Well, my all-time favourite sitcom is "The Addams Family", would you ever guess...

And there are many favourite moments there, from the running gag of Gomez going... "Tish... that's French..." and performing a... sexual attack on her arm , to Uncle Fester's antics, but my absolute fave there is possibly Morticia asking a guest... "Mind if I smoke?"

A gag shamelessly stolen in "Carry on Screaming", btw, where the whole character of Fenella Fielding was a bit more than merely "inspired" by Morticia Addams...

Do You Mind If I Smoke?

Never been much into American TV comedy, though, not after puberty, at least...

Some stuff I still remember with pleasure, anyway, like "The Munsters", which was indeed inferior to the Addams, but less similar than meets the eye on the surface, and I was pleasantly surprised, a few years ago, upon re-watching for the first time in over 30 years the whole "F-Troop", that its silliness was still enjoyable... well, to me at least

I'm also following a current rerun, on Fox Retro, of "Get Smart", the Mel Brooks' spy story spoof, and that's nice, too, but the line of reminiscences ends with "Gilligan's Island", also not bad but a bit repetitive perhaps.

Haven't seen much in more recent years, and generally quite casually, single episodes here and there of "Cheers" and "Night Court", quite a bit of "Seinfeld", which, to me, grows tired pretty soon, it wasn't until the quite unusual "Weeds" popped up a few years ago that I took to actually following an American sitcom again, and that I quite like, great story, great cast, something different than all the pre-digested pap...

Oh, and, sitcoms apart, among my faves there's the great early years of the "Saturday Night Live" (although I have to admit that the shows I like to watch again and again are the ones with Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Pete & Dud ), and I shan't forget the Mother of all Quiz-Comedy games with another of my greatest heroes, the immense Groucho Marx, with his "You Bet Your Life"...

Groucho Marx _ You bet your life -clip

I like both The Munsters and The Addams Family but I prefer The Munsters.  I am not into too much American comedy.  It is annoying that we show theirs, but they have to remake ours.  I guess that shows a flaw on the American side.  The Simpsons obviously, and the show it was ripping off, The Flintstones.  Top Cat was another favourite. 

Ah, well, if we are talking cartoons then i think both Johnny Bravo and Spongebob Squarepants are both hard to beat!

Funny you should mention that... I found myself thinking, why is it that when Ade Edmondson and Rik Mayall hit each other with frying pans they get me in stitches, but when Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise do exactly the same, they leave me utterly cold and hardly smiling at all?

Situation is indeed the keyword there, I believe...

Of course, as Ade said himself, when they ran out of kitchen implements with which to hit each other, it was over for them, as a double-act at least...

Thats it isn't it, comedy is so personal. My Family is apparently popular but i cannot stand it, I love Morcambe and Wise though!

Ah, I nearly forgot, an American sitcom quite popular in Britain at the time was "The Phil Silvers Show", aka Sgt. Bilko.

I only "discovered" this a few years ago, I mostly still know Phil Silvers for his numerous guest-starring roles in American comedy movies (It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world for instance), and I can't say I was really on the floor laughing with the TV series, but he's very good himself, I quite liked his Carry On escapade, too.

Ah, with reference to a comment by Phil earlier, a bit of trivia...

Apparently, when doing his guest-starring in Blackadder, Rik Mayall asked the production team to have funnier and louder lines than Rowan Atkinson...

What's perhaps surprising there is that Rowan, informed of the request, graciously conceded... well, of course he knew his character would win in the long run, and Flasheart was only a temporary nuisance...

I must admit I've always liked Ade better than Rik, but they were explosive together, while it lasted.

Pity Ade sort of drifted off afterwards, I would have thought he had more strings to his bow...

But Rik is a great performer himself, never mind if you like his rather "bulging" personality, methinks...