‘I Love Lucy,’ ‘The Golden Girls,’ ‘M*A*S*H’ and More Classic TV Shows Make Rolling Stone’s Top 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time
Rolling Stone recently came out with a Top 100 Best Sitcoms of All Time list. Plenty of classic TV made the list. Here’s where your favorite classic TV shows stand.
‘The Golden Girls’ Came in at #32
No show is quite as sweet yet simultaneously hilarious as The Golden Girls. Rolling Stone recognized that by putting The Golden Girls at #32. The Golden girls hit the TV scene with a concept unlike anything else on TV. It centers around four Single women, all older, living together in Miami. The hit show tackles dating, family, and aging with a fantastic combination of heart and humor.
‘The Andy Griffith Show’ is #14
Many fan-favorite classics easily made the top 15 on the list. The Andy Griffith Show is one of them. The peaceful, wholesome sitcom was a pioneer of its time.
‘M*A*S*H’ Gets the #6 Spot
It should be no surprise that a Classic TV hit like M*A*S*H is high up on The Rolling Stone’s list. The hit comedy/drama followed a team of doctors and nurses serving in the Korean War. With a hilarious start and a more sentimental end, the show strikes a great balance between comedy and the reality the characters had to confront. The show is still the most-watched series finale of all time.
‘All in the Family’ Makes the Top 5
All in the Family, which Rolling Stone described as “a Rorschach test for its audience,” was a satire focusing on what was supposed to be an unlikeable protagonist, Archie Bunker. But many people viewed him as a hero. It aired from 1971-1979 and is still widely discussed and dissected by comics and Classic TV historians for its fascinating role in media.
‘I Love Lucy,’ a Classic TV Pioneer, Makes #4 Spot
Many consider I Love Lucy the main reason TV is the way it is. The show was a trailblazer for the modern sitcom format. Seriously. Multiple cameras in front of a live studio audience? That started with I Love Lucy The entire list would look wildly different without the influence of I Love Lucy, which starred and was co-produced by Lucille Ball and her husband, Desi Arnaz.
Notable Classic TV Mentions
Cheers made the #2 spot. Rolling Stone played a cheeky tribute to the show’s opener saying “Decades later, sometimes you still want to go where everybody knows your name — and you’ll always be glad you came.”
Seinfeld meanwhile clinched the #3 spot. Frasier made #13, and The Dick Van Dyke show came in at #11. If you’re curious about the #1 spot, that went to The Simpsons.
The list contains a wide array of different comedies, with different targeted audiences (Spongebob is on the same list as Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia) from vastly different decades. The common thread between them all is their ability to make people smile. If you didn’t see your favorite Classic TV comedy on the list, it might be there, and it could give you some recommendations on what to watch next.
