Seinfeld & 9 Other Great Sitcoms Starring Comedians

Seinfeld & 9 Other Great Sitcoms Starring Comedians

Jerry Seinfeld may be the most successful example of a comedian starring in his own TV show, but he’s far from the only success story, as seen here.

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When a couple of NBC executives approached Jerry Seinfeld about developing a sitcom starring himself, he recruited fellow comic Larry David to help him create the series and write the pilot. But rather than come up with a fictional character for Seinfeld to play, they decided he would play himself as a comic in New York, and the show would revolve around the life experiences that inspire his material.

Jerry Seinfeld was hardly the first comedian to land a sitcom on primetime television, but thanks to the success of his series, every standup comic in the world, forever afterward, has been hoping for “the Seinfeld deal.”

10 Seinfeld (1989 – 1998)

Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David conceived Seinfeld as a show about how a comedian comes up with his material, but it ended up being a scathing social satire that picked apart the most minute details of social convention in order to ask why society bothers.

Thanks to the now-famous “no hugging, no learning” rule enforced on the writers, Seinfeld avoided the kind of treacly sentimentality found in shows like Friends and stuck to wall-to-wall laughs.

9 Ellen (1994 – 1998)

Before Ellen DeGeneres was the star of a talk show called Ellen, she was the star of a sitcom called Ellen, which ran for five seasons on ABC.

It was one of the first American TV series to feature the main character coming out as gay, with the groundbreaking “The Puppy Episode.” After the episode aired, DeGeneres herself publicly came out, which sparked enough controversy for ABC to add a parental advisory warning to each episode.

8 Everybody Loves Raymond (1996 – 2005)

Ray Romano’s sitcom vehicle revolves around Ray Barone, a sportswriter who lives in Long Island with his wife and kids. A lot of Romano’s early standup material was about being a husband and father, so it’s no surprise that’s what his sitcom was about.

The show’s MVPs were Ray’s family: his eccentric brother Robert (Brad Garrett), his overbearing mother Marie (Doris Roberts), and his grumpy father Frank (Peter Boyle), who lived across the street and stole every scene they were in.

7 The Office (2001 – 2003)

Although the U.S. remake has become the more popular series by far, the original British version of The Office is still a masterpiece of television. The mockumentary format has since become commonplace in sitcoms, but Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant used the format to capture the characters’ humanity, whereas most mockumentary shows tend to be just nonstop joke machines.

David Brent isn’t a glamorous, heroic, or even likable character, but he is compelling and sympathetic because his insecurities and weaknesses ring true.

6 The Bernie Mac Show (2001 – 2006)

Bernie Mac’s self-titled sitcom sees him becoming a reluctant parent when his sister drops off her kids to stay with him while she’s on her way to rehab.

A lot of the show’s humor came from Bernie’s unconventional parenting, which Mac always played hilariously. The series was created by Larry Wilmore, who would go on to co-create HBO’s Insecure and executive-produce Black-ish.

5 Master Of None (2015 – )

Aziz Ansari teamed up with Alan Yang to create Master of None for Netflix. The show is heavily influenced by Ansari’s own life, touching on subjects ranging from the frustrations of online dating to racism in the entertainment industry.

The show’s long-awaited third season was recently announced to be in development. It will take place in London after season 1 was set in New York and season 2 was partly set in Italy.

4 Roseanne (1988 – 2018)

Roseanne Barr’s self-titled sitcoms made waves in the late 80s and 90s with its accurate depiction of a conservative working-class family in America.

The series was a hit with both critics and audiences and it was one of the top four rated shows of the year for six of its nine initial seasons, while TV Guide has included it on multiple lists of the greatest TV shows ever made.

3 It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986 – 1990)

Garry Shandling was making TV comedy meta long before Dan Harmon. Before starring as a fictional talk show host in The Larry Sanders Show, Shandling broke all kinds of new ground with It’s Garry Shandling’s Show on Showtime.

What set this show apart from the other comedian-starring vehicles on TV was that Shandling would often break the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience.

2 F Is For Family (2015 – )

Bill Burr’s F is for Family takes the traditional setup of an adult-oriented family sitcom – the angry alcoholic dad, the worn-down housewife, the troublemaking kids, etc. – and flips it on its head with an ongoing, serialized narrative. All the characters’ actions have consequences.

For example, the next-door neighbor is a cocaine addict. Most comedies would simply use this as a recurring joke, but F is for Family has followed Vic through the various stages of his addiction, warts and all.

1 Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000 – )

After leaving Seinfeld in its seventh season, co-creator Larry David returned to the standup stage and created a special for HBO called Curb Your Enthusiasm. The standup segments were intercut with mockumentary segments following Larry’s personal life with dialogue improvised from outlined scenes.

David developed the improvised style of the semi-scripted scenes into a new series in which he plays himself causing all kinds of chaos for the Hollywood elite.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/seinfeld-best-sitcoms-starring-stand-up-comedians/

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