15 Best TV shows in post-Seinfeld history

Here's a list I've been working on. Criteria is it must be half-hour format for a sitcom AND I bend the rules a little on when it first came out vs when seinfeld ended, along with best season. I also think about a show when it's at its peak:

1. Arrested Development (2003), S2 or S3
The show has been pretty evenly excellent. The levels of neuroses that the Bluth family is so complex and hillarious at every turn. Seinfeld was about nothing but it had a twisted way from getting to start to finish. Arrested Development has those same kind of disparate story lines that connect, but it has to work through it's own internal logic much more since it has such a complex web of characters (including one of the best arrays of guest stars ever produced over a three-year run). It also has heart (or a sort of satirical version of it). The best thing, however, is that repeat viewings never ever disappoint.

2. The Office (2005), S2
At its peak, The Office was the most relatable show on television and the humor of tension and awkwardness was so masterful. How many shows have you so engrossed in a moment of tension that you're yelling at the TV. The show declined a little as Jim and Pam's romance has become pedestrian, but the Office has wisely expanded its ensemble so that it has characters on the back burner it can throw at the fire to spice things up.

3. 30 Rock(2006) S2
On 30 Rock, Tina Fey writes comedy with such dexterity and precision, that scripts to her show should be used as textbooks to aspiring TV writers because she layers her scripts every kind of comedy imaginable: screwball comedy, anarchic comedy, satire, parody, character-based comedy, rapid-fire-blink-and-you-miss-it dialogue, straight-man-funny-man comedy, self-conscious comedy, etc. The key to the show is Tina's overworked head writer Liz Lemmon being the only basis for normality in this wonderful universe she's created that's ever so slightly off-center.


4. 3rd Rock from the Sun(1997) S1 (technically, this show overlapped with Seinfeld by a season or two).
3rd Rock from the Sun is one of those fish-out-of-water premises like The Beverly Hillbillies that when handled well never gets old. The Solomon family is a family of four in Middle America but they're also a team of aliens sent to Earth to learn more about it. Actors as talented as John Lithgow, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, and Jane Curtain sold the material too.

5. Newsradio (1995): S2 and S3
The best of the Manhattan-based nondescript workplace comedies that came out in the late 90's (Working, Caroline in the City, the Naked Truth, etc. are more examples). Phil Hartman, Andy Dick, Joe Rogan and Vikki Lewis created malleable comic characters that could be funny in any situation you threw them in. Dave Foley and Maura Tierny had a screwball comedy for the ages (not to mention the hilarious sexual tension that arose out of that single sort-of-date between Joe Rogan and Khandi Alexander's characters). Throw in Stephen Root as the least sensible boss ( yet somehow the most successful) and you've got quite a show.

6. Futurama(1999) S2
I think it's safe to say that Matt Greoning's futuristic universe is one I'd like to live in. It looks so neat and it's apparent that the Futurama creators had just as much fun making that universe as you do watching it. Part sci-fi, part satire (a lot of references to 20th century Earth), part comedy, Futurama is a tremendous amount of fun. The characters (particularly Bender) are just a couple of tics away from completely narcisstic and dislikeable but the show has enough heart to overcome these gaps. The episode plots are always highly inventive as they play with the Rosewell incident (what sci-fi show doesn't?), alternate universes, university life in the 30th century, the lost city of Atlanta and more.

7. Spin City(1996) S1
Spin City was definitely not a very progressive sitcom but it made for a great ensemble comedy with fast-slinging dialogue and stinging humor coming from all directions. Michael J. Fox was impeccably cast to his role and made a great comic character and supporting roles by Alan Ruck, Jennifer Esposito, Connie Britton, Michael Boatman, Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alexander Chaplin provided a colorful palette for humor. The show went downhill in later seasons when Fox started being eclipsed by Heather Locklear and eventually replaced by Charlie Sheen. Another source for the decline was when the characters started becoming less believable as city hall employees since they became increasingly goofy and caricatured.

