The 12 Best Sitcom Casts of All Time

Mary Tyler Moore had previously been part of the cast of a good sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and that cast was sold. However, when Moore got her own titular sitcom, the cast was utterly stacked. Even all these years later, The Mary Tyler Moore Show is in the running for the best sitcom cast ever.

It starts with Moore, who won three Emmys for playing Mary Richards, but she wasn’t the only one with multiple Emmys. Ed Asner’s turn as Lou Grant is an all-timer, and Ted Knight won a couple for playing the delightfully dumb Ted Baxter.

Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman both won Emmys, and both got spinoffs, but when those two ladies were moving on, The Mary Tyler Moore Show did not flinch. Instead, they brought in Betty freakin’ White! The rich got richer.

All in the Family was provocative, political, and revolutionary. Of course, it helps that the show was also, you know, funny, and the cast played a big part of that. We must start with Carroll O’Connor. Without his stellar work, Archie Bunker could have landed with a thud, and we certainly don’t think Archie’s chair would be in the Smithsonian.

This show was no one-man operation, though. Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, and the underrated Sally Struthers all deserve some love as well. Don’t forget that The Jeffersons and Maude are both spinoffs built around supporting characters from All in the Family. We aren’t saying you’re a dingbat or a meathead if you disagree with this inclusion, but…

M*A*S*H ran for 256 episodes, won a ton of Emmys, and gave us the highest-rated episode of a scripted show ever, the series finale. Set in an unlikely location for one of the all-time best sitcoms, a mobile surgical hospital during the Korean War, the show has not had the same lasting legacy as some other old comedy shows. We also wouldn’t put it on the level of, say, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but this is about great casts, and M*A*S*H certainly had that.

Alan Alda and Loretta Swit were there for the full run of the show, but part of what makes M*A*S*H so impressive is that it was able to deal with ebbs and flows to the cast. Wayne Rogers and McLean Stevenson both left after the third season, and Larry Linville and Gary Burghoff didn’t stick around for the full run either. Jamie Farr and William Christopher became regulars, and Mike Farrell and Harry Morgan both stepped in with aplomb.

Instead of chaos and chemistry issues, M*A*S*H kept running seamlessly.

Speaking of shows that were able to adapt. Cheers was able to handle necessitated cast changes caused by career decisions (Shelley Long desiring to be a movie star) and sad events (the death of Nicholas Colasanto). Of course, they were both great performances before that. The chemistry of the ensemble on Cheers was tremendous, especially in the first couple of seasons. We aren’t knocking Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, of course.

On top of Ted Danson becoming sitcom royalty and George Wendt securing free beer in every bar he walks into for life, some later cast additions were also major successes. We’ll highlight Kesley Grammer as Frasier Crane, as well as Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith.

This is also a chance to shout out Frasier, another of the best sitcoms, with a tremendous cast. It would have felt like gilding the lily (or Lilith, as it were) to include both shows, but both had amazing casts to be sure.

At this point, Newhart may be an underrated sitcom, but it should be included in the pantheon of classic comedy shows. And it’s one of the two or three best sitcoms of the 1980s. The show did have some growing pains early on (Growing Pains is decidedly not on this list), but by the start of the third season the cast was locked in, and the show started to really click.

Bob Newhart got to do his thing, but he excels when dynamic actors capable of playing eccentric characters surround him. That became what Newhart was all about. The two best performances came from Julia Duffy as Stephanie and Peter Scolari as Michael, two actors who should have won multiple Emmys for this show.

And, of course, who could forget Larry, or his brother Darryl, or his other brother Darryl?

The Golden Girls is, more or less, built around four actors. The ensemble isn’t terribly extensive, at least in terms of who people remember. That being said, the four ladies at the center of The Golden Girls happened to include two sitcom icons and a couple other actors who became beloved thanks to this show as well.

We will start with Betty White, because we mentioned her before, and because she absolutely rules. That’s no hot take. Bea Arthur played Maude in that All in the Family spinoff, and brought a different comedic (and when called upon dramatic) energy from the other three.

