The greatest sitcoms that never won the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy

We start with the best comedy series in history. “The Simpsons” hasn’t just delivered a ton of quality. It’s also delivered decades’ worth of seasons that could have won. Now, you might think “Sure, but ‘The Simpsons’ is animated, so that’s probably it.” Both “The Flintstones” and “Family Guy” have been nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, though. That means precedent for “The Simpsons” getting nominated, which means it could have won.

Three shows are tied with 11 nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series. “Cheers” grabbed four wins. “M*A*$*H” got one, which is lower than you might expect, but still one is more than zero. The other show with 11 nominations is “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Larry David’s show never managed to win the big Emmy, even with double-digit nominations.

Perhaps the showbiz satire of “The Larry Sanders Show” hit a little too hard with some voters. It is the kind of show where people cravenly strived for Emmys. However, Emmy voters liked “The Larry Sanders Show” enough to nominate it for Outstanding Comedy Series six times. The series finale won for writing and directing. Perhaps those were a tip of the cap to the show, but voters didn’t send Larry, Hank, and Artie off with a Comedy Series Emmy.

“The Office” got plenty of Emmy love. Its sister show “Parks and Recreation,” though, was not as lucky. We’d make the argument “Parks and Rec” was better than Greg Daniels’ other mockumentary sitcom. It never won a single Emmy, though. Not for the series, not even for Amy Poehler. “Parks and Rec” consistently went home empty-handed.

Here’s the thing. You see “The Bob Newhart Show” as the winner in 1962, and you might think that is referring to the sitcom where Newhart plays psychologist/therapist Bob Hartley. It is actually an earlier variety show. Both “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” sitcoms never won for Outstanding Comedy Series. Personally, we stump for “Newhart” being the best sitcom of the 1980s, so it’s the one we are highlighted here. Both shows would have been worthy winners, though.

Emmy voters enjoyed the over-the-top performances of “3rd Rock from the Sun.” We aren’t knocking those performances! “3rd Rock” is an old-school sitcom, but it’s a lot of fun in all its silly, hammy goofiness. Kristen Johnson won two Supporting Actress Emmys, and John Lithgow won three for Lead Actor. Lithgow, thus, has more Emmy wins than the series had nominations.

Dan Harmon’s meta-laden sitcom was more of a cult favorite than an Emmy darling. Perhaps it was too weird, too specific, and too insular to win Outstanding Comedy Series. Voters didn’t seem into Jeff Winger and company, though. The show’s biggest nomination was for writing, which it didn’t win. Clearly, we feel differently.

While “Barry” is only slightly more comedic than “The Bear,” all four seasons of the show were up for Outstanding Comedy Series. We actually went into this kind of assuming it had won. Bill Hader won for Lead Actor twice, and Henry Winkler won for Supporting Actor once. Why wouldn’t we figure that the year Hader and Winkler won the show also won? Nope. “Barry” never won Outstanding Comedy Series.

“Abbott Elementary” has been repping for network sitcoms for years. The era of network sitcoms being popular, much less Emmy plays, has passed us by. “Abbott” hasn’t merely been an also-ran happy to be there, either. Both Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph have won for their acting on the show. That being said, the school-set mockumentary hasn’t won for Outstanding Comedy Series. It’s entirely possible we’ve seen the last-ever network sitcom winning that award.

While “Veep” ate up Emmy wins, its counterpart (both in terms of network and general airing timeframe) “Silicon Valley” had to settle for nominations. The tech industry-skewering satire didn’t just pop up once or twice. It was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series five times. That’s on par with “Murphy Brown” and “Taxi.” While “Veep” (deservedly) won three times, “Silicon Valley” went oh-fer.

Chris Rock’s titular HBO show won an Emmy for writing, but the sitcom loosely based on his life wasn’t as lucky. In fact, the Emmys didn’t really give any love to the family sitcom. Maybe the issue is that it was on UPN, and then The CW. Neither of those networks has ever found much success with the Emmys.

“Night Court,” the often-absurdist legal comedy, is synonymous with the Emmys. That’s because of John Larroquette, though. Larroquette famously won Supporting Actor four years in a row, and then withdrew from competition going forward. Even though Emmy voters clearly loved Dan Fielding, they didn’t love the show enough to give it an Emmy for Comedy Series.

Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” got itself three Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. Her dark-yet-silly Netflix comedy wasn’t so lucky, though. Even bolstered by a tremendous cast, not to mention a catchy theme song, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” didn’t earn an Emmy win, though every season was nominated. Notable, while Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime have series wins, Netflix has yet to have a comedy win for Outstanding Series. No, “Schitt’s Creek” doesn’t count.

As one of the first prominent sitcoms (it aired four seasons between 1952 and 1956), we figured “Our Miss Brooks” might have won once. It’s an old-school show, but it actually remains pretty funny, and thus was probably really funny back in the 1950s. Eve Arden did get an Emmy, bisecting wins for Lucille Ball. Perhaps owing to the presence of “I Love Lucy,” though, “Our Miss Brooks” never won as a series.

“Mad About You” is the distaff version of “Night Court.” It feels like the Emmys loved the show, but really they loved Helen Hunt. Hunt won Lead Actress four times for “Mad About You.” Paul Reiser? Zero wins, which is kind of surprising. The show itself received four nominations, equaling Hunt’s wins, but earned zero Emmys, equaling Reiser’s wins.

By beginning life in 2001, perhaps “Scrubs” arrived too late for a sitcom with this much wackiness to be a true Emmys player. Now, as a medical show, it would work in the occasional bits of solemnity, but it had more in common with “3rd Rock” than “Nurse Jackie.” Oddly, “Scrubs” didn’t get nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series until its fourth season, but it did happen, and then it happened one more time.

Here’s something remarkable. “Roseanne” feels like a quintessential sitcom of its era. It was, based on ratings and cultural impact. However, “Roseanne” was never nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series. Never nominated. It’s not that the Emmy voters ignored the show, either. Roseanne Barr herself won an Emmy, and Laurie Metcalf won three of them. Weirdly, none for John Goodman. That’s more egregious than the show not winning.

Yes, we know that “Always Sunny” never had a chance to score with Emmy voters. Also (murmur murmur, grumble grumble) the show has been pretty poor for a few seasons and probably needs to end. Nevertheless! The raunchy sitcom was hilarious for several seasons, and it’s decidedly funnier and better than a few shows to win Best Outstanding Comedy Series.

Emmy voters may not have gotten on board with “Community,” but they did (sorta) get on board with Donald Glover’s “Atlanta.” Perhaps the surreal, genre-defying nature of “Atlanta” struck a chord with voters. It certainly did for its cultishly-devoted audience. Glover won Emmys for acting and directing, and the show was nominated twice. That being said, perhaps the novelty wore off, because the last couple seasons fell off the Emmys radar.

One last bit of old-school sitcom-ery for you. “Family Ties” is not merely the sitcom that made Michael J. Fox famous. It was quite well-received, not just by viewers, but by the Emmys. The show won for writing, and Fox won three times for Lead Actor. Not only that, but “Family Ties” was nominated four times for Outstanding Comedy Series. It just never quite got the win.

We’ll end here because “Only Murders in the Building” is still ongoing, and it feels like it could plausibly win Outstanding Comedy Series someday. After all, it’s four-for-four in terms of nominations, and the splashy cast of famous people does appeal to both fans of the show and voters. Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez have all been nominated at times as well. Could the show, finally, crack the case of how to win an Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy?