What era had the best sitcoms? The 50's? The 60's? The 70's? The 80's? etc, etc. And why?

Mine would have to be the 80's
1. Cheers
2. Diff'rent Strokes
3. Taxi(It started in the 70's, but lasted into a good part of the '80's)

By far the 80's. They gave us:

Cheers
The Golden Girls
Full House (near the end but it still started in the 80's)
The Cosby Show

I would have to say the 70s with the 80s and 60s behind it. From the 70s I like

- "Three's Company"
- "Laverne & Shirley"
- "Happy Days"
- "Mork & Mindy"
- "All in the Family"
- "Maude"
- "Chico & the Man"
- "Welcome Back, Kotter"
- "The Jeffersons"
- "Good Times"
- "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman"

The 80's without a doubt!

-Facts Of Life

-Silver Spoons

-Mr. Belvedere

-Small Wonder

-ALF

-Charles In Charge

-Growing Pains

-Cheers

-Taxi

-Family Ties

-Diff'rent Strokes

-Webster

-Square Pegs

-Full House

-Married With Children

-Mama's Family

-Saved By The Bell

-The Cosby Show

-Empty Nest

-Golden Girls



Some great shows that debuted in the end of 1980s:

-Simpsons

-Roseanne

-Seinfeld

THE 70'S!!!!!!!!!! :clap: :clap: :clap: All the best shows were then:

Mary Tyler Moore
Three's Company
The Love Boat
The Brady Bunch
Laverne & Shirley
Rhoda
Welcome Back, Kotter
Love American Style
Chico and the Man
Good Times
Soap
Charlie's Angels
.....and more I'm forgetting right now. The next best decade would be the 60's with That Girl, Dick Van Dyke, etc. , then the 50's, then the 80's, then the 90's. That's just my opinion
:D

1970's:

Laverne and Shirley
Mary Tyler Moore
Three's Company
The Brady Bunch
Sanford and Son
Rhoda
Mork & Mindy
Welcome Back, Kotter
The Partridge Family
One Day at a Time
Maude

The 70's had some of the best sitcoms, and great plots and characters.

90's and Current have/had the best shows! For instance:

Seinfeld-Pilot aired in 1989 but is usually considered a 90's sitcom.One of the funniest (and most realaistic) shows of all-time

Curb your Enthusiasm-The Next Seinfeld! Jam-packed with hilarity!

Friends-Full of Laugh-Out-Loud moments makes it one of the greatest shows of all-time!

Party Girl-Hilarious sitcom that didn't have a chance.

Working-Always an innovative series always giving us "New ways to watch" (The clock at the bottom of the screen in one episode,The Y2K Episode).

Newsradio-Definitly one of the funniest sitcoms EVER!

Will and Grace-If it weren't for Jack and Karen this show would be nothing but still one of the funniest sitcoms of our time.

Sex and The City-The original,Porvacative and alway sexy sexual escapades of a group of foxy female friends in the city that never sleeps.What's not to love?

Have I made my point yet?

The now and the '90s

The now-

"Friends":1994-2003 [NBC]
"Will & Grace":1998-present [NBC]
"The King of Queens":1998-present {CBS}
"Reba":2001-present (The WB)
"My Wife & Kids":2000-present *ABC*
"Buffy, The Vampire Slayer":1997-present !UPN!
"That '70s Show":1998-present ~Fox~
"Becker":1998-present {CBS}

The '90s-

"Roseanne":1988-1997 *ABC*
"Clueless":1996-1999 !UPN!
"Saved By The Bell":1989-1993 [TNBC]
"Ellen":1994-1998 *ABC*
"Ghostwriter":1992-1994 -PBS-
"Married..With Children":1987-1998 ~Fox~
"Home Improvement":1991-1999 *ABC*
"Suddenly Susan":1996-2000 [NBC]
"Veronica's Closet":1997-2000 [NBC]
"Jesse":1998-2000 [NBC]
"Two Of A Kind":1998-1999 *ABC*
"Grace Under Fire":1993-1998 *ABC*

and many more!

Note: Buffy isn't really a sitcom, but I bust up laughing at every episode.

Definantly the 80's. TV today (IMO) has gone so bad, that's it's not even funny. Give me Lucy, Bewitched, or Facts anyday.

I gotta vote for the 60's.

Hogan's Heroes
Jeannie
Monkees

um...some others...

The best 90's sitcoms are
Roseanne
Seinfeld
Wonder Years
Ellen
Saved by the Bell
Fresh Prince
Married With Children

The best 80's sitcoms are
Facts of Life
Night Court
Cheers
Cosby show
Golden Girls
NBC was the only network in the 80's with sitcoms worth watching

Without a doubt... the 80's.

Well, for me it's harder, LOL, out of each era, I find at least a few shows really good, and funny, even now I tune in on occasion and bust out laughing. Here are my choices in order by "era", first being the one I favor the most. I am listing the most familiar (sort of) but I enjoy a load of shows from each era.

1970s
(Maude, Good Times, All in the Family, Jeffersons, etc.)

1960s
(Hazel, Father Knows Best, etc.)

1980s
(FOL, Diff'rent Strokes, Charles in Charge, Golden Girls, Wonder Years, etc)

1990s
(Roseanne, Married With Children, etc.)

2000s
Jury's still out for me, LOL.

SORT OF OFF TOPIC, BUT:
The only show that is in it's own era, LOL, hands down is I Love Lucy. That will always be my #1 favorite sitcom of all time. Burns & Allen though is working it's way up, and so is the Honeymooners.

Originally posted by Classic is Better
1970's:

Laverne and Shirley
Mary Tyler Moore
Three's Company
The Brady Bunch
Sanford and Son
Rhoda
Mork & Mindy
Welcome Back, Kotter
The Partridge Family
One Day at a Time
Maude

The 70's had some of the best sitcoms, and great plots and characters.

