Did You Grow Up On The Couch Like Me? (Or My Top 10, Err, 20 Sitcoms)

I ended up watching a bit of an infomercial for The Carol Burnett Show DVD offer yesterday. I hadn't known that there were musical numbers too. That bunch of people have made me laugh probably the hardest I have. The way Conway would try to make Korman laugh. The sight gags. The guests, including a riotous Steve Martin.

So, Bernadette Peters was one of the musical guest people. I know her best from Steve Martin's "The Jerk" and the Broadway musical "Sunday In The Park With George". She and Mandy Patinkin sang so beautifully in that, gave me chills a couple of times. But she just is so funny!

She's a particular kind of funny. I love all different types of humor, from Woody Allen and "Bringing Up Baby" to South Park and Will Ferrell, but I really enjoy being able to get into long-term funny characters on TV. Here're my favorite sitcoms:

M*A*S*H
Get Smart
The Cosby Show
I Love Lucy
All In The Family
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Friends
Are You Being Served?
NewsRadio
That 70's Show

Those come to mind as the essential 10, but these next 10 are right up there:

Taxi
Night Court
How I Met Your Mother
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Married... With Children
Bob Newhart Show
Laverne And Shirley
Murphy Brown
Roseanne
The John Larroquette Show

What do you think of my choices? Which would you throw off the list? Which would you add?

Peace.

Bernadette Peters 09/05/08

Knocked Up, a.k.a. The Top 101 Unforgettable SNL Moments Revisited

[EDIT - 5/15/08: To those of you arriving at this post searching for information about E!'s 101 Most Unforgettable SNL Moments, I know there isn't too much out there, including from E!. I found this which lists all the moments. I do hope you're not too upset that you've ended up here. Happy trails!]

What a great movie! So honest. I like comedies like that, like "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The 40 Year Old Virgin". You'd think I must like Steve Carell. But I don't. I don't? Wait, yes... yes... I don't. What? I do. I do what? I do... not like Steve Carell. That can't be right. I do like Steve Carell, no? No. Wait, no I do or no I don't? What? Like Steve Carell. No. No, I do. I really do... like Steve Carell. Yeah? Yeah... I don't. Really? No, I do. What? I must like Steve Carell. Do I? No.

I feel a little guilty about using the Top 101 Moments of SNL on a preceding post. A bunch of people are finding it because I initially screwed up and put "100", which, because it was incorrect, got my post kinda high up in Google. People hitting that link see Jimi Hendrix and a list of comedians. Some from SNL, but honestly the show was only tangentially related to the post. Well, it did inspire the post, but there wasn't any info about it. I didn't even put a link to the E! page for it or anything. Was that wrong? I hope people at least like my artwork. I am genuinely putting those lists to give a sense of who I am, what from our pop culture has seeped into my brain. And I'm trying to keep my rambling to a minimum, so I don't add paragraph upon paragraph detailing why each item on a list is there. Otherwise my posts would be epic, but in a bad way.

Right now, though, comedians like Steve Carell and Will Ferrell are making me laugh the most. Even "Blades of Glory" was a riot in spurts. They're kind of like modern-day screwball comedies, fast-talking, physical humor, silly, yet with an undercurrent of intelligence. Of course, as previously noted, "Bringing Up Baby" and the others of its time are in our limited DVD collection. I love it when funny people come together with a funny script and the perfect director for their time and place.

The owner of the Tempe Improv balked at my paintings of Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, George Carlin and Robin Williams, so if anybody's interested, let me know here or:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and email me. Let me know, too, who your favorite comedians are!