# Which TV comedy got much better after a weak first season?

> Fifteen shows people tell you to stick with. The pitch is always the same: it clicks around episode seven.

*By YPB Team · Published August 25, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/which-tv-comedy-got-much-better-after-a-weak-first-season*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Parks and Recreation** — score 1000/1000
   Six episodes of a Leslie Knope who read as a copy of Michael Scott, then a second season that rebuilt her.
2. **The Good Place** — score 662/1000
   A first season whose twist retroactively changed what the show had been doing.
3. **Community** — score 662/1000
   A conventional first year of study-group plots before the genre parodies took over.
4. **Seinfeld** — score 661/1000
   Five episodes in 1989 that NBC nearly buried before the show became a phenomenon.
5. **Brooklyn Nine-Nine** — score 661/1000
   A broad first year that later found its footing once the ensemble stopped orbiting Jake Peralta.
6. **Buffy the Vampire Slayer** — score 611/1000
   A twelve-episode first season on a tiny budget before the show's reputation took hold.
7. **The Simpsons** — score 611/1000
   Crude animation and a slower first season before the show's imperial run.
8. **Bob's Burgers** — score 600/1000
   An early run with a harsher edge that softened into one of television's warmest families.
9. **It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia** — score 448/1000
   A shoestring first season shot for a few hundred dollars, before Danny DeVito arrived.
10. **Schitt's Creek** — score 353/1000
   A first season built on sneering at a small town, before the show decided to love it.
11. **New Girl** — score 353/1000
   A first season sold entirely on Zooey Deschanel before it became an ensemble comedy.
12. **The Office** — score 240/1000
   A six-episode first season that tracked the British scripts closely before the Scranton branch found its own voice.
13. **Halt and Catch Fire** — score 240/1000
   A first season pitched as a Mad Men imitation, then reinvented around its two female leads.
14. **30 Rock** — score 106/1000
   An uneven first year still working out what to do with Tracy Jordan and Jenna Maroney.
15. **Star Trek: The Next Generation** — score 106/1000
   A famously stiff opening year that later produced some of the franchise's best hours.

Tags: tv shows, comedy, sitcom