I agree with you on the 70s, "Classic is Better", and would add a few more:

The Bob Newhart Show
The Odd Couple
WKRP in Cincinnatti
Barney Miller

(although the last two were late 70s/early 80s)

70's:
All In The Family
One Day at a Time
Sanford & Son
What's Happening!!
Alice
Diff'rent Strokes
Angie
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
Mork & Mindy
Happy Days

80's:
the Facts of Life
Charles In Charge
Silver Spoons
Family Ties
Too Close For Comfort
Designing Women
The Golden Girls
Valerie/The Hogan Family
The Cosby Show
Perfect Strangers

90's:
Roseanne
Married...With Children
Empty Nest
Home Improvement
Coach
Full House (also could be considered as 80's)
Step By Step
Blossom

I would say the 80's and 90's had the best sitcoms, the 80's had some classic series like-
Punky Brewster
Golden Girls
Gimme a Break
Growing Pains
Family Ties
and so on

and the 90's brought us innovative and high quality series like-
Mad About You
Will and Grace
Friends
Sienfield
Wings
and so many more.

Without a doubt, the 70s

1970s:
Mary Tyler Moore (1970-77)
Partridge Famly (1970-74)
Odd Couple (1970-75)
All in the Family (1971-79)
The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971-74)
Maude (1972-78)
Bob Newhart Show (1972-78)
Sanford and Son (1972-77)
Good Times (1974-79)
Happy Days (1974-84)
Chico and the Man (1974-78)
Barney Miller (1975-82)
The Jeffersons (1975-85)
Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-79)
Alice (1976-85)
What's Happening!!! (1976-79)
Laverne & Shirley (1976-83)
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976-77)
Three's Company (1977-84)
Soap (1977-81)
Eight is Enough (1977-81)
Love Boat (1977-86)

I like the 60s too, for Flying Nun, Donna Reed, Hazel, Dick Van Dyke, My Three Sons, Beverly Hillbillies, Jeannie, Gilligan's Island, Bewitched, and Munsters. I also like the 1980a for Kate & Allie, Mama's Family, Facts of Life, Diff'rent Strokes, Perfect Strangers, Silver Spoons, Growing Pains, Down to Earth, and Family Ties. Some 90s shows are good like Saved by the Bell, Roseanne, and Fresh Prince. I like a VERY FEW shows from now like Reba, Sabrina, Bernie Mac, My Wife and Kids, Malcolm in the Middle and the Simpsons.

This is one interesting post. I think the 1960's as well as 1970's were the best eras from sitcoms because:

The sitcoms from the 60's were family-oriented and didn't have much filth or controversy as sitcoms have today. They were wholesome and innocent and were definitely shows that the whole family could watch together.

The many sitcoms from the 60s that made the era great:
~ "The Donna Reed Show" (1958-1966)
~ "Dennis the Menace" (1959-1963)
~ "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960-1968)
~ "My Three Sons (1960-1972)
~ "Mister Ed" (1961-1966)
~ "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961-1966)
~ "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961-1963)
~ "The Lucy Show" (1962-1968)
~ "The Beverly Hillbillies" (1962-1971)
~ "Petticoat Juncton" (1963-1970)
~ "The Patty Duke Show" (1963-1966)
~ "Bewitched (1964-1972)
~ "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C." (1964-1969)
~ "Gilligan's Island (1964-1967)
~ "The Munsters (1964-1966)
~ "The Addams Family" (1964-1966)
~ "My Mother the Car" (1965-1966)
~ "Gidget" (1965-1966)
~ "I Dream of Jeannie" (1965-1970)
~ "Get Smart (1965-1970)
~ "Green Acres (1965-1971)
~ "Hogan's Heroes" (1965-1971)
~ "Batman" (1966-1968)
~ "Family Affair (1966-1971)
~ "That Girl" (1966-1971)
~ "The Monkees" (1967-1969)
~ "The Flying Nun" (1967-1970)
~ "Dragnet" (1967-1970)
~ "Mayberry R.F.D." (1968-1971)


The 1970's were a change for sitcoms. They were groundbreaking and controversal. They dealt with so many issues that were never dealth with before such as homosexuality, abortion, civil rights, among others.

The many sitcoms from the 1970's that made the era great:
~ "Here's Lucy" (1968-1974)
~ "The Brady Bunch" (1969-1974)
~ "The Partridge Family" (1970-1974)
~ "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-1977)
~ "The New Dick Van Dyke Show" (1971-1974)
~ "All In The Family" (1971-1979)
~ "Sanford & Son (1972-1978)
~ "The Bob Newhart Show" (1972-1978)
~ "Maude" (1972-1978)
~ "Good Times" (1974-1979)
~ "Happy Days" (1974-1984)
~ "Rhoda" (1974-1978)
~ "Phyllis" (1975-1977)
~ "Welcome Back, Kotter" (1975-1979)
~ "The Jeffersons" (1975-1985)
~ "Laverne & Shirley" (1976-1983)
~ "Alice" (1976-1985)
~ "Barney Miller" (1976-1982)
~ "Three's Company" (1977-1984)
~ "Mork and Mindy" (1978-1982)
~ "WKRP In Cincinnatti" (1978-1982)
~ "Taxi" (1978-1982)
~ "Soap" (1978-?)
~ "The Betty White Show" (1978)
~ "The Ropers" (1979)

Both the 1960's and 1970's offered us so much despite that there were so different from each other. I think both decades are truly the best eras for both sitcoms and television!

Originally posted by LucyFan
~ "Soap" (1978-?)


Soap ran from fall 1977 to spring 1981.