NBC's "Must See TV" - Which Decade Was Best?

[waborat]

80's: Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court + A Different World, Gimme A Break

90's: Friends, Seinfeld + Mad About You, Frasier, Wings, Veronica's Closet, Suddenly Susan, Caroline In The City

00's: Friends, Will & Grace, Scrubs, The Office, 30 Rock, My Name Is Earl + Just Shoot Me, Joey, P & R, Community, The Apprentice



The 80's had the longest run of the same shows...

The 90's had Seinfeld (The Best!!!) and a very strong Friends, but they could never seem to find the other 2 shows? If they would have kept Frasier on Thursdays instead of moving them around then it would have been stronger

The 00's have been hit n miss with the first few seasons of The Office being classic along with the first 2 seasons of Earl...Scrubs might have been the most consistent of the bunch?

If I white out Seinfeld then I've gotta go with the 80s for all out laughs for 2 straight hours...Coz, Mike J Fox, Cliff & Norm, Harry & the gang were the best overall for me

[DarNoor]

I have to go with the 80's. For two hours, i never had to change the channel.

[jb]

I have to go with the 80's. For two hours, i never had to change the channel.

Plus you gotta go into 10PM AFAIC.

80's = Hill Street Blues

90's = ER

Otts = Jay

All really damn good 'cept for later ER's.

While the first 2 casts of ER had me on my seat's edge every week, I loved me some HSB.

For me, this is all about the vibe.

Early must see in the mid-80's included me a trip to ray's Place and as many $0.75 Molson canadian drafts as I could afford to suck down, and usually an after hours and some Mac and Cheese.

Late 80's transitioned to Seinfeld and the simliar routine, but it wasn't as phresh, and my huge GA stipend allowed me to graduate to better beers and Jamiesons.

The 90's are out for me because I never got into Friends -- subjective -- and I loathed Veronica's closet.

Mad About You is a chick flick disguised as a 30 minute sitcom. loved when Seinfeld would rip on it like south park does family guy.

Didn't the A Team strat on Thursdays at 8pm as well, starting NBC's comeback? In the day of the big 3 , ABC ruled under 40s sitcomes for the 70's , CBS over 40's plus Norman Lear's shows. NBC was a ghost town.

[hermanfontenot]

"A-Team" was on Tuesdays, IIRC. It was "A-Team"-"Remington Steele"-"Riptide" in NBC's Tue. night lineup, I think.

Any MSTV that includes "Cheers" is the best one. And "Hill Street Blues" > "ER." HSB basically re-invented its genre. You don't have stuff like "Homicide: Life on the Street" or "NYPD Blue" w/o it.

[DarNoor]

I loved Hill Street Blues

[dmiles]

+1 for HSB. I was probably more riveted to the set in the 80s. I was slow to pick up on Seinfeld, I just didn't give it a chance, but finally some of my bro's made me sit and watch.

Totally agree about Seinfeld ripping on Mad About You. Great stuff!!!

Also in time I found myself skipping friends. I did watch for awhile, but gave up it just wasn't my cup o'tea. This despite all the women around me (mom, wife, sis) staying loyal to the end. Why did the Friends NYC types seem more uppity and less interesting than Seinfeld? If it were set in Baahston e0y would've been all over that.... Maybe I have an inner Jewish child and identified more with Seinfeld....

[Guest]

"Hill Street Blues" > "ER." HSB basically re-invented its genre. You don't have stuff like "Homicide: Life on the Street" or "NYPD Blue" w/o it.

+1 on that.

Also in the late 80s/early 90s you had "LA Law" once HSB went off the air. And while HSB>>LALaw, it was still a pretty decent lawyer show.

[FUDU]

NBC also had Miami Vice, another significant television program (in many ways), going for them on the dreaded Friday night slot in the 80's.

[dmiles]

Also in the late 80s/early 90s you had "LA Law" once HSB went off the air. And while HSB>>LALaw, it was still a pretty decent lawyer show.

Forgot about that, I did watch that show regularly. It was really weird hearing Jimmy Smits accent on Dexter after watching LA Law for so long.

[OldDawg]

'80s by a mile

[mattvan1]

And "Hill Street Blues" > "ER." HSB basically re-invented its genre. You don't have stuff like "Homicide: Life on the Street" or "NYPD Blue" w/o it.

HSB was created and produced by Steven Bochco, who then later in his career also created and produced NYPD Blues. He did LA Law as well.

Homicide Life on the Street was, I think, the best out of the 3, but all were exceptional. Homicide was based on a non fiction book written by David Simon, who then created the show about the same time NYPD was born. He went on to create and produce The Wire as well. Which, as we all know, is the best cop drama in the history of the universe.

[peeker643]

HSB was created and produced by Steven Bochco, who then later in his career also created and produced NYPD Blues. He did LA Law as well.

I can't even do the math on how many points Bochco loses for 'Cop Rock' though.

[OldDawg]

Peek. Is your avatar a scene from the movie Scanners? A mental-telepathy-type power which some dude exploded some other dude's head??

[hermanfontenot]

One qualm I personally had concerning the '80s version of MSTV: "Night Court." Aside from John Larroquette, I just didn't think that was a very funny show. Harry Anderson didn't make me laugh. YMMV.

[Mr. MacPhisto]

80s hands down. The Cosby Show was just THE show when I was growing up and it was hard not to like most of the others. I always liked Night Court and Family Ties.

Loved Gimme A Break too. Never got into A Different World, despite it being a Cosby spinoff.

[jb]

One qualm I personally had concerning the '80s version of MSTV: "Night Court." Aside from John Larroquette, I just didn't think that was a very funny show. Harry Anderson didn't make me laugh. YMMV.

Markie Post was smokin'.

That's my mileage.

[BruceK]

80's by far -
Cheers is the only sitcom in the history of the universe that ever mentioned Charlie Spikes in the script.

And HSB was better than Homicide or The Wire - because the latter two were set in Baltimore and Baltimore sucks.

[FUDU]

Markie Post was my 80's version of Diane.

Her and Stephanie Kramer, I swear to God.