Sitcoms are TV shows where you watch the same people get into trouble week after week. The characters stick around, the situations change.
This whole thing began on radio back in 1926. A Chicago station called WGN aired Sam ‘n’ Henry every day for fifteen minutes. Two years later, the show switched stations and got a new name: Amos ‘n’ Andy. People couldn’t get enough of it.
Television’s first sitcom was Mary Kay and Johnny in 1947. From there, sitcoms became huge on TV.
Fun fact: sitcoms almost always run 22 minutes. The rest of that half-hour slot? Ads.
The map you see here comes from Reddit user Dienaked. It shows which sitcoms people search for most in different states.
“Friends” is often considered one of the most popular and enduring sitcoms in the United States. It achieved immense success during its original run from 1994 to 2004 and has continued to maintain a strong fan base through reruns, streaming services, and DVD sales.
The Most Popular Sitcoms in the United States
Friends ended in 2004. That should’ve been it. But streaming brought it back, and now teenagers who weren’t even born during the original run are binge-watching Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe at Central Perk.
The Officeshouldn’t work. It’s about people selling paper. But that mockumentary format where Jim glances at the camera? You feel like you work at Dunder Mifflin too. The show ran 2005-2013 and built a massive following.
The Big Bang Theory made nerdy physicists into TV stars. Sheldon, Leonard, and the gang spent 12 seasons (2007-2019) being brilliant at science and terrible at social interaction.
How I Met Your Mother played games with time. Ted spent nine seasons (2005-2014) telling his kids this long story about meeting their mother, which meant the show could jump around to different years and plant mysteries that took forever to solve. Plus it gave us catchphrases like “legendary” and “suit up.”
Modern Family(2009-2020) took three connected families and filmed them mockumentary-style with talking-head interviews. Critics adored it.
Parks and Recreation made government work funny. Leslie Knope really, truly cared about parks in Pawnee, Indiana. Her coworkers were all lovable weirdos. Amy Poehler played Leslie’s enthusiasm completely straight, which somehow made it funnier. The show ran 2009-2015.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine put comedy inside a police precinct. Detectives solved crimes but also staged elaborate Halloween heists against each other. Fox killed the show in 2018 after five seasons. Fans went ballistic online. NBC grabbed it and kept it going through 2021.
The Simpsons wins on endurance alone. The show started in 1989. It’s still making new episodes. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie from Springfield have been mocking American life for 35+ years. No other American sitcom has lasted anywhere near that long.
