10 Near-Perfect Sitcoms Nobody Remembers

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Published May 30, 2026, 5:41 PM EDT

Christine is a freelance writer for Collider with two decades of experience covering all types of TV shows and movies spanning every genre. With a particular affinity for dramas, true crime, sitcoms, and thrillers, if it's a top TV show, Christine has likely watched it and is eager to share her thoughts. When she's not furiously writing away, you can find her enjoying the next binge obsession with a glass of wine in front of the TV.

Sitcoms arguably aren't what they used to be. While there are some great new ones, many sitcoms today rely on inspiration from ones that came before them. Some of them are even outright copies, spinoffs, or sequels. There have been some near-perfect sitcoms that changed the game and inspired others, like Friends and Seinfeld. But there are also forgotten ones that, rather than make a mark, have fallen into obscurity despite being so good, and likely used as references for shows we see today.

Fans have either forgotten about them entirely, forgotten how good they were, or simply stopped talking about them. With many of these shows still available to stream, they're worth a second look. Whether you're watching again decades later or for the first time, you might be surprised at how much you love them.

10 'Small Wonder' (1985–1989)

If there was ever a sitcom from the '80s that is ripe for being remade today, it's Small Wonder. The show was so far ahead of its time that the premise might seem more believable today than it did back then. Ted Lawson (Dick Christie) is a robotics engineer working on a humanoid robot designed to work as a domestic servant in homes with disabled children. Before pushing it to market, however, he brings the Voice Input Child Identicant (V.I.C.I), played by Tiffany Brissette, home with him. He calls her Vicki and integrates her into his family as a testing ground. The idea is to pass her off as a real girl.

The humor comes in Small Wonder when guests stop by, including the nosy neighbors who always pop in unexpectedly, and Vicki's robotic nature draws suspicion. She does not express emotion, of course, and takes things literally. Sometimes, she even malfunctions. Small Wonder is one of the greatest '80s shows nobody remembers. It's downright hilarious, and a premise that could totally work today with a humanoid AI robot character, if a network were so inclined to bring it back. Even though the show aired 96 episodes across four seasons, Small Wonder has just become a blip in memories.

9 'Raising Hope' (2010–2014)

The Chance family staring ahead in Raising Hope

Back in the early 2010s, Raising Hope was a witty sitcom with an unbelievable premise. James "Jimmy" Chance (Lucas Neff) has a one-night stand with a woman who turns out to be a serial killer. When she is later sentenced to death, Jimmy learns that she is pregnant and gave birth to his daughter. Now, he has sole custody of Hope (Bayley and Rylie Cregut). At just 23 years old, Jimmy knows nothing about raising a child, so he seeks the help of his family, including his mother, Virginia (Martha Plimpton), and father, Burt (Garret Dillahunt).

The family is working class, Virginia holding down a job as a maid, and Burt running a lawn care/pool cleaning business. But they do the best they can. Airing for four seasons, Raising Hope leans into absurdist humor that combines laughs with sweetness. It has often been compared to Malcolm in the Middle in its tone. It's one of those classic 21st-century sitcoms that is worth revisiting, helping define what would become a new generation of the genre.

8 'Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23' (2012–2014)

Krysten Ritter and James Van Der Beek looking confused in a tub in Don't Trust the B in Apartment 23

There are still some die-hard fans who continue to express their anger for Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23 ending so soon, naming it among the great sitcoms that were canceled too soon. There was some chatter recently about the show following the death of James Van Der Beek, who plays a fictional version of himself in the series. The story centers around Chloe (Krysten Ritter), an irresponsible young woman who cons others into sharing rent. She takes their money up front, then terrorizes them until they leave, declaring the deposit non-refundable. But when she meets small-town, naïve June (Dreama Walker), she can't seem to get this woman to leave. June is so dejected about her situation, so starved for meaning in her life, that she'll put up with just about anything.

So begins an unlikely friendship between two very different ladies, like a gender-swapped odd couple pairing. Praised for the acting and snappy dialogue, even called one of the most exciting new series in the year of its debut, Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23 received rave reviews, but got cut from the primetime lineup before it really had the chance to shine. It's one of those shows that would probably have done better on a streaming platform.

7 'Get a Life' (1990–1992)

Chris talks to his dad in the kitchen in Get a Life

You have probably long forgotten about this short-lived Fox sitcom that stars Chris Elliott as Chris Peterson, a 30-year-old man-child who delivers newspapers and lives above his parents' garage. He gets in lots of trouble, a man of his age shouldn't, much to the chagrin of his parents. This includes his father, who is played by his real-life father and comedian Bob Elliott.

