Other american quality shows???

I'm a huge fan of good American sitcoms. Friends, I think is one of the cleverest and well-acted shows ever. Also, The Simpsons and Seinfeld (both also pure genius) are favourites of mine. I just wanted to know, since we don't get to see every American show, what other American sitcoms are (more or less) in the same league as Friends. You know, original, inventive, critically-acclaimed. And I don't mean 'high rating' shows, because you Americans are weird that way. I know that Friends and Seinfeld get/got phenomenal ratings in the States, which they absolutely deserve. But on the other hand, I also know that shows like Home Improvement and Mad About You were hugely popular there. I watched like a dozen episodes of Home Improvement and I could not believe that any*one* would watch this, let alone millions of people. It's bland, dull and it doesn't have one intelligently-written word of dialogue or situation. The same with Mad About You, which is maybe a little better, but it's still *soooo* simple when compared to the three shows mentioned above. It rides mostly on cheap laughs and it's plain dull. British sitcoms (no offence) are also overrated, I think. They rely on this what I call 'grandma humour'. Anyway, it would be nice to know some names of high-quality American shows, so I can pass them to Belgian networks via e-mail. They are very open to suggestions, when it comes to shows from the States.

Thanks.

My personal favorites are Will & Grace and Malcolm in the Middle. They're both fairly popular & well-received by critics. Just Shoot Me is okay too, but I don't watch it regularly.

On Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:38:03 -0700, cihan555 wrote:

The Drew Carey Show is a smartly written series. It's the best of the lot, to my mind. Roseanne was also a great series, at least before the last two seasons. Frasier is also very well done. You aren't missing much else. We have rot like Everybody Loves Raymond, Jesse, Daddio and Stark Raving Mad doing well in the ratings.

I must say Daria, she's so smart, just great. I also love "The secret lives of men", "Just shoot me!"... and I think that's it. Daria.-

sports night...off the air...but it was such a great show

In article , cihan555 wrote:

In Britain, The Simpsons is popular, but not as much as Friends, while Seinfeld is nowhere. Only the TV critics and a few cult fans enjoy it. OTOH, Frasier is the second-most popular US sitcom here.

Belgium has not seen the brilliant new British sitcom Coupling, then?

Tennant Stuart

I loved Mad About You, still do. I also like Will & Grace, and I watch News Radio, Stark Raving Mad, Drew Carry on occasion.. Rossanne was good before the last few seasons. Drew Carry is orginal, but some of the comedy to me is distastful and stupid, I need things to be more realistic. Kind of why I usually don't like Jim Carry movies.

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

I quite like Mad About You, totally agree about Roseanne, and I'm a big fan of NewsRadio. They established their romantic couple from the getgo, with none of that messing about in Cheers/Frasier/Friends. Sadly, we in Britain are only up to the end of Season Three so far - but we did get the notorious 'penis' episode unedited.

Tennant

well I havent seen all the episodes yet just random ones..

and it the syndication of it happens to come on right after the Friends syndaction ones..so I watch it, and I like it.

~Act

On Mon, 26 Jun 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Plus Newsradio has been relegated to a post-midnight timeslot. :(

I adore Will&Grace and sometimes Fraiser. Though, I am a frequent public television watcher

TTFN Miranda "Pinky, you've left the lenscap of your mind on again" "It is still a very sad thing when a member of the family has to be terminated." "May your performance be filled with cellofane crinklers and standbys!"

In article , [email] says...

did you see seinfeld? nothing will ever top that...

(and I love elaine...)

gbye

On Wed, 5 Jul 2000, Unknown user stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

... for boredom (IMO anyway).

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

The *number* of Seinfelds I've sat through, hoping for Maggie Wheeler.

At first sight it seems well written & intricately plotted, but after a few you realise that the stories are always contrived to come together.

On top of that it just becomes impossible to relate to the characters. Why on Earth are these people friends when they're so horrible to each other, not just occasionally as in Friends, but all the time?

The show has very few fans in Britain, but those there are revel in their cult status. And when the TV channel ran a popularity poll for the best ever Seinfeld, it was won by an episode about a masturbation contest...

Tennant

Seinfeld was ok, I wouldn't have minded missing some episodes. My mom loved it.

yea I get the same feeling, they are too fake for me.

yea but some episodes I liked because they did seem like a situation I have been on. I liked the muffin tops episode and a few others too.

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

It always seems to me that the service in American shops & restaurants is much better than in Britain, yet in Seinfeld I can't see how anyone stays in business, the service is so awful. The Soup Nazi was a prime example.

