We’ve been a little heavy-handed on the Drama of late so let’s get you some good old-fashioned laughs that will remind you why you’re happy you’re not at work right now. These workplace comedies are perfect for wasting a day or two away. Some parameters for these recommendations, the primary setting must be the workplace and the majority of the characters must work at said workplace. So a sitcom like Cheers doesn’t count since half the cast are just customers.
- Parks and Recreation– Let’s be real, the first season of this show sucks, and the second season isn’t exactly great either. But by season three this show was firing on all cylinders and becomes one of the most earnest, heartwarming comedies out there while achieving snort-out-your-drink levels of hilarity.
- Breaking In– This is an interesting little gem with a great cast that includes Christian Bale & Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville’s Lex Luthor). Taking place at a security firm that specializes in breaking into places to test systems for weaknesses, the show’s antics involve a lot of one-upsmanship. And Christian Bale is so unbelievably over-the-top campy in this you’ll be smiling every second he’s on screen.
- Night Court- This courtroom comedy features a magician for a judge and a remarkable number of Mel Torme references. The cast as a whole is incredible but Harry Anderson, Richard Moll, and John Larroquette are the stand outs here. Also keep a look out for Brent Spiner of Star Trek fame in a recurring guest role.
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine– The only show on this list currently airing new episodes and after seven seasons and two networks this comedy about NYPD detectives is still going strong. The cast’s chemistry is fire and there is not a type of comedy from slapstick to niche orchestral wordplay that they don’t cover. And even while playing a gay man, Andre Braugher is still the best straight man on television.
- The IT Crowd: This British comedy about lovably awful I.T. workers will have you snarkily asking people if they’ve tried turning it off and on again for the rest of your life. The launching point for the careers of Chis O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade, this is a show for fans of cringe and absurdist humor. Some of the jokes may not land if you’ve not spent time in the U.K. but put-upon nerds trying to act cool is a fairly universal theme theses days.
- Better of Ted– A moment of silence for a show that left us before its time was up. Better Off Ted only lasted twenty-six episodes, but boy are those some great episodes. The problem was a mostly unheralded cast that could get laughs but not viewers. The show follows the middle management of the project development department at a multi-national corporation whose practices would be called evil if the soulless bureaucracy accepted the notion of any moral code other than quarterly earnings. A pitch-perfect satire of being a tiny cog in corporate America’s machine.
- The Larry Sanders Show- Set behind the scenes of a fake late-night show, this series could double as a highlight real for any number of the comedic geniuses who passed through it. Gary Shandling, Jeffery Tambor, and Rip Torn anchor the series but the best part about it might be the revolving door of celebrities playing over-the-top versions of themselves. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the 90’s or just want to watch a show that shit’s on everything with equal disdain this is what you need to be binging.
- Newsradio- Phil Harman’s last television role before his tragic death. And he is absolutely brilliant in it. He’s not alone in that regard, the rest of the cast certainly pull their weight, but Phil Hartman was a legend of comedy and you owe it to yourself to enjoy the last laughs he gifted us with.
- Sports Night– Aaron Sorkin’s first television series and a sort of proto-West Wing. Just replace the White House with the set of SportsCenter and put it in a half-hour format. The comedy is stellar but its balanced by weighty issues and has more overarching plots than traditional half-hour comedies. Definitely an overlooked gem.
- Are You Being Served? – This British series about the antics of department store employees ran for seventy episodes from 1972 to 1985. Which is frankly unheard of for a BBC scripted comedy. The show thrived on farce and double entendres. Frankly, you need to watch this just for the “My pussy…” jokes alone. When you do watch it you’ll be sure to notice a myriad of modern sitcom tropes being put into practice, just remember “Are You Being Served?” did them first and did them better.