I make no pretensions of being thoroughly cultured. I don't care for subtle comedy, or movies loaded with symbolism. When I have seen one, other people have to tell me, "Mark, you understand, when he set fire to his shoes, that was the filmmaker's way of showing the rejection of conformity as evidenced by the blah blah blah."
What I have loved since childhood is a good half-hour situation comedy. I could name dozens of favorites - "The Life Of Riley" starring William Bendix, "The Andy Griffith Show," "Barney Miller," "That 70's Show," "Mom," and one that I just got into, "Fresh Off The Boat."
To me, a good sitcom is one that I can watch a hundred times and still laugh at the same joke, like when Jackie Gleason roars at Art Carney on "The Honeymooners" or when Sgt. Frank Drebin on "Police Squad" is asked by a gangster who he is and how he got in the guy's office and replies, "I'm a locksmith. AND I'm a locksmith."
It's great that there are so many streaming channels that we sitcom nuts can swim in. I could watch them all, and often do.
But for all these years, I have noticed three cardinal rules about sitcoms that should never be broken:
🠶Never have the whole gang go on a merry trip, be it to Hawaii (Brady Bunch) or Taiwan (Fresh Off The Boat) or Australia (Modern Family). These episodes are never classic, and leave me with the impression that the producers were just trying to get a free trip out of it.
🠶Never have a one-hour season or series finale. It upsets the balance, like Double-Stuff Oreos or Snickers Minis. Everyone will agree that the worst episode of Seinfeld was their lengthy closer, which made me wish that Alton Benes would come back and clunk their heads together like Moe.
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