Summary

• The best sitcoms have made a substantial impact on viewers throughout the decades, shaping pop culture and capturing slices of life.
• Streaming platforms like Netflix, Max, and Amazon Prime Video offer a wide selection of the best sitcoms from different eras, allowing new fans to discover and enjoy timeless classics.
• Shows like Scrubs, Peep Show, and Police Squad! are examples of the best sitcoms that have unique styles, memorable characters, and a perfect blend of humor and storytelling.

The best sitcoms of all time stretch back decades and feature stories from all facets of life, with characters that have made a substantial impact on viewers over the years. The best sitcoms have often been the most-watched shows on television, topping the ratings week after week for years at a time. Whether broadcast on traditional networks or a modern streaming hit, the greatest sitcoms on television have shaped pop culture and influenced trends, as well as hilariously captured slices of life in a variety of times and settings.

There are more places than ever to see the best sitcoms from any era thanks to the wide number of streaming platforms, like Netflix, Max, and Amazon Prime Video. There have been literally hundreds of sitcoms throughout the decades, though not all of them last. When it comes to the best sitcoms, the crème rises to the top. Most of the sitcoms that defined a generation in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond remain available to watch on streaming services and continue to find new fans decades later.

50 Scrubs (2001-2010)

9 Seasons, 182 Episodes

While there are some viewers who feel Scrubs shares a lot with medical dramas like The Resident, it was also a very funny and quirky show. Taking place in Sacred Heart Hospital, the show follows the various staff working there while narrated by intern J.D. as he observes the strange and sometimes tragic world they worked in.

It also dealt with the many relationships that came out of this environment with JD finding a best friend, an on-again-off-again love interest, and a reluctant mentor. The show has an imaginative spirit, always willing to be absurd and ridiculous.

This resulted in episodes that would break the fourth wall and even a musical episode. This mixed with the moments of sadness surprisingly well, making for perhaps the best-ever sitcom with a medical setting. The show won a Peabody Award and remained popular until most of the cast left before the final ninth season.

49 Peep Show (2003-2015)

9 Seasons, 54 Episodes

Though it might not have been the massive mainstream hit that other top picks in the genre have been, Peep Show is a British sitcom with a strong enough following to make it a beloved show. It centers around Mark and Jez, two roommates in their 20s with very different personalities who manage to incite mayhem through their attempts at living day-to-day life.

The show has a unique style, often using point-of-view shots that help it stand out from the usual sitcom look and feel. There are many cringeworthy moments throughout Peepshow that made it clear that the series was willing to make the audience feel very uncomfortable if it happened to result in the biggest laughs. The show remains one of those beloved series that truly only found its appreciation after it was already off the air.

48 Police Squad! (1982)

1 Season, 6 Episodes

There are a number of great movies based on TV shows, but many people might not know that the comedy Naked Gun started out on the small screen. Like the movie, Police Squad! stars Leslie Nielsen as hard-boiled detective Frank Drebin as he solves puzzling cases. Police Squad! was similar to M Squad, which starred Lee Marvin in a crime drama series. However, it took the mysteries and replaced Marvin's detective with the hapless Frank Drebin.

Police Squad! only lasted for six episodes before it was canceled, but those episodes ended up strong enough to convince Paramount to bring it to the big screen, and the studio made three movies based on the show. As a testament to the continued legacy of this wacky cop spoof, Liam Neeson will also be starring in a new remake of Naked Gun.

47 Mr. Bean (1990-1995)

1 Season, 15 Episodes

Many of the greatest sitcoms of all time excel thanks to a strong ensemble, a strong premise, or both. However, Mr. Bean was proof that a sitcom really only needed one great and memorable character to be a real gem. Known for its universal physical comedy, Mr. Bean follows Rowan Atkinson's childlike title character as he causes all kinds of chaos and hilarious misunderstandings through simple everyday situations, like a dentist appointment or even just dining out.

Looking back on the impact of the series, it is amazing to be reminded that there were only 15 episodes, but they ended up spread out over five years. The phenomenal success of the relatively short series led to Atkinson reprising the role for two movies after the series ended; the simply titled Bean in 1997 and Mr. Bean's Holiday 20 years later.

