Seinfeld takes the top slot on this list, as you would have anticipated by this time. A unique and nuanced cast of characters was created thanks to the deft balancing of cocreator and star Jerry Seinfeld's ear for rhythm and cocreator Larry David's misanthropic frustrations with everyday life. These characters included the scheming goof George Costanza (Jason Alexander), the pushy careerist looking for a sponge-worthy mate Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and the crazed hipster (Michael Richards). In addition, their teamwork produced some of the best lines and comic monologues in sitcom history, like George's at the conclusion of the "Marine Biologist" episode (1994).

Each episode has a unique internal logic that adds to the larger canon of these characters. This internal logic is constructed from haphazardly related threads and expertly woven into a tapestry of pure hilarity. The show's widespread success and complete control of pop culture have also been aided by neologisms, made-up holidays, and bizarre supporting characters like David Puddy (Patrick Warburton), Frank Costanza (Jerry Stiller), and the now-iconic Soup Nazi (Larry Thomas). Few other shows have achieved this feat of making those who don't understand the references the outsiders.

Years: 1989-1998
Creator: Larry David
Stars: Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards
Network: NBC

Six friends from Greenwich Village, New York—obsessive neat-freak Monica, facetious neurotic Chandler, eccentric new-wave masseuse Phoebe, dweeby paleontologist Ross, ladies' man goof Joey, and former high-school queen Rachel—served as the platform for the fusion of the sitcom genre with soap opera drama, which ultimately resulted in the creation of one of pop culture's most beloved shows. Friends reached previously unheard-of heights of popularity as Joey and Chandler came to represent the ideal bromance, Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe transformed into surrogate sisters, and Ross and Rachel's on-again, the off-again relationship created an unparalleled degree of fascination for its audience.

In addition, its exceedingly vague title alone—I mean, really, "Friends"?—captures its broad popularity. Its success may serve as the clearest illustration yet that the characters—and not necessarily the plot—are what truly populist sitcoms are all about. In the ten years since the show's finale, the writing has been just creative enough to allow a talented group of actors to develop into their characters and become comedic clichés. Friends have influenced every aspect of popular culture, including fashion. A prime example is Jim Vorel's "the Rachel" hairstyle, which was dubbed "the decades defining do" and epitomized influence.

Years: 1994-2004
Creators: David Crane, Marta Kauffman
Stars: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer
Network: NBC

Cheers refined the sitcom form, surviving for 11 seasons without ever running out of charm or chuckles. Seinfeld may have recast the sitcom in its image. Cheers have arguably one of the best and most diverse sitcoms casts ever, but its writing is unmatched. Cheers never dated despite seldom leaving the bar for more than ten years because it was never constrained by genre convention and frequently eager to experiment with its storytelling rhythms. Like many long-running sitcoms, Cheers in the 1990s was fundamentally different from what it was in the 1980s. It was less about Ted Danson's character Sam's dating life and more about the ensemble of characters, many of whom were at this point universally adored.

All of these characters truly came into their own during the latter years of Cheers, particularly Rhea Perlman's Carla and Kelsey Grammer, who joined the ensemble on a full-time basis before departing to star in Frasier. Although the final episode of the series drew mixed reviews at the time, nostalgia has elevated it to favorable status, especially in light of the happy endings that the majority of characters experience. Sam made the proper choice in deciding against getting married and sticking with the bar; Jim Vorel is, after all, his "one true love."

Years: 1982-1992
Creator: Glen and Les Charles, James Burrows
Stars: Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Nicholas Colasanto, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Kelsey Grammer, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, Bebe Neuwirth
Network: NBC

Instead of relying on an overarching plot, Frasier plays to its strengths: original episodes packed with situational and verbal irony that is delivered through the clashing of Frasier's (Kelsey Grammer) bombastic eloquence and his father Martin's (John Mahoney) blue-collar former-cop lines. This conflict is aided by Frasier's equally snobbish but more conservative brother and fellow psychiatrist Niles (Jane Leeves). Whether promulgating psychoanalytic theories to his listeners on his radio show (produced by his lowbrow single friend and coworker Roz Doyle [Peri Gilpin]) or sticking his expansive forehead into the business of his family members, Frasier spouts elitism-clouded advice, which more often than not combusts in his face, leaving his abounding ego bruised.

The writers were able to unleash their vocabularies when giving voice to such pretentious characters as Frasier and Niles, allowing them to articulately capture the ironies of those characters' perceptions of themselves, which, despite being explicitly highbrow, connected with viewers of all social classes.

Years: 1993-2004
Creator: David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee
Stars: Kelsey Grammer, Jane Leeves, David Hyde Pierce, Peri Gilpin, John Mahoney
Network: NBC

The incredibly long-running It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia follows The Gang, a group of egomaniacal degenerates who run an Irish pub in South Philly and include the twins of Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson, Dennis and Dee, Danny DeVito as their father Frank, and Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney as their friends Charlie and Mac. The show was made on a shoestring budget with scripts that average about three insults per minute.

The plots have included attempts to fix the gas problem, record-breaking attempts to fly across the country while intoxicated, and one very amazing coming-out episode when Mac utilizes interpretive dance to notify his imprisoned father that he is homosexual. The Gang doesn't alter.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia brazenly ignites taboo-saturated limits. Underneath the baby sunbathing, cat food eating, and "implicating" are insightful insights into today's hot-button societal topics including abortion, sexual assault, and gun regulation. The crew, who own the worst dive bar in South Philly, consistently comes up with quotable dialogue and conjures the funniest, though obscene, situations ever seen on television. Few shows could get away with so cleverly lampooning major societal quandaries and issues as one in the same season like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Years: 2005-present

Creator: Rob McElhenney

Stars: Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson, Danny DeVito

Network: FX

Arrested Development has become a cult sitcom due to its unrivaled ability to cram multiple jokes (verbal, visual, and self-referential) into a single line, making every episode a comedic gold mine. This has allowed it to be revived for a highly anticipated fourth season that bravely reinvented the genre by letting the plot unfold through the timely intersection of characters that led to confusion, chaos, and hilarity.

The Bluth family, whose reputation has been damaged by claims of embezzlement and (light) treason against the patriarch, battles to regain its former glory, led primarily by the honorable son Michael (Jason Bateman), as they all, in their individual brands of selfishness, fail to face the harsh realities of their actions. The play exhibits dysfunction on many fronts, from binge drinking to a lack of ability to imitate a chicken. Each cast member is revealed to be completely detached from the world around them, allowing the show to make the most of their absurd foolishness, especially when they think they are connecting on a deep level.

Years: 2003-2006, 2013-2019
Creator: Mitch Hurwitz
Stars: Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, David Cross, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Alia Shawkat, Ron Howard
Networks: Fox, Netflix

This ensemble comedy developed into one of the cleverest comedies to appear on television, starring a humorous cast of character actors including Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, and Rashida Jones. As the sitcom experiments and develops alongside its characters, whose improbable yet all-too-ideal relationships generate a continual stream of bubbly hilarity, each season has its own distinct flavor.

Leslie Knope (Poehler) and her fellow Parks Department employees work tirelessly to improve Pawnee, Indiana, a parody of the American small town while upholding the values of friendship, hard work, and independence. Ron Swanson, a mustachioed libertarian who despises the very government he serves, provides the best representation of the latter (Offerman). Even though it occasionally struggled to attract a sizable audience, Parks and Recreation received accolades from critics for its sharp satire of various political practices, despite the fact that it almost always errs on the side of being overly optimistic and upbeat.

Years: 2009-2015
Creator: Greg Daniels, Michael Schur
Stars: Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Retta, Jim O’Heir, Billy Eichner, Paul Schneider
Network: NBC

Few in Hollywood can claim to have a more constant, high-quality streak when it comes to creative dominance than writer/producer Norman Lear did in the 1970s. All in the Family, a version of the British sitcom 'Til Death Us Do Part that made its debut in 1971, was the first example of Lear's type of comedy, which aspired to produce gut-busting humor that would bring contentious but current social topics of race, sex, and class into the American living room.

Archie Bunker, the cantankerous, cynical, and blatantly racist working man who served as the series' main character was played by Carroll O'Connor and became one of television comedy's finest characters and a beacon for both liberals and conservatives (those on the right were convinced he was espousing their values, while those on the left viewed him as a caricature of old world sentiments). Every week, Archie's narrow viewpoint would be questioned by people like his counterculture-friendly son-in-law, leading to conversations that were both insightful and amusing. All in the Family is still regarded as one of the most influential and potent shows of all time, despite the fact that not every one of its more than 200 episodes was a hit. Today, much of the abundance of great television on display can be traced back to Lear’s insistence that the medium could be an instrument of social change, rather than simply the “vast wasteland” it has been dubbed.

Years: 1971-1979
Creator: Norman Lear
Stars: Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner, Danielle Brisebois
Network: CBS

Roseanne (previously Barr, formerly Arnold) was the star of the greatest sitcom about working-class America in the 1980s and 1990s before she irreparably damaged her reputation and career with her erratic social media. Roseanne captured and derived humor from the common struggles of middle-class suburban families, such as child rearing, making ends meet, and maintaining an occasionally rocky marriage, through the lens of a chaotic blue-collar family (consisting of Dan, Rosanne, Becky, Darlene, and D.J. Conner) headed by a domineering unapologetic matriarch whose parenting approaches are occasionally questionable, though almost always effective.