8. Family Guy (1999) S6
When I start downloading an episode on itunes, I have doubts and ask myself, "Is this going to be worth it?" because I continually forget how great this show is. The sheer depth with which Seth MacFarlane and his staff can rip across pop culture is part of the fun, but it wouldn't be the same (for proof of this, just watch Seth MacFarlane's comedy clavacade) without the situational humor of the characters: Especially Brian and Stewie.

9. Just Shoot Me(1999) S3
Another nondescript workplace comedy that often gets overlooked. If I had to pinpoint one thing that makes the show so great, it's how well the five characters complement each other. Each of them has strengths and needs that the other wants. Maya is possessed with intelligence and the ability to think for herself, but she wishes she had the beauty of Nina and the interpersonal skills and love of her father. Jack, highly successful as a businessman and well-liked person among friends, has been successful at everything in life except being a good father. Nina, Elliot and Dennis are all childlike and helpless in different ways and need Jack as a father figure to guide them. What's really great about all of this is that this layer of wants and needs that drives the group together is balanced with a surface-level atmosphere of bickering, put-downs, office pranks, and even people stepping over each other to get ahead. But at the end of the day, it's about how what's most important is the sense of what each person brings to the people around him and the sense of family that's formed. Just Shoot Me is for every straight-A student who wishes she were prettier, every class clown who wishes he would have the respect of the valedictorian, every successful businessman who wished they could connect to their family, every nerd who wishes they could be friends with the prettiest girl in the room, and every overgrown child who wishes their boss could be more like the dad they never had.

10. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005) S4
The last season they really started picking the show up. First off, the show's dialogue is truly one of a kind: The way in which they all start talking over each other and gradually turning practically any civilized situation into complete chaos must be so difficult to write for. I love how these guys are so narcissistic yet so loveable at the same time. I think what's tacitly acknowledged is that the characters have some good qualities: They are, in their own way, more loyal to each other than anyone else is to them and they are unusually ambitious in their quest to better themselves. Of course they wind up screwing each other over by the end of the episode and they do things for the basest of instincts, but don't you want to secretly hang out with them? They are walking and talking affronts to political correctness in society. They're pretty much not afraid to broach anything. In particular, they have a lot of fun mocking the concept of the father figure for some reason.

11. American Dad(2005) S4
The show started out horribly but as it progressed, the writing shifted from political satire to a unique take on the American family sitcom where every cliche is driven to the extreme. Seth MacFarlane, showrunner of Family Guy, took this on as his sophomore project, and shows that he can make you laugh without using cutaways. Of course, like Family Guy, they add in two completely ridiculous additions to the ensemble to shake things up: Klauss, the talking fish, and Roger, the sexually-ambiguous self-involved alien.

12. Aliens in America (2007) S1
The show only lasted one season, unfortunately, but it was truly one of the most astute and painfully self-aware takes on the high school comedy genre I've ever seen. With the addition of Raja, the Pakistani exchange student, the show also doubled as a satire on "Middle American" ignorance.

13. Extras (2005) S1
This was a show like the British counterpart of "The Office" that ran way too short. The concept of fame and how far people are willing to go to obtain it was the source of this comedy about a guy who goes from film to film as an extra in hope of finally being able to break through to an acting career. The appearance of guest stars and the sheer unpredictability of what they would do added to the fun, but the show stood on its own merits as well.

14. 8 Simple Rules (2002) S3
As someone who grew up on family sitcoms, I'm a sucker for the traditional three-camera format and "8 Simple Rules" has been the best family sitcom of the last decade. The show started off particularly generic but when James Garner and David Spade joined the cast, things really started to gel and Katie Segal was already a pro. Again, it wasn't groundbreaking but who needed to expect anything better?

