Top 10 TV Comedies of 2006—Like I Know; Oh, Like You Do…

Top 10 TV Comedies of 2006—Like I Know; Oh, Like You Do… by Roxanne McDonald

Which TV comedies make for the best collectors’ sets and gifts?

While it is the cusp of the new year; while I just finished making gift lists and purchases for friends who are as fanatical about TV as I; and while fantasizing about TV comedy DVD collections I would like to own, I decided to investigate the top sellers—the most popular TV comedies.

In some cases, the comedies are mixed in with the rankings of other TV programming—reality, crime, drama, and nonfiction/educational programming. So, for instance, on TV.com (which I think might have a younger demographic and a bent toward certain broadcast channels over others), Scrubs did make it into the catch-all top ten (ranking number 10), The Office is ranked 24, Seinfeld is all the way down at number 41, and My Name is Earl is at 42.
But on other lists, where comedy is ranked separately, the reigning funny men and women get a better shot. Mike Durrett at About.com suggests such DVD collections as The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus (which I gave my friend last Xmas), Absolutely Fabulous (which I am

watching in marathon as I write this, New Year’s Eve, 2006), and The Simpsons first season.

Buddy TV finds the top ten comedies on TV right now (and therefore not always or yet available on DVD—dammit) are as follows:

#1 The Office
#2 South Park
#3 Curb Your Enthusiasm
#4 How I Met Your Mother
#5 Family Guy
#6 Scrubs
#7 My Name is Earl
#8 The Simpsons
#9 30 Rock
#10 Two and a Half Men

As the writers at BuddyTV and others of course concede, comedy (and the tastes for it) is subjective. So I propose my own list of top ten TV comedies for 2006:

#1 Seinfeld—always number one in my world, I hope the show with the tightest wit, the keenest banter, and the cleverest (most clever, I know) of repetition, connection, and character nuance never leaves its re-running on TBS, ABC, and other stations.

#2 Scrubs—mean is always funny on this show, and Cox (McGuinley) and others keep it fresh, cool, and comical to patronize, condescend, and criticize the Shirleys and the Sheilas of modern medicine while the barbershop quartet, like an absurd Greek chorus, editorialize at the backdrop and while JD (Braff) voiceover narrates and fantasizes the fol de rol that is Scrubs story lines.

#3 The Office—the pitiful, the pithy, and the personal are exposed with such a verisimilitude that it makes sense this makes number one for many and gleans awards galore for the stars who make this the existential equivalent of a Jean Paul Sartre play…only funny ha-ha as much as funny-absurd.

#3 The King of Queens—I don’t know why this show is not on the lists or why I feel I need to apologize for it making my list. Not only is the star (Kevin James) of the show a riot, his wife (Leah Ramini) is delightful in her [in]tolerance of his antics and frantics, and the ever-brilliant Jerry Stiller galvanizes with as much comic “relief” as the central characters.

#4 My Name is Earl—the format is fresh (still); the premise is unique; and the characterization and delivery of such is spot on. Still delightful is to identify with and be able to laugh at white trash mentality and motivations. Celebrity appearances sweeten the deal, never upstaging but always highlighting the mis-adventures of go-alongs Randy (Ethan Suplee) and Darnell (Eddie Steeples), self-serving Joy (Jaime Pressly), and well-intended, list-making Earl (Jason Lee).

#5 Malcolm in the Middle—maybe it has bade its time, but with every wall-eyed screech from the brilliant Jane

Kaczmarek, I am back at home and hearing the retribution that is now made hysterical…and which also now inspires empathy, because of the creation of sympathetic characters like the mother who has to run the family, the kids in their respective growing-up dilemmas, and the goofy simpleton dad (Bryan Cranston) who usually cannot muster the requisite parenting off in his bubble of blissful ignorance as he is.
#6 The Bernie Mac Show— America. You just have to watch this man’s facial expressions and listen as he includes us in his direct-address style of angry, righteous, and poor-me tirading…to bust up every time.

#7 Kath and Kim—while this is new to me (and likely to many of you), this Australian-set female character-driven comedy is ridiculously realistic and realistically ridiculous. Not since Absolutely Fabulous (known by fans as AbFab) has drunken meets dowdy made the buddy female sit-com a uniquely hysterical experience.

#8 Friends—the character development and identification aside, I still find the mocking Chandler, the mind-numbed Joey, the flighty Phoebe, the miserable Ross, the socially reckless Rachel, and the anal-retentive Monica carry the fresh dialogue and original situations to a hilarious point…laugh track notwithstanding.

#9 30 Rock—like Scotch or S&M, you have to have a taste for the satire, but if and when you catch on, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin will tie you into their respective dens of self-indulgence and creative attempts to work with such self-indulgence.

#10 2 ½ Men—snappy and sex-hungry-driven comedy works when it is delivered by the wry and silly…as brothers. These guys make us understand guys—when it comes to their being involved in sex and relationships—by way of their brilliantly delivered archetypes of the dopey, mopey malcontent (John Cryer) and the cavalier and caustic playah (Charlie Sheen)…both of whom as actors should take at least one Emmy before the show ends.

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