I made sure to specify a situation comedy, simply because half-hour comedies and hour-long dramas are such different animals. Maybe I’ll do one for dramas. Who knows?
Anyway, the Question is: What’s your favorite episode? I don’t do well with specific episodes – I’m sure there are several episodes of Community or Happy Endings or even something more obscure that I laughed at as much or more than the two I’ve listed below, but I haven’t watched those shows as much as I’ve watched the two episodes below, and the ones I picked are danged funny, to be clear. I tend to remember moments, and then when I actually watch the episode, the entire thing might not be up to the standard of those moments. It could still be a favorite, but I tend to like the ones that make me laugh for a full episode. I don’t have an episode from Cheers to pick, despite Cheers being probably my favorite sitcom ever. The one where Norm pretends to be gay to get an interior decorating job is quite funny, and it’s aged … a bit better than you might expect. But I didn’t pick any of the show’s episodes (not even the Thanksgiving one, sorry). I’m just not that great at remembering episodes. If you choose to answer this Question, I’m sure I’ll write “Oh, dang, how could I have forgotten that?” or some variation thereof under many comments. That’s why I like posing Questions: It reminds me of things I might have forgotten!
I still love Friends, despite it taking a bit of a critical hit these days, and my favorite episode of Friends is the one where Monica and Rachel bet their apartment in a game with Chandler and Joey (technically, the episode is called “The One With the Embryos,” about which more below). The premise is silly but very funny, and the “game” of the boys knowing more about the girls and vice versa keeps escalating hilariously. It all comes to a head with the final question:
Meanwhile, Phoebe is trying to get pregnant. It’s a decent long-running plot, made more hilarious by the fact that she’s being a surrogate for her brother and his wife, played by Giovanni Ribisi and Debra Jo Rupp, both of whom are very funny. So that doesn’t distract from the main plot, and Ribisi gets to ask if the doctor can cram a whole shit-ton of eggs into Phoebe, because the chances of her getting pregnant aren’t great.
Seinfeld is another of my favorite sitcoms, and there are many brilliant episodes to choose from. Most people like “The Contest,” which manages to be all about masturbation without ever mentioning it, or “The Outing,” where a reporter thinks Jerry and George are gay (Seinfeld was on fire in Season 4), and of course, George’s monologue about the whale in “The Marine Biologist” makes that a favorite. But I think my favorite is “The Switch,” due to its episode-long brilliance. It’s the one where we find out Kramer’s first name – Cosmo – and it’s the one where Elaine lends her boss’s tennis racket to a woman and can’t get it back (plus, Charlotte Lewis, famous from The Golden Child, is George’s girlfriend). But the core of the episode is Jerry trying to dump one woman so he can go out with her roommate – the “switch.” The woman he’s dating doesn’t laugh, and that offends him as a comedian. Her roommate has a good laugh, and he’s attracted to her. He and George discuss the “switch” at the diner, which is funny enough, and then they try to figure it out, finally giving up before George has a revelation: Jerry should suggest a threesome with the woman and her roommate. They think this will work, until both women are into it. George can’t believe it, but Jerry says he’s not going to do it, leading to some of the funniest lines in the entire show:
“Don’t you know what it means to be an orgy guy?” This entire scene kills me every time.
So those are my somewhat boring choices. What is your favorite sitcom episode? Don’t be shy!!!!
I second you on that Friends one. My gf introduced me to the show, after I managed to never catch it for more than a few minutes at a time, but I think I’ve seen the whole series at least once through now. But the trivia game is amazingly funny and gives us insight into the gang, and we get the feels with Phoebe’s storyline. I also like the bit where the guys are guessing the groceries and Chandler whispers something to Joey, who replies, “not for another 2 weeks,” nicely skirting around any issue of mentioning any specific feminine products but still making an “adult” joke.
Favourite SINGLE episode, I can’t tell you THAT Greg, but I CAN bore you with several. Yay! Yay?
You’ve already mentioned some of my favourites from the best season of Seinfeld, but outside of that season I love The Limousine; The Parking Space; the episode with the ASSMAN; The Bubble Boy; the Tim Whatley (Bryan Cranston) episode in which Jerry thinks he has molested him while he was unconscious in the dentist’s chair; The Marine Biologist; The Puffy Shirt (“…but I don’t wanna be a pirate!”).
M*A*S*H: The Incubator; A Smattering of Intelligence; White Gold; The Late Captain Pierce (The Charles Brothers earliest masterpiece, the kind of episode that post-Larry Gelbart spent years trying and failing to equal); Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler (Ditto. Bitingly funny and incredibly moving); Fade Out, Fade In (Hawkeye and BJ are bested at the end of this episode and it is GLORIOUS.), Et cetera.
All episodes of the first season of Arrested Development are good to great, many of the second, the third is…not very good, the others? Um. *Coughcrapcough* I love the episode in which Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a “blind” lawyer and George Michael (not that one) is stuck in her apartment trying to get out of her way not knowing that she can really…you know. Hilarious. She’s very funny when she returns, uh, pregnant in Season Two as well. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is wonderful.
Cheers: Give Me A Ring Sometime, the pilot episode and one of the finest funniest pilots/first episodes ever made; I Do, Adieu (you’ll laugh, you’ll cry); Thanksgiving Orphans; the showcase episode for Harry the Hat in which Sam enlists the con man after the Coach was himself connned; Dinner At Eight-ish ( Lillith and Frasier have a dinner with Diane and Sam but Frasier hasn’t told Lillith he and Diane almost got married, various other things go wrong, hilarity ensues. Oh, and it has Bebe Neuwirth as Lillith being witty, funny, beautiful, and sporting her gorgeous lisp. Hah!); Rat Girl (More Ms Neuwirth, as well as Kelsey Grammar upside-down in a trashcan. Bliss!).
Blackadder II: Every episode. Rowan Atkinson as likeable bearded utter bastard Edmund Blackadder is the best Blackadder! Tim McInnerney’s Percy creating purest “green”; Tom Baker as the literally and otherwise legless Captain Redbeard Rum SHOUTING like Brian BLESSED (“YOU HAVE A WOMAN’S LEGS!”); Miranda Richardson as Queen
ie, sadistic and girlie; Baldrick; Hugh Laurie as a peculiar Prussian with a scar, a rhoticism, and a penchant for dressing as cows.
Blackadder The Third: the Johnson’s Dictionary with Robbie Coltrane. “Contrafibularities?”.
Blackadder Goes Forth: “Hello, Darling.” Whatever you do, if Baldrick offers you tea with lumps of sugar in it or milk turn him down! And as for hot chocolate… Run!
British sitcom Only Fools and Horses: The Trotter brothers first encounter with “bent copper” Slater (Jim Broadbent) is memorable, certainly the clever way Del Boy gets the lanky weasel off his, Rodney’s, and their Granddad’s backs is fantastic; Danger UXD, Never accept a consignment of faulty blow-up sex dolls under any circumstances. The sight (and sound) of one of these hilariously hideous things inflating behind a sofa is not to be forgotten. Very funny; Time on Our Hands, this was meant to be the final episode, and should have been save for the idiot public demanding its return. The early part of the special is spotty but the latter half is as moving as it amusing.
Butterflies: A great melancholy late Seventies/early Eighties comedy about a middle-aged woman, a housewife (or homemaker, if you like), Ria (Wendy Craig) looking for something more from her life than her dull butterfly-collecting husband (the great hangdog-faced Geoffrey Palmer) and her two teenage sons, as much as she loves them. She contemplates an affair with the likeable Leonard but can’t commit to that. It may not sound funny but it IS and it captures a moment in time before feminism as well as, negatively, the pressures of failing capitalism would change things for better and worse. I doubt that certain people could appreciate Butterflies today because they lack empathy as well as the imagination/intelligence not to be nailed the present day. Their loss.
