Four Best Modern-Day Sitcoms

It's the day of TiVo and Digital Video Recorders and access to television shows has never been easier. With that in mind, it's a good time to begin building your situation comedy library. Here are some good ones to begin your collection.

1) Seinfeld: A show about nothing. Literally. This was a show I never watched until its final season. Now, I've spent countless hours on the sofa being amazed at what a great show this was. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld thrust himself into the spotlight with this series largely based on the wacky adventures of creator Larry David.

The best thing about Seinfeld is that it never jumped the shark, to use an overworked television term. The cast stayed intact throughout the series and the series never lost its luster. The only real slow parts of the series occur in the first two or three episodes when it was easy to tell Seinfeld was still learning to act. After those first couple of shows, though, it was off to the races.

The show left at its best and left a huge portion of America longing for more.

2) Everybody Loves Raymond: It's been brought to my attention that not everyone loves Raymond, played by comedian Ray Romano. Luckily, while this show does center on the New York sportswriter, the show wasn't all about him. If it had been, it wouldn't have worked.

Another funny man, Brad Garrett, played Ray's brother Robert and Patricia Heaton became well-known as Ray's wife, Debra. Ray's dad Frank Barone, played by the late Peter Boyle, provided laugh after laugh.

Just don't question why the Barone's three children aren't in more shows. I'm imagining there was an invisible babysitter somewhere.

3) King of the Hill: Everyone seems to like something animated these days and King of the Hill fits that bill, but does a lot more. The lovable Hank Hill is as Texan as it gets. He hates soccer, frilly things and public displays of affection. He loves his family, however.

Hank's alley-dwelling, beer-drinking friends - Boomhauer, Dale and Bill - push this show to the top of the list.

The show is so entertaining, it's almost easy to forget it's animated.

4) Cheers: It's an oldie - now - but a goodie. Basically, it's a show about how most males wish they could spend their days, huddled in a bar drinking free beer and sharing their philosophies about life. Deeper, though, the show was a reflection of the famous line in its theme song, "You wanna go where everybody knows your name."

Ted Danson played leading man Sam Malone, flanked by cohorts Norm Peterson (George Wendt) and Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger). The show is easy to catch in reruns and spawned the spinoff, Frazier.