re: We’re sitcoms better before there were so many options?

I forgot about Cheers! I also liked Wings but it doesnt belong among the best. You could also throw the Simpsons in there if you consider it a sitcom.

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Sitcoms were better then.
Dramas are better now.

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Tend to agree with that over the last 10 or so years....
Lost, Breaking Bad, SOA, Walking Dead, The Shield, West Wing, 24, Good Wife, Parenthood, This is us, Blue Bloods, etc. etc.

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Sitcoms were better back when the viewer had a sense of humor and didn’t threaten to boycott a show or network if they were offended.


This is a legit argiment

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It isn't.

The Office was a great modern sitcom. Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Community, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Silicon Valley, Veep, and others are all good/great sitcoms regardless of what PC lines they won't cross.

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Sitcoms were better back when the viewer had a sense of humor and didn’t threaten to boycott a show or network if they were offended. That was in the days when comedy writers actually wrote comedy instead of trying to inject every political or social hot topic into a show.

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Cheers

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Many Cheers scripts centered or touched upon a variety of social issues, albeit humorously. As Toasting Cheers puts it, "The script was further strengthened by the writers' boldness in successfully tackling controversial issues such as alcoholism, homosexuality, and adultery."[30]

Social class was a subtext of the show. The "upper class" – represented by characters like Diane Chambers, Frasier Crane and Lilith Sternin – rubbed shoulders with middle and working-class characters — Sam Malone, Carla Tortelli, Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. An extreme example of this was the relationship between Woody Boyd and a millionaire's daughter, Kelly Gaines. Many viewers enjoyed Cheers in part because of this focus on character development in addition to plot development.[31]

Feminism and the role of women were also recurring themes throughout the show, with some critics seeing each of the major female characters portraying an aspect as a flawed feminist in her own way.[32] Diane was a vocal feminist, and Sam was the epitome of everything she hated: a womanizer and a male chauvinist. (See "Sam and Diane".)

Homosexuality was dealt with from the first season, which was rare in the early 1980s on American television.[33] In the first-season episode "The Boys in the Bar" (the title being a reference to the play and subsequent movie The Boys in the Band), a friend and former teammate of Sam's comes out in his autobiography. Some of the male regulars pressure Sam to take action to ensure that Cheers does not become a gay bar. The episode won a GLAAD Media Award, and the script's writers, Ken Levine and David Isaacs, were nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Addiction also plays a role in Cheers, almost exclusively through Sam. He is a recovering alcoholic who had bought a bar during his drinking days. Frasier has a notable bout of drinking in the fourth-season episode "The Triangle", while Woody develops a gambling problem in the seventh season's "Call Me Irresponsible".

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All in the Family

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The Office was a great modern sitcom

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I'd rather watch an episode of The Office than an episode of Friends or Seinfeld.

Parks and Recs and the Office were the last two great major network sitcoms imo

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bring out the best

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home improvement

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Watched the first one last week in over 15 years. Unreal, dick was every other word. WTF at prime time.

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What show?

It's the same crap but we are older now and don't find it as enjoyable.