The IT Crowd: The three leads go to see a a gay musical (was it actually CALLED Gay! or am I misremembering, havoc follows. Jen thinks her camp boyfriend may BE a closeted gay man, Moss ends up working behind the bar (for reasons to silly to describe), while our third “hero” has to, um, pretend to be wheelchair-bound after being discovered using the disabled lavatory because he’s an idiot. “If you don’t mind me asking… How did you become disabled?”, “Acid!”
Father Ted: Kicking Bishop Brennan Up the Arse. Just watch it!
Ah. I think that’s enough of that. (At least, for now. He threatened.)
Dictionary? You mean the big papery thing tied up with string?
(was it actually CALLED Gay! or am I misremembering,)
You’re remembering right. 🙂
Hi, Hal. Where’ve you been?
I do like the Cheers episode with the Sam/Diane/Frasier/Lilith dinner party. Bebe Neuwirth was so good in that role, and they really did her dirty by the end of the show.
I haven’t watched enough Blackadder to have a favorite episode, but dang, that’s a good show.
I have a soft spot for a particular episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, “The Americanization of Ivan” (season 2, episode 17). A Soviet representative decides to defect to the US via the staff of the radio station. Along the way he falls in love with Bailey, because who wouldn’t?
A big part of the plot revolves around Elton John’s classic “Tiny Dancer” and its really sweet.
https://youtu.be/2qFmGXCrIlk
I think my favorite is probably an episode of an obscure Adult Swim show called Newsreaders, the episode is “Gay Camp,” and it is on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/k-7POlcNigw
However, that almost certainly doesn’t count as a sitcom, since it is only 15 minutes, not in front a live audience, and doesn’t have the structure of a traditional sitcom. It’s more like sketch comedy, I suppose.
For something more, you know, sitcom-ish, the first one that came to mind is the ‘Wizard of Oz’ episode of Raising Hope (the actual title is “Bro-gurt”). As soon as I finished watching it for the first time, I had to immediately watch it again, it was so good.
Honorable mention goes to the (first) paintball episode of Community, “Modern Warfare”. As Greg mentioned in the article, Community had so many stand-out episodes, none moreso than this one.
I don’t really do sitcoms, although I guess I could pick any episode of Cheers or Frasier. They are the only Shows I can watch.
Shows like The Big Bang Theory and Friends just make my skin crawl, they are so obnoxious.
See, like OP Greg, I can mostly think of bits (look up the opening gag to the Severe Crane Damage episode of Cheers sometime). But then I just know I’ll pick something, and somebody will remind me of an entire show that slipped my mind – Hal’s comment reminded me of the entire British Ouvre, which brought up the Grapes Of Wrath episode of Black Books.
And, yeah, the paintball episodes of Community.
I’m not even sure what counts as a sitcom, either.
Hmmm…
I’d say my contenders are:
Lo Scandalo from Archer (the Italian Prime Minister is murdered in Malory’s apartment).
The Master Plan/Freddy Spaghetti from Parks and Rec (Ben and Chris arrive).
Dinner Party from The Office (SNIP SNAP! SNIP SNAP!)
S1E6 of Derry Girls (“But that’s censorship!” “Correct, Mr. Maguire. I’m censoring you.”)
Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design from Community (WOULD THAT THIS HOODIE WERE A TIME HOODIE!)
Lovesick: All of them, but let’s say “Phoebe” from S1 (She’s Luke.)
HIMYM: Arrivederci, Fiero (It comes around!)
BURGAS: My favorite sitcom episode is the Seinfeld episode where Jerry is on the subway train sitting across the guy reading his newspaper and completely naked, in the same episode, I think, Elaine is waiting in line to go to the bathroom- either on the plane or bus. I forget what George and Kramer were doing.