15 (tie). My Name is Earl (2005) S2
Part of the secret of comedy is that its about making us feel good inside, and at times My Name is Earl isn't a sitcom but a parable. At the same time, there's enough comedy in there to mine a sitcom out of due mostly to the solidness of the cast. Jamie Pressley, the bitchy ex-wife, is definitely the high point of the show and she won a deserved Emmy for the show. A lot of the show is making fun of trailer trash or lower income people and the comedy is kind of "look at how dumb these people are," but it's somewhat redeeming that by writing the characters played by minorities, Darnell and Catalina, as the smartest characters.

and

Big Bang Theory (2007) S2
Like a number of shows, it took a few episodes for the characters to develop and grow on us, but once that happened, Jim Parsons and Jimmy Galecki become pretty addictive as theoretical physicists with varying degrees of social ineptness. Kaley Cuckoo is charming as the girl next door (even though, honestly, how many girls that good-looking would hang around those guys in real life?). One problem is that for all the growth Leonard (Galecki) and Sheldon (Parsons) have made, the two side characters, Raj and Wolfowitz, have stayed pretty one-dimensional. Another one of those shows to watch just to see an example of how good stylized dialogue is written.

Let's compare guest star lists: comedy edition pt 1

TV shows generally rely on boosts to ratings and excitement by throwing in a surprise guest star. It could be a true celebrity like Mark McGuire or Yoko Ono on Mad About You, George Stephanopoulos or Roger Clemens on Spin City, Barry Manillow on Will and Grace but often it is a well-known actor testing their comedic chops on someone else's sitcom. Ben Stiller and Fred Willard, for example, have each appeared in a number of guest-star roles and are fairly chameonlike in them. In another category, it's also interesting to see a future star appear in a sitcom, likely as a means to take in a paycheck or two. Heroes' Masi Oka was on Scrubs, The O.C.'s Tate Donovan was on Friends, and Bryan Cranston had a bit role on Seinfeld playing the dentist who wanted to convert to Judaism so he could use the jokes.

The shows that I've listed were shows that I've either viewed myself or were ones that I was familiar with and new they often used guest stars. Many of the shows that do the most shameless self-promotion are NBC, and that's also where most of the shows on this list come from.

Arrested Development: Judy Greer, William Hung, Henry Winkler, Scott Baio, Liza Minelli, Charlize Theron, Zach Braff, Mo Collins, Amy Poehler, Judge Reindholt (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Heather Graham, Andy Richter (Late Night with Conan O’Brien), Ed Begley Jr. (Christopher Guest’s films), Ben Stiller, Carl Weathers (Rocky), Alan Tyuduk (Dodgeball), Jeff Garlin, Julia Louis-Dreyffus, Frankie Muniz, Christine Taylor (Dodgeball), Martin Mull (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Justine Bateman (Family Ties)

Highlights: There are so many brilliant ones to chose from but some fairly clever uses of just inserting celebrities in the right places: Judge Reindholt plays a judge on a Judge Judy copy-off TV program, becuase his first name is Judge. Carl Weathers, of all people, becomes an acting coach to Tobias. Liza Minelli is hillarious as a rival of the family matriarch who's prone to vertigo. Julia Louis-Dreyffus plays an attorney pretending to be blind and love interest to Michael. Amy Poehler has a fling with her on-screen husband. After much lobbying by her brother, Justine Bateman got to guest star right at the end of the series.

Friends: Bruce Willis, Jon Favreau, Elliot Gould, Morgan Fairchild, Hank Azaria, Reese Whitherspoon, Tom Selleck, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Adam Goldberg (A Beautiful Mind), Elle McPherson, Giovanni Ribisi, Jean Claude Van Damme, Alec Baldwin, Tate Donovan (The O.C.), Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd
Highlights: Jean Claude Van Damme plays himself as someone wanting to go out with Rachel (or Monica, I honestly can't remember). Ben Stiller does his closeted psycho schtick as one of Rachel's boyfriends.

