I've been cranking out some serious posts this week, huh? Well here's another one coming your way. In today's television landscape we are offered so many options it's quite difficult to choose and/or watch everything that we'd like. I'm going to take a second to remember some of the good sitcoms of years past, considering that the traditional sitcom has slowly gone the way of the buffalo with the top rated sitcom being "2 and a Half Men", seriously that's upsetting.
The show that I absolutely loved as a youth was "Newsradio" on NBC. I get the impression that not too many people watched it back when it was on, but I could be wrong. The show took place in, well, a news radio office. The cast was probably one of the best ensembles in it's time. You had "Kids In The Hall" alum Dave Foley, the beautiful Maura Tierney, "SNL" genius Phil Hartman, pre-crazy Andy Dick, scene stealer Stephen Root (from Milton in Office Space fame) and the semi-charming Joe Rogan. The combination of great comic timing, smart writing and splendid acting allowed the show to have a solid run during the late nineties. Recurring gags such as Andy Dick's constant struggle to gain approval from the hilariously pompous Phil Hartman, Dave Foley's continuing quest to get Maura Tierney and Joe Rogan's McGuyver-esque ability to fix things where staples of the show and helped gained a great familiarity that I enjoyed. I believe Dick and Hartman single-handedly made this show as funny as it was and it was a tragic, upsetting moment when he died during the show's run. Sadly, the show was never the same even though Jon Lovitz joined the cast shortly after.
If you catch "Newsradio" on re-runs I highly suggest giving it a re-watch OR a first time viewing. It was one of the last good sitcoms and should be remembered as such.
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