The 20 Best NBC Sitcoms of All Time

Peacock comedy across five decades, from black-and-white junk yards to Pawnee parks departments. Some of these built the format; a couple quietly outlived it.

1

Seinfeld

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David's 1989-98 comedy about four New Yorkers and the small print of daily life.

2

Friends

Ten seasons of six twentysomethings sharing coffee, apartments and each other's love lives in Manhattan.

3

The Office

Mockumentary about the Scranton branch of a failing paper company, led by the world's worst boss.

4

Cheers

Eleven seasons in a Boston bar where a former ballplayer pours drinks for a fixed cast of regulars.

5

Frasier

The Cheers spinoff that moved a radio psychiatrist to Seattle and won a record run of comedy Emmys.

6

Parks and Recreation

A relentlessly optimistic mid-level bureaucrat tries to improve a small Indiana town.

7

30 Rock

Tina Fey's backstage satire of a live NBC sketch show and the network executives above it.

8

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

A West Philadelphia teenager is sent to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air.

9

The Golden Girls

Four older women share a Miami house and refuse to be written off by anyone.

10

Taxi

Late-1970s comedy set in a Manhattan cab garage, with a cast that produced several film careers.

11

Will & Grace

A gay lawyer and his straight best friend in Manhattan, one of network TV's first mainstream gay leads.

12

News Radio

Cult workplace comedy set at a New York AM news station with an unusually deep bench of comics.

13

3rd Rock from the Sun

Four aliens pose as an Ohio family and fail, loudly, to understand human behaviour.

14

Night Court

A young judge presides over the night shift of a Manhattan criminal court and the oddities it attracts.

15

Mad About You

A married Manhattan couple navigate the 1990s one small domestic negotiation at a time.

16

The Good Place

A woman who does not belong in the afterlife tries to earn her place in it.

17

Family Ties

Ex-hippie parents raise a Reagan-worshipping teenage son in 1980s Ohio.

18

Community

A study group at a wildly dysfunctional community college, and the sitcom that kept breaking its own format.

19

Sanford and Son

A Watts junk dealer and his son bicker their way through the 1970s.

20

Superstore

The staff of a big-box store handle customers, corporate policy and each other.