Really? That one is generally regarded as not very good, because it splits them all up and they don’t have each other to bounce off of. I think it’s decent, but it’s strange that you would pick that specific one. You’re an iconoclast!
A few:
M*A*S*H: My favorite sitcom, and my favorite episode is probably “Dear Sigmund.” You have Sidney Freedman hanging around writing a letter to Freud, and you get great little sequences with each character. The quintessential episode.
Community: I will also go with “Modern Warfare,” the first paintball one. It becomes a legit action movie with some big relationship beats. Also it’s funny. My runner-up might be “Paradigms of Human Memory,” the fake clip show. Or “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.” Or “Basic Lupine Urology.” There are a lot to pick from.
Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place: I know I’ve talked about this before, but: “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Psycho Halloween.” I saw it live and it blew my mind. You think it’s a normal episode but it goes off the rails and turns into a Simpsons Treehouse of Horror. And the twist at the end– perfection (for a Wednesday night on ABC).
I would count the Simpsons as an animated sitcom, but I couldn’t possibly come up with my favorite episode.
Man, the fake clip show of Community was so good.
Yeah, I’d probably count The Simpsons, and of my favorites, I still think the Monorail one is the best.
The Monorail episode is the one everyone picks, and it is great. Another popular one is “You Only Move Twice”– the Hank Scorpio one.
But every time I see a random Simpsons from the first 8 or so seasons, I think “Oh wait, *this* has to be one of the best ones.” The show was too strong for too long, so it’s hard to narrow it down. Also I have trouble remembering which jokes are from which episode.
My favourite episode of The Simpsons is Last Exit to Springfield.
I don’t have a long memory so I can only go with a recent one – the season one finale of The Good Place. You know why, probably even if you haven’t seen it, but I’ll never spoil it. Ted Danson’s maniacal wide-ass grin is singularly glorious.
I did love 2×2 “Jason figured it out? This is a real low point.”
Yeah, that’s an excellent episode. I have a harder time with shows – even sitcoms, which tend not to do this – that tell an overarching narrative. It’s hard to single out any one episode from those. But that’s a very good end to a brilliant season.
Although Friends, the internet’s choice for Best. Sitcom. Evah! is bland and not very impressively written, the non-superstar guests in the early seasons were often fun. Debra Jo Rupp and ol’ Vonnie Ribisi were funny (no surprise that the adorable Debra Jo went on to her own sitcom), as was Larry Hanlon. My favourite guest star was Adam Goldberg and he was in the best episode too. Chandler’s aggressive weirdo roommate Eddie (Chandler’s sotto voce opinion: “…you big freak of nature!”, funnier than any of the regulars and a great double act with the best Friend, Matthew Perry. It would have been a much better series if Eddie the Psycho had remained. Joey Tribbiani? Who?
I loved Adam Goldberg on the show, but it’s funny that you mention it, because I’ve read some people who think those episodes haven’t aged well. Eddie is clearly mentally ill, but Chandler and Joey don’t think to get him help. I don’t agree with that, because it’s a “sitcom world,” but it’s interesting that you thought of those episodes.
Some people do parrot what others say and replicate thought so as no to be cast into the outer dark though so I can’t them seriously. It’s a comedy, morons! (Oops. The dimwittedness that has crept almost everything now gets me down. On the one side racist misogynist everythingphobes who don’t see a problem with anything no matter how evil, on the other self-righteous hypocritical hypersmug dullards with Stalinist tendencies. *sigh* I think I hear Louis Armstrong singing “what a wonderful world”) Just as you say, it’s a sitcom world it isn’t a documentary. Surely, Jerry, George, and Elaine should have got Kramer help because he is obviously cuckoo! I’m more offended by the episodes with Marcel the Monkey, that effing duck and chick, and any number of crappy guest stars. Oh, and not to mentioning ruining Monica as a character! I did watch quite a bit of it, certainly the early seasons but some of the increasingly limp later ones.
