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The 20 best TV sitcoms of all time – readers' choice

What did Monitor readers choose as the best sitcom in the history of television?

4. 'All in the Family'

CBS

  • By Molly Driscoll Staff Writer

"Family" aired on CBS from 1971 to 1979 and starred Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, a crotchety WWII veteran intolerant of anyone who doesn't fit into his narrow view of the world, who lives with his long-suffering wife Edith (Jean Stapleton). According to The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, "Family" currently holds the record for inspiring the most spin-offs of any television series. Some of its successors included "Maude," "The Jeffersons," and "Checking In."

AV Club writer Robert David Sullivan noted the cultural impact "Family" had in America. "Archie Bunker was an antihero decades before the term was regularly applied to TV characters," Sullivan wrote. "He wasn’t 'politically incorrect' just for the fun of it, which is why so many sitcoms with superficial 'Archie Bunker types' have failed... [Edith's] slow struggle to pull Archie away from his comfort zone of suspicion and bitterness becomes the main theme of the series."

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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