Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! Today, I’m sharing the results from last week’s survey, in which I asked you to vote on the three 2000s-premiering multi-camera sitcoms that you think are most important for coverage here. Thanks to the 159 of you who participated!
I was pleased to see that the two shows previously slated for full treatment, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, were most selected, with about 75% and 60% of you, respectively, choosing them. Also, the recently announced Two And A Half Men, which I’m currently preparing for a hopeful debut later this month, came in third, with 47% support. This also pleased me; I know it’s not a favorite for most (including yours truly), but I have plenty to say about it, and though I’m not sure it’s absolutely necessary for a study of the genre, I do think it’s a candidate for one of the “Top 5” best sitcom slots during a few TV seasons in the middle of the decade — a consideration I’ve been using lately to determine what gets highlighted.
You’ll note that the next three most-chosen sitcoms were The New Adventures Of Old Christine, at 25%, Still Standing, at 19%, and Reba, at 15%. I have no official plans now to examine any of them, especially Reba, which I want so much to like (because of its star) but find to be discordant, with hackneyed, run-of-the-mill stories for broader-than-the-norm characters who strain both aesthetic and literal realism. It’s never a candidate for being in a TV season’s Top 5…
However, I’m open to the idea of featuring Old Christine at some point later this year. As I’ve said before, I believe it’s mostly enjoyable for Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but I genuinely think it’s a show with big laughs, and in my current (casual) opinion, I believe there probably are segments worth highlighting that could maybe make it competitive for a fifth-best place in several TV seasons. Still Standing’s popularity, meanwhile, surprised me — but pleasantly so. I consider it third, behind Everybody Loves Raymond and The King Of Queens, as one of the better examples of the early ’00s’ “goofy husband, mean wife” subgenre of suburban family sitcom — not great, but solid. Of course, it’s not necessary for coverage either, but I know it has episodes in the vein of King Of Queens that therefore wouldn’t feel incongruous here in this blog’s rolodex.
What do you think? Would you like to see Old Christine and/or Still Standing here? Let me know in the survey below — even if the answer to both is “no,” it’s important I get your feedback, for there’s a lot of other shows to cover in the meantime, and I don’t want to waste my time. Once again, I’ll share the results of this survey — which will close next week — in the near future!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JWS892N
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical rarity!