The show was far more disturbing than your cookie-cutter sitcom, plotlines often involving Chris dying, only to be resurrected in the next episode, much like Kenny in South Park. Elliott has a way about him, his comedic styling absurd and spastic, which was challenging for viewers (and network executives) to wrap their heads around compared to other, more wholesome sitcoms on the air at the time. But some who look back now think Get a Life was one of the most clever, underrated sitcoms made because it completely went against the grain.

6 'Smart Guy' (1997–1999)

Tahj Mowry questions Taylor Negron on the witness stand in a courtroom in Smart Guy

While Young Sheldon is a prequel series to The Big Bang Theory, there's no denying that it, and other shows like Malcolm in the Middle, drew at least some inspiration from the success of shows like Smart Guy. In this late '90s sitcom, Tahj Mowry plays T.J. Henderson, a child prodigy who is pulled from fourth grade and placed into high school because of his genius-level IQ. This doesn't necessarily sit well with his two older siblings, including his underachieving older brother Marcus (Jason Weaver). T.J. has a rough time adjusting to being among pubescent kids much older than him.

Airing for three seasons, Smart Guy isn't just about a smart kid; it's also a story about fitting in when you're different. With the kids raised by their widowed single father, the sitcom has lots of heart. It was one of the few at the time centered around a middle-class Black family as well.

Collider Exclusive · TV Medicine Quiz Which Fictional Hospital Would You Work Best In? The Pitt · ER · Grey's Anatomy · House · Scrubs

Five hospitals. Five completely different ways medicine goes sideways on television — brutal, chaotic, romantic, brilliant, and ridiculous. Only one of them is the ward your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out exactly where you belong.

🚨The Pitt

🏥ER

💉Grey's

🔬House

🩺Scrubs

FIND YOUR HOSPITAL →

A critical patient comes through the door. What's your first instinct? Medicine under pressure reveals who you actually are.

AStay completely present — block everything else out and work through it step by step, right now. BTriage fast and delegate — get the right people on the right problems immediately. CTrust my gut and move — I work best when I stop overthinking and just act. DAsk the question everyone else is ignoring — what's the thing that doesn't fit? ETake a breath, make a joke to cut the tension, and then get to work — panic helps no one.

NEXT QUESTION →

Why did you go into medicine in the first place? The honest answer says more about you than the one you'd give in an interview.

ABecause I wanted to be where it matters most — right at the edge, when someone's life is actually on the line. BBecause I wanted to help people — genuinely, one patient at a time, in a system that makes it hard. CBecause I was drawn to the intensity of it — the stakes, the drama, the feeling of being fully alive. DBecause medicine is the most interesting puzzle there is — and I needed a problem worth solving. EBecause I wanted to make a difference — and also, honestly, I didn't know what else to do with my life.

NEXT QUESTION →

What do you actually want from the people you work with? Who you want beside you under pressure is who you are.

ACompetence and calm — I need people who don't fall apart when things get bad. BTrust and reliability — I want to know that when I pass something off, it's handled. CConnection — I want colleagues who become family, even if that gets complicated. DIntelligence and the willingness to be challenged — I have no interest in people who just agree with me. EFriendship — people I actually like spending twelve hours a day with, because those hours are going to happen either way.

NEXT QUESTION →

You lose a patient you fought hard to save. How do you carry it? Every doctor who's worked a long shift has had to answer this question.

AI carry it. All of it. I don't look for ways to put it down — that weight is part of doing this work honestly. BI process it and move — you have to, or the next patient suffers for the one you just lost. CI feel it deeply and lean on the people around me — I don't think you're supposed to handle that alone. DI go back over every decision — not to punish myself, but because I need to understand what I missed. EI grieve it genuinely, find some way to laugh about something unrelated, and try to be kind to myself — imperfectly.

NEXT QUESTION →

How would your colleagues describe the way you work? Your reputation on the floor is usually more accurate than your self-image.

AIntense and completely present — no small talk during a shift, but exactly who you want there. BSteady and dependable — not the flashiest in the room but never the one who drops something. CPassionate and occasionally chaotic — brilliant on the hard cases, prone to drama everywhere else. DBrilliant and difficult — right more often than anyone else, and everyone knows it, including me. EWarm and self-deprecating — not the most intimidating presence, but genuinely good at this and easy to like.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you feel about hospital protocol and procedure? Every institution has rules. What you do with them is a choice.

