The votes have been tallied, and 32 sitcom episodes have been whittled down to one. And the resulting episode is…Community's "Remedial Chaos Theory." I know, I'm surprised, too! And it didn't just squeak by "Marge vs. the Monorail," it demolished it, 72.7% to 27.3%. So that's that, definitively. Sorry mom, the mob has spoken.
And really, isn't it kind of fitting? We were never going to determine the real-deal single best episode ever. There is no such thing! The entire point of this whole tournament was to revisit some truly amazing episodes of TV, talk about them/argue about them in a good-natured way, and end up crowning whichever [...]
It’s my responsibility to convince you to vote for Community's “Remedial Chaos Theory,” which aired a mere five months ago, over “Marge vs. the Monorail,” quite possibly the greatest episode of The Simpsons, the greatest show of all-time, as THE best sitcom episode EVER. Got that? This is probably impossible to do and you’ve likely already made your voting decision, but I am going to ask you to remember seeing “Remedial” for the first time, and how enthralled you were when Jeff threw the Yahtzee dice into the air, leading you into a series of alternate timelines. The writing is so ambitious (yet also small-scale — there’s not really [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Community vs. Fawlty Towers.
Community — "Remedial Chaos Theory," October 13, 2011Community has done a lot of beloved "thematic" episodes, but none played with the form and structure of the 23-minute sitcom episode quite like "Remedial Chaos Theory." With each roll of the die we saw how the study group's dynamic changed based on who left the room, from the positive to the downright-disastrous [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Seinfeld vs. The Simpsons.
Seinfeld — "The Contest," November 18, 1992 Forget best sitcom episode ever — I would argue that the funniest moment from any sitcom ever is the above, when Kramer bursts in Jerry's door, slams money down on the counter, and says "I'm out!" It still forces a belly laugh from me, even having seen this episode countless times. And what makes [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Arrested Development vs. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and WKRP in Cincinnati vs. Fawlty Towers.
Arrested Development — “Pier Pressure,” January 11, 2004 It's next to impossible to have a favorite Arrested Development episode when they all intertwine and play off each other so well, but "Pier Pressure" is certainly a good place to start. It has so many things that make AD great – [...]
We've had fun over the course of the past month, as we've pit 32 of the very best (or at least our very favorite) sitcom episodes ever produced up against each other in our Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament. But now we've come to the final battle, pitting the cool new kid against the old standby. Are you going to go with Community's structure-bending "Remedial Chaos Theory," or will you choose The Simpsons' Coco-penned "Marge vs. the Monorail"? Josh made his case for the former here and I made mine for the latter here, if you're on the fence.
We're nearly at the end of the Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament; you voted on the final four this week, and those contests have been decided, giving us the final matchup: The Simpsons vs. Community. This round had an extremely close call — The Simpsons beat Arrested Development by less than 1% of the vote — but whether or not the final round will be as close will remain to be seen next week.
So, what do you think? Did the best episodes make it this far, or are your fellow voters hopeless idiots with terrible taste who overlooked that one episode of Boy Meets World that we didn't [...]
It's a big day, guys. We're down to a mere four episodes remaining, from an initial pool of 32, in our Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament. Next week, we'll bring it down to two and then the winner, but today is for celebrating these, the four sitcom episodes that you have determined to be the best of all time. Lofty praise, but it's hard to argue against any of these classics. Actually, nevermind — it's probably really easy to argue against any of these. But still, we're looking at four very good episodes here.
In any case, on to the results! Who do you got for the big winner? [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Cheers vs. Fawlty Towers.
Cheers — “Pick a Con…Any Con” (1983) This classic Cheers episode, from the inaugural season of the single-setting sitcom, sees the Cheers gang hiring con man Harry the Hat (played by a pre-Night Court Harry Anderson) to win Coach’s money back from a card hustler. It’s a sharp episode that features a fairly elaborate plot for an 80’s sitcom and [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Community vs. Party Down and South Park vs. The Simpsons.
Community — "Remedial Chaos Theory," October 13, 2011Community has done a lot of beloved "thematic" episodes, but none played with the form and structure of the 23-minute sitcom episode quite like "Remedial Chaos Theory." With each roll of the die we saw how the study group's dynamic changed based on who left the room, [...]
Look, there's no single best episode of The Simpsons. "Marge vs. the Monorail" is an incredible episode, to be sure. One of the very best! But is it really better than "$pringfield"? "Cape Feare"? "Homer the Great"? "Last Exit to Springfield"? Not really, no.
It's an easier argument to make that The Simpsons is the best sitcom ever, or at least is had the highest zenith of any sitcom ever. Diehard Simpsons fans like to point to seasons 3-8 or so as the "golden years," those that are pretty much untouchable by any other show, and "Marge vs. the Monorail" may be the best example of that era, even [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: The Simpsons vs. Arrested Development.
The Simpsons — “Marge vs. the Monorail,” January 14, 1993 There are many reasons why “Marge vs. the Monorail,” one of three Simpsons episodes solely written by Conan O’Brien, is THE episode of THE greatest sitcom of all-time — including Phil Hartman’s fast-talking monorail man, Lyle Lanley; Leonard Nimoy’s fittingly random guest appearance; “The Monorail Song”; Springfield’s quintessential mob mentality-over-reason [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Community vs. Arrested Development.
Community — “Modern Warfare,” May 6, 2010 In what would come to define Community’s style, the original “paintball episode” is jam-packed with references to action movies, from Rambo to Predator to The Terminator (“Come with me if you don’t want paint on your clothes”). But the original story itself — and the development of Britta and Jeff’s relationship — is enhanced, [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: I Love Lucy vs. Community.
I Love Lucy — “Lucy Does a TV Commercial,” May 5, 1952 Classics are classic for a reason, and it’s the same reason “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” is one of the most well-known episodes of TV ever. When Lucy finds out that Ricky’s hosting a TV commercial, she pulls out all the stops to star in it — first [...]
Splitsider Presents is a digital comedy store selling great comedy directly to you. There are no hoops to jump through, and you don't need to hand over your identity. Buying is simple and straightforward; you don't need a credit card or an existing account. You can complete payment and be watching a show in seconds, choosing to pay via either Amazon or Paypal.
Splitsider keeps only 20% of the cost of the purchase after transaction, bandwidth and legal costs, with about 70% going directly to the artist.
You can stream your purchases on whatever device you like, or download them to your computer to keep forever in DRM-free file formats.
Purchase/Playback Info
For $5 you get 5 HD or SD DRM-free downloads and 3 streams, allowing you to watch on your computer or any other device. You can choose to pay via either Amazon or PayPal, and you'll be able to log into the site whenever you want to re-download or stream your purchases.
WATCH videos online
DOWNLOAD videos (HD+SD)
SIMPLE payment system
ACCOUNT to access videos
Need Help?
Buying and watching shows on Splitsider Presents should be simple, quick and undemanding, but if you run into trouble, we have an excellent <A href="http://splitsider.com/store/docs/help">help section and customer service</a> to assist you.
