Supersize Me TV Shows, Laddy

I've been following along with the U.K. sitcom The IT Crowd. I think it's funny, though not "DRM-bustingly" so, as Cory Doctorow might say. And definitely on the traditional side — more Are You Being Served? than The Office. The show recently finished its second series of ... 6 episodes? Counting the episodes from the first series, that makes a grand total of ... 12 episodes!

Now, we Yanks may be known for our outsized motor vehicles, Coke cups, and waistlines, but this is one area in which I feel that excess is warranted. It really says something about the talent and productivity of the industry when a good U.S. sitcom can run for over a decade, with three to four times as many episodes per season as it would get in the U.K., and be consistently funny over that span. This probably has to do with budgets and the sizes of writing staffs, but I wants me my Arrested Development and 30 Rock, you know what I mean?

Am I just flag-waving here, or do the numbers back up my sentiments? Here's a table to look at:

U.S. Show	No. Seasons	Tot. Episodes	U.K. Show	No. Series	Tot. Episodes
Cheers	11	273	Absolutely Fabulous	5	36
Curb Your Enthusiasm	6	58	Are You Being Served?	10	69
The Cosby Show	8	201	Blackadder	4	24
Everybody Loves Raymond	9	210	Dad's Army	9	80
Frasier	11	265	Father Ted	3	25
Friends	10	236	Fawlty Towers	2	12
The Larry Sanders Show	6	89	The Office	2	14
M*A*S*H	11	251	Porridge	3	20
Roseanne	9	222	Spaced	2	14
Seinfeld	9	180	Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister	5	38

Source: Wikipedia

Note: all shows chosen arbitrarily, by me, though I did look at these Wikipedia articles: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Clearly, the U.S. wins in terms of quantity (episodes per season, number of seasons), though the HBO shows bring down the average a bit. As for quality, I leave that to the reader to decide. It's not like Fawlty Towers or The Office weren't considered hilarious or influential on this side of the pond. And as for creativity, the U.K. did also provide America with the premises for The Office, Sanford and Son (Steptoe and Son), Three's Company (Man About The House), and All in the Family (Till Death Us Do Part). But I'm going to give the award to the Americans here, because it takes a lot of work to even come up with non-shark-jumping plotlines after 100 episodes, much less the classics that Seinfeld did.