AProtocol is the floor, not the ceiling — I follow it until the patient needs something it can't provide. BI respect it — the system is broken in places, but the structure is there for a reason and I work within it. CI follow it until my instincts tell me not to — and my instincts are usually right, even when they cause problems. DRules are for people who haven't thought hard enough about when to break them. EI try to follow it and mostly do — with a few memorable exceptions that still come up in meetings.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does this job cost you personally? Nobody works in medicine without paying a price. What's yours?

AEverything outside these walls — I've given this job my full attention and the rest of my life has gone around it. BMy idealism, mostly — I came in believing the system could be fixed and I've made a complicated peace with that. CStability — my personal life has been as chaotic as the OR, and that's not entirely a coincidence. DMy relationships — I am not easy to know, and the people who've tried to would probably agree. EMy sense of gravity — I use humour as a coping mechanism, which not everyone appreciates in a hospital.

NEXT QUESTION →

At the end of a long shift, what keeps you coming back? The answer to this question is the most honest thing about you.

AThe fact that it's real — that nothing else I could be doing would matter this much, right now, today. BThe patients — individual human beings who needed something and got it because I was there. CThe people I work with — I have walked through impossible things with these people and I'd do it again. DThe next unsolved case — there's always another puzzle, and I'm not done yet. EBecause despite everything — the exhaustion, the loss, the absurdity — I actually love this job.

REVEAL MY HOSPITAL →

Your Assignment Has Been Made You Belong In…

Your answers have pointed to one fictional hospital above all others. This is the ward your instincts, your temperament, and your particular brand of dysfunction were built for.

The Pitt

You are built for the most unsparing version of emergency medicine television has ever shown — one that puts you inside a single fifteen-hour shift and doesn't let you look away.

You need your work to be real, not romanticised — meaning over drama, honesty over aesthetics.
You find purpose inside the work itself, not in the chaos surrounding it.
You've made peace with the fact that this job takes from you constantly, and gives back in ways that are harder to name.
Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center demands exactly that kind of person — and you would not want to be anywhere else.

You are the person who keeps the whole floor running — not the most brilliant in the room, but possibly the most essential.

You show up, do the work, absorb the losses, and come back the next day without needing the job to be anything other than what it is.
You care about patients as individual human beings, not as cases to solve or dramas to live through.
You believe in the system even when it fails you — and you understand that emergency medicine is about holding the line just long enough.
ER is television about endurance. You have it.

Grey's Anatomy

You came to medicine with your whole self — your ambition, your emotions, your relationships, your history — and you have never quite managed to leave any of it at the door.

You feel things fully and form deep attachments to the people you work with.
Your personal and professional lives are permanently, chaotically entangled — and that entanglement drives both your greatest disasters and your most remarkable saves.
You understand that extraordinary medicine often happens at the intersection of clinical skill and profound human connection.
It's messy at Grey Sloan. You would not have it any other way.

House

You are drawn to the problem above everything else — the symptom that doesn't fit, the diagnosis hiding underneath the obvious one.

You're not primarily motivated by the patient as a person — though you are capable of caring, even if you'd deny it.
You work best when the stakes are highest and the standard answer is wrong.
Princeton-Plainsboro exists to house one extraordinary, impossible mind — and everyone around that mind is there because they're smart enough to keep up.
The only way forward here is to think harder than everyone else in the room. That is exactly what you do.

Scrubs

You understand that medicine is tragic and absurd in almost equal measure — and that the only sane response is to hold both of those things at the same time.

You are warm, self-aware, and funnier than most people in your field.
You use humour to get through terrible moments — and at Sacred Heart, that's not a flaw, it's a survival strategy.
You lean on the people around you and let them lean back. The laughter and the grief are genuinely inseparable here.
Scrubs is a show about learning to become someone worthy of the job. You are still very much in the middle of that process — which is exactly right.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

5 'The New Adventures of Old Christine' (2006–2010)

Christine smiling with her son while sitting at the kitchen table on The New Adventures of Old Christine

Julia Louis-Dreyfus gets so much attention for her roles in Seinfeld and Veep that her work in The New Adventures of Old Christine is overshadowed by these career-defining roles. But the CBS sitcom aired for five seasons and was arguably just as good in its own charming way. In it, she plays Christine, a single mother trying to balance her career with raising her son. She also has to deal with the complicated, albeit friendly, relationship with her ex-husband Richard (Clark Gregg), who has a new, younger girlfriend also named Christine (Emily Rutherford), hence the name of the show.

