Items21The creator’s order
  1. 1Police Squad! (1982)Police Squad! (1982) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 4, 1982ABC pulled this cop-show spoof after six episodes in 1982, and the network's reported reason has become a legend of its own: viewers supposedly had to actually watch it to appreciate it. They did, eventually. Leslie Nielsen's deadpan Frank Drebin and the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker gag density went on…0
  2. 2Sledge Hammer! (1986)Sledge Hammer! (1986) 8.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 23, 1986David Rasche plays Inspector Sledge Hammer, a gun-loving parody of every Dirty Harry cop, whose catchphrase is "Trust me, I know what I'm doing" just before he proves he does not. Alan Spencer created it, and the satire of 1980s macho cop shows is broad, quick and still very funny. It has the…0
  3. 3Get a Life (1990)Get a Life (1990) 8.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 23, 1990Chris Elliott plays Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old paperboy still living with his parents in St. Paul, and the show treats the family sitcom as something to take apart. Episodes swerve into the absurd and the plainly bleak, which is why it feels closer to later cult comedy than to anything else Fox…0
  4. 4The Ben Stiller Show (1992)The Ben Stiller Show (1992) 7.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 27, 1992The Fox version of this sketch show lasted 13 episodes and was canceled for low ratings, then won an Emmy for its writing after it was already gone. Look at who was in the room: Ben Stiller and Judd Apatow created it, and Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk and Andy Dick were in the cast. The sketches…0
  5. 5Sports Night (1998)Sports Night (1998) 8.3/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 22, 1998Before The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin made this comedy about the staff of a struggling cable sports highlights show, and you do not need to care about sports at all. The rapid-fire dialogue, the crush of deadlines and a superb cast led by Robert Guillaume, Felicity Huffman, Peter Krause and Josh…0
  6. 6Freaks and Geeks (1999)Freaks and Geeks (1999) 8.7/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 25, 1999The benchmark for this whole list. NBC canceled it after airing 15 of its 18 episodes, and the full season now plays as one of the truest portraits of high school ever put on TV: Lindsay Weir drifting toward the burnouts while her little brother Sam survives with the geeks in 1980s Michigan. The…0
  7. 7Mission Hill (1999)Mission Hill (1999) 7.8/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 24, 1999Two former Simpsons showrunners, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, made this animated sitcom about Andy French, an aspiring cartoonist stuck selling waterbeds, whose 17-year-old brother moves into the city loft he shares with his roommates. The WB aired a few episodes, paused it, aired a few more and…0
  8. 8Undeclared (2001)Undeclared (2001) 7.9/10 on IMDbFirst aired Sep 25, 2001Judd Apatow's follow-up to Freaks and Geeks moves the awkwardness to college freshman year, with Jay Baruchel as Steve Karp and Seth Rogen, Charlie Hunnam and Carla Gallo as the dorm-mates around him. Loudon Wainwright III steals scenes as Steve's newly divorced dad, who keeps turning up on…0
  9. 9Andy Richter Controls the Universe (2002)Andy Richter Controls the Universe (2002) 7.9/10 on IMDbFirst aired Mar 19, 2002Andy Richter plays a technical manual writer at a Chicago corporation who narrates his own life and keeps rewinding scenes to try out alternate versions of what just happened. That trick gives an ordinary office sitcom a playful, almost sketch-like rhythm, and it is the reason the show still gets…0
  10. 10Clone High (2002)Clone High (2002) 8.1/10 on IMDbFirst aired Nov 2, 2002Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Bill Lawrence made this animated teen-drama parody before Lord and Miller went on to The Lego Movie, and the joke is irresistible: teenage clones of Abe Lincoln, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and JFK stuck in a high school love triangle. One 13-episode season ran in 2002…0