Best Comedy TV Shows On Paramount+

Life can be stressful, and finding ways to take the mind off all that stress can be hard. Thankfully, streaming services help give audiences hundreds, if not thousands, of choices when it comes to avoiding tension headaches.

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For many, there’s nothing better than a good old-fashioned sitcom to help melt away the daily stresses we all face. Getting a few laughs in every thirty minutes or so is great, but being able to binge some classic sitcoms is where it’s really at. And thanks to Paramount+, some of the best sitcoms of all time are ready to make us laugh again.

30 Cheers

11 Seasons (275 Episodes)

Only a handful of sitcoms were as culturally important as Cheers. Cheers initially centered around the budding romance of bartender Sam and waitress Diane, but it soon evolved into a sitcom about people rarely seen on TV before.

Cheers paved the way for a generation of shows by perfecting the will they/won’t they format of storytelling and creating some of the most beloved characters in television history. The theme song to Cheers promised that every viewer would be welcomed like an old friend, and for two-hundred and seventy-five episodes, that promise was kept.

29 I Love Lucy

6 Seasons (180 Episodes)

One of the most beloved sitcoms of all time, I Love Lucy continues to make people laugh seventy years after it debuted. Lucy remains one of the most recognizable icons of television, be it from the time she crushed grapes with her feet or when she worked on the conveyor line for a chocolate company, shoving candies into her mouth with wild abandon.

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Being the Ricardos, written and directed by The West Wing‘s Aaron Sorkin, was an awards-season contender in 2021, landing three acting nominations at the Academy Awards for Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, and J.K. Simmons. The film got fans feeling nostalgic and revisiting I Love Lucy to remember why it still stands out after all these years.

28 Happy Days

11 Seasons (255 Episodes)

Another long-running series that outlived its initial premise, Happy Days continues to make people laugh to this day. What started as a story about a high school kid and his friends growing up in 1950s Wisconsin grew to inspire several other hit shows.

Happy Days introduced the world to The Fonz, one of the greatest comedic characters to grace the small screen. It also helped kickstart Robin Williams’s career when he guest-starred as Mork from Ork and later starred in Mork & Mindy. These days, Fonz’s famous leather jacket hangs in the Smithsonian in Washington DC, but every episode of his story can be seen on Paramount+.

27 Sister, Sister

6 Seasons (119 Episodes)

Sister, Sister ran for six seasons as part of ABC’s famous TGIF lineup and starred real-life twin sisters Tia and Tamera Mowry. Sister, Sister was a 1990s classic that never got the attention of shows like Friends and Seinfeld because it was aimed at a younger audience.

Telling the tale of two sisters who couldn’t be more different if they tried, Sister, Sister never pushed the boundaries of the family sitcom genre. It continues to be a series that the whole family can get together and enjoy.

26 The Odd Couple

5 Seasons (114 Episodes)

The Odd Couple was based on the 1965 Neil Simon play that was turned into a hit film in 1968. The Odd Couple took the basic concept of Simon’s work — two divorced men move in together and drive one another up a wall — and took it to the next level.

Starring the perfectly cast Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as the anal-retentive Felix Unger and the overly messy Oscar Madison, The Odd Couple was not a hit TV series when it originally aired. In fact, it never broke into the top 30 in the Nielsen ratings. Yet, it became a beloved series in syndication years later.

25 Taxi

5 Seasons (114 Episodes)

The forefather to shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Party Down, Taxi centered on the employees of the Sunshine Cab Company, who seemed to spend more time sitting in their garage than actually picking up fares in Manhattan. Famous for introducing the world to Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny DeVito, Taxi still has a grimy edge that is rarely seen in sitcoms today.

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While most workplace sitcoms focus on white-collar jobs and clean-cut employees, Taxi‘s rough-and-tumble characters helped create new types of sitcom characters that continue to challenge the basic sitcom format to this day. It’s impossible to see Christopher Lloyd’s Reverend Jim and not notice how much of the Reverend can be seen in Michael Richards’ Kramer.

