If you’re anything like me, you probably have a comfort show that you watch repeatedly. For some of us, it’s Friends; for others, it’s New Girl, How I Met Your Mother, or even The Office. You know, the kind of show where the humor is so low-stakes, the characters are basically your roommates, and somehow life’s messes are all a little funnier by the end of a 22-minute episode.
Yet as of late, I’ve been observing something: where have all the new sitcoms gone?
The golden age of network sitcoms appears to be over. No longer do we watch NBC on a Thursday night or catch a brand-new CBS comedy after school. These days, if we’re watching a network at all, it’s drama-heavy HBO, or a reality dating show with a name like Love Is Blind: But Everyone At The Beach Is Wearing Sunglasses. Not that I’m complaining—reality TV is a chaotic, but deeply enjoyable part of my personal life. Nonetheless, there is something deeply comforting about a half-hour of uninterrupted sitcom time.
It might partially be due to streaming. When Netflix dropped Friends and The Office, people lost it- and understandably so. These shows have turned into digital security blankets—easy to fall back on, easy to love, and even easier to quote. But while platforms are racing to buy the rights to old sitcoms, very few seem focused on making new ones. It’s almost like the genre has turned into something we preserve rather than something we evolve.
Another reason? Comedy itself has changed. Sitcoms used to come with laugh tracks, studio audiences, and a kind of formulaic rhythm. Today, audiences seem to want comedies that feel more “real” or unconventional (The Bear, Fleabag, Barry—all amazing, all technically comedies, but not really sitcoms). We’ve swapped cozy apartments and workplace banter for emotionally heavy, stylized storytelling. Don’t get me wrong; I love that shows are getting more layered. But sometimes, I just want to watch people argue over who left the milk out again.
And perhaps, just perhaps, it’s also nostalgia at work. We didn’t merely adore Friends for its script; we adored it for the time it represented, the style of the moment, and the way it celebrated the everyday. Maybe part of the reason new sitcoms don’t touch us quite like Friends did is because they’re not quite so celebratory of our current everyday existences. But I still believe there’s room in the universe for the innovative, genre-bending comedies of today and the kind of feel-good sitcoms that make you want to call your best friends and hang out.
I’m intrigued—do you feel similarly? Have you found any fresh sitcoms that deliver that same sensation? Or are you just continuing to rewatch Brooklyn Nine-Nine and act like it’s a first-time viewing?
If anyone is working in secret on scripting the forthcoming New Girl, for heaven’s sake, don’t dawdle. We need your special mix of talent and humor to bring that show back! And soon!