Intelligent TV comedies?

[Diable Rouge]

I'm not really a series guy, but every week, I watched Frasier religiously, and even though the quality dipped after Daphne and Niles' relationship, the wit and intelligence of the acting and script was still superior to most shows. So, any current TV comedies that can fill the Seattle-shaped hole in my weekly viewing?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Hmm I found frasier rather tough going after a while. It seemed to be more a comedy about an rich intelligent elitist, rather than an intelligent comedy.

You might like Modern family, it's pretty funny,.

[Patrick Thistle]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Better Off Ted has just finished its run on FX. That was quite good. Chuck is funny, based on a ludicrous premise, but highly enjoyable (you'll need to start at the beginning though - the current season is the fourth one). The Big Bang Theory has a lot of smarts to it. Castle is a mystery detective series but has a lot of humour in it. And if you can catch repeats of Scrubs, the first few series were awesome.

[Toby Gymshorts]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Arrested Development. That is all.

[linus]

Intelligent TV comedies?

If Frasier is the cutoff here, then the Big Bang Theory would have no problem clearing that bar with some room to spare.

The American version of The Office also is pretty entertaining. I haven't seen the other ones mentioned above.

[Guest]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Community is brilliant as is Modern Family like !!! said. Post-post-modern-meta & also really funny. Parks & Recreation is my favourite current comedy. I They're all kind of ensemble cast type things.

[igor tcherevchenko]

Intelligent TV comedies?

30 Rock
It's always sunny in Philadelphia

[caja-dglh]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Archer is brilliant. Not necessarily intelligent, but deserves a mention everywhere.

[E10 Rifle]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Watching old epsidodes of Frasier is a satisfying part of my morning ritual and while I enjoy them, it does lose intelligence points every time Daphne's "relatives from Manchester" (whose accents vary from posh English to cockney to Scottish and some weird points inbetween) appear. It really can't be beyond the wit of the writers of an intelligent comedy to get some basic facts right about another, fairly well-known country.

But to truly fill that intelligent comedy hole, just get the Curb Your Enthusiasm box set.

[Incandenza]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Lyra wrote:

Community is brilliant as is Modern Family like !!! said. Post-post-modern-meta & also really funny. Parks & Recreation is my favourite current comedy. I They're all kind of ensemble cast type things.

Parks & Rec seconded though sadly NBC has shelved it until winter this year to promote the dreadful Outsourced. I don't know if Parks & Rec will be much longer for this world.

The first few seasons of The Office (US) were brilliant, but I thought it dropped off dramatically recently. I stopped watching.

My favorite recent show is Louie. I started a thread about it here in Film. Not sure if that's being aired outside of the US, but FX shows it here.

[Reed John]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Outsourced is ok. Not great but tolerable. Not as good as Parks & Recreation. The Office is still pretty good but probably needs to wrap it up soon. The Office and P&R are really almost the same show anyway, so as long as P&R continues, it will be fine.

Chuck was ok, but I gave up on it. Just not compelling enough to keep up with it every week.

Modern Family is the best of ABC's lot, although The Middle and, believe it or not, Cougar Town have their moments.

I was off Community for a while, because I like Big Bang Theory and they conflict now, but watching Community's latest season on-demand suggests I may have made the wrong choice. Big Bang Theory is funny, but it's kind of the same dozen jokes over and over. Community is loaded with 80s references and what not, so that's always a draw. I especially enjoyed the episode about them trying to revive a "space simulator" from the 80s sponsored by KFC.

I still like How I Met Your Mother. I find the male lead less grating than I used to. I'm guessing that the architecture protester played by the beautiful woman from House will end up being his wife.

Louie is the best thing on right now. Better Off Ted was ace, but of course got canceled.

Archer is definitely not "intelligent" comedy, but it is extremely funny.

[Diable Rouge]

Intelligent TV comedies?

I'll definitely give Modern Family a go so, my sister was raving about it, but she also likes Two and a Half Men, so was best to get a second opinion.

[WOM]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Two and A Half Men is a real conundrum. A lot of good lines mixed in with a lot of shit.

Big Bang Theory is excellent.

30 Rock is funny, but it doesn't make me laugh. Sort that out if you can. Arrested Development was the same way.

Curb is good even when it's bad.

