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29. All is Forgiven: This forgotten show from 1986 about a soap opera writer deserved a longer run. Bess Armstrong and the legendary Carol Kane were a strong foundation for a sitcom.
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28. Joey: Joey wasn't as bad as its reputation, but it wasn't nearly good enough to salvage Must See TV after Friends' departure. A likable cast buoyed mediocre material, but it wasn't enough to get past the stink of desperation.
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27. Suddenly Susan: Another perfect example of the post-Friends Must See TV mold, this Brooke Shields vehicle had a surprisingly long life of four seasons. Shields, Nestor Carbonell and Judd Nelson were likable enough, and Susan was at least consistently mediocre, unlike a lot of the shows that briefly flitted across the Must See TV schedule.
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26. Veronica's Closet: We are smack dab in the middle of a stretch of competent but soulless sitcoms that stuck around NBC's schedule for a few seasons each in the late 1990s. Veronica's Closet had great performances from Kirstie Alley and Kathy Najimy but otherwise lacked the spark of a genuinely good sitcom.
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25. Caroline in the City: Spending only one season in the comfy precincts of the Thursday night Must See TV block, Caroline in the City somehow lasted an additional three seasons on other nights. Lea Thompson's always charming, but couldn't elevate this show. Neither could Mark Feuerstein in another one of his many NBC sitcom roles.
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24. The Naked Truth: NBC believed in Tea Leoni's tabloid-set sitcom so much that it picked it up after ABC cancelled it in 1996. It was a top ten show when it ran on Thursday nights for 13 weeks in 1997, but a move to Monday killed the show dead. It didn't help that the cast was in constant flux, with all-stars like Holland Taylor, Chris Elliott, Amy Ryan and Jim Rash cycling through the revolving door. It had the foundations of a solid sitcom, and with a consistent cast and time slot perhaps it could've found itself.
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23. Stark Raving Mad: Tony Shalhoub single-handedly lifts this show above the Suddenly Susans and Veronica's Closets of the world. His turn as a Steven King-style horror writer lent this otherwise pedestrian show a unique flavor. It wasn't necessarily good, but it was at least slightly different at a time when NBC was happily churning out cookie cutter sitcoms.
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22. Hope and Gloria: Again, a sharp cast elevated what would otherwise be another generic network sitcom. The four principals (Cynthia Stevenson, Jessica Lundy, Enrico Colantoni and Alan Thicke) were all good at their roles, with Thicke especially relishing the smarm of his TV personality. The late Taylor Negron joined in season two, but this was yet another show that collapsed once it was moved off the Thursday night schedule.
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21. Gimme a Break: Yep, Nell Carter anchored the block during its first two years, before jumping to Saturdays in 1984. (Yes, kids, shows used to run new episodes on Saturdays.) The innocuous family sitcom that unleashed Joey Lawrence upon the world ran until 1987, but left a small footprint on Must See TV.
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20. Grand: The first season of Grand was a smart and fun serialized comedy that played with soap opera conventions. It had a bit of bite, too, with its focus on the class divisions in a small town. It remains one of the better one-off seasons in sitcom history. Sadly NBC brought it back for a second season with massive changes that undercut everything that made the first year special. It didn't make it to a third year.