Mad About You: Yoko Ono, Mark McGuire, Kevin Bacon, Mel Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Fred Willard, James Carville, Ed Asner, Lisa Kudrow, Hank Azaria, Ryan Stiles (Whose Line is it Anyway)
Highlights: Mel Brooks is pretty unforgettable as Paul's senile Uncle Leo, and Ellen Degeneres and Hank Azaria both ably play their recurring roles as a babysitter and dog walker, respectively.
Kevin Bacon is used brilliantly in one episode: Paul and Jamie are having a baby and while Jamie wants to deliver the news to some of their friends, Paul warns that if they tell just some of their friends because it will be disastrous. Citing the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon game, Paul tries to explain that people are so connected to each other that everyone in their social sphere will find out through the grapevine if just one person is told. Feeling an urge to tell someone, Jamie uncontrollably blurts to a stranger in the elevator that the two of them are having a baby. Pretty soon, word spreads out and a disastrous chain reaction of angry parents and syblings who wanted to be the first ones notified sets in, and at the end of the episode, Kevin Bacon (who turns out to be friends with the random woman in the elevator) pops up and says "hey guys I heard you're having a baby. That's great." The Kevin Bacon guest-starring appearance was an absolutely hillarious and completely unpredictable moment that demonstrates what an effective cameo can do.

Frasier: Laura Linney, Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy), Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Laurie Metcalf (Roseanne), Woody Harrelson, Tea Leoni (The Naked Truth, Spanglish), Patricia Clarkson, Zoey Deschannel (Elf), Rene Auberjoinis (Boston Public, Star Trek, The Patriot), Ted Danson, Patrick Stewart (Star Trek), Viktor Garber (Alias), Saul Rubineck (Unforgiven), Wendie Malick, Felicity Huffman
Highlights: Most of the notable guest stars come from Frasier's girlfriends, and it's quite funny that first-time nominees for the Oscars in 2003 (Patricia Clarkson), 2004 (Virginia Madsen and 2nd time nominee Laura Linney who technically doesn't count), AND 2005 (Felicity Huffman) all played a love interest of Frasier's at one point. In terms of the best guest stars, I might be tempted to hand the award to the bombastic Patrick Stewart in a one-episode stint as a gay symphony conductor that Frasier gets into a sticky situation with. Wendie Malick provides much of the heart of the final season as Martin's companion.

Scrubs: Stephanie D’Ambrosio (Avenue Q), John Ritter, Tara Reid, Heather Graham, Brendan Frasier, Richard Kind, Michael J Fox, Masi Oka (Heroes), Christa Miller (Drew Carey Show)
Highlights: As hard as it is to believe, I might say Tara Reid gives a fairly complete and charming performance as Dr. Cox's ex-sister-in-law and JD's love interest. Broadway star Stephanie D'Ambrosio provides the singing chops for the musical episode last season. John Ritter plays JD's dad early on.

Spin City: Queen Latifah, Roger Clemens, Scott Wolff (Party of 5), Jennifer Garner, Meredith Baxter (Family Ties), Alyssa Milano, Conan O’Brien, John Stewart, Raquel Welch, Denise Richards, Heidi Klum, Farrah Fawcett, Martin Sheen, Christopher Lloyd, George Stephanopoulos
Highlights: Michael J Fox's character has had two visits from two of his closest colleagues in the professional world and they both reappear in Spin City unchanged in the roles that Michael J Fox is associated with them. His co-star from Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd, comes back as one of Mike's mentors, who's now gone crazy. He utters the line "I'll see you back to the future" at the end of the episode in a memorable homage. In a casting move that would call for some deep Fruedian psychoanalysis if Spin City were a drama instead of a comedy, Fox's TV mom from Family Ties (Meredith Baxter) plays Mike Flaherty's mom and complicates things by sleeping with the mayor. In addition, Jennifer Garner is pretty funny in a one-episode stint as James' needy childhood sweetheart and for Late Night with Conan O'Brien fans, our re-headed hero pops up in one episode as a really wierd guy in a zoo. Also, Raquel Welch exploits the humor of biological impossibility as Paul's unrealistically hot mom.

