Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, I’m introducing a rerun series that will lead us into the next two new shows slated for coverage — Community and Modern Family, both of which premiered in fall 2009 but are essentially 2010s sitcoms. So, to help us say goodbye (for now) to the 2000s, I thought it would be fun to go back 25 years and look at the best of the 2000-2001 season via a top ten ranking of its finest sitcoms, based on everything I’ve covered here.

Over the next ten weeks, I will rerun an old Sitcom Tuesday post — or a Wildcard Wednesday (those shows are in consideration too!) — as I countdown my top ten comedies from the 2000-2001 season. For this exercise, I have recently revisited all 12 Sitcom Tuesday shows that ran during that TV year, plus a few pertinent Wildcard entries, and I’m eager to share a few updated thoughts for 2026 — along with, of course, explanations for my ranking.

For the record, these are the shows that I considered for this exercise:

• Frasier (Season Eight)
• Friends (Season Seven)
• The Drew Carey Show (Season Six)
• 3rd Rock From The Sun (Season Six)
• Everybody Loves Raymond (Season Five)
• Just Shoot Me! (Season Five)
• That ’70s Show (Season Three)
• The King Of Queens (Season Three)
• Will & Grace (Season Three)
• Becker (Season Three)
• Malcolm In The Middle (Season Two)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season One)
• Norm (Season Three)
• Ladies Man (Season Two)
• Titus (Season Two)
• The Trouble With Normal (Season One)
• Bette (Season One)
• Welcome To New York (Season One)

My main criteria for this evaluation is predicated on direct comparisons of each show’s 2000-2001 output. But I’ll also be factoring in how each season fares in the trajectory of their own individual series, along with how each show’s ultimate, average, overall quality compares to the others. That is, I’m mostly looking at what was produced in 2000-2001, but I won’t be ignoring the broader intra-series and inter-series implications of such a ranking.

For this first post — #10 on the list — I have selected Season Three of BECKER, which I first wrote about here: https://jacksonupperco.com/2023/06/06/the-ten-best-becker-episodes-of-season-three/

Here’s the thing about Becker: despite a great star and some fine, well-proven writers, it’s never more than a mediocre effort that lets down the single great character at its center, for everything around him is significantly weak or at least weaker. As a sitcom, it doesn’t come close to rivaling this era’s finest (not to mention the other, better shows with which its star and key scribes are also associated, like Cheers), because it’s a low-concept ensemble comedy with an MTM-inspired half-workplace design that therefore needs better, more helpful regulars in order to uniquely inspire series-specific stories. However, Season Three is among the show’s best, boasting its biggest laughs and most memorable loglines, maximizing the comedic possibilities of the Becker characterization in stories that, if he doesn’t motivate, at least display him well. The only year that’s perhaps stronger is its direct predecessor, Two, which better reflects the centralized Becker’s ethos via a dourer tone that is simultaneously character-corroborating and therefore series-individualizing. In that regard, I say Two is the best for character (and situation en masse), while Three is the best for comedy, with more of an outward-reaching appeal. In 2000-2001, that doesn’t get it higher than tenth place on my countdown though, for there simply are better shows out there — shows at their peaks, and shows that aren’t but nevertheless still operate at a higher or more notable baseline, thereby rendering them more worth celebrating on this blog, which studies the sitcom as a compelling, difficult art form… Of course, Becker Season Three still beats out a handful of other options — including some I definitely considered for this spot. (I’m being vague right now so as not to spoil anything; clarity will be forthcoming…) What elevated Becker above them? Its strong title character, and the fact that this is a show at/near its peak, which makes it more ideal on this particular list than sitcoms that reached their own apexes outside the 2000-2001 season. That is, Becker’s third year is more a triumph of this specific TV season. Naturally, everything that follows from here on out I consider a better sitcom than Becker, both in 2000-2001 and beyond it. Stay tuned next week for #9…

Notable Episodes: “Smoke ‘Em If You Got Em” and “Dr. Angry Head”

Come back next week for #9 on my countdown! And stay tuned tomorrow for a new Wildcard!