The episodes that have aged the worst might be the ones in which the lovely talented Helen Baxendale was stuck playing character vacuum Emily. Anti-British American chauvinists! That parts a joke, the showrunners of Frasier created two terrible characters to pair with Niles and Daphne and THEY were American, it’s just an example of lazy writers being fearful of writing characters that could be likeable or at least funny and instead cooking up bore/boots it will be easy for the audience to hate. Bad writing ahoy! I feel bad for Ms Baxendale particularly but also Saul Rubinek.
Seinfeld is my favorite sitcom of all time and you pretty mentioned all my favorite episodes except for one. This might be cheating a little since it’s part one of a two part episode but The Boyfriend Part 1 Season 3, Episode 16 has one of the funniest moments on t.v. I’ve ever seen. I’m talking about the magic loogie scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBz3PqA2Fmc&ab_channel=Amir%C5%A0abanovi%C4%87
I’ve scene at least a hundred times and kills me every time.
Dang, that whole explanation – riffing on JFK – is so funny. That’s a good episode, even if it’s a two-parter!
Oh snap, I had no idea that’s what they were going for! It honestly just never clicked for me. Thanks Greg, today I learned something.
Hello, Greg, thanks for asking. I’ve had some problems from around the beginning of the pandemic and lost access to this site too for quite a while. I hope you find something to raise your spirits soon.
Re. Bebe Neuwirth/Lilith. Yes, yes, yes! Finally someone else agrees with me about that last season’s treatment of her. Apparently Ms Neuwirth didn’t want to be a regular any more (they only bothered crediting her as one from Season 10! And she was too often underused in my opinion) but the way they wrote Lillith in Season 11 was ridiculously out-of-character. I couldn’t believe that plot at all. Interestingly/tellingly Frasier never got a female comic equal or superior partner in his own series (which was never as good as Cheers!) while the best and funniest guest character/actress was… Lillith/Bebe Neuwirth. Gol-lee. (Patricia Clarkson was hilarious in her Parks and Recreation guest shot but was stuck playing an unfunny boring -!if obviously beautiful – character on Frasier. Grammer?)
Yes, it is. I love it! Richard Curtis certainly made up for the sins he would commit in the future with Notting Hill and The Bland That Rocked with his earlier work. Such great dialogue and fantastic delivery from Rowan Atkinson in particular. (One would never guess he had a stutter) Funny that Peter David referenced it in his original X-Factor. The man has taste.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen any of Mr Bean. It can be annoying and virtually silent goon Rowan Atkinson is not anywhere as appealing to me as extremely verbal witty bastard Blackadder Rowan Atkinson but at its best it was verra verra funny. Look up, Mr Bean Christmas Turkey for cry-laighing stupidity (and ponder the similarity of a later lesser Friends scene that was not at all a rip-off, nosiree). Boy, I ramble I know!
For Seinfeld, it might be “The Outing” – I watched that the other day and almost cried laughing. So great. I probably identify too much with George.
The only seruous rival for Seinfeld in my personal ranking of greatest sitcoms is Frasier – there are so many great episodes, but “The Matchmaker” is one I’ll never tire of watching. Unlike Seinfeld, I do think the characters in Frasier are fundamentally good people if a bit vain at times, and this episode actually has a few plot similarities with “The Outing” (confused sexuality is at the center of the episode’s hijinks) but the ending is pretty wholesome.
One other sitcom that doesn’t get mentioned enough in my opinion is The Dick Van Dyke Show – the humor really holds up to this day! I recently watched an episode with my roommate and his genuine hysteria cemented this as a favorite episode of mine. Season 3, episode 1: “That’s My Boy.” The plot is a flashback to the days following Ritchie’s birth, and Rob’s increasing paranoia that they may have taken home the wrong baby from the hospital. Spoilers for a 60-year-old TV episode: at the end of the episode, Rob gets the family who he thinks he may have swapped babies with to drop by… and it turns out they’re black. My roommate almost suffocated from laughter. It is a legitimately hilarious episode and I also feel like it was sort of revolutionary – the punchline for the A-plot involves race, but it doesn’t make fun of anyone at all. It’s just a brilliant episode.
