this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Watching sitcoms from decades past through a modern lens is difficult.
Most 90s sitcoms haven't aged well at all. Multi-cam 3-wall sitcom in general don't. Single-cam higher quality production that aren't trying to replicate the old variety show live-theatre format have come around.
Sanford and Sons, Full House, and Cheers were really popular, but have aged poorly.
But things like MASH (especiallythe seasons after they dropped the laugh track), Arrested Development, and Scrubs have done really well because they didn't have an identity crisis between theatre and film.
MASH never had a laugh track. It was added in syndication and I believe the episodes, like Seinfeld, were sped up by small percentage to make them a couple minutes shorter.
I fully disagree with you though that there is no place left for classic sitcoms and that they haven’t aged well. While a little old still (but newer than Scrubs) I will refer to The IT Crowd as an example.
That's British TV. They make it work by averaging like 3 hours a year of programming to focus on quality. A single season of an American-style 3-wall sitcom has a longer runtime than most British sitcoms have in their entire run.
I'd like to know more about this. Is there a name for this technique? A Wikipedia or blog page about the phenomenon? Some example shows that follow that rule?
Most British comedies that I've seen have 6 or 7 episodes per series.
Some of my favorites that follow the rule ...
Even Monty Python's Flying Circus only had 13 episodes per series. The Carol Burnett Show, which ran in the US at the same time, had 24 to 30 episodes each season.
I don’t feel like the origin makes the argument that classic style sitcoms aren’t past their prime any less relevant. But okay; The Conners is a US show that was recorded in front of a live audience and got 7 seasons that ended just this past April.
Last Man Standing ran for 10 years and was shit.
My housemates played a practical joke on me back then where they were all watching Full House when I came home and rolling around on the floor laughing hysterically at everything. It was a scene where one of the Olsen twins had planted an M&M and was trying to grown an M&M tree. I was mystified at what was so funny until I grabbed the bong.
"Cheers" mostly aged well. Some misogyny and anti gay and trans jokes, but it is largely a show about people being kind to one another and building community.