[be-baw]

The top ten, in order are:

The Simpsons
[The original]Saturday Night Live
Cheers
MASH (early years)
Frasier
Andy Griffith
Seinfeld
The Dick Van Dyke Show
McHale's Navy
Make Room for Daddy

[pa_dweller]

Coach - Craig T. Nelson's timing is on par with the best.

Fawlty Towers

The Good Neighbors - My favorite is when Tom is working up a rig to use the pigs' manure to run a generator to power the freezer in which the now-butchered pigs will be kept!

WKRP

M.A.S.H.

Carole Burnett Show

[theDentist]

1. Action! Jay Mohr as a movie producer trying to recover from his first flop. He pulls together a wild bunch to make a new movie: Wendy the Hooker, Uncle Lonnie, the drug-addled Movie Star, The Director who drowns in his own pool following a binge, the hapless writer. Only 2 seasons but it was hystrical. I recorded each episode.

2. Seinfeld The Contest, Soup Nazi, and the episode where he and George are outed. Too many to list here.

3. SNL The first 3 seasons were great. After that they were just a drag.

4. Second City TV John Candy, Eugene Levy at their best.

[ClearBlueSky]

Barney Miller & In Living Color Just the sight of 'Wanda'( Jamie Foxx as the ugliest woman alive) was hysterical. They offended just about everyone on that show. The 'music' was awful tho.

[MotleyGirl70]

Seinfeld

Three's Company

All In The Family

The Simpson of course; D'oh

[beerhead]

Great topic, Hellmouth. I laughed my butt off the first time I saw M*A*S*H, but didn't crack a smile the 2nd thru the 56th times I saw the reruns. Don't know why. So, I would have to say my choice would be Fawlty Towers without a doubt. I've played my tapes at least 20 times over, and I still laugh so hard at Basil and Manuel that I hurt myself.

[fnord]

Great thread! I've seen about 50 of my favorites already listed, but didn't see:

• Mary Tyler Moore Show - great cast, all with perfect timing
• Too Close for Comfort - Ted Knight from the MTM cast
• Friar's Club Roast - only on sporadically, but some of the best put-downs from the old pros
• Dave Allen At Large - British skit humor, more cerebral than Benny Hill, but what isn't :-)
• The Rise & Fall Of Reginald Perrin - more offbeat British humor
• Rising Damp - only on a few episodes I think
• The Muppet Show - wall to wall funny
• Evening at the Improv - showcasing young comedians; was on in the early 80's I believe
• Bless Me Father - more British comedy (sensing a theme here)

Glad to see some mention of Good Neighbors, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python. Those old BBS imports were hilarious.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

M*A*S*H, before Alda took over and it got preachy

[savedbygrace]

Steve Allen's "The Tonight Show" was, without doubt, the funniest TV program ever. Click on the following link to see all the comedy talent that passed through this show.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0046652#comment

[petuniasevan]

Keeping Up Appearances
Mr. Bean
Fawlty Towers
Are You Being Served?
Mystery Science Theater 3000
The Carol Burnett Show
Police Squad
Cheers
Newhart
Monty Python
Sanford and Son

[hattend]

Married, With Children
Simpsons
Cheers
Andy Griffith
I Love Lucy

[trussell]

bewitched, I dream of Genie

[M.K. Borders]

WKRP

"As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly" "Oh, the humanity!"

[Rainbow Rising]

One of the funniest programs I ever saw was The Ben Stiller Show. FOX, sadly, never really gave it a chance. I don't think it even lasted half a season. But they had some wickedly inventive writing. My favorite sketch was a Monkees parody called "The Grungies." I still have that one on tape.

[Abundy]

ALF

Night Court

[BluesDuke]

In no particular order of preference:

The Jackie Gleason Show (a.k.a. Cavalcade of Stars; and, The Jackie Gleason American Scene Magazine, as the revamped show premiered in 1962).
All In The Family
The Addams Family
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Frasier
The Honeymooners
The Cosby Show
The Ernie Kovacs Show
Sgt. Bilko (a.k.a. You'll Never Get Rich, the show's original name; and, The Phil Silvers Show)
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
That Was The Week That Was

[sweetliberty]

In this order:
1. Beverly Hillbillies
2. All In the Family
3. M.A.S.H
4. Northern Exposure

[Argh]

The first five or six broadcasts of Laugh-In

Believe it or not, the funny episodes of the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were a stitch. Especially the episode "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", where Xander tries to get a love spell put on the lovely Cordelia who's just dumped him. Apparently, this episode was dreamed up at the last second because Miss Gellar (Buffy) was suddenly going to host on SNL the week of the taping, and wouldn't be available for the full week or so of taping. Unfortunately, the humour pretty much petered out during the next two seasons, and they got the politically correct preachiness disease, too bad.

Some funnies:

Sledge Hammer making an arrest (it went roughly like this):"Don't whine at me! I hate whiners! If I'd wanted to arrest a whiner I would have arrested Dick Cavett!"

ALF and Wille looking at Willie's hippie pictures from Woodstock (again roughly):
ALF: "What's with those clothes, Willie?"
Willie: "Oh, well, we were making a statement, you know."
ALF: "Yeah, right. 'I dress in the dark!'" Cute post-mortem for the 60's.

Apparently Hogan's Heroes has been quite popular in Germany lately, although it's apparently pretty surreal there because some of it isn't directly translated from English for the German version. For example, folks aren't allowed to say "Heil Hitler" in Germany anymore, but the German viewers know darn well what's being said when the Nazi salute is given, even if the German words coming out are things like "The lime trees grow THIS high!"

[sweetliberty]

There was another one I liked but it only made it through one season. I was really disappointed. It was in the early-mid 70's. I wonder if anybody else remembers it. I thought it weas a hoot.

On the Rocks

[Argh]

Another TV show that was funny when they spat on their hands and got down to it was Maverick.