Despite being a hilarious comedy, this show never shied away from tackling contentious subjects that were often off-limits for sitcoms, including drug misuse, homosexuality, birth control, and masturbation. The program received acclaim from the start, garnered commendations to match, and maintained a committed audience all the way through its terrible climax. Roseanne created distinctive, fully realized characters that resonated with its viewers while puncturing reality in tense times.

Years: 1988-1997
Creators: Matt Williams, Roseanne Barr, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner
Stars: Roseanne, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Michael Fishman, Lecy Goranson, Natalie West, Sarah Chalke, Emma Kenney
Network: ABC

From Fonzie from Happy Days to Urkel from Family Matters, TV series have a long history of reorienting themselves around tiny characters who unforeseen skyrocket in fame. The messiest illustration was maybe found in this Maude spin-off by Norman Lear. As parents Florida (Esther Rolle) and James (John Amos) raised their three children in a Chicago housing project, Good Times was meant to be an issue-focused comedy. It's a tale of two shows for Good Times. Esther Rolle and John Amos play the parents in the first, a socially aware sitcom about a poor but proud Black family living in public housing in Chicago. The parents struggle with underemployment or degrading jobs while maintaining their dignity.

The second is a catchphrase comedy centered on their oldest son, Jimmie Walker's J.J., who was practically a cliché thanks to his catchphrase "Dy-no-mite!" and exaggerated laziness. But after the first season, he began to dominate the program, becoming its Fonz or Urkel. As a result, Rolle and Amos quit the show at various periods, with the latter doing so permanently after the third season. The first season is a traditional Norman Lear sitcom with progressive politics and a strong worldview, but the rest of the series is essentially just a dumb network sitcom. However, there was still some shrewd criticism and clever comedy in subsequent seasons.

Years: 1974-1979
Creators: Eric Monte, Mike Evans, Norman Lear
Stars: Esther Rolle, John Amos, Ja’net Dubois, Ralph Carter, Jimmie Walker, Bern Nadette Stanis, Johnny Brown, Janet Jackson, Ben Powers
Network: CBS

When the writers were on, the live-action cartoon 30 Rock was one of the funniest series in television history, which encapsulates the risks and benefits of a joke-a-second comedy. Tina Fey, one of Saturday Night Live's most well-known alumni, is the creator, producer, and writer of the sketch-comedy series 30 Rock, which brings viewers behind the scenes and explores the actors', writers', and executives' propensity for madness. While juggling the absurd demands of her mentor and boss, the sharp-toothed corporate shark Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), whose strict capitalist conservatism contrasts with Lemon's liberalism, Liz Lemon (Fey), Lemon is frequently forced to mediate between her show's stars (played by Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski). In her efforts to “have it all,” a successful career, and a loving family, the overworked food-loving curmudgeon invents her own sense of normalcy, which at one point includes being married in a Princess Leia dress.

This widely praised comedy is rife with irony and has a self-awareness that frequently delivers comments on the sitcom genre as well as social issues in a distinctive voice that is entirely original to its author.

Years: 2006-2013
Creator: Tina Fey
Stars: Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer, Scott Adsit, Judah Friedlander, Alec Baldwin
Network: NBC

Veep satirizes politics by focusing on what the general public enjoys seeing the most: the mistakes. Everything Selina Meyer (Julia Louis Dreyfus) does is analyzed, transformed into an offense, and spit back at her via the skewed prism of Twitter and never-ending public opinion polling, from foot-in-mouth moments to missent paperwork to squeaky shoes. They never state Meyer's political affiliation, therefore it's not surprising that they have a wide range of political supporters. Veep keeps faithful to exposing those who are more eager to be in a position of power than to have any significant social influence.

Dreyfus might be the funniest person now watching TV. She is willing to give something her all, and she has a tendency to go things beyond the superficially cute into the actually terrible and unpleasant. Instead of walking into glass doors, Selina Meyer smashes them, then stands in a heap of broken glass as her face is covered in bloody cuts. She makes poor decisions, dons awful headwear, gets a Dustin Hoffman hairstyle, and is unable to travel internationally without making a major social faux pas. And Selina is at her most awful as a character when she is egotistical, more interested in winning friends than advancing legislation, and attributing errors to her staff. Tony Hale's portrayal of Selina's "bag guy" Gary is delightfully depressing, and Reid Scott's portrayal of Dan Egan is so icy ambitious that every failure feels like a triumph. However, Veep's ace in the hole is Anna Chlumsky's Amy, whose Olympic-level response faces make fun of everyone else for their unintentionally selfish remarks. In addition, some of the top improvisers in America make guest appearances in the smaller recurring roles. It truly is the dream team for comedy nerds.

Years: 2012-present
Creator: Armando Iannucci
Stars: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Reid Scott, Timothy Simons, Matt Walsh, Kevin Dunn, Gary Cole
Network: HBO