A carefully curated tour through TV comedy series, this mixtape of fondly rememb
ered shows surveys the genealogy of the form, the larger trends in its history,
the best of what the genre has accomplished, and the most standard of its works.
From "I Love""Lucy," "The Phil Silvers Show," and "M*A*S*H" to "Taxi," "The Lar
ry Sanders Show," and "30 Rock," this guide presents the sitcom as a capsule ver
sion of the 20th-century arts--realism giving way to modernism and then to postm
odernism, all between the hours of 8 and 10pm on weeknights. Each chapter spring
s from an individual representative entity, including "The Simpsons"' "22 Short
Films About Springfield," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"'s "Chuckles Bites the Dust
," "Seinfeld"'s "The Pitch," and "Freaks and Geeks"' "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers
," where Martin Starr's nerdy Bill takes comfort in--what else--the pleasures of
laughing at TV.
