5 TV Comedies to Stream When You Need a Good Laugh
This year, fall TV looks a little different. All this week, we’re creating our own must-watch lineups from under-the-radar shows available on streaming sites, so that one thing you won’t have to worry about in 2020 is running out of TV to watch.
It’s hard not to be bummed that the return of some of our favorite TV shows has been greatly slowed by the pandemic—though there’s still “PEN15” (premiered Sept. 18 on Hulu), “black-ish” (Oct. 21 on ABC), and “Superstore” (Oct. 22 on NBC) to look forward to. But just because a program has been sitting on Netflix for more than a few months doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time. In fact, streaming sites are overflowing with deep cuts that may not have caught your attention the first time around. Plus, there’s no brain anesthesia quite like the classic sitcoms of your youth. Need a pick-me-up? Check out these five series that you might not have seen yet.
1. If you want a classic, feel-good sitcom
Watch: “A Different World“. Six seasons, available on Amazon Prime Video
She shined as Denise Huxtable, but Lisa Bonet blossomed in this “Cosby Show”-spinoff about Denise’s life at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college. While she soon left the show, it grew into a phenomenon of its own with beloved characters like Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne and his flip-up sunglasses. But with its late-’80s/early-’90s run date, you may have missed this classic sitcom back then, so take it for another spin.
2. If you and your best friend love to sit around and criticize others
Watch: “Difficult People“. Three seasons, available on Hulu
Get ready to cackle with the best of them. Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner say all the things you wish you could in this three-season comedy about a pair of besties navigating New York City while making fun of it nonstop. There are also endless celebrity appearances from some of your favorites, like John Mulaney as Billy’s boyfriend who turns out to be an “old-timey,” and Kate McKinnon as a magician named Abra Cadouglas. Come for the raunchy comedy, stay for the Kevin Spacey jokes.
3. If you’ve already torn through all of ’90s TGIF
Watch: “Punky Brewster“. Four seasons, available on Peacock
This one is “under the radar” only because you probably haven’t watched it since the early ’90s. It follows everyone’s favorite spunky ’80s child as she’s adopted and raised by her foster father in Chicago. It’s bright, it’s sunny, and it’s got some of the best “very special episodes” you’ve ever seen, including “Full House” star Candace Cameron Bure as a missing child on the back of a milk carton and a very important lesson about why you don’t play hide and seek in an abandoned refrigerator.
4. If your sense of humor has been described as “inappropriate”
Watch: “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson“. One season, available on Netflix
It’s weird, it’s hilarious, and it’s only six episodes. “I Think You Should Leave” is sketch comedy gold that will have you belly laughing in no time. From the “Instagram” sketch featuring “Saturday Night Live” gem Vanessa Bayer (“Load my freakin’ lard carcass into the mud”) to the tremendous “Baby of the Year” sketch starring a biker tot named Bart Harley Jarvis, it’s the palate cleanser we all need when it feel like the world is burning down.
5. If you’re sick of friends posting about their perfect lives on Instagram
Watch: “Friends From College“. Two seasons, available on Netflix
An ensemble comedy that looks at a crew of friends who have been close since their college days at Harvard, “Friends From College” is a great depiction of how very little in life goes as we plan. Keegan Michael Key and Cobie Smulders lead the pack as a couple who has been together since they were kids, and are now attempting to find their way as adults when careers, parenthood, and romantic entanglements get in the way. The show shined in its excellent second season, but sadly, it was soon cancelled.