Special runner-up status to “Remedial Chaos Theory,” “Motherboy XXX,” and “Shaggy Busted.” That last episode from Harvey Birdman is totally puerile, but it’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen on TV.
There’s a Dick Van Dyke episode where he’s bought Laura an insanely garish necklace — I have friends who’d love it, but it’s obviously not what suburban wives were wearing in the 1960s — and her obvious dismay coupled with her desperate efforts to fake liking it are just amazing. Such a talented cast.
Favourite animated sitcome? Going with The simpsons and the episode where Maggie was born. Everyone remembers Do it for her, but I think it’s Maggie grabbing Homer’s thumb that really gets me. Plus there are just so many good jokes that feature Homer at his manic best. “He’s… telling the truth, dear”
Favourite sitcom in general would be the Community, with my personal fave (at the moment) being the Office spoof with Pierce in the Hospital. Pretty strong character work, and Donald Glover kills it when Troy comes face to face with Levar Burton.
Man, I loved that show, but considering how all of season six, as good as it was, felt like the show runner wanted to do something else, that’s when I knew it was time to let it go.
Favourite comedy episode of all time? It comes from an obscure show called Review, featuring Andy Daly as Forrest McNeil. Forrest is a television host whose job is to review life itself, by experiencing things that viewers request of him, like “What’s it like to eat a lot of pancakes?” What’s it like to be Batman?” “What’s it like to do cocaine?” With the requests getting more absurd and personal, the whole thing gradually destroys his life and many of his relationships. At one of his loweest points, Forrest finds himself in jail, and his review for the day is “What’s it like to have an imaginary friend?” Without spoiling it, seeing a grown man make an imaginary friend in prison leads to a conclusion where I still don’t know if I am crying because it’s so funny, or so tragic. It also leads to a good confrontation with Forrest’s father, where all of Forrest’s actions for that season come to a head.
Review was a pretty unique show (I know it was a remake, so maybe not totally unique…). I binged the whole thing in 2 days when I discovered it. Great combination of cringe, unusual pathos, and uproariously funny situations. I think my favorite episode was “There All Is Aching” but they’re all great (especially as the larger arc becomes apparent).
Oh man, Review was great. I seem to recall laughing the most at the Pancakes one, the one where Forrest becomes a Hulk or whatever, the one where he gets lost at sea… but there are a lot of good ones. The show got better and better as it rolled along.
YOU CAN’T DISAPPOINT A PICTURE!!!!!!
…does the Flintstones count as a sitcom?
If so, than my favorite episode is “Dr. Sinister,” the James Bond spoof from season 5 (I think). It features the unforgettable and alluring Madame Yes, who calls Fred and Barney ‘good lookings’ with a suitable modifier as the situation requires (e.g., handsome, stupid, etc.).
A close second is the early first-season episode featuring Hot Lips Hannigan, when Fred belts out an amazing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” in a hipster night club.
The Flintstones was based on The Honeymooners so it’s definitely a sitcom. That is indeed a very funny episode (“Oh, that’s just one of my former partners.”)
It’s also one of several old TV shows where the writers thought there was such a martial arts move as a judo chop.
Dick Van Dyke Show, where he reminisces about a marathon DJ session, before he had an interview to join the Alan Brady Show. “Poor little pussycat!”
Mary Tyler Moore Show-election coverage, with a broken teletype and Ted only having one result: “Mitchel 85, Turner 23.”
WKRP-Turkey episode
I Love Lucy-girls get jobs in the chocolate factory
MASH-5 O’Clock Charlie
Fawlty Towers-The Germans
Taxi-Rev Jim takes his written driving test
Yes Prime Minister-The Key-Hacker clips Sir Humphrey’s wings by cutting off access to Number 10, to teach him a lesson
Yes, Minister-The Situation Room, in an Arab state, during a reception.
