The best comedies draw their strength from the chemistry of their supporting characters, a charming lead can get you by for a season, but a talented group can turn your show in a comedy classic. Here are a few of my favorite ensemble comedies for you to binge.
- Community- Before Dan Harmon created Rick and Morty he had Community. There is so much talent on this show its hard to know where to begin. But this show could be and was anything you could imagine it to be. Infinitely absurd and surprisingly heartwarming. One of my top five shows of all time.
- Cheers– One of the all-time greats. Ted Danson, Rita Pearlman, and Woody Harrelson just to name a few of the talented actors in this ensemble. You may think there is no way a forty-year-old sitcom can still be relevant but let me tell you these episodes hold up. Go ahead and see for yourself.
- Frasier- A Cheers spinoff that was not only a completely different show but arguably a better one. This show knew how to laugh at its characters without ever letting its audience pass judgment on them which is a hard thing to manage. Its smart without making itself out to be more than it is, which is comfort TV.
- Friends– The gold standard. This sitcom reached the kind of saturation point that people now act like their cool because they haven’t seen it. (Spoiler: They’re not) Sure it wore out its welcome by the end, but those first few seasons were comedic gold. Watch season one and tell me you didn’t cackle your way through it.
- Happy Endings– Like a lot of great comedies it got off to a rocky start while it figured out what it wanted to be. But once it threw out its premise and just let its cast be funny, it became one of the most absurd shows you’re ever going to see.
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia– A show about the worst people you’ve ever met, who also happen to be hilarious. Too many iconic episodes to count. Not for the feint of heart.
- The Good Place– The smartest sitcom ever made. Who knew moral philosophy could be this funny? Ted Danson and Kristen Bell are the headliners but it’s the rest of the cast that will blow you away. Too recent to make people’s top lists just yet but in ten years critics will be putting it in their all-time top ten.
- The League– A show about the members of a fantasy football league, but you really don’t need to know anything about football to laugh your ass off. This show is really about a bunch of friends who are absolutely terrible to one another. And what could be funnier than that?
- Arrested Development- And you thought your family was bad. This absurdist comedy made narrator voice-overs cool again. An all-star ensemble that sells out on ever gag, finding humor in things that even the writers didn’t expect to get a laugh.
- Coupling– A British clone of Friends but way funnier and way less uptight. The episode run is short, but it has some of the most epic rants in the history of comedy.