Classic Sitcoms: A Celebration of the Best in Prime-Time Comedy

Rating:
Summary: The Classic TV Bible
Review: If you're a Nick at Nite/TV Land couch chive, this is the book to keep on the sofa at all times. I can't say more.

Rating:
Summary: The Classic TV Bible
Review: If you're a Nick at Nite/TV Land couch chive, this is the book to keep on the sofa at all times. I can't say more.

Rating:
Summary: With insightful behind-the-scenes notes and anecdotes
Review: Now in a newly revised and significantly expanded second edition, Classic Sitcoms: A Celebration Of The Best In Prime-Time Comedy by television history expert Vince Waldron provides tv sitcom fans with a complete episode-by-episode summary and guide to ten of the all-time best television sitcoms, as chosen by forty-five top TV critics. "I Love Lucy"; "The Honeymooners"; "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", "All In The Family", "M*A*S*H", "The Bob Newhart Show", "Taxi", and "Cheers" are presented with insightful behind-the-scenes notes and anecdotes from the stars, writers, and producers. Complete credits, basic episode storylines, and tallies of Emmy awards and yearly ratings make Classic Sitcoms a superb and highly recommended resource for TV fans and trivia buffs alike.

Rating:
Summary: A serious examination of some funny shows.
Review: Rather than another nostalgia-derived look at fondly remembered but essentially lame sitcoms, this book reflects critics' picks of the very best examples of the genre, then examines them with the seriousness and insight they deserve. The author is an expert on the subject--he also wrote the definitive work on the Dick Van Dyke Show--and he treats each of the ten shows, from I Love Lucy to Cheers--with thoroughness and affection. This book will enhance the viewing experience of any television fan.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I'd hoped - I returned it
Review: The book's 600+ pages led me to believe it was going to be an in-depth study of the ten chosen sitcoms, but alas each program only gets about a 6- to 10-page writeup, followed by a huge episode guide. The ep guides are not at all compelling reading, and actually pale to guides done by fans on various websites.

There aren't a lot of photos, and the ones that are there are aligned in strange, overlapping, sometimes slanted format in a 10-page section in the book's dead center. They're B&W and actually look poor even for B&W.

This book gets one thing right: the ten shows selected were the absolute cream of the crop up to that point ("Seinfeld" would probably have bumped one of them out a few years later), but this book really doesn't add anything to the reader's enjoyment of these classics. I suggest you pass on this one.
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