Sketch comedies were out, from the explicit, like Saturday Night Live and The Muppet Show, to the more ambiguous, such as The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. To choose the 100 greatest sitcoms ever, we first had to decide how to define the term. From Rob Petrie tripping over his ottoman on The Dick Van Dyke Show to Ilana face-planting on a Broad City subway car from The Honeymooners ’ Ralph Kramden barely containing his frustration with Ed Norton to Atlanta ’s Paper Boi doing the same with his cousin Earn from Lucy Ricardo getting drunk on Vitameatavegamin to Fleabag enjoying Gin in a Tin with the hot priest, the genre’s most beloved characters have been by our sides. For more than eight decades, the sitcom has both marked the times and provided a balm against them.
