I'd also add the Finally episodes with Rebecca and Robin in season 8 as not only two great episodes but also the two episodes that showed the development of Sam and Rebecca's friendship and Kirstie Alley really shined comedically. Episodes like that and the The Days of Wine and Neurouses\Wedding Bell Blues really…

Great article. I will also give examples to shows similar to Newhart that needed time to really find itself and become classics! Cheers was critically loved but was a ratings dud the first two seasons until Frasier was brought in (plus Cosby Show helped quite a bit too) which gave it a new energy, add the additions…

I know it's been a while but I thought I'd recommend two shows you should check out. The Carmichael Show and Last Man Standing, both are multi cams (my personal favorite type of comedies) and both are even bolder, funnier and edgier than Blackish but they balance out the points of view more smoothly and don't liberal…

I personally prefer Fresh off the Boat, Last Man Standing and the Middle as ABC's funniest tv shows though I do like Blackish a lot. I liked it better the first two seasons before the show seemed to make the characters meaner and meaner, especially towards Junior and Johan. I think a show can balance having the…

Roseanne's Disney episode and The Middle's were way more enjoyable. 1. Because theirs were more relatable to most of the viewers who aren't "wealthy" or flaunting money, these people are broke and it's nice to see them enjoy vacations they normally could never go on and just have fun, we have fun watching them do…

I've been catching up on the Middle another ABC show with the fantastic Patricia Heaton and honestly the Hecks are more believable as a family than the Johnsons imo. No matter how much they fight or are mean to each other or drive each other crazy you still know how tight that family is and how much they love each…

Imo a spin off can only work when you have that strong, funny yet grounded breakout character(or characters) who's played by very strong actors. Honestly Blackish doesn't have that with any of the main cast or recurrings, as great as the actors are none of the characters on the show can balance grounded and funny…

I always am amazed they don't have Bow kind of stand her ground with Dre more. She's a very intelligent and overall strong woman so I'd think she'd check Dre and Ruby more often. Like if they take shots at her fire back more so it's even and less victimish. Anthony Anderson doesn't write for the show but I get your…

I will say the show has become quite mean spirited to where it's jarring at times. Shows like Married with Children, Roseanne, Malcolm in the Middle, Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld of course make this work so well because of the actors innate likabilities as well as the shows have always been established as…

I agree about Carmichael and that Blackish is at it's best with Hope, The Word etc. But honestly, no sitcom or any show can do social commentary\political episodes every single episode of the show that would honestly get boring and basically they wouldn't be special anymore because they'd run out of stories by episode…

maybe the show would actually be good then like how A Different World turned out. I like Yara and the girl who played Miriam was decent but this doesn't seem like a strong cast for a spin off to me.

Agreed. Yara is a good straight person but she needs strong comic foils for this to work. Look at Benson for example. They put the perfect foils for the snarky and smarter than everybody in the room Benson to play off of which is why it worked so well. (Still one of the best spin offs imo)

I did feel this was quite rushed, probably would've worked better as an hour show like the Roseanne and Boy Meets World episodes did so the emotional punch could've landed much better but Tracee and Anthony's performances were great in the dramatic scenes and always happy to see Laurence but I personally look more…

Exactly! I love Lisa but we all know that once she and Marissa Tomei left(who I also love) and the focus shifted to Whitley, Dwayne, Ron, Kim, Freddy, Jalessa etc with Debbie Allen running the show it became a classic. The spin off episode reminded me of first season A Different World which imo was just not working

The only parts I liked was Digg and Dinah. The actors seem very comfortable with one another

You make a good point, though this is all theoretical. I think they would be wildly successful today if it was what's hot right now. Remember tv is very cylical and it's all about what's super hot that top the ratings. Right now it's reality tv and dramas, but if it were sitcoms and everybody was so into them that…

I just have to say that I really enjoy this intelligent discussion and how we're behaving as mature adults it's refreshing lol and second I see your point, though to be honest I'm mostly going off of what a lot of people in the industry say about shows that do well in syndication globally vs. those that don't because…

Oh, I enjoy the show too ultimately but I do think that shows like Blackish or a lot of the current shows do suffer internationally because unlike The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Golden Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, Fresh Prince, Cheers or what have you there's more focus on American issues as opposed to truly universal…

eh, Clair Huxtable did this being an esteemd lawyer with five children so it's not really new

believe it or not half the writers are women lol three white, three black, one of indian descent