Will and Grace: Michael Douglas, Jack Black, Woody Harrelson, Harry Connick Jr., Alec Baldwin, Debbie Reynolds, Rosie O’Donnell, Sydney Pollack, Katie Couric, Gregory Hines, John Cleese, Barry Mannilow, Jeff Goldblum, Sara Gilbert (Roseanne), Molly Shannon, Rip Torn, Parker Posey (Christopher Guest films), Lily Tomlin, Steven Webber (Wings), Dave Foley (Newsradio)

Highlights: As I said in my last post, the only reason I've ever watched Will and Grace was because of the stunt casting. I've never seen Michael Douglas do comedy better than when he played a closeted gay cop with a crush on Will. Jack Black was hillarious as a doctor hitting on his nurse, who was also his sister. Sydney Pollack takes us back to the days when he was an actor through his spots as Will's dad. Lastly, I think Alec Baldwin first demonstrated his grand presense in the sitcom world from his role in Will and Grace. He was just so intensely serious in his delusional thinking and had such deadpan delivery that I just had to marvel at that level of genius.

30 Rock: Will Arnett, Nathan Lane, Isabella Rosselini, Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman Show), Jason Sudeikis (SNL), Will Forte (Saturday Night Live), Rachel Dratch (SNL), Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Parnell, Rip Torn, Edie Falco, Wayne Brady, Conan O’Brien, Jerri Shephard (The View), Sean Hayes (30 Rock)

Highlights: Except for Edie Falco and Jerry Seinfeld, think of the fact that this impressive list comes from just one season, so 30 Rock is without a doubt the king of well-placed guest slots. As an Arrested Development fan, I loved Will Arnett as a gay executive praying on Kenneth. Chris Parnell is actually funnier on 30 Rock as a highly immoral doctor than pretty much any skit he's been on in his SNL days. Paul Reubens was absolutely hillarious and Wayne Brady was just so loveably outrageous as a character. And it is hard to forget Jerry Seinfeld being digitally inserted into Heroes, Deal or No Deal, Law and Order and Milf Island.

Just Shoot Me: Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Carmen Elektra, French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun), Fred Willard, Rebecca Rojmain-Stamos, David Cross, Brian Dennehy, Ray Liotta, Cheri Oteri, Paula Marshall, Tyra Banks
Highlights: In terms of recurring characters, Brian Cross as a guy pretending to be retarded was pretty funny and character actor Brian Dennehy made for a very interesting version of Dennis Finch's dad. Mark Hammill teaches an invaluable lesson to Dennis Finch and all Star Wars' fans (mainly, "Get a life") in a way more effective way than William Shatner did on SNL and Ray Liotta really sunk his teeth into a guest spot as Maya's girlfriend. Lastly, it is difficult to omit French Stewart's brilliantly concieved guest spot as a children's TV show host, who would act like a perfect gentleman on a series of dates with Maya but express subtext (including his dislikes of her and his desire to sleep with Nina on the side) through the characters that he pupeteered.

The case against Charlie Sheen as an actor

I think it's odd how people are saying Charlie Sheen is having a great career in TV and is being nominated for emmys because he can't really act. On Spin City he just played exactly to type, so all he had to do was be himself. If there were any positive reviews of him on there, it was misdirected at the fact that the show was able to find at least another star to replace Michael J Fox. It was also that people weren't used to seeing him in a comic role and it was also the fact that he parodied his real life problems. But he talks the way he does in serious projects of his, it's just the people around him react differently and Spin City was so well-written that even when half of its original cast was gone and its stripped down to a cast of 6 that includes Heather Locklear (blah), it's still halfway watchable. Two and a Half Men is nothing more than an average sitcom that would have had the potential to transcend something like Yes, Dear or Still Standing, if there was better chemistry between the leads. Its emmy nods in the category are simply a desperate effort by the TV industry and emmys to remind its audiences that comedy's not completely dead, we have shows with laugh tracks too that are making the cut. Also, I can't name the number of shows alone that have used that plot of two brothers or two sisters being forced to live together after one encounters some marital troubles and moves in with a kid. A short-lived TV show from around 1998 called Brother's Keeper was the exact same plot (which I think was done better, anyway). There's also Three Sisters and Hope and Faith off the top of my head. It's saving grace is its ratings but make no mistake, there is nothing deserving about its acting or its writing.