FromMASHtoThe Simpsons, the most successful network sitcoms in the genre’s history have often gone on to shape countless imitators and successors in the years and decades after their release. The network sitcom is one of the oldest institutions on American television, dating back to 1947’sMark Kay and Johnnyand 1949’sThe Goldbergs. Thanks to their relatively inexpensive production process and their widespread appeal, sitcoms have remained a staple of network TV listings in the 80 years since their inception.
However, the tone and style of American network sitcoms were altered irrevocably throughout this time. As ofThe Simpsonsseason 36’s finale, the show is the longest-running scripted primetime American TV show in history. However, even its 35-year history accounts for less than half of the network sitcom’s time on TV. From the early years of I Love Lucy,to the innovations ofMASHandAll in the Familyin the ‘70s, to the first postmodern sitcoms of the ‘90s, this TV staple has changed its face countless times over the decades.
10I Love Lucy
Lucille Ball’s Show Paved The Way For Countless Later Sitcoms
Running from 1951 until 1957,I Love Lucywas the most-watched show in the United States in four of its six seasonsand one of the earliest formative influences on American sitcoms. Following Lucille Ball’s titular homemaker Lucy Ricardo,I Love Lucycentered on her wild schemes and the reactions of her long-suffering husband, Desi Arnaz’s Ricky Ricardo.
I Love Lucy’s success resulted in a slew of later female-led sitcoms such asThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,Bewitched, and, in later decades,The Nanny,Reba, andThe Mindy Project.
One ofI Love Lucy’s most notable innovations was the decision to center a female heroine. This eventually resulted in a slew of later female-led sitcoms such asThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,Bewitched, and, in later decades,The Nanny,Reba, andThe Mindy Project.
9MASH
The Biggest Sitcom Ever Remains The Greatest Workplace Comedy
AlthoughMASH’s antiwar satirewas central to its popularity, this long-running ensemble comedy had another major innovation up its sleeve. The show followed the exploits of soldiers, nurses, doctors, and technicians running the eponymous Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in doing soMASHgave rise to the perennially popular workplace sitcom sub-genre.
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MASHmight be the most popular workplace sitcom ever, but it was far from the last. Without this hit, there would be noCheers,Barney Miller,Taxi,Just Shoot Me,The Office, Parks and Recreation,Abbott Elementary,Scrubs,Workaholics,Brooklyn Nine-Nine,Superstore, orSt Denis Medical.
8All in the Family
TV’s First Truly Dysfunctional Family Paved the Way For Many Later Shows
The family sitcom was an early mainstay of network sitcoms as soon as the genre began in earnest in the ‘50s, with hits likeLeave it to Beaver,The Donna Reed Show, andFather Knows Bestdepicting idealized suburban families. However,All in the Familywas notable for making its central family a genuinely dysfunctional one, allowing creator Norman Lear to truly innovate within the boundaries of network television norms.The Simpsons,Married… With Children,Arrested Development,Roseanne, andModern Familyall owe a creative debt to the Bunkers, whileMaudeandThe Jeffersonswere direct spinoffs from the series.
7The Golden Girls
This Iconic Sitcom’s Female-Focused Story Inspired Legions of Later Shows
With an all-time great lead cast including Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty,The Golden Girlswas notable for its focus on single female heroines in their later lives. Where most sitcoms centered on the family unit and, later, groups of young people,The Golden Girlsand its spinoffsprioritized a demographic who were rarely centered on network television. As noted inThe Advocate,The Golden Girlscan be credited with helping to shape everything fromLiving SingletoSex and the CitytoHot in Clevelandand even HBO’sLooking.
6The Jeffersons
This CBS Classic Was An Early Major Black Sitcom
The secondAll in the Familyspinoff afterMaude,The Jeffersonsis arguably the most important Black sitcom alongsideSanford and Son.The Jeffersonswas notable for balancing depictions of serious real-life social ills with a focus on a happy, economically prosperous Black family.
The Jeffersonsalso shaped subversive satirical offerings likeThe BoondocksandIn Living Color.
