, where Frank goes home to celebrate Shabbas with Bubba. Happy hunting and welcome to the club where we fervently wish for the re-release of Frank's Place, because to do so is to know what it means to miss New Orleans.
Frank's Place was a smart, gorgeous love letter to New Orleans, Black storytelling, and Southern U.S. folk culture. It shares some important origins with WKRP in Cincinatti: WKRP show runner Hugh Wilson helmed this lovely half-minute of great television. It starred and was the brain-child of Tim Reid and his wife, Daphne Maxwell-Reid. (Watch this show and tell me they weren't the late 80s' heirs to William Powell and Myrna Loy when it came to that all too rare mix of elegance and classic screwball comedy.) Below is a link to an episode on Youtube. While it's a badly botched editing job, it will give you a feel for the show. While there are no bad episodes, I'd recommend seeking out episode 15 after seeing the pilot. "Where's Ed?" is a brilliant New Orleans-ified Boulevard Farce that is laugh-out-loud funny. Also excellent is "Season's Greetings," episode 13, where Frank goes home to celebrate Shabbas with Bubba. Happy hunting and welcome to the club where we fervently wish for the re-release of Frank's Place, because to do so is to know what it means to miss New Orleans.