Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Sitcoms

For the play I'm rehearsing, I'm required to have a British dialect. (Woo hoo!) The actor playing my sister suggested Daphne from the sitcom Frasier as a good example of a middle-class British dialect. She and I decided to both work on "Daphne dialects" so that we have the same model and actually sound like sisters.

So yesterday as I cooked and folded clothes I had running in the background several episodes of Frasier. And it was fun! I remembered what a great show Frasier was--smart humor that somehow avoided being pretentious despite the pretentiousness of two of its main characters.

It got me to thinking about some of my other favorite sitcoms of years past. As a kid I loved reruns of The Brady Bunch and was a diehard fan of Full House and Family Matters. Thankfully my taste ran to less-cheesy shows as well, like the awesome Cosby Show. As I got older, I loved Mad About You. I watched Seinfeld (mostly in syndication). Friends was at the top of my "must-watch" list, though I missed the first couple of seasons of its long run. (Thank goodness for reruns!) The Engineer and I both liked the first few seasons of Scrubs and really enjoyed the ill-fated Arrested Development. Currently, the only sitcom I care much about is The Office (American version).

So, what are your favorite sitcoms of years past? Do you watch any sitcoms these days?

4 comments:

Angie said...

Not much into sitcoms these days unless you count Family Guy. If you want other examples of a British accent, try Dr. Who or Tourchwood. We watch Torchwood on BBC America, but season 1 is on DVD. (Doctor Who= Tourchwood it's an anagram. Tourchwood is a Dr. Who spinoff.)

Becky said...

That's so funny. We have almost identical tastes in TV shows. Every show you listed, I've watched faithfully, although I don't really think I watch a lot of TV.

Around the time that I was watching Family Matters and Full House, I was also a fan of Alf. That show didn't last too long, though.

And I loved Cheers, although I saw that one in syndication. Everybody Loves Raymond, The Drew Carey Show, and Whose Line Is It Anyway? were also favorites of mine.

Currently, The Office (American version for me, too) and The Simpsons are the only two sitcoms I watch these days.

Anonymous said...

Oh that is too funny! Chase and I LOVE Frasier and we are trying to get Arrested Development to come back, not much luck though. Chase even found a site with a bunch of phrases like "Hey Brother", "A trick is something a whore does for money. I do ILLUSIONS!", blue man group, never-nudes, etc. Thank goodness for our public library!

LEstes65 said...

I currently love 30 Rock. Alec Baldwin is hysterical. I love the original The Office. I can appreciate the American one but it just pales in comparison (to me). But I think you and I can work past that and still let our kids marry. ;)