Top 10 Best TV Comedies of All Time

Adapted from Ricky Gervais's BBC original and reinvented by Greg Daniels, The Office ran for 9 seasons and 201 episodes on NBC (2005–2013), with Steve Carell's Michael Scott evolving from cringeworthy boss to one of TV's most beloved characters. The mockumentary format — then near-untested in US network television — became the dominant sitcom style of the 2010s, influencing Parks and Recreation, Abbott Elementary, and What We Do in the Shadows. In 2020 it became the most-streamed show on Netflix, with viewers logging over 57 billion minutes of viewing that year alone.

Running for 10 seasons and 236 episodes (1994–2004), Friends became the defining American sitcom of a generation, following six twenty-something New Yorkers through romance, careers, and impossibly large apartments. By Seasons 9 and 10, each of the six lead cast members earned $1 million per episode — the most lucrative ensemble deal in TV history at the time. Decades after its finale, Friends still attracts over 100 million monthly viewers across streaming platforms worldwide, a testament to its enduring warmth, sharp writing, and chemistry that no cast has since replicated.

With only 12 episodes across two series (1975 and 1979), Fawlty Towers is the most revered comedy in British television history — John Cleese's manic, snobbish hotel owner Basil Fawlty exploding through situations of escalating catastrophe with military-grade comic precision. The BBC series was voted the greatest British TV programme of all time by the British Film Institute in its 2000 poll of industry professionals, and its scripts — co-written by Cleese and Connie Booth — are studied as models of farce construction in comedy schools worldwide. Its brevity is the point: each episode is a perfectly engineered machine.

Cancelled by Fox after three seasons and dismissed by viewers at the time, Arrested Development (2003–2006, 53 episodes plus a Netflix revival) has since been anointed the "most sophisticated sitcom ever made" by The New Yorker, its layered callbacks, running gags, and dense intertextual jokes demanding the kind of close attention that streaming later made possible. The show won 3 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series and introduced a generation of critics to the concept of the "rewatchable" comedy where every episode reveals new jokes on repeat viewing. Its cast — Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett, Michael Cera — became defining comic voices of the 2000s.

Premiering on FX in 2005 and still running with its 16th season in 2023, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the longest-running live-action comedy series in American TV history, outlasting Cheers, The Simpsons in live-action terms, and every network sitcom. Created on a $200 budget using a home camcorder, the show follows five narcissistic, morally bankrupt bar owners in Philadelphia through increasingly depraved schemes — and has never won a major award despite being one of the most consistently praised comedies on television. Its DIY origin story and no-consequences nihilism became a template for creators everywhere that good writing beats budget every time.

Spanning four series across four distinct eras of British history — the medieval period, the Elizabethan court, the Regency, and the World War I trenches — Blackadder (BBC, 1983–1989, 24 episodes plus specials) is one of the most structurally inventive comedies ever made. Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson's Baldrick delivered a masterclass in comic duo writing, with each series building to a finale that deepened in emotional weight: Blackadder Goes Forth's final episode, in which the characters go "over the top" to certain death, is regularly cited as the most moving half-hour in British television history. The show won four BAFTA awards and transformed Atkinson and writers Curtis and Elton into titans of British comedy.

Beginning as an Office spin-off concept before finding its own warm, optimistic voice, Parks and Recreation (NBC, 2009–2015, 125 episodes) starred Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a hyper-competent, relentlessly enthusiastic local government official whose sincere love of public service became a cultural touchstone. The show's "optimistic comedy" approach — playing earnestness for laughs rather than irony — spawned the "Leslie Knope as role model" cultural moment and influenced a generation of writers who grew tired of cynicism-as-default. Its cast, including Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, and Aubrey Plaza, became some of the most bankable comedy stars of the following decade.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag — originally a one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show adapted into two BBC Three series of just 6 episodes each (2016 and 2019) — is the most acclaimed short-run comedy of the 21st century, winning 4 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actress, Writing, and Directing for Season 2. Its revolutionary fourth-wall breaking — the protagonist directly addressing the audience with confessions she can't say out loud — was executed with a precision and emotional depth that transformed the technique from quirk into genuine dramatic tool. The "Fleabag effect" prompted a wave of commissioning for raw, confessional female-voiced comedies across every streaming platform.

Michael Schur's afterlife sitcom The Good Place (NBC, 2016–2020, 53 episodes) took philosophy — Kant, Aristotle, Scanlon, contractualism — and made it the engine of a network sitcom, with Ted Danson's architect Michael and Kristen Bell's Eleanor Shellstrop navigating the ethics of the afterlife in a show that genuinely taught its audience to think about moral questions. Winning 6 Emmy Awards and ending on its own terms at exactly the right moment, The Good Place is the rare sitcom that knew what it wanted to say, said it with precision and joy, and walked away at its peak. Its influence on "ideas comedy" — where the concept IS the joke — can be felt in every ambitious sitcom that followed.

Adapted from Ricky Gervais's BBC original and reinvented by Greg Daniels, The Office ran for 9 seasons and 201 episodes on NBC (2005–2013), with Steve Carell's Michael Scott evolving from cringeworthy boss to one of TV's most beloved characters. The mockumentary format — then near-untested in US network television — became the dominant sitcom style of the 2010s, influencing Parks and Recreation, Abbott Elementary, and What We Do in the Shadows. In 2020 it became the most-streamed show on Netflix, with viewers logging over 57 billion minutes of viewing that year alone.

Running for 10 seasons and 236 episodes (1994–2004), Friends became the defining American sitcom of a generation, following six twenty-something New Yorkers through romance, careers, and impossibly large apartments. By Seasons 9 and 10, each of the six lead cast members earned $1 million per episode — the most lucrative ensemble deal in TV history at the time. Decades after its finale, Friends still attracts over 100 million monthly viewers across streaming platforms worldwide, a testament to its enduring warmth, sharp writing, and chemistry that no cast has since replicated.

With only 12 episodes across two series (1975 and 1979), Fawlty Towers is the most revered comedy in British television history — John Cleese's manic, snobbish hotel owner Basil Fawlty exploding through situations of escalating catastrophe with military-grade comic precision. The BBC series was voted the greatest British TV programme of all time by the British Film Institute in its 2000 poll of industry professionals, and its scripts — co-written by Cleese and Connie Booth — are studied as models of farce construction in comedy schools worldwide. Its brevity is the point: each episode is a perfectly engineered machine.

Cancelled by Fox after three seasons and dismissed by viewers at the time, Arrested Development (2003–2006, 53 episodes plus a Netflix revival) has since been anointed the "most sophisticated sitcom ever made" by The New Yorker, its layered callbacks, running gags, and dense intertextual jokes demanding the kind of close attention that streaming later made possible. The show won 3 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series and introduced a generation of critics to the concept of the "rewatchable" comedy where every episode reveals new jokes on repeat viewing. Its cast — Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett, Michael Cera — became defining comic voices of the 2000s.

Premiering on FX in 2005 and still running with its 16th season in 2023, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is the longest-running live-action comedy series in American TV history, outlasting Cheers, The Simpsons in live-action terms, and every network sitcom. Created on a $200 budget using a home camcorder, the show follows five narcissistic, morally bankrupt bar owners in Philadelphia through increasingly depraved schemes — and has never won a major award despite being one of the most consistently praised comedies on television. Its DIY origin story and no-consequences nihilism became a template for creators everywhere that good writing beats budget every time.

Spanning four series across four distinct eras of British history — the medieval period, the Elizabethan court, the Regency, and the World War I trenches — Blackadder (BBC, 1983–1989, 24 episodes plus specials) is one of the most structurally inventive comedies ever made. Rowan Atkinson's Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson's Baldrick delivered a masterclass in comic duo writing, with each series building to a finale that deepened in emotional weight: Blackadder Goes Forth's final episode, in which the characters go "over the top" to certain death, is regularly cited as the most moving half-hour in British television history. The show won four BAFTA awards and transformed Atkinson and writers Curtis and Elton into titans of British comedy.

Beginning as an Office spin-off concept before finding its own warm, optimistic voice, Parks and Recreation (NBC, 2009–2015, 125 episodes) starred Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope, a hyper-competent, relentlessly enthusiastic local government official whose sincere love of public service became a cultural touchstone. The show's "optimistic comedy" approach — playing earnestness for laughs rather than irony — spawned the "Leslie Knope as role model" cultural moment and influenced a generation of writers who grew tired of cynicism-as-default. Its cast, including Chris Pratt, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, and Aubrey Plaza, became some of the most bankable comedy stars of the following decade.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag — originally a one-woman Edinburgh Fringe show adapted into two BBC Three series of just 6 episodes each (2016 and 2019) — is the most acclaimed short-run comedy of the 21st century, winning 4 Emmy Awards including Outstanding Comedy Series, Lead Actress, Writing, and Directing for Season 2. Its revolutionary fourth-wall breaking — the protagonist directly addressing the audience with confessions she can't say out loud — was executed with a precision and emotional depth that transformed the technique from quirk into genuine dramatic tool. The "Fleabag effect" prompted a wave of commissioning for raw, confessional female-voiced comedies across every streaming platform.

Michael Schur's afterlife sitcom The Good Place (NBC, 2016–2020, 53 episodes) took philosophy — Kant, Aristotle, Scanlon, contractualism — and made it the engine of a network sitcom, with Ted Danson's architect Michael and Kristen Bell's Eleanor Shellstrop navigating the ethics of the afterlife in a show that genuinely taught its audience to think about moral questions. Winning 6 Emmy Awards and ending on its own terms at exactly the right moment, The Good Place is the rare sitcom that knew what it wanted to say, said it with precision and joy, and walked away at its peak. Its influence on "ideas comedy" — where the concept IS the joke — can be felt in every ambitious sitcom that followed.