Top 5 Lists

Way before I ever saw the movie High Fidelity, I would always rank things in my mind in "Top 5" lists and debate when to add something new to the list, or whether I had them in the right order (yeah, I have a lot of running dialogs in my head, so what?). That's probably why I love that movie so much, because I see a lot of myself in Rob (in relation to the musical obsession, not in his taste in clothes - "... it's a Cosby sweater. A Cooooosssssssby sweataahhhh"). So, periodically I am going to present one of my "Top 5" lists (usually when I can't think of anything else to write about... sorta like right now). Here are my "Top 5 TV Comedies":

1.) The Simpsons
Sure, the show is a pale shell of what it was in seasons 2-9 or so, and the movie sucked, but when The Simpsons was hitting on all cylinders, it was the funniest, most irreverent, most biting satire ever to be shown on TV. Even the episodes from seasons 10 through about 5 years ago are still pretty good (although, would it kill them to show the earlier seasons more often in syndication? How many damn times do I need to see the episode where Moe becomes a poetry sensation???). South Park has definitely taken over the role of smacking society down through satire (and they do a hell of a job), but without The Simpsons, they never would have had the chance.

2.) Seinfeld
Its amazing how many jokes I can get everyday just by relating things that happen in real life to Seinfeld episodes (hmm... maybe I need to freshen up my material). I know that the situations that Jerry and his friends found themselves in got increasingly more outlandish as the series progressed (especially after Larry David left the show - he took any last ties to reality with him when he departed), but it still was outstanding. I really got burned out on the show earlier in the decade, since I was watching it 2-3 times every day due to syndication, but after taking a few years off, it has returned to being fantastically funny whenever I manage to catch it on TBS (I saw the Festivus episode tonight - good stuff).

3.) Arrested Development
I already talked about my love of this show in a previous post, so I am not going to say anything further and will instead just show you this:


4.) The Office
Probably the "smartest" comedy ever to appear on TV. Week after week, they manage to take situations that make your squirm and cringe because of how uncomfortable they are and still make you laugh your ass off at them. They also make you like and care for a character in Michael Scott who very often is a deplorable human being (although SOME people who are big fans of the show can't stand Michael...). If you ever want an evening of much laughter and drunkenness, pop in a season DVD and play The Office Drinking Game (copyright Dickman and Zack).

5.) WKRP in Cincinnati
Like Arrested Development, it ended way to early because of the network dicking around with its time slot (although when CBS canceled it, the last episode ranked 7th in the Nielson's for that week). The characters were zany, as were the situations (the Thanksgiving episode from season 1 ranks as one of the all time funniest half hours ever to air on TV), but not in the hokie way that a lot of late 70's and early 80's shows were "zany". It was head and shoulders above anything else on TV at the time and was different than everything else on too (which usually means it will be short-lived until the tastes of the viewing public catch up with it).