The 10 Best Sci-Fi Sitcoms

Although the television commissioners were slow to recognize it, Science fiction and comedy really works quite well on the small screen. Here are ten of the best sci-fi sitcoms.

10. Quark

No, not the Ferengi bartender Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, but a long-forgotten 1978 curio that aired for one season on NBC before being canceled. The titular astronaut (Richard Benjamin) is an ambitious type who dreams of a glamorous dominance of his own – and is instead called a galactic garbage hauler. The premise sounds promising, and the show was intended not to satirize the cinematic sci-fi boom that the program’s success had ushered in. Star warsbut it’s safe to say that Golden Globe winner Benjamin did a better job.

9. Hyperdrive

Despite a talented cast including five-time BAFTA nominee Miranda Hart, comedian Kevin Eldon, and Shaun of the Dead starring Nick Frost as a famous starship captain, this BBC show about the adventures of a crew of misfits was heavy on silly aliens, but short on chemistry and laughs, and was canceled after two season. However, the premise, in which the team is trying (and largely failing) to attract galactic businesses to Britain, lands in a completely different way after Brexit.

8. Spaceballs: The Animated Series

This live-action TV version of the hit 1980s movie aired for one season in 2008, and featured the voice talents of Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Dee Bradley Baker, and others. As with any parody anthology series, the success of the show was very much dependent on the show or movie that was being launched, and the story is only right when the source material is strong enough to give something to the creators to work with. .

7. Supernova

This ambitious Australian-British sitcom was about bored, bored astronomer Paul (Rob Brydon) who ditches his job and his no-good relationship for a job at an observatory in an Australian hot reserve. The show had its moments – some of the comedic set-ups, such as a mysterious face in the skies that turned out to be an extremely prosaic explanation, paid off brilliantly – but Paul’s colleagues and new friends had to be too forced. , and the show was canceled in 2006 after two seasons.

6. Star Trek: Lower Decks

We all know what happens on the bridge of starships Enterprise – but what does the rank and file do when the cameras aren’t rolling? It could be argued that the Trek star the franchise’s most successful foray into animation, Star Trek: Lower Decks laughing since 2020, and it shows no signs of stopping. Tawny Newsome and Jerry O’Connell are the team’s pick, providing the voices of Ensign Mariner and First Officer Ransom.

5. The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

The first television adaptation of Douglas Adams’ acclaimed novel and radio series aired in 1981. The strange mix of whimsy and sci-fi tropes was hard to pull off, but despite the special effects and sometimes slow pacing, enough to say yet. the production. Look out for an almost unrecognizable Peter Davison – starring in the BBC’s Saturday primetime slot as the Fifth Doctor in Doctor Who – make a guest appearance as the dish of the day.

4. Avenue 5

This Armando Iannucci creation had everything – two cast iron A-listers in Josh Gad and Hugh Laurie, big bucks backing HBO, and some jet-black comedy situations – but first COVID and then critical apathy doomed to cancel it. in 2021. It’s a pleasure to watch again, though; how will the crew be on the off course Avenue 5 are their eight weeks of supplies out to last for years?

3. The Orville

It may have taken a while to progress, but Trek star send up The Orville It’s a sci-fi comedy of the highest order, with Seth Macfarlane getting a lot of laughs as Captain Ed Mercer, whose urge to seek a new life is often a hobby, and Adrianne Palicki as Commander Grayson, who cheated on Mercer with a foreigner. There has rarely been talk of more controversial bridges.

2. Rick and Morty

Everyone’s favorite time travel comic follows the adventures of mad scientist Rick and his mischievous grandson Morty across time and space. The Emmy Award-winning series has gone from humble beginnings in 2013 to a nine-figure franchise, and has been commissioned for a 10th season; the seventh season can currently be seen on Cartoon Network.

1. Red Bridges

When this BBC sitcom debuted, despite the doubts of the television commissioners Back in 1988, it’s hard to believe that anyone thought it would still be going strong 35 years later, and it’s a testament to the chemistry between the main cast that the arrangement continues. Dave Lister (Craig Charles) is dead-set on a mining ship, which is put into stasis due to a violation of the ship’s regulations, and wakes up three million years later to find the ship’s crew dead and the ship lost in deep space. , with a hologram of his dead superior officer (Chris Barrie), a creature emerging from his cat (Danny John-Jules), and a loopy android (Robert Llewellyn) for company. Expect references from every sci-fi movie and TV show imaginable, the odd existential crisis – and plenty of smeg-head references.