The sitcom also stars Hamish Linklater as Christine's brother Matthew and Wanda Sykes as her best friend Barb. It's a relatable story of a single mother trying to keep up with it all, from the seemingly perfect other moms at her son's private school to her ex's younger girlfriend. Adding to the humor, however, is Christine's self-absorbed nature and insecurities. Funny, witty, and beautifully written and acted, given the high-profile talent at the center of the show, it's a wonder why The New Adventures of Old Christine was canceled.

4 'My Wife and Kids' (2001–2005)

Damon Wayans in My Wife and Kids as Michael Kyle.

Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin star in this sitcom about a wealthy Black family led by Michael (Wayans). But his wife Janet (Campbell-Martin), son Michael Jr. (George O. Gore II), and daughters Claire (Jazz Raycole, Jennifer Nicole Freeman) and Kady (Parker McKenna Posey) really rule the roost over him. That dynamic leads to much of the comedy on the show.

The ABC sitcom, which aired for five seasons and came after Wayans' forgotten '90s sitcom Damon, is wholesome, comedic fun. While the show got a lot of attention when it was on the air, in the two-plus decades since it ended, it has been largely forgotten. Wayans has tried his hand at sitcoms again, including in Poppa's House, in which he starred with his real-life son Damon Wayans Jr. But My Wife and Kids is the sitcom that really put him on the map in the genre, and showed how he could translate his sketch comedy experience from shows like Saturday Night Live and In Living Color into a 30-minute weekly comedy.

3 'Better Off Ted' (2009–2010)

Ted (Jay Harrington) and Veronica (Portia de Rossi) talking in front of a frozen Phil (Jonathan Slavin) in 'Better Off Ted'

This short-lived satirical sitcom features Ted (Jay Harrington), a head of research and development at a fictional company, often breaking the fourth wall to address the audience about the ridiculous things going on at his work. A workplace comedy like no other, Better Off Ted stars Portia de Rossi as Ted's supervisor and Andrea Anders as his co-worker and love interest, Linda.

Despite being praised for its witty and satirical humor and being counted among the best 2000s sitcoms, Better Off Ted only lasted two seasons, after which it completely fell off the map. The victim of low ratings, it's the type of sitcom that might have done better on a streaming service. Aside from the daily antics, it's also a powerful message about evil corporations, how they can do things like sway politics, and the lengths they'll go to manipulate people and make money.

2 'Head of the Class' (1986–1991)

Head of the Class is about history teacher Charlie Moore (Howard Hesseman) and his class of gifted high school students. The show changed for its final two seasons with Billy Connolly taking on the role following Hesseman's departure. Revived for HBO Max in 2021, the new version only lasted a single season before it was canceled and outright removed from the streamer.

That short-lived revival was the last time anyone heard about Head of the Class beyond mention is the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV. That's because Dan Schneider, who went to create and produce several Nickelodeon kids' shows, starred in the series. Beyond that, however, Head of the Class is worth remembering as a lovely glimpse into high school life for students who aren't exposed to the mainstream curriculum and have their own unique experience.

1 'Herman's Head' (1991–1994)

The top of a man's head looking up at four people inside the skull in Herman's Head.

Often credited with being a precursor to the animated movie Inside Out, Herman's Head is a hilarious sitcom about Herman Brooks (William Ragsdale), a research assistant working for a magazine publisher. Viewers get to see what's going on in Herman's thought process through actors who represent his most dominant personality traits: sensitivity, lust and hunger, anxiety, and intellect and logic. They are constantly at odds with one another while Herman tries to make pivotal decisions. A few others pop up when the situation calls for them, like jealousy and even once God, played by the late Leslie Nielsen.

A clever way to show how much processing goes on in our brains before we do or say anything, Herman's Head was cancelled due to low ratings. But it deserved more attention and remains one of the best '90s shows you probably haven't seen. The show did come up in recent pop culture when an episode of Only Murders in the Building opens with a character watching an episode of the show.

Herman's Head

Release Date 1991 - 1994-00-00

Network FOX

Directors J.D. Lobue, Andy Cadiff, Gail Mancuso

Writers Michael B. Kaplan, Adam Markowitz, Karl Fink, Roberto Benabib, David Landsberg, Bill Freiberger, David Babcock, Cheryl Holliday, Diane Wilk, Andy Guerdat, Don Demaio, Rich Singer, Tim Maile, Barry Stringfellow, Steve Kreinberg, Graham Yost, Douglas Tuber