5 Hit Sitcoms That Are Unwatchable Today

Few things are more re-watchable than a good sitcom. Whether filmed with a single camera or in front of a live studio audience, some of the best TV shows of all time have been situational comedies. Since the days of "I Love Lucy," audiences have delighted in watching hijinks ensue amongst a comedic cast of characters. The best sitcoms of all time work as a sort of TV comfort food, going down easy and leaving a good taste in our mouths. Yet not every sitcom remains re-watchable to this day.

As with anything, changing attitudes affect the way a sitcom holds up over time. While some shows have aged like fine wine, others have aged like milk. What used to make us laugh now makes us cringe, not simply because it's politically incorrect or insufficiently "woke," but because our perceptions of what is or isn't funny evolve over time. It's the dilemma of any successful comedy: to work effectively, you have to tap into the zeitgeist, and that changes day by day, decade by decade, until ultimately, modern audiences wonder why anyone found this funny in the first place.

Here are five hit sitcoms that are unwatchable today. In assembling this list, we sought out shows that were ratings bonanzas, running for multiple seasons and airing in reruns, streaming, and on home video. Yet seen today, they come across as dated, out of touch, and sometimes downright offensive. Some of these shows may have been showered with praise and lauded with Emmys in their time, but that doesn't mean they're immune to making this list.

"According to Jim" ran for eight inexplicable seasons on ABC, despite earning reviews that should've sunk it after the first year. Yet from 2001 to 2009, audiences tuned in week after week for a bottom-of-the-barrel family sitcom. It wasn't just that "According to Jim" was bad: It was lazy and unfunny.

Jim Belushi plays the titular Jim, a Chicago suburban dad who loves the blues, beer, and the Bears. Jim will do anything to get out of work and is constantly arguing with his wife, Cheryl (Courtney Thorne-Smith), and her sister, Dana (Kimberly Williams-Paisley). He's best friends with Cheryl's brother, Andy (Larry Joe Campbell), although he's always making fun of him for not having a steady girlfriend. Jim will often lie to his wife and sister-in-law to get out of chores, sneaking off to a game or a blues concert. Never one to be put in his place, Jim yells over people to get them to stop talking. Yet despite it all, he loves his wife and three kids (five with the addition of twins by season eight).

The trope of the lazy, stupid, blustering sitcom dad is nothing new. From "All in the Family" to "Everybody Loves Raymond," some of the funniest sitcoms in TV history have mined laughs from making fun of the man of the house. Yet Jim often comes across as a louse and a bully, and what's worse is how the show tries to make it seem as if he's somehow always right, despite constantly being proven wrong.

Premiering in 2005 and ending in 2014, "How I Met Your Mother" came along right as the multi-cam was falling out of favor. Over the course of nine seasons, the series sought to shake up the soon-to-be-dormant format, using flashbacks, flash-forwards, and quick scenes that broke up the theatrical structure most sitcoms adhered to. Yet in other ways, the show was as traditional as they come, and has aged poorly because of it.

In the year 2030, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) recounts to his children the story of how he met their mother. Over the course of nine seasons, Ted tells his kids not just about their mother, Tracy (Cristin Milioti), but about his best friends: former roommate Marshall (Jason Segel), Marshall's wife, Lily (Alyson Hannigan), playboy Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), and the woman Ted secretly loves, Robin (Cobie Smulders). In what is generally considered one of the worst TV finales of all time, it's revealed that the titular mother — who had only been introduced in season eight — has died, and the entire story was just an excuse for Ted to get permission from his kids to ask out their Aunt Robin.

It isn't just the finale that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Looking back now, it's hard not to feel icked out by Barney's attitude towards women, or be uneasy about how Lily sometimes plays into nagging wife stereotypes. A critically acclaimed Emmy-winner in its heyday, "How I Met Your Mother" now feels like a product of a bygone era.