While we won’t eschew mentioning Rue McClanahan, we want to highlight Estelle Getty, who had to go through an extensive makeup process to play Sophia, the oldest of the ladies.

This is another sitcom built upon a core four, but no sitcom has ever had a stronger quartet at its center. Yes, Jerry Seinfeld was basically playing himself, but he’s not as bad as some claim. Even if his performance is a B-minus at best, Seinfeld features A-plus turns from Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards.

That being said, while those four are the only main characters from Seinfeld, the supporting and recurring cast was also impressive. Who could forget Wayne Knight as Newman, or Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza? If anything, the supporting crew on Seinfeld is underrated, and we aren’t even including the one-off characters in the cast, and no show made use of one-offs better.

The six friends of Friends became staggeringly popular. They all became major stars, and they all got their chances to be movie stars as a result. Jennifer Aniston and, to a lesser degree, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow succeeded on that front.

All six leads gave good performances, and they could all do the sitcom thing. However, no cast has ever had the sheer charisma and star power of Friends. Was Seinfeld funnier than Friends? Yes. Was Seinfeld’s main cast better at the whole sitcom thing as well? Indeed. There is also a reason why none of those four became movie stars, while all six Friends leads got the chance. It’s remarkable the show managed to find six performers with that level of wattage.

The cult classic Arrested Development didn’t get a ton of ratings when it aired on FOX, but it still won an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. While Mitch Hurwitz and company had a strong writing staff, the cast played a huge role in that. Multiple people saw their careers explode thanks to being cast on Arrested Development, from Will Arnett to Tony Hale to Michael Cera.

Beyond those names, Arrested Development did also make great use of some familiar faces. Jeffrey Tambor and Jessica Walter both got perhaps the roles of their career, and then there is Jason Bateman. Bateman’s adult career in comedy basically flourished from his being cast as Michael Bluth. That’s even before we get to the recurring cast like Henry Winkler and Mae Whitman, the latter also getting a major boost from the show.

NBC had a few sitcoms there for a minute that all could have made the cut here. There’s 30 Rock, Community, and Parks and Recreation, for example. That being said, when it comes to great sitcom casts, even those shows have trouble keeping pace with The Office, which has become the defining sitcom of its era.

Naturally, we have to start with Steve Carell, who was somewhat known before playing Michael Scott, but became the anchor around which The Office blossomed. Beyond Carell, The Office was filled with faces that would become known names starting with the iconic mockumentary (which also helped popularize that sitcom format).

John Krasinski became a movie star. Mindy Kaling and Craig Robinson got their own sitcoms. Rainn Wilson, well, he’s basically forever Dwight, but there are worse fates than being remembered as an all-time sitcom character. And Jenna Fischer was the heart of the whole show.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won six, yes, six, Emmys in a row for Veep. Of course, one legendary turn does not a great ensemble make. We mentioned Tony Hale earlier when talking about Arrested Development, and he also won an Emmy for the vulgar, brilliant HBO political comedy. Anna Chlumsky got her first significant adult role, and guys like Timothy Simons and Matt Walsh were given the chance to shine as well.

Then, as the show went on, Veep was able to pivot and bring in more impressive cast members. Gary Cole and Kevin Dunn blended in seamlessly. Sam Richardson got to be a joke machine. Even Peter MacNicol and Hugh Laurie popped in to earn Emmys nominations. So many great performers. So many nasty one-liners.

Only one ongoing series, comedic or dramatic, has ever won all four major acting awards at the Emmys. That show is Schitt’s Creek. Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy were already comedic legends, and both got to shine on the Canadian comedy that could. However, Dan Levy and Annie Murphy, both winners as well, were revelations for many.

Those four alone would get Schitt’s Creek on this list of the best sitcom casts. Beyond those four, though, there’s Chris Elliott and Emily Hampshire and they even managed to squeeze another Levy, Sarah, into the mix as well. The Great White North has given us many wonderful things, but Schitt’s Creek takes the cake.

You might also like this list of the Notable TV Shows That Debuted in 1994 or this list of the Funniest TV Shows We’ve Ever Seen.

Main image: Pam and Jim (Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski) on The Office, which boasts one of the best sitcom casts of all time.