I watched I Love Lucy when I was a teenager and loved it as a hilarity and joy. Recently, I watched it again and found myself bored to death, especially by celebrity guests and phony portrayals of the marriage of Lucy and Ricky. Even I knew what would happen when I watched it again and did not laugh as I did before. Is it my change of interests?

Also, when I watched Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, I could not have enough interests to watch every episode of them anymore, save for the Astronaut's hilariously badly-spelled singing. Even I found The Mary Tyler Moore Show too repetitive on jokes mainly, and I could not stand All in the Family... well, the main character isn't that interesting to watch for me.

Same for all other 1950s and 1960s shows, like Dennis the Menace, Father Knows Best, and Leave It to Beaver. Fathers can be know-it-alls, mothers be Mary Sues, and sons be troublemakers and attention-seekers. Only Father Knows Best has daughters who are growing up to date with boys; same for Gidget.

Moving on to more modern shows: Frasier fails to give me reason I should care about characters and the humor, even with great writing, acting, directing, and jokes. In fact, I found rich people to be pompous and phonies in the show. The Golden Girls is a very great first-timer, especially in syndication, but it also had very obscure references that made sense back in the first-run, like Murphy Brown had. Only flaw is the bitter, brittling old main lady who wore fake white wigs, whom I cannot stand. The Brady Bunch and Three's Company are obviously bad, but I liked Three's more mainly due to John Ritter's physical talents.

I once thought that sitcoms, dated or not, timeless or not, still have long-lasting appeal. If I lose interests on sitcoms generally, then should I be in this forum anymore? Right now even my favorite sitcom Cheers is starting to lose appeal to me because of repetitive humour, formulaic plots, and one-dimensional characters, but also contrived situations. Even transformation of Frasier Crane still does not make sense to me.

Maybe you've just seen these shows too much? Try some new shows. (If Fraiser is your definition of a modern show...)

I still really enjoy shows like Lucy and Cheers, but I also haven't neccessarily watched them over and over. I think I Love Lucy is actually pretty remarkable in how generally funny and fresh it still feels even all of these years later.

I tried new shows, but only Downton Abbey is holding up well for me as a new good drama. Also, Last of the Summer Wine, now cancelled, is still... a repetitive Britcom with middleaged and elderly people all over as great ensemble, especially in over 35 years.

Two and a Half Men sucks. Rules of Engagement is bad. American Dad and Family Guy are too morbid on animation. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is lame; so is Are We There Yet? The Office and 30 Rock... *ugh* on TV syndication, but all right on DVD and streaming video. George Lopez is already bad but has a hilarious inept father and a cranky grandmother enough to make me laugh. Will & Grace does not hold up well today. The Big Bang Theory is bad already. I read the premises of other unlisted shows and was unimpressed by them.

Arrested Development is one word: hilarious. Too bad I could not bear any more of phony aristocratic weirdos with one straight man. Even I cannot bear myself to see an inept boring teenage male onscreen more than anybody else. At least it... could be better than any other show, but I only reached first half of the first season.

You've repeatedly mentioned "phonies" and "phony" in your comments. In the example of I Love Lucy, you seem to penalize the show in that regard only because Arnaz and Ball had marital troubles in real life. If you're going to let the actors' personal failings color your view of their work, I'm afraid there won't be much out there that will continue to appeal to you.

Similarly, if shows like The Brady Bunch are "obviously bad," there may be some appeal that's lost on you as a personal preference thing -- as decades-long, mass popularity seems to indicate something of value.

Characters of I Love Lucy lie to (or conceal matters from) each other... and sometimes don't get caught. Lucy did not tell Ricky about secret grocery-market-in-the-kitchen, and she luckily did not get caught in the end. Not to mention the show's sarcasm on reversed gender roles in the episode of the infamous chocolate factory. I watched scenes of Lucy and Ricky bickering each other in hourlong episodes with guest stars. That's when the actors could not bear each other any longer.

The Brady Bunch has bunch of parents lecturing kids what to do and how to do. They are depicted as great parents, but that's because kids simply follow them. However, kids go through... fighting each other, getting into trouble, and... stuff. Also, kids' situations are too silly, and kids could not easily resolve them themselves without parents. When Desi Arnaz, Jr, was in one episode, he was eyeballing while saying those lines. As for "mass" popularity, that was 20th century. I haven't seen frequent broadcast of the show lately outside MeTV and Inspiration Channel.

As for "mass" popularity, that was 20th century. I haven't seen frequent broadcast of the show lately outside MeTV and Inspiration Channel.Hallmark airs 6 straight episodes of The Brady Bunch on weekdays.

To be fair, I tried to hook my elementary school male cousins into The Brady Bunch, but they couldn't get into it. Probably too many words they do not understand or care. Nowadays, they want action, like Ninjago, or silly, like Spongebob Squarepants. If I cut out cable forever, then... what else can I watch on reruns?

I don't think it's just sitcoms, it's all shows. Every show is never as funny the second, third,...etc. time around. It's not that they're bad shows its just that you've already seen it and you know what's gonna happen. I go through my spells with different shows. I went through a "I hate The Golden Girls" stage for about a year and now I love the show. Next year I may be tired of it again and ready for a change in my viewing habits. It basically boils down to "everything in moderation" and you won't get tired of it so quickly.

Years ago (even 10 years ago) life moved at a slower pace and there were fewer choices on TV. The world was also much more conservative and most TV had to fit a family audience. The shows from those days reflect that. Sitcoms now move at a much faster pace. With less competition a show like Lucy that was popular with a core audience of fans could run for 20 years and that leads to repetition since there are only so many ideas to go around. I saw a Brady Bunch marathon this holiday weekend and it was almost painful to watch. Once you've seen them a couple of times - with the already predictable plots- you know exactly what is going to happen.

Back even in the 90's nobody had a clue about streaming services like Netflix or entire seasons on DVD plus hundreds of channels to constantly rerun shows. The writers and producers thought each episode would only be seen once or maybe twice during the summer reruns and a few shows got syndicated to a limited number of channels. Today that is all off the table and we see numerous episodes of the same show in a row in one sitting which just exposes the repetitive things all the more.

I think things are just over-exposed and been done before to a saturation point. I love certain shows but I don't want 20 episodes a week on TVLand or TBS. I DVR and watch one or two at a time. I even watch that way on DVD to keep things fresh. A classic will always be a classic but they just weren't made for repetitive viewing, anything gets old fast if TBS airs 4 or 5 episodes every day.

Perhaps even critically-acclaimed sitcoms lose appeal over the years if I watch the show again. Even "moderate amount" won't help me like a show as I did before. Maybe the formula of non-romantic "will-he-won't-he", "will-she-won't-she", etc. is very old and stale fast, like getting caught or avoiding to get caught stuff. I didn't laugh at the old lady's black "funeral" dress at the glorious morning in The Golden Girls as I did before, even when it is funny.

When I watched The Cosby Show again, I could not get into the show anymore. Same for Living Single and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, very dated, repetitive shows as of today. Even Roseanne is predictable if you have a good memory of watching it the first time and are watching it again, and I couldn't bear watching the titular character anymore, especially where Joan Collins was guest-starring and where she was singing in the Halloween party.