Anywhere on the internet, there exists not one list of videotaped sitcoms, so I have decided to start this thread. This is a partial list of sitcoms that have been recorded on videotape, starting with All in the Family in 1971 to The Steve Harvey Show in 2002.

All in the Family (early 1971-1979)
Maude (1972-1978)
Good Times (early 1974-1979)
The Jeffersons (early 1975-1985)
One Day at a Time (late 1975-1984)
Diff'rent Strokes (1978-1986)
The Facts of Life (1979-1988)
The Cosby Show (1984-1992)
A Different World (1987-1993)
Married With Children (early 1987-1997)
The Steve Harvey Show (1996-2002)

The list will be updated over time as more replies come in.

hello larry 1979/1980

Sanford and Son (early 1972-77)
Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-79)
That's My Mama! (1974-Dec. 1975)
What's Happening!! (1976-79)
Silver Spoons (1982-87)
Who's the Boss? (1984-92)
227 (1985-90)
Kate and Allie (March 1984-89)
Gimme a Break! (1981-87)
Amen (1986-91)
Webster (1983-89)

Barney Miller (1975-82)
Alice (1976-85)
Soap (1977-81)
The Betty White Show (1977-78)
Carter Country (1977-79)
Bosom Buddies (1980-82)
Newhart (Season One 1982-83)
Nine to Five (1982-83, 1986-88 Season 1 was filmed.)
Rosanne (1988-97)
Home Improvement (1991-99)
Grace Under Fire (1993-98
The Nanny (1993-99)

Benson (1979-86)
Golden Girls, The (1985-92)
Golden Palace, The (1992-93)
Empty Nest (1988-95)
Nurses (1991-94)
Hail to the Chief (Spring 1985)
Mr. Belvedere (March 1985-90)
Three's Company (Early 1977-84)
The Ropers (Early 1979-80)
Three's a Crowd (1984-85)
WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82)
Family Ties (1982-89, except for the S4 London episode, which was filmed)
Punky Brewster (1984-88)
Saved by the Bell (1989-93, except for maybe at least 1 special ep.)

on the rocks 1975/1976

Alf 1986-1990

Just about all of them in the 70s.

The new syndicated sitcoms "The First Family" and "Mr. Box Office" are recorded on videotape. Both debuted in 2012, a decade after "The Steve Harvey Show" ended.

It's a Living/Making a Living (1980-1982) (1985-1989)

DIFFERENT STROKES
SANFORD
ARCHIE BUNKERS PLACE
MARY HARTMAN, MARY HARTMAN
FERNWOOD, U.S.A.
ALL THAT GLITTERS

(do short-lived and 1 episode flops count?)

JOE AND SONS
FISH
LOVE SIDNEY
SANFORD ARMS

Big Eddie
All's Fair
Love Thy Neighbor
Hot L Baltimore
The Dumplings
Lotsa Luck
The Nancy Walker Show
Calucci's Department
A Touch of Grace
The Corner Bar
The Super
Thicker Than Water
Ivan The Terrible
Popi
Semi-Tough
We'll Get By
On Our Own
Ball Four
Please Stand By
Ozzie's Girls
Sirota's Court

Soap

All of that 80s first run syndication crap, like Starting From Scratch, Small Wonder, You Can't Take it With You, We Got It Made, She's The Sheriff. The list is endless.

FILTHY RICH

From what I remember, these were the last videotaped sitcoms on each of the original Big 3 networks, in chronological order by their last episode years:

NBC: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1996)
CBS: The Nanny (1999)
ABC: Boy Meets World (2000)

I don't remember when Fox & UPN/WB/CW aired their last. Now I think everything's recorded digitally, so it can be viewed immediately but look like film. I've heard movies are made that way too now.

From what I remember, these were the last videotaped sitcoms on each of the original Big 3 networks, in chronological order by their last episode years:

NBC: Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1996)
CBS: The Nanny (1999)
ABC: Boy Meets World (2000)

I don't remember when Fox & UPN/WB/CW aired their last. Now I think everything's recorded digitally, so it can be viewed immediately but look like film. I've heard movies are made that way too now.

I could be wrong about CBS if Cosby was videotaped, since it ran until 2000, but I don't remember whether it was or not.

No one's mentioned Chico and the Man yet, which was a nice Friday-night companion for Sanford & Son on NBC.

All of that 80s first run syndication crap, like Starting From Scratch, Small Wonder, You Can't Take it With You, We Got It Made, She's The Sheriff. The list is endless.

While I'm not commenting on its quality here, Out of This World would qualify as a syndicated 80s sitcom, running 1986-91. So would Mama's Family (NBC 1983-84, syn 1986-90). Unfortunately, now we seem to have even worse reality & Hollywood (like ET) shows proliferating in syndication.

Why does it matter if it was done on video, as opposed to what, film?

It's Your Move 1984-1985
Spencer/Under One Roof 1984-1985
Brotherly Love 1995-1997

Why does it matter if it was done on video, as opposed to what, film?

Because they are different formats, duh.

The premiere episode of the 8th and final season of Will & Grace, titled "Alive and Schticking" (the live episode), was obviously videotaped. Are other sitcoms' "live" episodes videotaped?

Originally Posted by bencasey
All of that 80s first run syndication crap, like Starting From Scratch, Small Wonder, You Can't Take it With You, We Got It Made, She's The Sheriff. The list is endless.


While I'm not commenting on its quality here, Out of This World would qualify as a syndicated 80s sitcom, running 1986-91. So would Mama's Family (NBC 1983-84, syn 1986-90). Unfortunately, now we seem to have even worse reality & Hollywood (like ET) shows proliferating in syndication.

Hey- I happen to love "Small Wonder".:) :cool: (And I have seen some of "She's The Sheriff"- it's not that bad.) lol- that's cool if you don't like them though.:) :cool: :lol:

GLORIA
227 HOUSE (All in the Family spin-offs)
CHECKIN' IN

A YEAR AT THE TOP (don't know if that would count though, since it was only a one episode pilot)

Some of Disney Channel's original sitcoms, like That's So Raven, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Hannah Montana, were shot on videotape and used something called "FilmLook", which is image processing.

Also using "FilmLook" were The Suite Life on Deck, Cory in the House, and possibly Wizards of Waverly Place. Disney Channel's original sitcoms switched from "FilmLook" to filmized videotape around 2010.

Blossom (early 1991-1995) was videotaped.

Except for some of the Norman Lear sitcoms, it's always a sign that they're doing the show cheap and don't care about the quality. If they did, they'd want it to look better. Video taped shows are junk shows.

Ozzie's Girls was on film. It wasn't a great show, but it was a likeable one, and they were trying.

Lear didn't do TV any favors by starting the whole video-taped craze.

I never had a problem with the frame rates of most situation comedies recorded on video tape. I had always liked their frame rates.

I have always wanted to ask this: Is videotape... outdated?

I have always wanted to ask this: Is videotape... outdated?

Did you mean old-fashioned?

I meant that nobody uses videotape for sitcoms anymore because it is probably obsolete?

Episodes of Roseanne during its original nine-year run were videotaped.
Episodes of Roseanne during its new 2018 revival run were...filmed.

I was right, videotape really is obsolete.

I imagine everything is recorded digitally now for the sake of convenience.

I imagine everything is recorded digitally now for the sake of convenience.

Yeah, and film is a lot easier to digitize than videotape too. Gotta go with that, too. I wouldn't call videotape obsolete though.

Videotape is obsolete when it comes to television broadcasts. Why? Because it doesn’t have enough resolution for HD broadcasts. Film and digital recording does.

Has anyone noticed that Mama's Family, when it is reran on MeTV, has apparently been filmized? And when Barney Miller and select episodes of One Day at a Time are re-ran on fetv, they look like they have been re-processed on "FilmLook", like those Disney Channel sitcoms of the mid-2000s decade.

Videotape is obsolete when it comes to television broadcasts. Why? Because it doesn’t have enough resolution for HD broadcasts. Film and digital recording does.
The technology is outdated (using videotape), but there are shows that still utilize a live "tape" look. Mainly sports, newscasts, game or talk shows.

All the Disney Channel sitcoms.

Has anyone noticed that Mama's Family, when it is reran on MeTV, has apparently been filmized? And when Barney Miller and select episodes of One Day at a Time are re-ran on fetv, they look like they have been re-processed on "FilmLook", like those Disney Channel sitcoms of the mid-2000s decade.

I don't get Fetv, but I did notice "Mama's Family" on MeTV. Barney Miller and One Day at a Time don't look like that on Antenna when they run those shows.

It matters because videotape is not future proof. You can't just make it HD because it doesn't have enough resolution (sure, you can upscale but it's not the same). Shows that were shot on film are future proof for HD because there's enough resolution to digitize it and make it HD. Also, I'm not sure how putting a videotape on film would make it look better. Videotape is pretty terrible format in-and-of-itself, because the tape degrades a generation with every play, so it's best to digitize it ASAP.

I meant that nobody uses videotape for sitcoms anymore because it is probably obsolete?

The major appeal of the “taped” cinematography of a sitcom (besides giving the illusion that what the viewer was watching was "live" like a stage play) was that it cost less to edit and shoot than film. But since most people have HDTV capable sets now, a series being filmed in such a manner today wouldn't be so visually appealing.

On the subject of adapting older videotaped sitcoms into HD: In order for that to be possible, they'd have to be converted to Filmlook (like those Disney Channel sitcoms such as That's So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody). I saw this on several episodes of the original One Day at a Time on FeTV. And I think it often looks that way when you see clips of old videotaped sitcoms on YouTube. And about other videotaped sitcoms that have been Filmized, there's Mamas's Family on MeTV and Head of the Class on the Roku Channel.