Are You Being Served?-German Week
Black Adder II-exploring, BA III-Duke of Wellington, BAIV-final episode, very poignant
IT Crowd-take your pick, but the episode where Moss makes the building think Jen has died.
Father Ted-holliday; “These cows are small, but those are far away!”
Black Books-Bernard tries to do his accounts
While it doesn’t get as much love as the Thanksgiving episode, WKRP’s “Bah, Humbug” with Carlson trapped in “one of those Charles Dickens things” is a great Christmas episode. “That’s right Les, I stole your quarter.”
You’re counting Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister as two different shows? 😀
That Black Books episode is the first one.
What’s your favourite Red Dwarf? (Just because nobody’s mentioned it.)
It’s generally treated that way, in BBC marketing.
Red Dwarf is tough. Backwards is a great one, though i would probably have to say Queeg, just for the ending.
The transmogriphier one (DNA), where Kryten is turned human and then Lister has to fight the curry monster is another.
The 3rd series is gold, though I enjoy series 2-5 immensely. 1 Is a slow starter, but gets better as it goes along and they figure things out.
Ace Rimmer is always great. Love the ending to “Stoke Me a Clipper,” just for the poignancy.
I actually quite like Series 8, where they are back on Red Dwarf, with the original crew brought back by nanites. There was some really funny stuff in there and it was a nice change after the previous couple of series. I enjoy 6 and 7; but, not as much as the earlier or Series 8.
I haven’t seen the stuff after Series 8.
There was an episode where Lister was visibly reading Alpha Flight, so…
Back To Earth isn’t as bad as advertised, and there are some good episodes in Season XII, but I wouldn’t force them on you.
The problem was later Red Dwarf’s are that there are very funny moments – the human printer jam in XI was a genius idea.
It’s just after series 6 none of the episodes seem to land consistently.
Can’t believe I forgot to mention The Germans!
“You started it!”
Favorite IT Crowd has to be when Ballbluff.com helps the boys become “lads.”
“Catch that ludicrous display last night?”
I don’t know about favourite, but I do love that Ballbluff idea. 😀
That was a good one. Jenn’s dinner party is another. Also the one where Jen has to give a speech and the boys con her into believing the internet is a black box with a blinking red light.
My favourite IT Crowd is where Jen attempts to translate Italian.
Some of my favourites (not necessarily the best episodes)
RED DWARF – Polymorph – a highlight for me was the later part of the episode where each had been completely drained of a negative emotion and, as in Star Trek: the enemy Within, this negative part of them is also vital
FATHER TED – the Mainland (Jack and Ted meet Richard Wilson and get stuck in very dark caves with Father Noel Furlong while Jack accidently goes to Alcoholics Anonymous)
CHELMSFORD 123 -Heads you lose (in which Aulus finally decides he has had enough of Badvoc)
NIGHTINGALES – Crime and Punishment (in which the night watchmen somehow manage to catch a burglar but are any of them his father?)
COUPLING (UK original not American remake)- Remember This (the series best use of showing the same scenes from different character’s points of view as they remember a party where some met for the first time)
and as I do watch American shows too
THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN – Dick is From Mars, Sally is from Venus (In which Tommy goes to school, Sally tries dating, Harry catalogues dangers and Dick despairs)
my second choice would be Proud Dick (In which Sally finds some cheap tins of food, Dick is relieved that despite the pictures on the tin they are not eating cat, Meanwhile Harry has lost his memory, is shocked to learn his family is aliens and tries to warn people)
While it’s not one of their funniest, there’s a later-season episode where they encounter their future selves who’ve traveled through time hanging out with famous people like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot and are generally horrible. They made it entirely plausible.
Of course even a bad episode is better than the American pilot.
Well, I FINALLY put my list together. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2022/06/01/favorite-single-episode-of-a-sitcom/