46 Derry Girls (2018-2022)

3 Seasons, 19 Episodes

Though it ended following its third season, Derry Girls managed to gain a lot of popularity in a short time, becoming one of the most acclaimed sitcoms of the past several years. It also won several awards, including Best Scripted Comedy at the British Academy Television Awards for its final season.

The 90s-set series follows a group of female friends (and their one overlooked male friend) living in a small Irish town and attending a Catholic school. Though the show deals with the tension in Ireland at the time as well as the hardships of these girls' lives, it is also hilarious with lovable characters, wild misadventures, and an undeniable charm. This effective blending of tones helped it to standout as a show that could be emotional while also have the viewers laughing out loud.

45 Letterkenny (2016-)

11 Seasons, 75 Episodes

As a rare show that started on YouTube, Letterkenny became a breakout Canadian series outside its home country. It follows the lives of the various citizens of the titular rural Canadian town. There are various clashes in groups of people that make up this small community, but there is also a lot of and charm to this collection of colorful characters.

Letterkenny funniest quotes have delivered endless unique sayings and running jokes with a very distinct sense of humor, mixing Canadian culture with some brilliant wordplay. It also features a number of wonderful characters, led by the stoic yet hilarious Wayne (Jared Keeso), who is always quick to have a drink with his friends, fight some wannabe tough guy, and get some chores done. The sitcom won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy Series in 2017 and has been nominated every year since.

44 Archer (2009-2023)

14 Seasons, 142 Episodes

The spy genre has been ripe for parody with movies like Austin Powers poking fun at the tropes, and Archer brings the world of secret agents and world-saving missions to the animated sitcom format. Archer follows the exploits of Sterling Archer, a dim-witted, reckless, and self-involved spy within a dysfunctional top-secret organization.

Adding to the childish nature of the character, his mother is the one in charge of the organization and giving him the orders. The show has a lot of fun mixing the action of these kinds of stories with the typical relationship troubles, misunderstandings, and wacky characters of the sitcom world.

It presents this international spy agency as the typical workplace with petty arguments and immaturity overshadowing the world-saving stakes of their work. The animated series won four Primetime Emmy Awards and began testing different storytelling styles starting in season 8.

43 What We Do In The Shadows (2019-)

5 Seasons, 50 Episodes

It is surprising that one of the best vampire TV shows is also one of the funniest shows on television right now. What We Do in the Shadows is based on the mockumentary movie of the same name. The 21-time Emmy-nominated sitcom centers around a documentary being made about a group of vampires living together on Staten Island, giving a glimpse at their dark and supernatural world while also becoming interested in various aspects of the modern human world.

The show has a lot of fun with vampire and monster lore, finding fun new ways to explore familiar ideas. However, the relationships between the characters in What We Do in the Shadows are even more interesting, with their love for each other, their petty disputes, and their misadventures making for some of the funniest moments. Two of the standouts of the ensemble are Matt Berry as the sex-crazed Laszlo and Mark Proksch as the painfully dull energy vampire Colin Robinson.

42 The Thick Of It (2005–2012)

4 Seasons, 23 Episodes

There have been many sitcoms with a political premise and setting, but The Thick of It was one of the first to show it as a truly mean, immoral, and hilariously vulgar business. It focuses on the "spin" team that is constantly doing damage control on political mishaps. This sets up the brilliant premise of satirizing the world of politics and exploring the shocking stupidity of it all as these stressed-out and short-tempered professionals clean up one mess after another.

The fast-paced setting of the show gives The Thick of It an intensity that most sitcoms don't have. It is also endlessly hilarious to watch Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker relentlessly insult and berate those around him with endless anger. The show ended up becoming a big enough hit that it earned a Hollywood spinoff movie with Tucker facing off with the American political world.

41 The IT Crowd (2006-2013)

4 Seasons, 25 Episodes

There are certain shows that gradually found an audience in America and became more mainstream hits outside of their native countries after already having ended. The IT Crowd is a British series that follows a three-person tech office squatting in the basement of a larger company, the nerdy misfits being comprised of two traditional computer geeks and their largely computer-illiterate manager.

Similar to The Office, this show explored how funny mundane office life could be. The relatively small core group of the show was often ed by equally talented ing characters, but the simplicity of the setup allowed the main trio of actors to really shine, particularly Richard Ayoade as the exceptionally awkward Maurice Moss, a character who would prove to be an interesting precursor to the socially awkward Dr. Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory.