Its remarkable the way certain sitcoms just gel, the characters blend well and some of these shows will go on for a decade. Others are here and gone and most of us never even heard of them.
Good writing is key and probably almost a miracle when you get the right team.
For me, I almost never watch anything on network TV, haven’t in years. Not that the stuff I watch is that high-brow or anything, just that what passes for sitcoms for the most part just goes right past me.
I don’t watch them either, see my #8 ... But this promo came on the SECOND the football game ended and I was instantly gripped by the fact that this was a promo for a Seinfeld-ripoff “comedy” show that had not just unfunny, but AMAZINGLY unfunny jokes.
I was doing a Wiki search and found tons of shows that hardly lasted a season that I had never heard of.
Good casting, recording in front of a live studio audience (something that was revived by the Bob Newhart Show after the laugh track era), and not trying to be too much to too many (IOW, not plastering homosexual adulterers who work in the abortion industry and are in biracial relationships all over it) helps a lot. Most of the time shows get dumped too early, or get moved around too much and can’t develop an audience. My personal favorite is when a show has some success, but the network claims to the creators of the show that they love it, but we’re gonna change everything.
In the 1990s shows that couldn’t quite break big, but had steady audiences would get the usual treatment, meaning, two characters which hadn’t been fully developed yet suddenly out of the blue have a mad tryst on an office desk or whatever. Or, they’d add Alison LaPlaca to the cast. Or, they’d add Alison LaPLaca on top of an office desk with another character.
The problem is it usually takes a couple of seasons for a sitcom to find their audience and find their stride. The first episode of Seinfeld was a giant suckfest as well. I don't think it even airs in syndication.
Many of the sitcoms that enjoyed decade-long runs struggled at the beginning with changing timeslots and changing characters until things did start to gel after a couple of seasons or so. These days though, if something isn't a hit right out of the starting gate, it gets cancelled and never has an opportunity to grow and develop.