24 Wings

8 Seasons (172 Episodes)

Created by three veteran writers from Cheers and set in the same universe, Wings focused on the Hackett brothers as they tried to keep their small single-plane airline company Sandpiper Air off the ground. Between flying vacationers from the mainland to Nantucket Island, the brothers and everyone else out of Tom Nevers Field often find themselves mixed up in the usual sitcom concepts.

Even though it’s a spinoff of another show, the characters in Wings made everything feel fresh and new. While Wings was never as popular as other NBC sitcoms of the time, the series ran for eight seasons and continues to find new fans to this day.

23 Family Ties

7 Seasons (176 Episodes)

Mostly remembered for turning Michael J. Fox into a household name, Family Ties was a revolutionary series when it first began. Family Ties, which saw liberal parents Elyse and Steven butting heads with their Ronald Reagan-loving son, played by Fox, was one of the first shows to focus on a family where the parents were baby boomers.

Family Ties ran for seven seasons, during which time it won five Emmys and a Golden Globe. Most recently, the show was used as the inspiration for the WandaVision episode “A Very Special Episode…” which perfectly copied the opening credits of Family Ties.

22 Sabrina The Teenage Witch

7 Seasons (163 Episodes)

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a darker version of the famous comic book character created for today’s TV landscape, but Sabrina the Teenage Witch was about as family-friendly as a sitcom could get in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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Another member of ABC’s TGIF programming before it moved to the WB for its final three seasons, Sabrina the Teenage Witch starred Melissa Joan Hart as the titular character and kept things pretty light. While today’s Sabrina could be a little too much for younger viewers, this version would fit them perfectly. It changes up the typical sitcom formula with the clever addition of magic and sorcery.

21 The Brady Bunch

5 Seasons (117 Episodes)

One of the most milquetoast sitcoms, The Brady Bunch ruled over the first half of the 1970s by painting a picture of the perfect middle-income family. The titular family — perfectly split between a mom, dad, three daughters, and three sons — never faced any significant problems – unless one considered Marcia’s broken nose a shocking event.

While many of the jokes on The Brady Bunch may not work today, its influence can still be felt in many of today’s popular but bland sitcoms. In many ways, The Brady Bunch is the formula that every sitcom since has been trying to riff on.

20 Frasier

11 Seasons (264 Episodes)

Frasier, a spinoff of Cheers, had Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as Frasier Crane as he returns home to Seattle to take care of his father. Frasier hosts his own radio show as he deals with life’s everyday problems alongside his brother, father, and his father’s live-in physical therapist.

Frasier won universal acclaim and is cited as one of the best sitcoms ever made. The series won 37 Primetime Emmy Awards, a record it held until Game of Thrones beat it. A series revival is planned and will release on Paramount+, spanning 10 episodes.

19 Everybody Loves Raymond

9 Seasons (210 Episodes)

Everybody Loves Raymond follows the Barone family, led by hapless patriarch Ray. Ray and his wife Debra live across the street from Ray’s parents and brother, often leading to hilarious tension amongst the family.

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Known for its honest and awkward humor, Everybody Loves Raymond was a big hit during its run. Many cited it as an accurate representation of family life when dealing with other family members. It won 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, 10 of them for acting. Unfortunately, Peter Boyle was the only cast member who did not win an Emmy during the series’ run.

18 Freaks And Geeks

1 Season (18 Episodes)

Freaks and Geeks follows a group of high school students in 1980 as they deal with various social struggles that come with high school. The short-lived series was created by Paul Feig and executive produced by Judd Apatow, who both went on to have very successful careers in Hollywood.

Freaks and Geeks only aired 12 of its 18 episodes and was ultimately canceled after one season. That said, the show has found a cult following and more positive reception in the years since its cancelation. Freaks and Geeks is notable for featuring several actors who went on to have great careers, including Jason Segel, Linda Cardinelli, James Franco, Seth Rogen, and Busy Phillips, to name a few.

