I've always thought individual lists are valuable for those reasons and consensus lists sand off all the interesting stuff.

I'm hoping to share mine for y'all to throw tomatoes at but probably not until January.

There are only a couple groupings, including the Comedy Central one. K&P is easily my pick for the best of that group, but the basic idea behind these (I think) is to highlight what's been a really strong year for Comedy Central.

In general I agree and support any movement to push Best Of The Year lists to January, but just so y'all know, we had screeners for Treme, The Returned, etc. It's true that So-And-So's Rockin' New Year's Eve never stood a chance, though.

Yeah, that and Mary Hartman would be on my list, but neither are exactly sitcoms. Maybe I should have asked for comedies.

I'd move Lasser up the list, but I love it.

Yeah, I think that's basically the consensus top 10, except for the unexpected choice of Chico and the Man, the one I haven't seen. Will have to check that out.

Now there's a fun game. If anyone wants to play, I'm curious what y'all would say for your top 10 '70s sitcoms.

Not only the commenters, although I keep a list of recommendations I've gotten from them. As David and I noted, this episode is on every list of great episodes.

Actually that oral history I linked to was not an AV Club feature, just one by an AVC writer.

It's been toward the top of my list since I came up with the idea!

I think it's largely because the same thing happened with the Round Table crew last week. I promise we've seen classic television before! This won't become a habit.

Thanks! And great choice. Can't wait for you to get to "The Guitar" and "The Round Up." Peak early Gunsmoke.

Oh my gosh, that's great. What Gunsmoke episodes? I've been watching some Fugitive, too, but sporadically, at the mercy of MeTV's scheduling.

Thanks for the measured disappointment; I totally see that. I'm happy that the Readers Pick introduced the classic episode to some freelance critics (Pilot's even been watching some more WKRP thanks to this, as she commented earlier), but I do get the disappointment at seeing such hand-wringing over such a delightful…

Jesus Christ, I like old TV. I got this site to post a 2500-word piece on Gunsmoke.

Yeah, Frank's Place is how I knew him first. Such a great under-the-radar show.

1970s? I don't know what that is.

I was hoping you'd do this!

I didn't downvote anyone, but there's a difference between how the world should be and how the world is, which is what we were talking about. More to the point, like AlienJesus says, straight characters are forever in romantic/sexual storylines on TV, even in workplace comedies. Gay characters are routinely denied…