I just realized something...

There are like five sitcoms, in the world, that I currently have any positive feelings at all, or any inclination to watch.

Roseanne, Seinfeld, Simpsons, My Name Is Earl, The Office.

Roseanne premiered in 1988, Seinfeld premiered in 1989, and Simpsons premiered in 1989. And...of course, My Name is Earl and the American Office both premiered in 2005.

Why is it that decent sitcoms seem to come in such clusters?

Maybe it's a function of the well of ideas running dry, leading TV networks to actually take risks.

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Edit: Huh. I just checked the premiere dates of Drew Carey and Newsradio, which I have some respect for but don't have any inclination to watch anymore.

Both 1995. What is up with this?!

Barring some illuminati-based conspiracy theory, I'd bet it's a coincidence. There might be at least one possible explanation: show-styles come in waves. When a show gets hot, a bunch of shows like it follow. Maybe 1988-9, 1995, and 2005 were the 'year of the sitcom'?

I think you leave a fair bit of good stuff off your list, but I'm not telling you what you should like. I personally don't consider the Simpsons to be a 'sitcom' simply because the animated shows play by a different set of rules, but you leave off great shows like Cheers, King of the Hill, Futurama, Family Guy, South Park, Scrubs, etc.

Well..I kind of see early Simpsons as a sitcom, mostly because it was written as an *answer* to sitcoms. And partly because they talk about it in the same way that they talk about Roseanne.

Two shows that were supposed to be 'How family life is really like', like anti-'Father Knows Bests'.

But, Simpsons morphed into it's own genre that is *not* sitcom, and South Park and Futurama are in that genre.

Cheers is a good show, but it started well before the ones I'm talking about.

King of the Hill and South Park by the way? Both 1997. Futurama, March 1999. Family Guy, January 1999. What other shows would you put in that category?