Since you work in a store & a gymnasium, what say you Activia? :)

Tennant

It depends where you go. Our store has excelent service, that's what we pride ourselves in but we have high prices(really high). It's funny that just last night I was talking about how people always come up to me and say how helpful I was to a new deli girl. We not only make sure our costumers find what they need, by actually leading them to what they are looking for, but if they have a lot of groceries we actually carry it out to the car, and we even shop for some people and deliver it to their house! This happens the most with all the New Yorkers that vacation here either every weekened or all summer (there are tons and tons) and they have lots of money. So they want the service even if the prices are a high. Plus none of them want to go over the hill to the town over to buy groceries. They dont want to get out of our town.. So for money sake we cater to them. But this is definitly an exception not a rule.

You can go to the big grocery stores and get crappy service. I hate when I ask for where soemthing is and they go ohh.. isle 14. I get to isle 14 and I can't find what I'm looking for still, so I have to ask again. They aren't so anxious to help you.

Ok, that's just grocery stores, restuarants also varry a lot! It depends where you go and how much you want to spend. I have never seen anyone like the soup nazi though.. You go to a nice restuarant you'll get good service, you go to uhh the pizza place down the street for 8 bucks and you have to ask for the check 3 times trying to catch them as they walk by. When I went to Virginia Beach, all the restuarants on the strip gave us crappy, horrible service. They don't need service to make people want to go there because some people don't have cars when they get there so they aren't going to go outside the strip. Then when we went to a nice resturant outside the strip, ohh the service was great. I didnt even have to ask for a refill on my soda, let alone trying to grab the waiters attenchine 20 times for a refill (I hate that).

At the Gym, I dont know how you could give really good service or not. It's decent I suppose, I just hate waiting for someone to come up to the counter so I can check in. The child watch, we just watch and play with the kids..so..

ok so uhh that's my experience with service..

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

Tennant Stuart didn't write: "and a beach" ;)

watch, we just watch and play with the kids..so..

That's very interesting Activia. So places that charge a little extra give very good service, yet where prices are cheap they're not so bothered. But nobody is as downright rude as every single store is in Seinfeld.

Sounds as though you have a nice little number going at the gym, tho. :)

Tennant

Like Tennant, Activia, and Paul, I am a big NewsRadio fan. I have to say that the syndication for NewsRadio sucks more than it does for Friends. Since NewsRadio wasn't a big hit, most stations don't show it until after midnight. When they added the 5th season, they stopped showing the "classic" episodes in the right order. They abruptly stop the run after the 2nd season or midway through the 3rd season to show the entire 5th season. Plus, there's the editing of scenes, lines, and the opening credits.

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I just watch it randomly so it doenst bother me too much or not half as bad as it does when it comes to friends. I would like to see it in order though.

~Act

In article , Smatthew wrote:

Unlike you & Activia, Paul & I are watching NewsRadio in Britain on the Paramount Comedy Channel, which does *try* to show stuff properly, even if they do go wrong sometimes. At the moment, though, PCC only have the rights to the first three seasons, which go round & round. They are most unlikely to cut any episodes, though I can't be sure as I have nothing to compare them with. However, NR is shown after 1am, worse than you guys.

Tennant

On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Interestingly, the episode shown on Monday 19th June reached the PCC top 70, at 63 with 20,000 viewers and 2.18% share of the viewing audience* - not bad for that time of night.

* In relative terms that's pretty good, even prime-time PCC shows get only around 2% of the viewing audience.

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

Oooh, that's so interesting Paul - PText are always very cagey about their ratings, and never let on about which shows are doing badly. When The Late Show With David Letterman was ditched, there was a huge outcry on Mailbox, yet PCC resolutely refused to bring it back.

What were the viewing figures like for TLSWDL?

Tennant

On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

I don't know - you'd have to check the ratings archive at :

http://www.produxion.com/asp/nframe.asp/

You'll need to know when it was last shown though, to know which week to look for.

One thing though - once you reach 60th place or lower in the PCC listings, you hit the resolution limit for the BARB sampling, below that, they're pretty much all 0.01m.

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

So if TLSWDL was bad enough to get dumped, I wouldn't find it. :(

Tennant

On Tue, 11 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

If it was bad enough not to get even 10,000 viewers, then that wouldn't be surprising! :)

Doing a quick calculation - there are about 120 shows per week on the PCC, so around half must get no more than 10K viewers. Still, getting 10K at 3am would surely be better than at 8pm!

Tennant, here in the U.S., there are some stations that do show NewsRadio after 1a.m. currently. But sometime this fall, the situation with NewsRadio in syndication will longer be a problem. Sometime in September or October, NewsRadio will start airing on the A&E network. Just thought the word out about that.

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In article , Smatthew wrote:

Cheers, Smatthew. What's A&E?

Tennant

one of the 100 channels available to watch.

~Act

Ally McBeal is good. So is ER.

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On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Smatthew stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

I wouldn't go that far - I watch it, yes, but I wouldn't be that bothered if I missed it.

yea same here.

~Act

On Sat, 24 Jun 2000, cihan555 stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Three newish ones that spring to mind are : Just Shoot Me, Will & Grace, Becker.

Will and Grace.

just shoot me! Drew Carey!

Frasier.