Top Ten Most Groundbreaking and Influential Sitcoms

[LucyFan]

What would you say were the top ten most groundbreaking and influential sitcoms in TV history?

(i.e. I DON'T mean your favorites)

[Brian]

I can't think of ten but these shows certainly do fit that category:

All in the Family (definately number 1)
Maude

[sreadtx]

i would say I love lucy would be on the list because it was one of the first popular sitcoms.

[LucyFan]

I think the most groundbreaking and influential sitcons were:

1) "I Love Lucy" [1950's sitcom] (because it served as a role model for future sitcoms passed it's time)

2) "All In The Family" [1970's sitcom](because it changed the face of Television and it began the controversial era)

3) "The Brady Bunch" [1970's sitcom] (because it is America's most enduring family)

4) "The Simpsons" [1990's-present sitcom]

5) "The Andy Griffith Show" [1960's sitcom]

6) "Three's Company" [1970's sitcom]

7) "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" [1970's sitcom]

8) "The Cosby Show" [1980's sitcom]

9) "The Golden Girls" [1980's sitcom]

10)"Happy Days" [1970's sitcom]

Others worth mentioning:
"The Honeymooners," "Gilligan's Island," "The Jeffersons," and "Cheers"

[Sean Snow]

These Are For Groundbreaking, But In Going to New Topics, Not Popularity:
#01- "All in the Family"
#02- "Maude"
#03- "Three's Company"
#04- "The Jeffersons"
#05- "Diff'rent Strokes"

This is pretty mucg what I can think of.

In the Drama Department: "Charlie's Angels"

[TV Guy]

1. I Love Lucy
2. The Honeymooners
3. The Andy Griffith Show
4. The Dick Van Dyke Show
5. Mary Tyler Moore
6. All in the Family
7. M*A*S*H
8. Cheers
9. The Simpsons
10. Seinfeld

[DJM77]

1) All In The Family
2) The Simpsons
3) Julia
4) That Girl
5) I Love Lucy
6) The Jeffersons
7) Three's Company
8) Diff'rent Strokes
9) Soap
10)Maude

[PPatters]

I think that I Love Lucy was more groundbreaking than influential. It WAS influential, but not in the same way that other shows are. I Love Lucy was the first popular sitcom, and it really opened the door for sitcoms, and it really was groundbreaking, and it was influential in several ways, but the most "influential" in the way that I think the original poster may have intended would most definitely be All in the Family.

As someone mentioned in another thread, All in the Family went the next step. They decided to take an older gentleman and give him a real, although somewhat exaggerated persona. He mocked gay people, he mocked black people, and he mocked anyone that wasn't him. But, then you had the three opposing views. Edith (however soft-spoken she may have been), Gloria, and Mike all gave an opposing point of view, and stuck up for people different than them. And this show did make fun of people that were prejudice, and it did make fun of prejudism as a whole, but it really did a lot to influence people's decisions. (I mean, television really, really can do that. Some people may not think that television can have such an impact, but when the Fonz bought a library card on Happy Days, the number of library cards being given away SKY ROCKETTED!) Archie was what would be considered an "idiot", and people loved to hate him, and people loved to have the opposing point of view, and the show gave so many reasons to why Archie's views were just dumb. Like the episode where Archie has to get blood from the black, Jamaican nurse, it really opened up people's minds.

[Sean Snow]

I know this is off topic, but that nurse episode has to be one of the greatest episodes of all time!

Nurse: But remember, after dis you may have a strraannngeeee craving for watermelon!

[Drew]

When i Think of shows that are groundbreaking and influential i think of those make-a-point comedy, that showed america the views.

I think groundbreaking shows would be

I Love Lucy
the Mary Tylor Moore show
All in the family (definatly)
Maude (D)
the Wonder Years
Designing Women (D)
the Golden Girls
Sex in the City
Will & Grace

there may be more, but i cant think of them at the moment

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Designing Women
JULIA~"...And that, Marjorie --- just so you will know --- and your children will someday know --- is the night the lights went out in Georgia!

All in the Family
EDITH to ARCHIE~"Im not sure who married the meathead, Gloria or me."

the Golden Girls
SOPHIA~"Silly Rabbi, Trix are for kids."

[factsoflife]

I love Lucy- single handely the most influentical sitcom ever!
Mary Tyler Moore- One of the first series to have a female lead, and become a hit!
The Cosby Show- first sitcom with an all black family, regenerated the dying sitcom genre!
All in The Family- ground breaking in every sense of the word.
Roseanne- focused on a normal blue collar family.
Julia- first series to have a black female as a lead character, nevermind, the title character!
Married... with Children- like AITF, groundbreaking in every sense!
The Golden Girls- Four retired women! who would have thought it would become an Emmy winning sensations!
The Jeffersons- The first series to depcit the african-american race as normal, down to earth humans!
Family Ties- the first family series to focus on issues as well as laughs!

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Ross, i'm Pregnant! What how clould htat happen? i used a condom! Well, condoms are only 95% affective! what, they should put that on the box! they do, Well they should right it in BIG BOLD BLOCK LETTERS!