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Sitcoms: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time

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Bloom & Vlastnik's "Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time" is arguably the most gorgeous, luxurious book which tells and, more importantly, shows you onstage and backstage at what the authors consider to be the greatest shows on earth. The photographs are unbelievably exciting, obviously chosen with such care that they give the viewer not just joy but inspiration, too.
Well, Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik have done it again. For every reader who loves good television "Sitcoms" is the finest book of its kind that I have ever found. The first, and to me most important feature, is the inclusion of magnificent color photos for shows like "I Love Lucy," "The Honeymooners" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show" that have never ever been seen before.
But this is not just a picture book. The research that has gone into "Sitcoms" is staggering and Bloom & Vlastnik are endlessly entertaining in the way they write and how they have chosen what is included in this PERFECT Christmas gift.

This book provides a nice retrospective of t.v.'s greatest and most memorable sitcoms. Although fans of individual series will learn little, if nothing, new, the text is fun and readable. By far the best feature of this volume are its striking color photographs. Fans will finally get to see what the Petries' living room and bedroom looked like in color, as well as the casts of The Addams Family and Father Knows Best, among others.

Few baby boomers could possibly resist the immediate familiarity of the classic TV situation comedies highlighted in this well-crafted coffee table book by co-authors Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik. They have chosen 101 shows, most of which have penetrated our collective subconscious in the past sixty years. Granted some have become obscure, the list reflects due consideration for enduring popularity and cultural influence, although there are some intriguing omissions from my perspective, e.g., RHODA, MAD ABOUT YOU, and SEX AND THE CITY among others. Whereas most such entertainment reference books stick with mainly the facts of the production, Bloom and Vlastnik go beyond the relevant statistics about each show and inject a hearty amount of behind-the-scenes information along with a surprisingly sharp level of critical commentary on how such shows would stack up against what is offered today.

The list of sitcoms is alphabetical according to title so as not to encourage argument over which ones are the most beloved. Clearly, some have an inarguable place on the pantheon (I LOVE LUCY, ALL IN THE FAMILY, M*A*S*H, THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW). A few were surprisingly short-lived (e.g., only 39 episodes of THE HONEYMOONERS exist), while others far outlasted the critical lambasting they richly deserved. An example of the latter is THE FACTS OF LIFE, a hopelessly misbegotten show that somehow endured despite a palpable lack of quality and an ever-changing premise. The most recent shows featured include the still-running SCRUBS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, as well as THE 70'S SHOW, MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE, and WILL & GRACE, all of which ended their long runs last year.

A lot of great trivia is also included, such as how NEWHART used outtake footage from On Golden Pond for their opening credits or how Fred MacMurray filmed all his scenes for a season of MY THREE SONS in just sixty-five days (thus forcing the other actors to be filmed talking to his stand-in the rest of the time). There are great little features focusing on subjects like sitcom pets and familiar character actors whose names we never knew, as well as pieces like "Brilliant But Canceled" where critically acclaimed but woefully mistreated shows like HE & SHE and ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT are highlighted. Each of the 101 sitcoms includes at least one or two informative profiles of the key actors. Another nice surprise is the number of color, on-set photos presented of shows that are familiar only in black-and-white. This book is great fun to peruse as you spend an evening watching the reruns on Nick-at-Nite.

Great book, but not all of the shows mentioned are classics and how could they omit the following great shows?
The Abbott & Costello Show
Buffalo Bill
Mork and Mindy
Anything But Love
Mad About You
The King of Queens
Welcome Back Kotter
F Troop
The Drew Carey Show
Night Court
Chico and the Man
Dear John
Home Improvement

This book has only been on my shelf a few days and has already become one of my greatest conversation pieces. The stories, photos and facts are better than any True Hollywood Story. Bloom and Vlastnik have really done their homework. It's a must-have for any television fan.

The latest book from authors Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, who authored a marvelous "Greatest Broadway Musicals" book in 2004, is this equally splendid tribute to the 101 greatest half-hour TV comedies of all time. Chock full of interesting facts, pithy critical comments and a wealth of color photographs, SITCOMS will be savored by aging baby boomers and coach potatoes of all ages alike.

Paging through SITCOMS is like revisiting your past. Us baby boomers grew up with television. Who of us can't remember sitting on the living room floor, looking up at and laughing at Lucy's crazy antics? Or chuckling at Barney Fife's latest idiocy? Not all the shows covered in this book were laugh-out-loud funny. Some were quietly humorous ("Leave It to Beaver") or sweet ("Family Affair") or wonderfully witty ("Frasier") or droll ("Newhart"). Others were caustically funny ("Maude") or mindless ("Three's Company") or wacky ("Green Acres"). Whenever you started watching television, you'll find lots to laugh about in this book.

