My 5 favorite sitcom's. Ever

I really don't watch much television anymore.  And that's not counting the fact that it made stars of idiots like Jon and Kate Gosselin.  The new wave of reality television frankly bores me whether it's an MTV production featuring 6 or 8 strangers trying to co-exist in a house, 18 idiots stranded on an island forming tribes or the next mediocre singer hoping to snag themselves a recording contract by subjecting themselves to insults from Simon Cowell.  I suppose that it's generally cheaper to produce a show like this since you don't have to actually pay writers to come up with a script and just send out a few cameramen with instructions to film everything.  What I enjoyed and would still enjoy are some of the great sitcom's that we used to be able to watch.  Usually having anywhere from 5 to 9 regulars and a host of extras that would appear semi-regularly.  Hell, M*A*S*H probably had 15 to 20 people that would appear on multiple shows for season after season.  I don't know.  Maybe I'm just getting old, but for better or worse, here are 5 of my favorites, as usual in no particular order.
Barney Miller:

Set in a New York police station, the show ran from 1975 until 1982 and featured Hal Linden as the police chief trying to maintain order over a collection of diverse, quirky detectives and even stranger characters being brought in wearing handcuffs.  The show wasn't about the detectives and how they performed their jobs.  It was how they interacted with each other in what would have to be considered "weird" circumstances.  The detectives included one of my favorite character actors of all time, Abe Vigoda as Detective Phillip Fish and Max Gail and the continually confused Stanley Wojciehowicz.  Another couple of favorites of mine was Barney's boss, Deputy Inspector Frank Luger, played by another great character actor, James Gregory and Ron Carey as officer Carl Levitt who was constantly hounding Barney on why he hadn't yet been promoted to detective.
Night Court:

This ran from 1984 until 1992 on NBC and featured a young comedian named Harry Anderson playing Judge Harry Stone who was presiding over naturally enough Reinhold Weege.  While Harry began as the focal point, the comedy generally centered around Bailiff Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon, played by Richard Moll and prosecutor Dan Fielding played by John Larroquette.  These 3 were constants all 9 seasons while the rest of the cast changed several times.  4 actresses played the public defender, including Ellen Foley as Billie Young.  Before that she had been best known as the singer who did the female parts of "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights" by Meatloaf.  Finally however, the settled with the delectable Markie Post as Christine Sullivan.  Although very intelligent and capable, Christine was infatuated with Princess Diana and managed to work that in as a gag line during almost every episode. 
Cheers:
This was the lead in for Night Court for years and made it, in my opinion the best night of television for the week.  The story took place in a neighborhood bar in Boston.  The owner, Sam "Mayday" Malone, a former Red Sox reliever and alcoholic was the owner.  The bars patrons and staff meshed together beautifully.  The show rarely had much of a plot but was more a series of skits, generally taking place in the bar with few exceptions.  The show started out with Shelly Long as Diane, his over educated barmaid and love interest.  Shelly left after a few seasons and was replaced by Kirstie Alley, who had the most beautiful eyes of any woman that's ever graced this planet.  But the real stars of the show, again in my opinion were 2 of his regulars, Norm and Cliff, played by George Wendt and John Ratzenberger.  Norm had some of the great one liners I've personally ever heard, and Cliff was the classic bar "know-it-all".  Their foil was Carla, the perpetually pregnant and tempered barmaid played by Rhea Pearlman.  NORM!
WKRP in Cincinnati:

This show only lasted 4 years, mostly due to the fact that CBS kept moving it around on it's schedule.  It was the tale of a struggling radio station in Cincinnati that hired new program director Andy Travis in an attempt to elevate them from the bottom of the ratings.  He changes to format to rock and roll, to take advantage of the lead DJ, a former burnout that went by the name of Johnny Fever and brings in a new night guy who went by Venus Flytrap.  The staff is mostly inept including the station manager played flawlessly by Gordon Jump and the news director Les Nessman.  One of my favorite episodes was the Thanksgiving when manager Arthur Carlson decided to do the infamous turkey drop.  The show launched Loni Anderson as the newest sex symbol of the day as receptionist Jennifer Marlowe, but for my money, give me Bailey.
That 70's Show:

Again, just in my opinion, this is currently the last of the comedies that fit what I enjoy and even it borrowed the time frame of the other comedies listed.  It's about a group of teenagers growing up in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin.  This could have described my journey through high school except that it's a lot funnier and the endings turned out better.  It also had some of the weirdest real names by some of it's actors including Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher and Wilmer Valderrama.  And though they weren't exactly Ward and June Cleaver, has there ever been a better set of parents than Red and Kitty Foreman?
Maybe I'll find something football related to write about next time.  After all, spring practice starts Tuesday.  After yesterday's game against the beaks we could use it.   Have a good week!