An interesting discussion came across my social media feed today, from Outkick, the site owned by Fox Corporation and managed by Clay Travis. Outkick mentioned the idea of a "sitcom Mount Rushmore," the idea of four monumentally influential situation comedies. Outkick mentioned their sitcom Mount Rushmore as consisting of
The Office,
Seinfeld,
Friends and
The Simpsons. Now, my first thought was that "this is engagement bait." But the idea got me thinking... as my head often does. What
would my sitcom Mount Rushmore be? I've watched sitcoms much of my life. I love the form. What would be the four most influential sitcoms I would choose?
So I started breaking down my list. The major flaw I noted in Outkick's list was that every single one of their choices debuted in or after 1989. I'll discuss that later, but that actually ignores decades of far better and more influential material. So, when coming up with my list, I decided to set the window as wide as I could chronologically—covering almost 100 years, all the way back to the radio era.
In compiling my list, first I decided that I would limit my list to one show that predominantly flourished in any given decade. Second, given that Mount Rushmore is in the United States, I decided that my list would likewise be restricted to American sitcoms (as much as
The Red Green Show makes me smile and that I'm sure there are a few great British sitcoms that could make the list). Third, the shows—at least the television ones—had to be live action, disqualifying
The Simpsons. (The animated sitcom feels more like a separate genre in its own right, which would have its own Mount Rushmore: for the record, that one, if it were up to me, would include
The Simpsons,
The Flintstones,
King of the Hill and
South Park. That one was much easier to do, with apologies to
Family Guy.)
In making my selection, I decided to factor in longevity in its original form, longevity in reruns, and cultural impact. This, obviously, favors older sitcoms, but part of that is that the sitcom form has been in decline for a while now anyway, so it evens out. With my criteria set, my mind went to work.
First, with a limit of one show per decade, I decided to break down each decade. The early sitcom era tended to have longer running shows, and with fewer elite sitcoms being produced now, I decided to make the most recent and the oldest eras longer than ten years. A few did bridge the eras but I decided to limit a show to one era, based on when it flourished.
The Radio Era1926 to 1950. Stemming from the old variety show format, these were the earliest sitcoms. There were two forms: the live audience shows, and the in-studio, more low-key sitcoms. The latter was typified by
Vic and Sade, the influential domestic sitcom of the 1930s and early 1940s. Two leading candidates came to mind for this era,
Amos 'n' Andy and
Fibber McGee and Molly. After some deliberation, and noting how badly
Amos 'n' Andy has aged, I chose
Fibber McGee and Molly as the candidate for the pre-television category.
The 1950sAs much as the 1950s is considered a golden age of television, there was a surprisingly wide chasm between a select few incredibly well-received shows and many, many short-lived lesser-known ones. I decided to include
The Jack Benny Program in this category to give his show a better chance, but this only ended up putting him against two juggernauts:
I Love Lucy and Jackie Gleason's
The Honeymooners. The winner?
I Love Lucy. It's still in reruns seven decades later.
The 1960sAh, the 1960s, perhaps a golden age of the sitcom. Ranging from the silly like
Gilligan's Island to the rural and folksy
The Andy Griffith Show,
Green Acres and
Petticoat Junction to the pop-friendly but refreshingly experimental
The Monkees, among other strong shows like
That Girl and
The Dick Van Dyke Show, the 1960s had no shortage of candidates. After much deliberation,
The Andy Griffith Show emerged as the candidate from the 1960s. Not only did it run for eight seasons (11 if you count the last three without Griffith as
Mayberry RFD) but Mayberry has etched itself into American lore as the quintessential American small town, and the show, like
Lucy, has been in reruns forever.
The 1970sThe decade where the sitcom form, like much of television, matured. Four major candidates emerged in my head.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show,
All in the Family,
Happy Days and
M*A*S*H. This one was a brutal decision. Each had such strong cases for inclusion:
MTM being a breakthrough depiction of a woman in the workplace,
All in the Family for its social commentary and for Norman Lear's amazing achievement of making a blatantly conservative character like Archie Bunker a likable icon,
M*A*S*H for its deft balancing of dry comedy and war drama (side note: the later years were far stronger IMO, in that it needed a strong authority figure like Harry Morgan's Col. Sherman Potter to balance out the goofball antics and egos of the rest of the cast), and
Happy Days for its embrace of the 1950s greaser revival. I also considered
WKRP in Cincinnati, which rose above its male-led
MTM knockoff reputation to be one of the funniest sitcoms of the era for its satirical depiction of the radio industry.
Ultimately, it came down to a very difficult decision between
All in the Family and
Happy Days. The former ran 12 years (counting its retooling as
Archie Bunker's Place for its final few seasons), the latter ran 11. Both were incredibly influential in pop culture. Both have had long lives in reruns, though I recall
Happy Days and its companion series
Laverne & Shirley (a show with some of the best physical comedy gags since
Lucy) much more widely. The winner? By a nose,
Happy Days.
The 1980sThe 1980s were much like the 1950s in that you had a few knockout-good sitcoms, a lot of stinkers like
Small Wonder and
Joanie Loves Chachi, and some that were just OK but were syndication mainstays like
Mama's Family and
Who's the Boss?. So the candidates that emerged from this era were
Cheers,
The Cosby Show and
The Golden Girls. Cosby obviously has aged very poorly. The obvious winner of this decade was
The Golden Girls, which ran eight seasons (counting the final season as
The Golden Palace) and remains both a rerun staple and an iconic series. The idea of four old ladies bickering with each other was and is comedy gold.
The 1990sThis is the year that I began paying attention to shows in their first run. The main candidates I considered were
Seinfeld,
Friends,
Family Matters,
Boy Meets World,
Full House,
Murphy Brown and
Married... with Children. I didn't like
Friends or
Married... Full House had a strong syndication afterlife but feels hamfisted in retrospect, as crushworthy as Jodie Sweetin was. I loved
Family Matters growing up, and it never occurred to me that it was out of the ordinary for a nerd character like Steve Urkel to be black. Ultimately I settled on
Seinfeld: an endlessly quotable and surprisingly relevant sitcom that thrived when it found ways to poke fun at the everyday life around us. Even if you didn't find Jerry Seinfeld funny himself, that wasn't really the point: it was the world around him that drew the jokes. There's a reason it remains one of television's best-performing shows in reruns.
The 21st centuryThe genre started to die out in the late 1990s. After that, things began to splinter. You had some more conventional sitcoms like
The Big Bang Theory,
How I Met Your Mother Last Man Standing and
That 70s Show, you had the mockumentaries like
The Office,
30 Rock,
Modern Family and
Arrested Development, thinly veiled reality shows that were really sitcoms in disguise (
Duck Dynasty, I'm looking at you) and cringe material like
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (which I cannot, for the life of me, understand why it's survived this long—as much as Danny DeVito is a comic weapon unto himself). Unlike the previous decades, this one was tough because the dais was so weak. But if I had to pick one that left a lasting mark on the culture, it would have to be
The Office.
Narrowing it down to fourSo, we have our candidates:
Fibber McGee and Molly, I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, Happy Days, The Golden Girls, Seinfeld and
The Office. That's seven. Which four of those go on this sitcom Mount Rushmore?
- I Love Lucy
- Happy Days
- The Golden Girls
- Seinfeld
Your results may vary.
