In this edition of the ITB I thought I would share my top 10 favorite sitcoms and some of my favorite supporting characters and guest stars from each show. With that being said lets pull out the box cutter and open up the box!
TV Box:
10. Boy Meets World (1993-2000): This show follows Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) along his journey from middle school (season 1), to high school (seasons 2-5), and college (seasons 6-7). We also get to watch the growth of many characters during the course of the series. Cory's family: Father Alan (William Russ), mother Amy (Betsy Randle), older brother Eric (Will Friedle) and younger sister Morgan (Lily Nicksay/Lindsay Ridgeway). Rounding out the full series main characters are Cory's best friend Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong), girl friend and eventual wife Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel), and teacher/principal/neighbor George Feeny (William Daniels).
Favorite Supporting/Guest: Leon White aka Big Van Vader as Leslie "Frankie" Stechino Sr. Vader plays the father of Frankie Jr. (Ethan Suplee), one of the school's bullies, and is a famous professional wrestler. He also happens to be a former student of Mr. Feeny. He appears in a handful of episodes but the best one is "The Thrilla in Phila" where Cory joins the school wrestling team.
Other supporting and guest characters that I enjoyed during the series where Griff Hawkins (Adam Scott), Frankie Jr. (Ethan Suplee), and Jonathan Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn) although he was a main cast member during his time on the show.
9. Home Improvement (1991-1999): This is perhaps the first show I can remember sitting down and watching with the entire family. The cast was lead by Tim Allen who plays Tim Taylor, the host of a DIY type home improvement show called Tool Time. The show follows him and his family, wife Jill (Patricia Richardson), and his sons Brad (Zachary Ty Bryan), Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), and Mark (Taran Noah Smith). Throughout the show the Taylor family has two characters that are voices of reason. The first being their neighbor Wilson Wilson (Earl Hindman) whose face was always mostly hidden by the fence separating the two yards and a variety of other objects. The second being Al Borland (Richard Karn) who is Tim's co-host on Tool Time.
Favorite Supporting/Guest: Bob Vila as Bob Vila! Bob simply plays Tim's rival on the show and adding to the rivalry is that Al is a huge fan. Bob appeared on four episodes, one episode in each of the first four seasons.
About the only other supporting or guest appearance worth noting from the series was in season 6 when The Beach Boys guest star and it is revealed that the Wilsons in the band are Wilson's cousins.
8. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005-Present): Always Sunny follows a group of friends and business partners referred to as "The Gang" as they run their bar and get into all sorts of trouble throughout the series. Mac (Rob McElhenney), Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton), and Charlie Kelly (Charlie Day) are the co-owners of Paddy's Pub. Dennis' twin sister Deandra "Sweet Dee" (Kaitlin Olson), the main bartender at Paddy's, and their legal father Frank Reynolds (Danny DeVito) make up the rest of "The Gang."
Favorite Supporting/Guest: The best supporting character on the show has to be The Waitress. She is the girl of Charlie's dreams and she wants nothing to do with him. The Waitress is played by Charlie Day's wife Mary Elizabeth Ellis.
Other great supporting and guest characters on the show have been Z (Chad Coleman), Da' Maniac (Roddy Piper), and Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara (David Hornsby).
7. The Office (U.S.) (2005-2013): This series follows the everyday lives of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The show is filmed like a documentary which makes for some great moments throughout the series. While there is a plethora of characters on the show the main cast consists of Regional Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell), Assistant to the Regional Manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), sales reps Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), and former receptionist/sales rep Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer).
Favorite Supporting/Guest: Will Ferrell as Deangelo Vickers guest appearance on the show. He appeared in four episodes at the end of season seven. His first three were Steve Carell's last three episodes. Deangelo takes over as the Regional Manager and happens to be even more incompetent than Michael was. Some of his greatest skills are air juggling (pictured below) and the ability to dunk a basketball...although his demonstration of that ends badly.
Other great appearances on the show have been Danny Cordray (Timothy Olyphant), Todd Packer (David Koechner), David Wallace (Andy Buckley), and Robert California (James Spader).
6. Eastbound & Down (2009-2013): This HBO sports comedy follows former professional baseball pitcher Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) as he falls from sports stardom and must return to his hometown middle school in North Carolina to become a substitute P.E. teacher. Along for the ride on his up and down journey as he tries to return to the pros are his friend and assistant Stevie Janowski (Steve Little), his older brother Dustin Powers (John Hawkes), and his high school girl friend April Buchanon (Kathy Mixon).
Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite guest on the show is Jason Sudeikis in season 3 as Kenny's teammate and friend Shane Gerald. Shane is the catcher for the Myrtle Beach Mermen until an unfortunate event happens. Sudeikis also plays Shane's twin brother Cole in season 3.
Other great appearances on the show are Pat Anderson (Adam Scott), Ashley Schaeffer (Will Ferrell), Reg Mackworthy (Craig Robinson), and Roy McDaniel (Matthew McConaughey).
5. How I Met Your Mother (2005-2014): The truth of this series is that it takes place in the year 2030 as Ted Mosby (voiced by Bob Saget) tells his children the story of how he met their mother. The stories follow Ted (Josh Radnor) and his friends Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), and Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders) as they go through the ups and downs of life while living in Manhattan. Although I really enjoyed this show it had an awful series finale.
Favorite Supporting/Guest: The best supporting/guest character on the show in my opinion was James Stinson (Wayne Brady) who is Barney's gay half-brother. The two are very much alike in most ways and even serve as each others wing-man.
Other great characters during the shows run include Ranjit Singh (Marshall Manesh), Brad Morris (Joe Manganiello), Kevin (Kal Penn), and Arthur Hobbs (Bob Odenkirk).
4. The League (2009-Present): The show takes place in Chicago and follows a fantasy football league, it's members, and their everyday lives. The members of the league include Pete Eckhart (Mark Duplass), Kevin MacArthur (Stephen Rannazzisi), Rodney Ruxin (Nick Kroll), Dr. Andre Nowzick (Paul Scheer), Kevin's brother Taco MacArthur (Jon Lajoie), and Kevin's wife Jenny (Katie Aselton).
Favorite Supporting/Guest: I have to go with a tie for best supporting/guest for The League. Ruxin's brother-in-law Rafi (Jason Mantzoukas) and his best friend, porn director Dirty Randy (Seth Rogen) are amazing characters on the show. Rafi has more appearances on the show than Randy but when they both share the screen, specifically the episode that follows just these two characters, the show reaches a new level of crazy.
Other great characters to appear on the show include Shivakamini (Janina Gavankar) who is the namesake for the league's trophy, Ted Rappaport (Adam Brody) who is one of the league's out of town members, and a tone of current and former NFL players.
3. Parks and Recreation (2009-2015): The show follows Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler), a mid-level bureaucrat working in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. The ensemble cast includes Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones), Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman), Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe). The show is similar to The Office in that it is filmed like a documentary.
Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite supporting character from the show is Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz). He is Tom best friend who is similar to Tom but takes everything to an extreme level. The two start an entertainment company (Entertainment 720) at the end of the third season.
Other great characters from the series include Donna Meagle (Retta), Dave Sanderson (Louis C.K.), Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn), and Bobby Newport (Paul Rudd).
2. The Big Bang Theory (2007-Present): This show is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Doctors Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper (Johnny Galecki and Jim Parsons) are physicists at Caltech and roommates. Penny (Kaley Cuoco) lives across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon and is a waitress and aspiring actress from Nebraska. The last two remaining orginal main cast members are Leonard and Sheldon's friends and co-workers aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) and astrophysicist Dr. Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar). Starting in season 4 Doctors Bernadette Rostenkowski (Melissa Rauch) and Amy Farrah Fowler (Mayim Bialik) became main cast members.
Favorite Supporting/Guest: My favorite supporting/guest character on the show is Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman) the lonely comic book store owner. Stuart has some great lines throughout the show. Stuart does receive main cast status starting in season six.
Other great characters from the series include Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie), Wil Wheaton as himself, Zack Johnson (Brian Thomas Smith), and Arthur Jeffries (Bob Newhart).
1. Scrubs (2001-2010): The series follows the lives of employees at the fictional Sacred Heart teaching hospital. The main character of the show is Dr. John "J.D." Dorian (Zach Braff) who we follow while he guides us with inner monologue and daydreams. Other main cast members include Elliot Reed (Sarah Chalke), Christopher Turk (Donald Faison), Perry Cox (John C. McGinley), Carla Espinosa (Judy Reyes), Bob Kelso (Ken Jenkins), and The Janitor (Neil Flynn).
Favorite Supporting/Guest: Dan Dorian (Tom Cavanagh) is my favorite minor character from the series. J.D.'s older brother, Dan is a hyper, quick witted slacker who works at a bar and lives with their mother.
Other great characters from the series include Sam Dorian (John Ritter), Jordan Sullivan (Christa Miller), Ben Sullivan (Brendan Fraser), and Ted Buckland (Sam Lloyd).
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Well now that I have shared my top 10 favorite sitcoms I thought I would quickly share a few that I have seen some episodes of and plan to start watching.
1. Modern Family
2. Friends
3. House of Lies
4. Community
5. Malcolm in the Middle
Final Thoughts:
I don't have much to say for Final thoughts this week other than I hope to be back on the regular schedule very soon. I'm happy to announce that the blog now has an official Facebook page! Everyone can now reach and post on https://www.facebook.com/insidetheboxwithadambach. As always I can also be reached on Twitter (@acbach27) and at acbach27@gmail.com. Feel free to write in with any ideas, suggestions, or thoughts.
Everyone Have a Great Day!!!
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