Customer Reviews

Classic Sitcoms: A Celebration of the Best in Prime-Time Comedy

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Rather than another nostalgia-derived look at fondly remembered but essentially lame sitcoms, this book reflects critics' picks of the very best examples of the genre, then examines them with the seriousness and insight they deserve. The author is an expert on the subject--he also wrote the definitive work on the Dick Van Dyke Show--and he treats each of the ten shows, from I Love Lucy to Cheers--with thoroughness and affection. This book will enhance the viewing experience of any television fan.

Now in a newly revised and significantly expanded second edition, Classic Sitcoms: A Celebration Of The Best In Prime-Time Comedy by television history expert Vince Waldron provides tv sitcom fans with a complete episode-by-episode summary and guide to ten of the all-time best television sitcoms, as chosen by forty-five top TV critics. "I Love Lucy"; "The Honeymooners"; "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All In The Family", "M*A*S*H", "The Bob Newhart Show", "Taxi", and "Cheers" are presented with insightful behind-the-scenes notes and anecdotes from the stars, writers, and producers. Complete credits, basic episode storylines, and tallies of Emmy awards and yearly ratings make Classic Sitcoms a superb and highly recommended resource for TV fans and trivia buffs alike.

This volume is a wonderful read for anyone who loves quality sitcoms. Though it's largely meant to be resource material, it's absorbing enough to be read as a novel! Vince Waldron, the author, does such an excellent job of charting the evolution of the shows behind the scenes and the character/story arcs within the show, that each section on each program feels like a satisfying story unto itself. While episode guides are now easily available on the Internet, what you won't get from them is the keen insight that Waldron offers.

The '87 edition is excellent, but the '98 edition is even more worth having, as it completes the episode guide for CHEERS. (When Waldron wrote the first edition, CHEERS was only in its fourth season! This volume covers the remaining 7 seasons of that program.)

With all the new quality sitcoms over the past 20 years, this is one reader who would be more than happy to pick up a follow-up book from Waldron covering those shows.

The book's 600+ pages led me to believe it was going to be an in-depth study of the ten chosen sitcoms, but alas each program only gets about a 6- to 10-page writeup, followed by a huge episode guide. The ep guides are not at all compelling reading, and actually pale to guides done by fans on various websites.

There aren't a lot of photos, and the ones that are there are aligned in strange, overlapping, sometimes slanted format in a 10-page section in the book's dead center. They're B&W and actually look poor even for B&W.

This book gets one thing right: the ten shows selected were the absolute cream of the crop up to that point ("Seinfeld" would probably have bumped one of them out a few years later), but this book really doesn't add anything to the reader's enjoyment of these classics. I suggest you pass on this one.
Overall,

If you're a Nick at Nite/TV Land couch chive, this is the book to keep on the sofa at all times. I can't say more.

It was a very good book. I didn't read all of it because I am an I Love Lucy fan. I also watch Bewitched and Happy Days. One thing I would like to see is an updated version of this book. Since many shows have been replaced. One thing I would not like to see is the following shows above taken off the air. I think you should make a seperate channel for shows such as 'The Brady Bunch', 'Wonder Years', and all of the newer shows you are putting on there. There are too many I love Lucy fans out and if you keep changing what is on this channel it won't be Nick at Nite anymore.