1960's or 1970's and beyond comedies

[rezny717]

Which did you like better?As for me,the comedy series of the 1960's ,in my opinion,were a lot funnier than the 1970's and beyond comedies(with a few exceptions).How about the rest of you?

[Marvo301]

I like the comedies of the 60's much better. They were much better written. The writers in the 60's were skillful enough at their craft that they could be funny without resorting to jokes about sex, booze, or drugs. They knew how to construct a story in funny way rather than to just write a story and then try to cram a bunch jokes into it.

[Regulus]

I agree. The 1960s Sitcoms RULED.

[Etrulia63]

I definitely prefer sitcoms of the 60s (I'd lump 50s sitcoms in with them too) to modern sitcoms. It's strange to think that sitcoms changed so much in just a few years, but it seems that once the 70s hit the scene, television was allowed to get away with more, letting the writers take the "easy way" out, so to speak.

I've tried to get into plenty of 70s sitcoms that I know are classics, but the general "grittier" atmosphere, less than beloved fashion (lol), and adult situations all combined to make me feel uncomfortable watching them. I can tune into to just about any 50s or 60s show and feel relaxed and entertained, even though they were filmed longer ago and in black and white; I think it's the fact that those shows tried to be entertaining and relatable, but in a funny way, rather than in a depressing kind of way that subsequent decades tried to do.

[TimOhara123]

For the most part I think 50's and 60's are better, but 2 of my Favs are from the 70's Mary Tyler Moore show and Bob Newhart show.

[clj2]

I feel that the 70s-90s had the best comedies. 60s were better than 2000s shows overall,IMO.

[Mr. Television]

Sitcoms from the 50's-80's were the best.

[James]

I'll say the 1960s. All In The Family wasn't around yet to radically change television.

[LUNCH]

The best comedy shows/sitcoms were made during the 1950s-70s,just like the best shows of every genre. The 1960s stands out though because the comedy shows made then had so much variety,so many different types of comedy shows,and they were more innocent.Just good,relaxing entertainment.

[rezny717]

And besides that,most 1960's comedies were FUNNY,and didn't beat you over the head with relevance.In the 1960's watching comedies on TV was FUN.And that's what was sadly lacking from comedies from the 1970's -today(as I said before,with very few exceptions).

[megamanj2004]

While the 1980s was more of the for the sake of the-fun-of-it era w/ sitcoms and the 1970s was the groundbreaking era for sitcoms, the 1960s (and the 1950s for that matter) had a more variety in sitcoms and more effort in making those shows.

You don't see much of that in many of the 2000s and 2010s sitcoms, do you?

[BigManMike]

For me, I'd actually say the 70s. There are some 60s shows I like as well, but I just tend to enjoy the 70s ones more.

[dlemond]

Originally Posted by thebigcookie

For me, I'd actually say the 70s. There are some 60s shows I like as well, but I just tend to enjoy the 70s ones more.

Yes. I agree.

[rezny717]

And a second and final question:Which era ,A)the 1960's or B)the 1970's and beyond ,were more fun to watch?For me,I'd say,A(the 1960's.Again,How about the rest of you?

[Yong Fang]

In my opinion, there were three "Golden Age" of sitcoms.

Late 1950's to early 1960's (roughly 55'-65'). Beverly Hillbillies, Dobie Gillis, Beaver Cleaver, Andy of Mayberry, Honeymooners, Dick Van Dyke, Munsters, Addams Family and others. I never much cared for Lucy, but she was rolling strong during this period too, having three shows from 1951 to 1974.

The early to mid 1970's. Although many people did and do disagree with the so called "Rural Purge" (when CBS cancelled a bunch of shows, seeking a younger and more urbane dynamic), I thought it was the right thing to do and it was. All In the Family, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart Show, Good Times came out of this period from the top of my head.

The 1980's (the Reagan era.) I became a teenager during this era, the waning years of the old three network format, turning into a 4 network structure in the late 80's with FOX. Cosby Show, Cheers, Night Court, Taxi, Family Ties, Different Strokes, Newhart, Who's the Boss?, and others.

In my opinion, sitcoms were at a low point around the late 1960's. Andy Griffith lost Barney (but still had fantastic ratings) Beverly Hillbillies was slowly running out of gas. Never much cared for Bewitched or I Dream of Jennie. Lots of people liked Green Acres, Gomer Pyle and Petticoat Junction.
Another show from those years that was very highly rated was Gomer Pyle USMC, although Gomer never made it past PVT 1st Class and more or less stayed in boot camp the entire time with the same Gunnery Sargeant. By the way, Gomer would incorrectly call Carter Sargeant, when Carter was a Gunnery Sgt or a Gunny.

The worst show of that period was Gilligan's Island. Stupid show, not funny, made little sense. Only use for that show was to watch Dawn Wells in her 'daisy dukes'. (I did like old Mr. Howell though). Hogan's Heroes is another really, really stupid TV show (IMO). Get Smart! Watching this show wont make you that. But even these shows I thought were crap had a lot of great performers in it that I liked otherwise (Don Addams, Wilhelm Klemperer, John Banner. Jim Backus, Jim Nabors, Robert Reed and so on).

Speaking of relevancy, Robert Reed came to blows with Sherwood Shwartz because Shwartz would crank out these unrealistic and stupid scripts with Reed refusing to do the last episode where Peter is selling hair tonic (that made Greg's hair orange). It was a moronic and unrealistic script. To be fair, the Brady's did have a few somewhat relavent topics like smoking and truthfulness and when Bobby (stoned?) blew up that homemade volcano in the yard. That was classic. The Brady Bunch was actually never a Top 20 show. It was on ABC (a smaller, newer and not that watched network) on Friday nights.