TV sitcoms have been at the forefront of American television for over seven decades. During that time, the shows have run the gamut of the trials and tribulations of modern life, including shows about families, friends, co-workers, classmates, and even strangers. With an original plot, strong character development, a conventional story structure, and a long-term plan of where the storylines lead, many shows have succeeded. Some might have struck a chord with audiences by having a strong lead-in from other popular shows on the same network, while some may have been a grassroots movement via word of mouth or through the Internet. No matter why these shows ultimately caught on, each one has stood the test of time, crossed over generations in many cases, and made people want to come back over and over again to see what hijinx their favorite characters got up to next. Some of these shows make you feel like you’re part of them, whether it’s as a member of the cast or as a fly on the wall during their best scenes. Others became embedded in pop culture, having the show’s catchphrases repeated by die-hard fans or other media. The connection between the actors who make up the casts of these shows is sometimes just as important as the fans themselves, as the authenticity of their performances often shine through.
Any greatest television show sitcom list will always be incomplete without naming potentially hundreds of influential and groundbreaking shows over the course of television history. One must not look further than the classic exploits of TV series such as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, MAS*H, Cheers, Barney Miller, The Dick Van Dyke Show, I Love Lucy, and decades of others just to scratch the surface. Later, modern TV comedies like 30 Rock, The Larry Sanders Show, Arrested Development, That 70s Show, Schitt’s Creek, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are a few of the beloved new class of comedic TV shows for younger generations. Excellent diverse sitcom casts also need to be recognized like The Jeffersons, Family Matters, Black-ish, Diff’rent Strokes, Everybody Hates Chris, and Fresh Off the Boat to name a few. One can’t forget classic animated cartoon casts like The Simpsons, South Park, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Family Guy, Futurama, and Looney Tunes, either. With all that said, here are the best TV sitcom casts of all time, ranked.
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9 Modern Family
ABC
The hit ABC show Modern Family was an instant hit and continued its popularity throughout its entire 11-season run. The critics loved it too, with 85 Emmy nominations and 22 wins during its illustrious tenure on TV. The show could be both progressive or conservative at moments, yet never overdid it either way and was never above poking fun at the characters and situations that make today’s society what it is. The way the show was edited for comedic effect is also a huge factor for the series being so beloved. Over time, each member of their large family (made up of three distinct households of the Dunphys and Pritchetts) got their chance to shine, all playing a pivotal role in the show’s success. Actors Ed O’Neill (Jay) and Sofia Vergara (Gloria) are probably the most recognizable cast members. That being said, a lot of the show’s cast got ample recognition during the show’s existence, like Eric Stonestreet (Cameron), Ty Burrell (Phil), Jessie Tyler Ferguson (Mitch), and Julie Bowen (Claire), who all either won or were at least nominated for some of the biggest awards in the industry. Families come in all different styles and shapes, and Modern Family was excellent at giving us a refreshing sitcom take on the nuclear family.
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8 How I Met Your Mother
20th Television
The premise of How I Met Your Mother is simple: a father named Ted Mosby tells the story to his teenage kids of how he fell in love with their mother. However, for a show that lasted 9 seasons, it certainly took a lot of explaining to get there. The show’s breakout character was Barney, whose womanizing tactics were taken to extraordinary heights with memorable catchphrases: “legen…wait for it…dary” and “challenge accepted” to name a few. As much of a fuss that was made about the show’s final episode, (spoiler alert: the Mother dies), it’s easy to see that up until the final season, the show was never truly about the Mother very much in the first place. Despite what the show’s name implies, the real story was actually more about the relationship between Ted (Josh Radnor), his friends Marshall (Jason Segal), Lily (Alyson Hannigan), Barney (Neal Patrick Harris), Robin (Cobie Smulders), and Ted’s never-ending search for love. The show was so successful during its run that you can now catch the show’s spinoff, How I Met Your Father, starring Hillary Duff on Hulu.
7 Married…with Children
Sony Pictures Television
Along with The Simpsons (which started as part of the Tracy Ulman Show), Married…with Children was one of the key shows that kept then-new kid on the block, Fox, on the air as one of the big four networks during its inception in the 1980s. Married…with Children starred Al Bundy (as played by Ed O’Neill) as a loser shoe salesman whose biggest accomplishment in life was when he scored four touchdowns during a high school football game many years earlier. Al seems to always be broke, yet it’s likely because his wife Peggy (Katey Sagal), and their kids’ Bud (David Faustino) and Kelly (Christina Applegate) are constantly taking his money from him. There are also regular heated run-ins with the Bundy’s neighbors and Al’s customers at the shoe store. Instead of following the typical sitcom format, the series has been described as the “anti-sitcom sitcom” due to the rude behavior of the show’s main characters and because the Bundy household typically wasn’t a happy or heartwarming place to be living. It took what was expected of a wholesome family comedy sitcom and spun it on its head by doing the opposite. This made the show entertaining in a different way. Instead of being about a family you’d aspire to have, it’s the family you can watch like a Jerry Springer episode and say to yourself, “at least my household isn’t as bad as that.” Despite this, the show’s sharp-witted insults, raunchy plots, and the hilarious self-aware commentary the characters have about their own fate in life was unique for a network sitcom and still holds up over three decades later.