Elevating a TV show to classic status obviously opens the authors up to criticism. After perusing SITCOMS, I think the authors did a fine job. Were a couple of my favorites not selected? Yup but so what? It's their call.

The shows in SITCOMS are covered alphabetically. I think it would have been a great idea had they been listed chronologically. Television comedy changed over the past 50 years and it would have been interesting to see the progression from "Mr. Peepers" to "Gilligan's Island" to "All In The Family" to "Friends."

Considering all the wonderful memories the book rekindles, the wealth of color photographs provided and the low price ($29.95), SITCOMS is a real winner. Read and enjoy!

I am really enjoying this book--not just for the arcane facts about the shows I already know and love, but also for introducing me to some shows I'd only barely heard of. And the pictures! They're spectacular. The color pictures from B&W shows alone are well worth the price of the book. The writing style is light and entertaining, so it's fun to have around and page through now and again. A perfect coffee-table book--one that you'll actually read.

I'm a pop culture geek from waaaay back and own several books on the history of television, specific shows, etc. - this volume is hands down the BEST I have ever seen. Everything is here - from how Suzanne Pleshette got her co-starring role on 'The Bob Newhart Show' (quite amazing), all the way to 'fake Jan.' Even a select few of the photo captions are written with not only tongue firmly in cheek, but an obvious love for the genre in general.

A must have. The longer you wait to find this on a clearance rack or on that auction website (I forget its name), the more time you will have missed strolling through the memory-packed pages within. Buy it.

One final note - I was overjoyed to learn that Jerry Mathers didn't get killed in Vietnam after all. (That's a joke).

The writers of SITCOMS: The 101 Greatest TV Comedies of All Time have truly outdone themselves.

This volume is a must-own for any lover of Nick@Nite in its heyday from the 1990s, or any fan of Classic TV.

Contained within the book's 300+ pages are the greatest sitcoms ranging from early `50s shows such as Amos `N Andy and My Little Margie to contemporaries such as Scrubs and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

While some huge sitcom hits such as Home Improvement, Full House and Who's the Boss are conspicuously absent (I was none too disappointed, though, never a fan of those banal ABC shows), lesser-known, lower-rated yet still successful ones such as Julia (1968-71) and Ellen (1994-98) understandably make the cut having had a much greater impact on the genre and pop culture itself.

There are even special chapters on the greatest sitcom flops in TV history, military sitcoms, sitcoms from movies, and a sitcom character-actor Hall of Fame.

Love `em or hate `em, every show included has rightfully earned its place here in one way or another, and each is beautifully illustrated with a smorgasbord of RARE, never-before-seen photos.

I MUST make special mention of the photos, because they, in reality, are what make this the must-have that it is. These are not the same tired, old pics we have seen countless times on eBay, on the E! True Hollywood Story, or even on I Love Lucy mugs and calendars. These are gorgeous, unearthed gems that will thrill even the most jaded Classic TV lover.

SEE the cast of Bewitched in a COLOR pic from the first season; SEE Mary Tyler Moore in eye-popping COLOR on the Dick Van Dyke Show set; SEE those ghoulish Munsters and Addams clans in LIVING Technicolor. I can't say enough about the photos.

At under $20, this book is truly a steal. It makes an excellent coffee table book guaranteed to be a conversation piece and keep your guests and friends entertained. I would recommend buying yourself a copy AND a few more to give as gifts. Any Classic TV fan would be thrilled to get this.

The large, glossy, evocative photographs alone justify the value of this highly recommended 335-page book. The write-ups for each show, while brief, ranging from two to five pages, are well-written and researched and there is a detailed, small-font, six-page index. Most commendably, unlike other sitcom books which grudgingly include a handful of the usual black-and-white entries, such as "I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show", and then concentrate on the 1980s and 90s, just over half (fifty-two, to be exact) of all titles appearing here, had premiered between 1949 and 1970. Among the 101 titles, are two cartoon shows ("The Flintstones" and "The Simpsons") structured as sitcoms. Listed below, for the record, are the shows which the authors selected as "the 101 greatest TV comedies of all time":

