60 best sitcoms of all time

50. Married with Children

For all the upbeat working-class sitcoms like Mad About You and Family Matters, Married with Children was the total opposite. It was the series that showed the hard, depressing, grimy side of the average American household. It also happened to put FOX on the map — it was the first prime time series to air on the network. It’s still the channel’s longest running live-action sitcom.

Married with Children was the negative answer to every other sitcom’s point. Al Bundy hated his job and usually could hardly stand his wife or children. Most things he attempted went badly. It was clear that the peak of his life was his football success in high school, and he wasn’t getting any of that back. The family was usually on the rocks in one way or another. But fundamentally, they were a family, and one populated by a few actors who’d all go on to give even more to comedy: Ed O’Neill (Modern Family), Christina Applegate (Up All Night and Samantha Who?) and Katey Sagal (8 Simple Rules, before she became best known for Sons of Anarchy).

We’ve got to dock some points here for the Season 7 debacle of trying to introduce a third Bundy kid, and it’s up to you if you want to take more for the series introducing us to Ted McGinley, who’s widely poked fun at as a TV show killer. But on the whole, Married with Children had an impact both as a sitcom and for what it did in the bigger picture of its network and the TV world, and we’re all better off for it.

Next: 49. Cybill