6 Full House
Warner Bros. Television Distribution
Set in San Francisco, California, the story of Full House revolves around Danny Tanner (played by the late Bob Saget) and his three daughters D.J. (Candice Cameron), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Michelle (played by both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). After the death of his wife, Danny gets help with the kids from his quirky best friend and brother-in-law, both of whom move in with him, Jesse (John Stamos) and Joey (Dave Coulier). This Three Men and a Baby-type story charmed audiences for 8 seasons, and then again for another 5 seasons in the updated telling of the Tanner family’s story, Fuller House. Despite its sometimes cheesy plots, the show never fails to display what a caring father Danny Tanner is. He always takes the time to truly listen and connect with his children. This made many Full House fans wish they too had a Dad like him. It’s a truly feel-good, family show that often centers on the children’s challenges even more than the adults, making it relatable to audiences of all ages.
5 Friends
NBC
The monumental success of Friends can mainly be attributed to the hilarious interactions between the show’s main characters, Ross (David Schwimmer), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Monica (Courteney Cox), Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc). The success of the show and the catchiness of the “I’ll Be There For You” theme song even propelled it into a radio hit in the 90s. Each character had unique qualities that fans gravitated to, inspiring the popular “Rachel haircut” for a time. Many fans even felt they could relate more to a specific character in the show or simply wished they were part of the group of friends themselves. Once the show caught on, there were sometimes celebrity cameos, and often life lessons to take away from the episodes. Perhaps most importantly, the show knew how to make people feel good and even if someone can’t necessarily relate to some of the over-the-top silliness of certain episodes, the characters feel like people you’ve probably known at some point in your life.
4 The Big Bang Theory
CBS
The Big Bang Theory took so-called “nerd culture” and helped make it cool. Perhaps some of what made this eventual ratings-juggernaut so big was being in the right place at the right time. With the rise of blockbuster comic book movies and the revival of legendary franchises like Star Wars and Star Trek in recent years, The Big Bang Theory tapped into those audiences, often referencing those shows and movies by name, and had multiple actors from those projects come on the show as caricatures of themselves. That being said, if it wasn’t for the writing and acting behind the characters of Sheldon (Jim Parsons), Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), Howard (Simon Helberg), Amy (Mayim Bialik), and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), all the pop culture references in the world wouldn’t have been able to make the show relevant. The show is incredibly funny and typically focuses on the latest quirks of physicist Sheldon Cooper in practically every episode. Yet the show is so much more than that. In many ways, The Big Bang Theory is about a group of young people who were teased, mocked, or told they will never be appreciated as they are. Yet despite this adversity, still have successful careers and active social lives. It’s something worth aspiring to. The show also inspired the spinoff Young Sheldon, which keeps the show’s story alive via this prequel-based show of The Big Bang Theory’s most popular character.
3 Seinfeld
The iconic show labeled as being “about nothing,” Seinfeld consistently made mundane subjects the focal point of some of its best episodes. A group of egocentric friends all living in New York, Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Kramer (Michael Richards), and Elaine (Julia Louise-Dreyfus) were always the center of their own worlds. This just made them even more entertaining to watch. Whether Jerry was dumping a woman for a minute flaw, George was complaining about yet another way he’d been slighted, Elaine was doing something neurotic, or Kramer was up to some unpredictable adventure, none of the characters were particularly great people. However, Seinfeld’s unique take on daily life was not being done by anyone else in the same way. The characters dealt with things practically everyone has at some point, whether it was a crazy boss or a bad experience while out getting food. Alongside the show’s stand-up feel and often sarcastic humor, this only made the show more relatable.
2 The Office
The cast of The Office all played their roles so well, it’s sometimes easy to forget you’re not watching a real documentary about the Dunder Mifflin paper company (and its employees) in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This documentary-interview sitcom-style The Office effectively used was a formula that was fairly groundbreaking for its time and has now been used in numerous hit sitcoms ever since. Created as an American spinoff of the original UK version of the same show, The Office succeeded due to the ridiculous yet lovable boss Michael Scott (as played by Steve Carrell), Jim (John Krasinski), Pam (Jenna Fischer), Dwight (Rainn Wilson), and the rest of the incredible ensemble office cast. While some sitcoms don’t really change too much over the course of each season, instead the stories in The Office progressed naturally as the show went on. The often awkward humor, elaborate pranks (usually done by Jim), and comedic facial expressions of the characters let audiences in on the emotions in the office as they played out on screen. It’s great to see the long-term romance have the time to play out between Jim and Pam, while also seeing Dwight taking his job extremely seriously at practically all turns, to the point of absurdity. If you’ve ever worked in an office before, you’re sure to find something you will relate to here.
1 The Golden Girls
With the recent passing of the final main cast member of the show, Betty White, perhaps no other show over the course of television history can connect fans young and old with the nearly non-stop hilarious banter of Dorothy (Bea Arthur), Rose (Betty White), Sophia (Estelle Getty), and Blanche (Rue McClanahan) on The Golden Girls, four independent mature-aged women living together in a home in Miami. Part of what makes this show great is how different it really was. No one else on television was putting four women over the age of fifty together to be the lead characters of a show. No joke or insult between the characters was off-limits. The show could have easily been about characters 20 or 30 years younger than what it was, but the fact that it isn’t makes it so much better and casts a wider net with its audience. The subjects of the show are timeless as well. The Golden Girls tackled aging, sex, discrimination, and various social issues. The Golden Girls even spans demographics, sometimes being cited as a show that has strongly connected with the LGTBQ+ community as well. Despite the constant insults hurled at one another, you know all four of the Golden Girls are always there for each other in times of turmoil. Plus with a timeless theme song like, “Thank You For Being a Friend,” the show is likely as popular today as ever.