The Jeffersonswas a huge influence onThe Cosby Show,Good Times,Family Matters,Diff’rent Strokes,The Fresh Prince of Bel Air,My Wife and Kids,Black-ish,The Neighborhood, andMartin. However,The Jeffersonsalso shaped more subversive satirical offerings likeThe BoondocksandIn Living Color.
5Roseanne
This Working-Class Family Sitcom Changed The Genre’s Perspective
WhileAll in the Familypaved the way for a grittier, less romanticized look at family life in the ‘70s, network sitcoms of the ‘80s replaced this with saccharine shows where financial realities were never a concern for the main characters. The backlash against shows likeFull House,The Cosby Show, andFamily Tiesresulted inRoseanne, an unashamedly blue-collar sitcom about working-class life in middle America.Roseanne’s focus on working-class heroes was groundbreakingand influenced later shows likeMalcolm in the Middle,Fresh off the Boat,Shameless,The Middle, andBob’s Burgers.
4Friends
This Iconic Hang Out Show Influenced The Next Generation Of Sitcoms
AlthoughRoseanne’s revival andThe Connerscontinuedthe sitcom’s story well into the 2020s, the family show was not remembered as the quintessential 90s sitcom. That accolade went toFriends, arguably the biggest hang-out show of all time.
Friendsshifted the average network sitcom’s focus from families to younger twenty and thirty-somethings, a concept that was attempted in earlier decades but never took hold until the ‘90s. Without the series, there would be noHow I Met Your Mother,New Girl,The Big Bang Theory,Happy Endings,Community,Coupling,Crashing, and many more.
3Seinfeld
The “Show About Nothing” Managed To Make A Major Impression
WhileFriendsoffered viewers a sweeter, more romantic look at the personal and professional lives of some aimless thirty-somethings from New York City,Seinfeldoffered a more cynical spin on the same premise.Seinfeldintroduced a cynical, apathetic edge to network sitcom writing, influencing numerous darker sitcoms that followed in its wake.Curb Your Enthusiasm,It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,Broad City,The IT Crowd,Titus,Search Party,Louie, and even the darker outings ofHow I Met Your Motherowe a lot to this atypically unsentimental sitcom.
2Modern Family
The ABC Hit Brought The Mockumentary Style To The Mainstream
AlthoughThe Big Bang Theory’s spinoffsprove that it was one of the most successful sitcoms of the ‘00s and 2010s, this doesn’t mean it was as influential as ABC’sModern Family.Modern Family brought the mockumentary format to the mainstreama few years afterThe Officeintroduced the style to network sitcoms.
The years that followed saw a deluge of mockumentary sitcoms replicateModern Family’s meta style. High-profile flops likethe muppets,The Comedians, andZach Stone Is Gonna Be Famoustemporarily killed the trend, butAbbott Elementary’s success proves that the mockumentary sitcom still isn’t dead as of 2025.
1The Simpsons
This Animated Family Sitcom Led To The Adult Animation Boom
If there is one show on this list that has reshaped American network television history in its wake, it isThe Simpsons.The Simpsonsis arguably the most influential sitcom of all time thanks to its unique writing style, a merging of cartoony absurdism and more grounded character comedy that few shows have pulled off before or since. Subversive, warm-hearted, silly, sharp, ingeniously clever, gleefully dumb, and always utterly original,The Simpsonswas best described by critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz inTV: The Book.
“Ambitious, intimate, classical, experimental, hip, corny, and altogether free in its conviction that the imagination should go where it wants” is as good a summation ofThe Simpsonsas a reader could hope for. This alone makes the show endlessly influential, withThe Simpsons’ self-parodic styleresurfacing in most modern sitcoms in some way or another. However, the show also had a more straightforward impact on the medium’s history.
The success ofThe Simpsonsresulted in the show igniting interest in adult animated comedy as a genre. As a result,The Simpsonsis at least partially responsible forFamily Guy,South Park,Bob’s Burgers,King of the Hill,Beavis and Butt-head,Archer,American Dad,Daria,The Great North,The Cleveland Show,Mission Hill,Futurama,Disenchantment,Rick and Morty,Solar Opposites,BoJack Horseman,Sit Down Shut Up,Central Park,Krapopolis,Hoops,Big Mouth,Smiling Friends,F is for Family, and countless other comedy shows from the last four decades.
TV: The Book(Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz)