The 1970s were a glorious decade for music, movies, and television, and there are many '70s TV shows that laid the groundwork for prestige TV. So it's more than a little ironic that a series intended to recapture that magical era has been less than influential on modern television. In fact, "That '70s Show" has become somewhat radioactive in recent years, and for good reason.

Airing from 1998 to 2006, "That '70s Show" centered on a group of teenagers coming of age during the decade of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. Eric Forman (Topher Grace) was the de facto leader of the bunch, which included his girlfriend, Donna (Laura Prepon), his best friend, Hyde (Danny Masterson), dumb guy Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), pretty girl Jackie (Mila Kunis), and foreign exchange student Fez (Wilmer Valderrama). Eric's strict father, Red (Kurtwood Smith), often threatens to put his foot in an unmentionable part of the human anatomy, while his mother, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), acts as a surrogate mom to all of his friends.

There are a myriad of reasons why "That '70s Show" hasn't aged well, not least of all because of Danny Masterson's rape convictions, for which he is currently serving 30 years to life in prison. Even aside from that, the show has some incredibly retrograde attitudes about sex, fat shaming, homophobia, and immigrants, and not necessarily in a way that satirizes attitudes from that era. Things that might've seemed funny at the time now come across as creepy and cruel, for more reasons than one.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

If ever there was a show where the entire premise falls apart today, it's "Three's Company." Radical in its time, the show aired for eight seasons between 1977 and 1984, surviving multiple cast shakeups and a rapidly changing culture. Yet what was considered bold and boundary-pushing at the time now feels outdated and retrograde.

In the pilot of "Three's Company," roommates Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers) need someone to fill an empty room in their Santa Monica apartment. When Jack Tripper (John Ritter) wakes up in their bathtub after a party, he agrees to move in. But the landlord, Mr. Roper (Norman Fell), doesn't want unmarried men and women living together, so Jack pretends to be gay, a secret that Mrs. Roper (Audra Lindley) keeps from her husband. Eventually, the Ropers are spun off into their own show, and Mr. Furley (Don Knotts) takes over. Chrissy also moves out, and is replaced first by her cousin, Cindy (Jenilee Harrison), and then by Terri Alden (Priscilla Barnes).

Suffice it to say, a lot of the elements that made "Three's Company" work as comedic farce haven't exactly aged well. Ritter won an Emmy for playing Jack, and excels at the physical comedy his character is often subjected to. Yet the role also calls upon him to play into harmful gay stereotypes, and his attraction to Chrissy often leads to scenes of Somers being sexually objectified, jumping around in tight, form-fitting outfits as the studio audience applauds. Although its intentions were harmless, the execution played as anything but.

Chuck Lorre is among the most prolific showrunners working today, and some of his best TV shows have kept the dying multi-cam format on life support. One of his biggest hits was "Two and a Half Men," which ran for 12 seasons between 2003 and 2015. In its heyday, it was one of the most profitable shows in history, earning CBS a staggering $155 million per season in ad revenue, and continues to be popular in reruns. But is it good?

Initially, "Two and a Half Men" centered on Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen), a playboy jingle writer whose life suddenly becomes domesticated by the arrival of his newly divorced brother, Alan (Jon Cryer), and his son, Jake (Angus T. Jones). Following Sheen's very public exit from the series, tech billionaire Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher) buys his Malibu beach house and allows Alan and Jake to stay with him. Several women weave in and out of Charlie and Alan's lives, including their mother, Evelyn (Holland Taylor), Alan's ex-wife, Judith (Marin Hinkle), housekeeper Berta (Conchata Ferrell), and Charlie's crazed stalker, Rose (Melanie Lynskey).

"Two and a Half Men" is a classic men-behaving-badly sitcom, and many laughs are mined from Charlie's womanizing and Alan's ineptitude with the opposite sex. As you'd expect, there's a weird strain of misogyny that runs through many episodes, and even the women who are granted some agency are often portrayed as nagging, vain, or downright psychotic. As the saying often goes, boys will be boys, but that doesn't mean their antics are always amusing.