How I Met The Most Awesome Sitcom Ever - 22/10/2009
I don’t often claim things to be the best ever and I definitely will always have a soft spot for my past favourites, but I can honestly say that How I Met Your Mother is possibly the best possible mix of each’s best points:
I liked Blackadder because it had wit, but not a snobbish, intellectual kind. Just a little wordplay here and there, with a heavy sprinkling of dramatic irony. You knew the outcome of the last season before the first episode of it even ended – they were gonna die. It was WWI in the trenches, for Christ’s sake. You, similarly, know that by the end of the last season of ‘Mother, we’ll have met the titular ‘Mother’. And that’s from by the end of the first episode of the first season. Barney is also the first true comedic heir of Blackadder’s innuendo.
C’mon. It’s three guys and two girls (bumped up to three on occasion) in their mid-20s to mid-30s set in New York with their big apartment as a repeat location. It has Friends written all over it. They even comment on Friends with the quote; “Hanging out a coffee place, not nearly as much fun as hanging out at a bar”, when sat in a coffee shop all episode instead of their usual drinking place. However, it betters it… (Yes, call me a blasphemer, if you must): While the Joey/Rachel plot was obvious filler when the main story had gone on too long, when Barney (the womaniser) starts to like one of the female main characters in the third season, you realise the fact they are a perfect match was set up in one of the first ever episodes.
Coupling is another sitcom that’s been accused of leeching off Friends‘ formula of cast and locations, but it was amazing because it had the occasional concept episode. It once had a continual splitscreen between the girls and the guys, once showed an entire scene twice (once in English with a foreign girl, then replaying it to show the whole conversation from the girl’s side) and even also showed a drunken party twice to show both sides (drunk and sober). America had a U.S. version of Coupling that tanked, but ‘Mother has excelled where a brand-new show can, including: a total misunderstanding when a very good friend steals the main character’s name and cavorts over town, except you don’t realise until the end; an episode just like The Hangover, where the previous night’s events are explained to the lead the morning after, including an amazing twist where the girl in the bed is definitely not who you’re tricked into thinking it is; and even subtle stylistic touches (compared to other sitcoms, to me, anyway), such as a car’s odometer being the time marker for an episode.
Scrubs was and will always be up there with my favourite sitcoms, and always was for the longest time my absolute favourite. And I hate to be ‘that guy’, but I can’t help feeling that Season 9 is gonna cheapen the best finale ever; “My Finale”. Especially before Zach Braff leaves, and when he does, it’ll just be Scrubs: The New Class. Okay, tangent over. ‘Mother has Scrubs‘ voiceover narrations, a similarly awesome choice of soundtrack and even a recurring guest-run from the brilliant Sarah Chalke! Oh, and Barney is not only the new Blackadder but also the new Todd.
When you think of recent great TV comedy, you think My Name Is Earl, another great example of a single-camera sitcom, with decent music, memorable catchphrases (”Oh, snap!”, “Wakey-wakey…” and “Hey Crabman-Hey Earl” are the front-runners on the same high level as “Havvve you met…”, “Suit Up!” and “Legen…*”) and the odd special episode. But more than that, both ‘Earl and ‘Mother even beat Scrubs‘ own narration, because it has an older, wiser main character looking back with voiceovers on his misspent youth and regrets, and I’d argue the latter has the former beat due to the character having a lot more growth between the narration and when the story occurred.
Peep Show is pretty much Britain’s only recent and decent and long-running sitcom since the turn of the millenium, which…sucks. However, it more than makes up for the lack of other TV comedy. It’s sheer lack of societal know-how and the main characters’ total over-estimation of their own intelligence and skill are things that were sorely missing in most modern sitcoms, however both Peep Show and ‘Mother have reclaimed this aspect of comedy on both sides of the pond.
But that’s not to say that ‘Mother doesn’t hold up on it’s own. It has Alyson Hannigan in it, a staple of the American Pie films. It has Jason Segel in it, who wrote and acted in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as well as being in other Apatow-produced films. It has Neil Patrick Harris in it, and he needs no further introduction**. And it has ‘newbies’ Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders in it, too, who, while not being in massively famous stuff before, are totally awesome as the leading man and the main love interest (in the first couple of seasons).
* “…Wait for it…and I hope you’re not lactose-intolerant…***”
** Maybe he does, considering I always mistook him for the brother from Malcolm in the Middle for years****.
*** “…dairy*****.”
**** Who, co-incidentally, is the brother of Hyde from That ’70s Show.
***** “Get it? Legendary. Legen-dairy. Legendary.”
Copyright © 2009 Andrew Sparkes