Last summer, a Boston freelance writer, Robert D. Sullivan, undertook a massive project: He set out to rank the top 100 sitcom episodes of ALL TIME, and by “all time,” he doesn’t mean the way it’s currently defined on the Internet, i.e., since 1994. Using a combination of his own opinion, the opinions of friends and colleagues, IMDB ratings, and a mix of other sources (including The AV Club), Sullivan compiled a massive collection, with extensive write-ups on each episode.
It’s an impressive and comprehensive effort, and I cannot recommend enough that you check it out in its entirety. The entire list contains a lot of favorites from the current generation, and a lot of sitcom episodes from before most of us were born. Agree or disagree with the choices, you gotta respect the effort and the scope of the project, and anyone that includes that episode of Fawlty Towers in his top 5 is good in my book.
To give you a taste (and hopefully encourage you to check out the entire project), I have included Robert Sullivan’s Top 20 episodes of All Time below, with links to his write-ups.
20. “Chuckles Bites the Dust,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975)
19. “The Doll,” Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001)
18. “Coast to Coast Big Mouth,” The Dick Van Dyke Show (1965)
17. “Charity,” The Office (UK) (2002)
16. “Better Living Through TV,” The Honeymooners (1955)
15. “Goodbyeee,” Blackadder (1989)
14. “The Lars Affair,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973)
13. “The Two Mrs. Cranes,” Frasier (1996)
12. “Fancy Party,” Parks and Recreation (2011)
11. “The Contest,” Seinfeld (1992)
10. “The Key,” Yes, Prime Minister (1992)
9. “Lucy Does a TV Commercial,” I Love Lucy (1952)
8. “Pier Pressure,” Arrested Development (2004)
7. “The Letter,” Everybody Loves Raymond (1997)
6. “The Dinner Party,” The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1973)
5. “Man in a Hurry,” The Andy Griffith Show (1963)
4. “I’ll Be Seeing You,” Cheers (1984)
3. “Edith’s Problem,” All in the Family (1972)
2. “Communication Problems,” Fawlty Towers (1979)
1. “Never Bathe on Saturday,” The Dick Van Dyke Show (1965)
(SOURCE)
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An Everybody Loves Raymond episode over “Pier Pressure”? SUSPECT.
I came down here just to say that. Unconscionable.
But at least he got the best AD episode right. Can’t say the same for his Curb selection.
I would have went with Curb’s Krazy Eyez Killa or the trip to Dodger Stadium. But maybe they were too raunchy?
I could maybe be convinced otherwise with research but the Dodger Stadium episode is my go to for BEST. CURB. EVA.
@ Doug, the Dodger Stadium episode was by far one of the best in the series. Plus, it helped a guy get acquitted. True story.
a high larry david, sprinkled with a black prostitute teaching ebonics to an old jew while the jew teaches her yiddish while smoking a joint. priceless
also hurley from lost was the pot dealer.
I think Jorge Garcia got the role on Lost solely from his appearance in this episode.
“Bare Midriff” wins everything with those last 20 seconds.
So glad to see Fawlty Towers as high as it is. Considering I used to watch them as high as I was. It would have been criminal if one of those episodes didn’t make the toppermost of the poppermost of this list.
Also I thought that M.A.S.H. episode where the camera was set in first-person mode for the wounded vet all Hawkeye et al were speaking directly to it (him) was some of the best TV in existence.
“So glad to see Fawlty Towers as high as it is. Considering I used to watch them as high as I was.”
Comment of the week.
Yeh, Pier Pressure was the episode I would play for people to get them into Arrested Development. Never failed. “I’m very proud… minus”
Also, there’s no Strangers With Candy on this list so it’s worthless
Best episode is either when Jerri joins a cult or when Jellineck gets run over by Jerri on his way to a picknick with Chuck.
The one where Jellineck gets run over is so damn funny. I also love the fake marriage one. “We have an odd number of students, Orlando will have to be a widower. Your wife… drowned in a fire.”
I also love the Job Fair one just for when that scrawny little white kid when asked by Chuck what he wants to be he says ” I wanna be knee deep in bitches”
I’m guessing this doesn’t include animated sitcoms, because I don’t see “The Summer of 4’2″” The Simpsons (1996) at number 1.
Exactly! Except #1 should be “Little Big Mom” from season 11.
While that is good episode, it’s an episode that, in my opinion just pilfers out a bit at the end. A few episodes in Season 11 are guilty of this. Great jokes, excellent set up and then a quick stop at the end, as if the writers wrote themselves into a corner.
Monorail
Summer of 4’2″ was indeed a classic
Deep Space Homer
Homer’s Enemy
22 Short Films About Springfield
Homer the Great
Radioactive Man
etc.
Was the Mary Tyler Moore show that good or was it because there were so few other options that it just seemed really good?
Fawlty Towers was repeated recently again and I caught the episode ranked #2. Yup, some big laughs in it. Any episode from the second series of Blackadder could be top ten but “Bells” and “Money” definitely should. The gags keep coming in a relentless swarm. Only Archer in recent times comes as close to packing each episode with so much killer material.
So Dick Van Dyke was funny? Curiouser and curiouser.
Okay, I’ve just been through the list and failed to notice any episodes from “I’m Alan Partridge”.. Can someone point them out because there’s no way that show has been omitted.
Good call on any Alan Partridge, but the best episode of Blackadder was actually in the third series, “Dish and Dishonesty”, even though the best all-around series were the second and “forth”.
Not to dismiss the one that did make #15, but it’s kinduva bummer ending.
So this guys’ real old huh?
My thought exactly.
well clearly there needs to be more arguing
YOU’RE WRONG!
That’s not an argument. It’s contradiction.