29 shows -- 1950s and 1960s [produced live or recorded on black-and-white film]: 1. The Goldbergs (1949-54), 2. The Life of Riley (1949-50, 1953-58), 3. The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950-58), 4. The Jack Benny Program (1950-65), 5. The Amos 'n' Andy Show (1951-53), 6. I Love Lucy (1951-57), 7. I Married Joan (1952-55), 8. Mr. Peepers (1952-55), 9. My Little Margie (1952-55), 10. Our Miss Brooks (1952-56), 11. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952-65 in bw, 1965-66 in color), 12. Topper (1953-55), 13. Private Secretary/The Ann Sothern Show (1953-61), 14. Make Room for Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1964), 15. December Bride (1954-59), 16. Father Knows Best (1954-60), 17. The Honeymooners (1955-56), 18. The Bob Cummings Show (1955-59), 19. The Phil Silvers Show (1955-59), 20. Leave It to Beaver (1957-63), 21. The Real McCoys (1957-63), 22. The Donna Reed Show (1958-63), 23. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63), 24. Car 54 Where Are You (1961-63), 25. The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66), 26. Mister Ed (1961-66), 27. The Patty Duke Show (1963-66), 28. The Addams Family (1964-66), 29. The Munsters (1964-66)

20 shows -- 1960s [produced on black-and-white film and color film (as of September 1966, all primetime programming has been in color)]: 1. The Flintstones (color 1960-66), 2. The Andy Griffith Show (bw 1960-65, color 1965-68), 3. My Three Sons (bw 1960-65, color 1965-72), 4. Hazel (bw 1961-64, color 1964-66), 5. The Beverly Hillbillies (bw 1962-65, color 1965-71), 6. The Lucy Show/Here's Lucy (bw 1962-65, color 1965-74), 7. My Favorite Martian (bw 1963-65, color 1965-66), 8. Petticoat Junction (bw 1963-65, color 1965-70), 9. Gilligan's Island (bw 1964-65, color 1965-67), 10. Bewitched (bw 1964-66, color 1966-71), 11. Get Smart (color 1965-70), 12. I Dream of Jeannie (bw 1965-66, color 1965-70), 13. Green Acres (color 1965-71), 14. Hogan's Heroes (color 1965-71), 15. The Monkees (1966-68), 16. Family Affair (1966-71), 17. That Girl (1966-71), 18. The Flying Nun (1967-70), 19. Julia (1968-71), 20. The Brady Bunch (1969-74)

21 shows -- 1970s [all titles not labeled "film" were produced on videotape]: 1. The Partridge Family (film 1970-74), 2. The Odd Couple (film 1970-75), 3. Mary Tyler Moore (film 1970-77), 4. All in the Family (1971-79), 5. Sanford and Son (1972-76), 6. The Bob Newhart Show (film 1972-78), 7. Maude (1972-78), 8. M*A*S*H* (film 1972-83), 9. Good Times (1974-79), 10. Happy Days (film 1974-84), 11. Barney Miller (1975-82), 12. One Day at a Time (1975-84), 13. The Jeffersons (1975-85), 14. Laverne & Shirley (film 1976-83), 15. Alice (1976-85), 16. Soap (1977-81), 17. Three's Company (1977-84), 18. WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-82), 19. Taxi (film 1978-83), 20. Diff'rent Strokes (1978-86), 21. The Facts of Life (1979-88)

14 shows -- 1980s [videotape]: 1. Family Ties (1982-89), 2. Newhart (videotape 1982-83, film 1983-90), 3. Cheers (1982-93), 4. The Cosby Show (1984-92), 5. The Golden Girls (1985-92), 6. Growing Pains (1985-92), 7. It's Garry Shandling's Show (1986-90), 8. Designing Women (1986-93), 9. Perfect Strangers (1986-93), 10. Married...with Children (1987-97), 11. Roseanne (1988-97), 12. Murphy Brown (1988-98), 13. Saved by the Bell (1989-94), 14. Coach (1989-97)

14 shows -- 1990s [videotape and digital recording]: 1. Evening Shade (1990-94), 2. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-96), 3. Wings (1990-97), 4. Seinfeld (1990-98), 5. The Simpsons (1990-present), 6. The Nanny (1993-99), 7. Frasier (1993-2004), 8. Ellen (1994-98), 9. Friends (1994-2004), 10. Newsradio (1995-99), 11. Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), 12. 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001), 13. That '70s Show (1998-2006), 14. Will & Grace (1998-2006)

3 shows -- 2000s [digital recording]: 1. Malcolm in the Middle (2000-06), 2. Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000-present), 3. Scrubs (2001-present)

The book also includes eleven photo spreads: 1. "Flops" [two pages], 2. "Brilliant but Cancelled" [one page], 3. "Pets" [one page], 4. "Military Sitcoms" [one page], 5. "Character Actors" [two pages], 6. "Sitcoms from Radio Shows" [one page], 7. "Sitcoms from Movies" [one page], 8. "Cheesecake and Beefcake" [one page], 9. "Movie Stars Who Tried Television", 10. "Flops Part II" [two pages], 11. "Character Actors Part II" [two pages]