60 best sitcoms of all time

36. Red Dwarf

One of the UK’s most beloved shows, Red Dwarf gives us the one science fiction-themed sitcom on this list. It’s the series that won’t die. The show first ran from 1988 to 1993, then came back in 1997 for another two years, re-appeared in both 2009 and 2012, and there are two more series coming this year and next. So what’s so great about this series that it apparently is immortal?

It’s all over the place, both for better and for worse. Red Dwarf was willing and able to make changes as the writers saw fit, and some of them worked and some of them didn’t. That same openness meant they also gave us so many fun episodes and moments. The character of Arnold Rimmer coming face to face with Death — and then, rather than making it into a super-serious moment, hitting him in the groin and running away — has to be one of them, and is indicative of why the show works. It’s never really what you expect it to be.

To be fair, that also means that sometimes Red Dwarf included some head-scratching decisions, and continually having the show end and come back (and all the talent changes that went with it) certainly didn’t help that. The show can be a bit of a mixed bag. But it can also be brilliant, and now we’re coming up on almost 30 years since it began. That has to count for something here.

Next: 35. Everybody Loves Raymond