Something from the Fresh prince of Bel air surely
The one where Will and his girlfriend get locked in a dry storage room and it turns out shes wearing a wig and fake nails!
^ haha that’s the one episode I always remember for some reason. That and the one where Carlton started doing pep pills or something to be cool.
Pleasantly surprised to see three Community episodes on his list. Though of his choices, only Mixology is really among the series’ best work.
“C’mon Im Dean and my hands are so clean at this moment I am Stapling”
Really? Mixology is one of my least favorite episodes of the entire series. While I’m glad that it got three on there the fact that Remedial Chaos Theory isn’t one of them kinda invalidates this entire list as far as I’m concerned.
Alright, Sanford & Son, Good Times, the Jeffersons, and the Cosby Show combine for two episodes on the list, zero in the top 50. #ThoseShowsSucked
“Epidemiology” almost cracked the top 20. As bad as it’s gotten, I think there’s at least one episode of the US version of the Office deserves a higher ranking than 32. And the highest IASIP episode comes in at #86.
And in case you’re interested:
Number of Episodes in the Top 100
Community–3
Arrested Development–2
The Dick Van Dyke Show–6
The Mary Tyler Moore Show–6
With regards to The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show, are they that good that the humor hasn’t aged? The problem with sitcoms is a lot the humor can get dated as time goes on.
I can’t speak for dick van dyke, but I used to see mary tyler moore on tvland when I was a kid. It was decently funny, but nothing side splitting. I can’t imagine, even at their best, that those two shows were good enough to occupy 12 of the 100 best episodes of all time
Three’s Company– zero.
That’s a total of 12 for MTM. She co-starred in the DVD show.
DVD used to make me laugh out loud when I was little, but then again I was little and I remember nothing of the show now other than Dick tripping in the opening sequence except for the last season. I’m surprised I remember that much.
Yes, much higher US Office. And GIRLS??
I’d replace the “Two Misses Cranes” with either “Ham Radio” or “Three Valentines”, but otherwise ok, I guess.
Seriously, was there a caveat that I missed excluding animated comedies? Because the fact that nothing from The Simpsons’ glory years or South Park (the episode about the economy or the one about the Terry Schiavo ordeal come to mind) made the list is kind of baffling.
Are you kidding me? Do you really think that crap can compete with the Frasier where Daphne pretended that Niles was her husband to make her ex-boyfriend go away? See, it’s funny because Niles was into Daphne for reelz but she didn’t know it, so irony.
“Animated shows are out, as I found it difficult to judge them in the same way and the animated sitcom written for adults is just too new as a genre.”
Aha, I did miss it, thanks!
NO MARTIN LAWRENCE????????
the tommy hearns episode, the tommy davidson episode?
<<< throws garbage can thru window while yelling "RADIOOOOOOOO" to honor radio raheem
Married With Children – when the aliens land at the Bundy house and need Al’s stank socks for rocket fuel.
ANTRHAX
When you don’t have Community, Parks and Recreation and Happy Endings in your top 3 I can’t take you seriously
The list is for ALL TIME. May shock you to learn, but sitcoms have been around for more than one year!
Is that woman in the middle Jimmy Fallon in drag?
So where are the other 80? I bet at my age, I’ve seen them all. And there better be an Odd Couple included………………
The Office “Threat Level Midnight”
+1
Ah. “Remedial Chaos Theory” aired too late to make this list. Wait…how can the person who wrote this list write that in the middle of describing his pick #48? That was 47 other opportunities to squeeze that one in there.
I could honestly forgive the slight against Peep Show, but honestly, any list that doesn’t have Dougal and Father Ted singing a song about a lovely horse is worthless.
The Simpsons-”You Only Move Twice” is nowhere to be found.
In fact, he didnt even list one Simpsons episode. Do cartoons not count? They should.
[cdn.uproxx.com]
I see now. No cartoons. Reading is fun.
The inclusion of NewsRadio’s “Complaint Box” warms my heart. Great, great episode of television.
I would think that Coupling “Inferno” would be on this list. The scene with Steve trying to explain the artistic merits of a porn film at dinner party is brilliant tv.
Also #57 “Hash” I first experience watching people get baked with my parents in the same room. So many memories.
+1, bro.
Man, what a great show. I’m gonna go watch that episode right now.
Turkeys Away was ranked too low. If Les Nessman recreating the Hindenburg Disaster while a strip mall gets bombed by live turkeys isn’t in the Top 20, there is no justice.
“Honestly, Andy. I thought turkeys could fly.”
As God is my witness…
Incidentally, the turkey line was also the pickup line that Mr. Carlson used on Dudley.
Way too many old shows.
TV is way better now than it was 15 years ago, let alone 40.
Also: the guy did a shitty job of picking new episodes. Critical Film Studies, Epidemiology, and Mixology Certification over Remedial Chaos Theory, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, and Modern Warfare for Community? Anything from Parks and Rec over the Snake Juice episode?
Yep, there may have been episodes of the show that have been more heartwarming and had more character development, but none were as side splittingly funny as The Fight. “Jean-Ralphio! Dance up on me!”
bleh
That Arrested Development episode should be number one
Everyone Loves Raymond was terrible right? Please tell I’m right cause I saw about four episodes on this list and ONE Cosby episode.
Seriously,no GIRLS? 8 of the existing 10 episodes would make my list. Hung? Episodes?
Thanks for Fawlty, Arrested, and Curb. And Offices.
And 30 Rocks.
If you think Judy`s story is unbelievable…, last month my boyfriend basically also got paid $7815 grafting a fourteen hour week from there house and there friend’s mom`s neighbour done this for 3 months and brought home more than $7815 part time at their labtop. the guidelines from this address…… BIT40.ℂOℳ
how is there not one peep show episode?
peep show Holiday season 4 episode 5 is amazing.