Malcolm in the Middle - Best Sitcom Ever?

I've never really thought about it til now, but every time I watch that show, I find myself laughing hysterically.

It was funny from episode one, and has never let up.

Discuss.

 

Best Sitcom Ever is a bold statement, but Malcom in the Middle really never relents. Just about every comedy show has episodes that aren't very funny, but I can't name a MitM that wasn't hilarious.

Now if only they released Season 2 on DVD...

 

MitM really is a wonderful show. It's so cleverly written, although a bit contrived at times. I actually want to find out what happens to the characters.

Arrested Development is another great Fox Sunday series. I think it's quite possibly one of the best-written comedies I've ever seen.

 

I love Malcom in the Middle.

Anyone catch teh "Malcathon" yesterday. I for got how hilrious the first episode was. They all looked so young.

 

Absolutely not.

 

i like it. i use to watch it when ever i could but lately i have stopped watching it. only because i spend alot more time on the computer.

i may not agree with the "Best Sictom Ever" but i think it is a classic.

 

I like how it doesn't have a laugh track. That's why I also like Scrubs. It's a very well-written and funny sitcom.

 

Personally, I think Scrubs is better, but I do watch MITM every week after the Simpsons, and it has become far better than the Simpsons. I think it just keeps on getting better and better.

 

Being a baby boomer I'd have to say absolutely not. The 60's and 70's brought us Dick Van Dyke Show, Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family. Would MASH be considered a sitcom? Probably not, but still head and shoulders better than Malcolm in the Middle.

 

Definitely not, even though Im a fan of the show. Lois' character is so grating its painful.

 

M*A*S*H counts as a sitcom - personally I rate it as the greatest sitcom ever. Any comediy that is funny without needing a laugh track is worthy of greatness.

I can't really comment on MitM - I'm never home to watch it unfortunately, but when I am, I have been impressed.

 

I love his dad. One of my favorite episodes is when they're going through bills and taxes and what will happen if they both die.

It's hilarious!

Though I don't think it's the BEST ever, it's still on the top.



tf

 

Dewey is the best character.

Francis: How did Aunt Helen die?
Dewey: Cats ate her face.
Francis: No, really, how did Aunt Helen die?
Dewey: Cats ate her face.
Francis: Could you put Dad on the phone?
*Dewey hands the phone to Hal*
Francis: How did Aunt Helen die?
Hal: Cats ate her face.
Francis: What?
Hal: Dewey knows more about it than I do.

 

i don't think it's the best sitcom ever (that would probably be either The Simpsons or Seinfeld, IMHO) but it's really top-notch. well-written, well-acted, and funny as hell. my absolute favorite episode has to be the one where they're trying to get the evil old grandmother to move out, and they can't, until Lois remembers that her mom is horribly racist, so they invite all their black friends and neighbors over until she freaks out and leaves.

i think M*A*S*H* and All in the Family are definitely two of the best ever as well, but i'm not sure the others that MD-O mentioned really hold up nearly as well. in general, i'm skeptical of people who constantly insist that shows from the GOlden Age of television will never be surpassed. frankly, i'm less convinced. The Honeymooners holds up pretty well, but it seems that everyone feels the need to genuflect at the altar of I Love Lucy, which, frankly, doesn't deserve it, aside from the technical innovations with camerawork. it's not bad, but it's really just ... not very funny. i think that most comedies today (actually, many shows today in general) are sharper, more intelligent, and more sophisticated than they've ever been in TV's past. we're living in a new Golden Age of TV right now, honestly, and i think more people would recognize that if they weren't looking at everything through nostalgia-colored glasses.

 

Two words: The Office

 

One might argue that being sharper, more intelligent and sophisticated are not necessary ingredients for great comedy. I still laugh at the Abbott and Costello movies of the 40's. Don't be so quick to put down comedy of a by gone era as being overrated.

 

Abbott and Costello ruled, as do The Three Stooges, quite possibly the greatest comedy team ever.

 

Don't be so quick to put down comedy of a by gone era as being overrated.

i'm not being particularly quick. i've watched a lot of older comedies over quite a few years of late night TV insomnia. most of them have aged poorly. if anyone's being quick, it's those (many) people who immediately shoot back knee-jerk responses defending the established legends of TV, when many of them really don't merit it.

it's kind of like the Beatles. not that the Beatles weren't revolutionary and wonderful and whatnot, but i'm so sick of Sgt. Pepper's getting listed at #1 in every survey, ever, because they're the Beatles and everyone knows you have to put them at #1. it's not even that they may not deserve it (and i think, in all fairness, unlike many older TV comedies, they do in fact deserve most of it), it's just that it's so automatic and unquestioned that i wish people would be a bit more critical and at least open to the possibility that someone, somewhere, might be more important/better than the Beatles.

i forget which British music magazine released a top 100 most important bands list a few years ago or so, which put the Smiths in the #1 slot, and i was thrilled. not because i agreed that the Smiths were more important than the Beatles, but because finally someone had the cojones to take John, Paul, George, and Ringo off their pedestals and dare to advance a dissenting opinion.

don't take this personally, MD-O, but, in my experience, Baby Boomers are the worst with this. the rest of us, especially myself and my fellow Gen X'ers, have been choking on that particular generation's nostalgia for the "good old days" as long as we've been alive, and it's just become tiresome. overall, TV is better now than it's ever been in terms of quality, and, in many ways, so is popular music.

to bring this back to topic, Malcolm in the Middle may not be the best sitcom of all time, but it's significantly better than The Dick Van Dyke Show, for one.

 

Probably not the best ever but certainly up there with the best.

 

Any comedy that is funny without needing a laugh track is worthy of greatness.

I can probably count the sitcoms with laugh tracks that I find funny on one hand. I think pretty much every show would be better off without one. Especially Seinfeld.

When I make a list of my favorite comedies, not one of them has a laugh track.

 

The only old TV shows that still make me laugh are the Dick Van Dyke show, The Odd Couple, and the Three Stooges. I'll watch an Abbot and Costello movie if it's on, but it's not the greatest.

Anyone ever see the TV show Wings? That's a classic, too.

HaVEn't seen Malcom in the MIddle in a while. I skip out on it occassionally, like when I came back, found out Francis wasn't in military school or whatever anymnore, and was living with some weird Canadian couple. What's up with that?

 

Malcom in the Middle is a good show but Seinfeld is the best sitcom ever

 

If you take animated sit-coms out of the mix, then "Malcolm" possibly cracks the "Top Ten".

I just think that it has leaned a little too much on the Simpsons over the years, content-wise and from a schedule standpoint, to really be visionary. I think that you've got to put "Seinfeld", "Frasier", and "Cheers" (which survived TWO major cast shake-ups) ahead of it, although the argument about "Frasier" getting its momentum from "Cheers" is valid. Still, it actually was a strike against the series in the beginning, because so many critics and viewers were skeptical that such a spinoff could work.

You know what show has really impressed me so far this year? "Two and a Half Men". Charlie Sheen is just Charlie Sheen in this, which is to say "awesome". It's a great piece of unconvential programming for CBS, which is more "right down the middle" than ever before.

For a great but totally mundane sitcom, try "Everyone Loves Raymond". Watching it is like eating really good meatloaf. And yes, there is such a thing.

The sitcom that "jumped the shark" and went to hell the fastest? "The Drew Carey Show". It was on course to be one of the top 10 or 20 of all time, but then it just got...weird. And pretty damned lame. From what I've heard, Drew really doesn't like the Hollywood scene and lost his motivation for awhile. This is a guy who still comes back to the Kent State area bars and hangs out every now 'n' then.

 

Quite possibly.

Lois: Here drink this. It's a name brand.

Cracks me up every time.

 

Malcom is great, and so are many of the older shows, like MASH, but they just don't quite measure up (especially the Dick Van Dyke show and Lucy) and often don't age well. While they do have some classic episodes, but they don't have the lifespan of or the following of The Simpsons. There are newer shows which haven't tripped yet, like Arrested Development, but they just haven't proven themselves to be the alltime best. Simpsons, however, has been considered the best for a long while, is often voted or placed at the top of the lists, and has the survivability, the ability to age, the consistency, and the fanbase to put it on top.