[Incandenza]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Maybe Outsourced has gotten better. I thought the first episode was cringe-worthy. For some reason, there's a boom in comedic roles featuring Indians now. Mindy Kaling on the Office and Aziz Ansari on Parks & Rec (who, along with the Ron Swanson guy, are the stars of the show). Then there's that guy on Community...the strange thing, all of these are NBC shows. Those are all good roles. But then there's stuff like what I saw on Outsourced (also NBC), and the two guys on the MetroPCS commercial, which seem to be more along the lines of laughing at goofy Indians.

[WOM]

Intelligent TV comedies?

I found Outsourced cringeworthy as well.

And apparently Shit My Dad Says is a 'hit', but I think it's achingly bad.

[Incandenza]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Or as a local TV morning news show called it a while back, "Blank My Dad Says, the controversially named sitcom."

[matt j]

Intelligent TV comedies?

As mentioned elsewhere, Community is my favorite comedy on TV at the moment.

Gilmore Girls (for many seasons) fit this bill very well, it really shouldn't have been as funny as it was, but it was phenomenally well written for a time.

We've watched a few episodes of outsources, and it has a few hits (and a lot of misses). The main problem is that the main character (um... the white guy) is pretty uninteresting.

Arrested Development still far outclasses just about everything. Curbed is great, but it's just a different 'thing' to me.

30 Rock is a show with a ton of awful stuff, but when they get something funny, it's really really funny. Jack's line to Liz about what she would be in an apocalyptic scenario for instance.

[Sam]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Toby Gymshorts wrote:

Arrested Development. That is all.

Matej wrote:

Arrested Development still far outclasses just about everything.

These. (Although the OP says 'current'.)

[Incandenza]

Intelligent TV comedies?

True. But if deceased shows are also being considered, I'll echo Matej and recommend Gilmore Girls. I always got laughed at when I said that I watched it, because it was seen as a chick show, but it was excellent. It didn't get a lot of credit because I think that people thought that because it was on the WB/CW that it was a show for teen girls, but it was one of the best written shows on TV. The last two seasons--especially the first half of the final season--were not on the level of the early episodes, but still good.

[Nigelwyn]

Intelligent TV comedies?

First 2 series of Inbetweeners if have been a UK teenager in the last 35 years, and The Thick of It for an updated version of Yes, Minister.

[Sam]

Intelligent TV comedies?

I thoroughly enjoy The Inbetweeners, but would you really call it intelligent?

[Guest]

Intelligent TV comedies?

I dunno - the OP mentions Frasier as the standard, and Frasier would have been a lot funnier if him & Niles and Ros went round calling each other benders and fancying each other's mums.

[Bored Of Education]

Intelligent TV comedies?

It's slightly worrying that everyone appears to be mostly talking about US comedies. The best US comedies are the ones that appear to reflect the pathos that is usually more prominent in UK comedies - Fawlty Towers, The Office, Gavin & Stacey, Steptoe & Son etc etc. Even stuff like "Sorry" and "Open All Hours" were underwritten with the flaws and melancholy of the characters and their relationships.

Having said that, Frasier, Cheers, Taxi Roseanne and The Golden Girls all had these elements. I actually think that Friends is a lot better than it is given credit for.

[dalliance]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Curb is the daddy of all modern intelligent comedy for me, but unlike Inca I think The Office US has kept up a remarkable standard considering the number of episodes they churn out of it. It runs Curb pretty close for me. Can I nominate Larry Sander too as a good contender.

I thought the first couple of episodes of Modern Family were a bit schmaltzy but persevered with it and it developed out and is actually really good. I did the same without persevering on Community, I actively disliked the first 3 episodes and gave that one up.

Someone mentioned Better Off Ted but that was a pretty mixed bag for me and one that ran out of steam pretty quickly. There is a single great episode, somewhere around number four of season one where the corporation implement door sensors that have the unforeseen problem that they can only detect white faces, meaning all the black employees cannot get out of any room. To resolve the problem the corporation finds the most cost effective way is the employ minimum wage white guys for each of the black employees with job titles of Door Openers. It is pretty good but every other episode is a poor parody of this. Plus Ted is too smooth and smarmy and Linda is just too kooky and odd.

I am fairly late to 30 Rock and initially loved the quickfire feel of it plus the very edgy humour. We've finished a couple of seasons of it now and it seems to have become more mainstream as it has gone on.

[Nigelwyn]

Intelligent TV comedies?

Seinfeld.