60 best sitcoms of all time

59. 3rd Rock From the Sun

3rd Rock From The Sun was an honestly interesting idea for a sitcom when it premiered in 1996. How do you put a new spin on the family comedy? You make the family aliens from another planet. And it worked for six seasons, giving us a half-hour that all of our families could enjoy together.

The show had the right cast at the right time. It got phenomenal comedic performances out of veterans John Lithgow and Jane Curtin, whose human-alien romance was adorable and laugh out loud funny at the same time. But we can also credit 3rd Rock with introducing us to Joseph Gordon-Levitt way before he became a major motion picture star, for giving us Kristen Johnston before she went on to star in The Exes, French Stewart in what’s still his best performance, and William Shatner hamming it up delightfully as the Solomons’ boss, Big Giant Head. Everyone on the show was in a groove, and that showed in the quality of the episodes.

What particularly lands 3rd Rock on this list is that like the Solomons themselves, the show had a really good heart. It was an incredibly sweet and endearing — a little beacon of happiness in a TV world that was already getting more cynical. It was impossible to watch this show and not smile, and that’s when comedy is at its best.

Next: 58. Easy Money