60 best sitcoms of all time

17. I Love Lucy

I Love Lucy went off the air in 1957, but as of 2011, TV Guide estimated that its reruns were attracting an audience of 40 million viewers each year. We’re going to be coming up on 60 years since the last episode and it’s still out there drawing in people. For any series to have that kind of longevity is remarkable.

You can look back on quite a few things and trace them back to the run of I Love Lucy; would we have TV reruns, which before on demand were a huge way for a show to gain and keep an audience, without the success of Lucy episodes being shown time and again? That’s just one example of how the series and its popularity contributed to the fabric of the TV industry that we know and love.

The series is also still worth watching on its own merits. The sitcom has evolved tremendously since then, and other shows have become funnier and more bold than the adventures of Lucy, Desi and the Mertzes. But so many scenes from I Love Lucy still stick in the memory. The candy factory scene from Season 2’s “Job Switching” was ranked as one of the funniest moments in TV history in a 2013 Paley Center for Media special. Or remember Lucy’s TV commercial? We could go on. Lucy might not be the belle of the ball anymore, but it’s still easy to love her.

Next: 16. Absolutely Fabulous