17 iCarly

2 Seasons (24 Episodes)

iCarly is a revival of the Nickelodeon sitcom of the same name, taking place nine years after the original. Carly Shay moves back to Seattle with her roommate Harper. Her brother Spencer still lives in the apartment she grew up in, and her friend Freddie has moved back in with his mother with a daughter of his own. Carly decides to revive her iCarly web show for a new era.

The iCarly revival received high marks for shifting the series’ tone from the original in order to fit the characters being young adults, as it can be enjoyed by fans who grew up with the original as well. Jennette McCurdy does not return as Carly’s best friend Sam in the revival, as she retired from acting in 2018.

16 Reno 911!

8 Seasons (124 Episodes)

Reno 911! is a mockumentary-style show focusing on the Reno Sheriff’s Department as they look to uphold the law in the city of Reno. Led by Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon), the department is anything but ordinary and largely incompetent.

Reno 911! is a direct parody of Cops, as it is shot in the same style but as a comedy. Reno 911! was revived for two additional seasons, released in 2020 and 2022, which earned 4 Emmy nominations. It also had three different movie releases across the series’ run.

15 The Neighborhood

5 Seasons (96 Episodes & Counting)

The Neighborhood currently airs on CBS on Monday nights. The sitcom follows a white family that moves from Michigan into a predominantly Black neighborhood in Southern California. The series stars Cedric the Entertainer, Max Greenfield, Tichina Arnold, and Beth Behrs in the lead roles.

The Neighborhood was recently renewed for its sixth season and generally performs well on the network. Its usual sitcom formula is mixed with some more serious episodes that focus on contemporary issues in the United States, such as race relations and small businesses struggling to stay open.

14 Broad City

5 Seasons (50 Episodes)

Broad City stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer as two 20-something friends trying to make it in New York City, getting into all sorts of hilarious escapades. Jacobson and Glazer were also creators, executive producers, and writers on the show in addition to their starring roles.

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Broad City was developed from the pair’s independent web series of the same name, and several storylines are based on their real-life experiences as friends. The show is frequently cited as one of the best comedy series from the 2010s and ran on Comedy Central for five seasons, winning several awards across its run.

13 Young Sheldon

6 Seasons (118 Episodes)

Young Sheldon is a prequel series to The Big Bang Theory, following the adolescent life of Sheldon Cooper. Sheldon lives with his eccentric family in East Texas and goes to high school at the age of nine, much to the chagrin of his older brother, Georgie. Jim Parsons narrates the series as an older Sheldon. It is currently in its sixth season and is renewed for a seventh this fall.

Young Sheldon’s format, a single-camera comedy, differentiates itself from its parent series, but there are many callbacks to the original show. Some of the stars of The Big Bang Theory have made uncredited cameos on the show, all in voiceover, even if the show has sometimes contradicted its parent series from time to time.

12 Hot In Cleveland

6 Seasons (128 Episodes)

Hot in Cleveland follows the lives of three aging entertainment industry women (Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, and Wendie Malick) from Los Angeles who settle down in Cleveland, Ohio, after their plane makes an emergency landing there. They lease a house also occupied by caretaker Elka, played by Betty White.

Hot in Cleveland was TV Land’s first scripted series, and the pilot was TV Land’s highest-rated telecast in the network’s history. The series featured several famous guest stars from classic shows, such as Mary Tyler Moore, Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, and William Shatner.

11 Younger

7 Seasons (84 Episodes)

Younger is set in New York City and follows Liza, recently single in her 40s after a divorce, as she tries to reset her life after being mistaken for a 26-year-old. The show stars Sutton Foster, Debi Mazar, Hilary Duff, and Miriam Shor. It moved to Paramount+ and Hulu for its final season.

Younger was TV Land’s longest-running original series, spanning seven seasons. The series received critical acclaim and has a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, citing how it explored the topics of aging and how society views age and identity. Foster’s performance also received high marks and nabbed a nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series in 2018 at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards.