Let's begin...
The Black Adder, British
IMDb; TV Tome
Sometimes reruns on BBC America.
See also: Blackadder II (IMDb), Blackadder the Third (IMDb), and Blackadder Goes Forth (IMDb), as well as a few specials or what have you. Anyway, in each series the same cast play basically the same characters, but in different periods in English history. Whether you consider the characters in each successive series descendants of the originals or reincarnations or anything else, doesn't really matter. They really are the same people, at the heart of it. And it's always bloody brilliant and clever and crazy and inspired and witty and hilarious and jolly good fun and... I dunno. Blackadder, Baldrick, George, and everyone, well it's just great and you need to watch it. Blackadder himself, Rowan Atkinson, is just the best, at least in the later series. In the first one he's funny, but kind of pathetic. In the later series he's far more clever and sarcastic. But in any event, he never can catch a break in any life. Surrounded by idiots, some lower than him and some higher, but they always make his life harder. Did I mention it was great fun?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, British
BBC; IMDb; SadGeezers Guide; TV.com; Wikipedia
Actually a 6 episode miniseries based on the first 2 books of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy by Douglas Adams, which was also adapted into a radio drama. Or comedy, more accurately. This could go on the weird page or the sci-fi page, but since it's some of the funniest stuff in the known universe, I'll put it on the comedy page. Absolutely absurd and hilarious and bloody brilliant stuff, the Hitchhiker books/radio/tv series is like one of the best things ever invented in the history of the world. I highly recommend you read all 5 books in the trilogy, as well as watching this miniseries and the radio drama, if possible. Each version will be a little different... Anyway, We have Earthman Arthur Dent, who finds out his friend Ford Prefect is actually an alien, and the Earth is about to be destroyed by the Vogon Constructor Fleet to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. So Ford and Arthur hitch a ride on a Vogon ship, until the Vogons catch them and toss them out the airlock, and like 29 seconds later they're picked up by the Heart of Gold, the new experimental starship using the new Infinite Improbability Drive, which has recently been stolen by the infamous Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is the President of the Galaxy, and an old friend of Ford's. Also on the Heart of Gold are Earthwoman Trillian, who we like, and who Zaphod had picked up some time earlier at a party; and of course Marvin the Paranoid Android. They all go off and do all sorts of strange things, such as searching for the legendary planet of Magrathea, chatting with pandimensional mice, who had paid for the Earth's construction millions of years ago, which was actually a gigantic computer designed by another computer to provide the question to the Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Ooh, I should probably mention that Ford was a field researcher for that wholly remarkable book, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which no galactic hitchhiker should be without. It's more important than even a towel! Anyway, they all eventually end up at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and later get blown back in time to primitive Earth... Listen, just watch the bloody thing, okay?! I'm ordering you to at least read the books. We can't possibly have any kind of meaningful discussion if you don't at least read the bloody books! Okay? Good.
How I Met Your Mother, CBS, Mondays 8pm
CBS; IMDb; TV.com; Wikipedia
The show is narrated from the future (2030) by Ted (voiced Bob Saget, though he's played by another actor in the present). Ted is telling his teenage son and daughter the story of how he met their mother, 25 years earlier. We see a little bit of his kids in the future just sitting there listening to him (we never see him in the future, we just see the kids from his perspective). But anyway, mostly we see stuff set in the present. Ted's friend Marshall has just gotten engaged to Lily (played by Alyson Hannigan, who we have always very much liked), and Ted is anxious to find true love, himself. Meanwhile, his friend Barney (played by Neil Patrick Harris) is into casual flings, and wants to keep Ted from getting too serious about anyone. (Barney is hilarious, and you totally gotta read his blog.) Anyway, Ted meets this woman named Robin (who we like), and falls in love with her after one date, which kinda freaks her out, especially considering she doesn't think she ever wants to get married. But they remain friends, and she becomes part of the whole group of friends. Ted meets some other women in the course of the first season, and starts seriously dating a woman named Victoria (who we like) for awhile, but that doesn't last, I'm afraid. He never really gives up on Robin (though based on his narration from the future, we know they won't work out, either).
Anyway, I find the show to be very amusing, charming, and quirky... and reminiscent of several shows I have enjoyed in the past that didn't do very well. But this show actually seems to be getting decent ratings, luckily. So I look forward to more seasons to come.... Speaking of which, at the end of season one, Ted and Robin get together, and Lily and Marshall breaks up when she goes to San Francisco to find herself. So season two starts with Marshall being miserable and Ted and Robin being happy, except for having to deal with Marshall's depression....
Mad About You, NBC
IMDb; Retro Junk; Sony Pictures; TV.com; Wikipedia
Paul and Jamie... were just about the best couple ever. This show was just so... clever and amusing and endearing and charming and simple and sweet and great... The writing, the acting, the characters, and everything... It didn't always live up to its own standards, but it often did, and when it did it was really beautiful. It had a sort of simple elegance about it, a smoothness, but also a wackiness, a slightly off-kilterness. Whatever. It was very comfortable. Oh yes, and we liked Jamie quite a great bit, we did. And Lisa. And we've nothing against Fran. What else to say? Paul Buchman was a filmmaker, Jamie was in advertising. They were married. They had a dog named Murray. And families and friends. That's about it, I guess.
There was this newsradio station, WNYX, in New York. The news director was Dave Nelson, from Wisconsin. The station was owned by eccentric multibillionaire Jimmy James. Lisa Miller was a reporter. Technically so was Matthew Brock, I guess. On air talent was Bill McNeal and Catherine Duke, originally. Um... let's see, and Joe Garelli was the guy who like fixed everything plus inventing crazy things and being a conspiracy nut and stuff. He was very cool. Matthew was really stupid and annoying and clumsy and stuff, but funny. Bill was self-centered and vain and arrogant and stuff, but funny. Dave was the only sane one really, although Lisa was sort of sane-ish. Oh yes, also there was Beth, Dave's secretary. She was rather weird. Everyone was weird. It was a very funny show and very well written and acted and just crazy and silly and great. Hmmm, we like Beth alot, and we like Catherine. But we especially like Lisa, yes.
Red Dwarf, British
BBC; IMDb; official website; Retro Junk; SadGeezers Guide; TV.com; Wikipedia
This could go on the sci-fi page, of course, but it's really a comedy, and bloody brilliant. I don't really know how many seasons there are. In any event, there's surely alot of the series that I've never had the chance to see. But it is such the coolest show! Absolutely hysterical... Anyway, there was this mining ship from Earth, the Red Dwarf, and its crew was all killed by a radiation leak, except Dave Lister, who was in cryostasis at the time, punished for bringing his cat onboard. Because of the radiation, the ship's computer kept him in stasis for 3 million years, until it was safe to revive him. Meanwhile his cat had kittens, and over the millions of years the succeeding generations evolved into a humanoid, intelligent race which eventually destroyed itself in a war over what color hats God wanted employees of some fast food place to wear, or something like that. Both sides were wrong, anyway. In the end, there was only one member of the race left, who is called Cat. After Lister is revived they become friends. Also on board is Holly, the ship's A.I., and there is a single mobile holoemitter to use to create a holographic simulation of one of the ship's dead crew. It's used for Arnold Rimmer, a junior officer one rank higher than Lister, who's very professional but very inept and annoying, though he thinks Lister is annoying, and perhaps he's right, but at least Lister's cool and stuff. Anyway... um, after awhile they pick up a mechanoid named Kryten... and over the years all kinds of odd and hilarious things happen. I don't know what else to say, it's a really really strange and funny show. And we sure do like Kochanski.
Sports Night, ABC
IMDb; TV Tome; TWoP
Reruns on Comedy Central.
This was one of the most brilliantly written and acted sitcoms of all time. It has devoted fans who couldn't care less about sports (including me). It's about a fictional sports news show on fictional cable network CSC. But it was more about the people who worked on the show. Dan and Casey, the anchors. Dana, the producer, who we very much like. Natalie, the associate producer, who we also very much like. Jeremy, the smartest guy in the universe. Isaac, the exec producer. And other characters. The show is just so brilliant and clever and hilarious and smart and brilliant and perfect and... stuff. Touching, moving, endearing... you care about these characters, and all the good and bad things that happen to them. You want to be friends with them. You wish you were as smart and witty as they. I can't recommend this show highly enough.