The 20 best feel-good TV shows

The books James Herriot about his time as a veterinarian in the Yorkshire Dales have enchanted readers for decades, and they’ve been adapted several times, including in 2020, when they were turned into a series titled All Creatures Great and Small. Though it plays a bit fast and loose with the original stories and books, the show is pure comfort viewing as James slowly settles into life and love in the small town of Darrowby. While it’s filled with charm, warmth, and heart, there are also some moments of sadness as James and the others have to confront the mortality of the animals in their care. 

Based on the novel by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, the first season of Good Omens focuses on the angel Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and the demon Crowley (David Tennant) as they attempt to avert the end of the world, while the second fleshes out their continuing relationship on a saved planet Earth. Both Sheen and Tennant are superb in their roles, and there’s a comforting and quirky sense of humor to both seasons that makes for incredibly pleasurable watching, particularly once a bit of romance is in the air. Who would have thought that an angel and a demon would become the world’s favorite odd couple?

Our Flag Means Death  was the surprise hit of 2022 because who would expect a show about gay pirates to become a runaway success? However, when one gets talents like Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi into one show, it’s hard to see how it wouldn’t succeed. Though very much an ensemble piece — almost every character gets their unique story with stakes and payoff — there’s no question the heart of the show is the bond between Stede Bonnet and Ed Teach (also known as Blackbeard). Through heartbreak, tragedy, and bloodshed, they somehow find a way to find happiness and love, no small thing for a pair of pirates.

Fans of British television will find much to enjoy with the classic Britcom Keeping Up Appearances. At the show's center is one Hyacinth Bucket, a woman of modest origins who yearns to be a part of the upper classes. Patricia Routledge is at her very best as Hyacinth, and it is particularly fun to watch the lengths to which she will go to try to climb the social ladder, even while contending with her decidedly non-upper-class family. It’s just as fun to watch her bully her poor husband, entrap her neighbor Elizabeth with coffee, or harass Elizabeth’s brother Emmet with her singing.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of the most unique series from the CW. It stars Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a successful lawyer who moves to a small town in California to stalk Josh, the man with whom she has been in love since they met at camp years ago. The series is a brilliant blend of sitcom and musical, particularly as Rebecca frequently uses musical numbers to help her make sense of her world and her various romantic and personal dilemmas. Though often side-splittingly funny, the series also doesn’t shy away from some darker material, particularly when it comes to mental health. 

By this point, The Simpsons has been on the air so long that it’s nearly impossible to imagine a television landscape without them. The quality of the series has, of course, fluctuated a great deal over the years, but there’s still something undeniably pleasant about spending time with Homer, Marge, Maggie, Bart, Lisa, and all of the other unique residents of Springfield. Those looking for a jolt of nostalgic joy should spend some hours binging the earlier seasons when the show was in its prime, and it was like few other animated productions on television.

Even though it has only been on the air for a couple of seasons, Abbott Elementary has already demonstrated that it has what it takes to be one of the best sitcoms of the 2020s. Set in the school of the title, it follows the various teachers who deal with their personal lives and the difficulties of teaching in a public school in Philadelphia. Quinta Brunson is particularly charming as the bubbly and relentlessly optimistic Janine, but the rest of the cast is also remarkable. Like so many other feel-good shows, it’s a reminder that there are good people in the world, and they are determined to make it better for everyone. 

Schitt’s Creek is one of those shows that started small and quirky and quickly grew to become one of the most widely beloved and critically acclaimed series on TV. It began as a story about the wealthy Rose family and their fish-out-of-water antics once they lost their money and had to move to the small town of the title. Very soon, however, it showed a remarkable depth, and the romance between Patrick and David is one of the LGBTQ+ history books. 

There have been a lot of adult animated series, but few have the unique and remarkable charm of Bob’s Burgers. The Belcher family is arguably one of the best families to have emerged from an animated sitcom — at times, they're even more charming than the Simpsons — and there’s no doubt that beneath all of the quirky and zany antics, they truly love each other. Moreover, there’s a sort of ludic, often downright anarchic, energy to show that allows it to be like a breath of fresh air, demonstrating what animation can accomplish when it doesn’t take itself too seriously. 

Lucille Ball is without a doubt one of the most famous women in television and sitcom history, and her signature show, I Love Lucy, still manages to enchant. Much of this is due to Ball’s remarkable skill with physical comedy. At the same time, she was one of those performers who knew exactly when to deliver a line so that it would get the most laughs. She repeatedly showed what women could accomplish both in front of and behind the camera, and the show remains as funny and uproariously entertaining in the 21st century as it was when it first aired. 

It’s hard to imagine a sitcom with more enduring relevance and popularity than Friends. It’s pure sitcom comfort food, focusing on a group of friends in New York City at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. There’s undeniable chemistry between the various members of the cast, all of whom were at the top of their game. Over its ten seasons, audiences were allowed to see these characters experience love and loss and everything in between, and they came to seem like a part of everyone’s lives rather than just characters in a sitcom.

The 1990s was one of the golden ages for the sitcom, and one of the finest examples of the genre is Frasier. Though a spin-off of Cheers,  it wasn’t long before this series established its own identity, thanks to star Kelsey Grammer and his undeniable chemistry with the rest of the phenomenally talented cast. It also featured some of the smartest and savviest writing of any sitcom of the ‘90s. Like all of the best feel-good shows, it invites the audience to like and care about its characters even if, as is often the case, both Frasier and his brother Niles are insufferable snobs. Thank goodness for the no-nonsense attitude of their father, Marty, and his caretaker (and later Niles’ love interest), Daphne. 

Modern Family, true to its title, is a fascinating look at how the concept of family has changed throughout the 21st century. It’s filled with a lot of lovable characters — who could ever forget the lovable and slightly goofy Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, for example? It’s one of the more remarkable representations of a gay couple on TV. Aside from its social message, it’s also a remarkably funny show, with a talented team of writers and performers who knew how to craft and deliver a line to perfect effect. It’s the perfect show to watch if one wants to forget about the chaos of the world outside. 

When it first hit TV screens in 2020, few could have predicted that Ted Lasso  would become the feel-good series everyone needed amid the darkest days of the pandemic. However, Jason Sudeikis’ relentlessly cheerful soccer coach — as well as the other members of the cast, particularly Hannah Waddingham’s Rebecca, Brett Goldstein’s Roy Kent, and Phil Dunster’s Jamie Tartt — became everyone’s best friends. Though the show did venture into some darker (and richer) emotional material as time passed, it never forgot that its central purpose was to make people believe in the goodness of the world. 

Running from 1985 to 1992, The Golden Girls  has come to be seen as one of the best sitcoms ever made. In part, this was because of the electric chemistry between and among the cast members — Rue McClanahan, Betty White, Bea Arthur, and Estelle Getty — but also because of its sharp and snappy writing. It was a show that demonstrated to Americans everywhere that older women could still have active lives of their own and that age was no barrier to having fun. What’s more, the series notably engaged with some of the most pressing issues haunting the 1980s and the early part of the 1990s, from gay marriage to the homeless crisis, from HIV to artificial insemination.

Fran Drescher managed to put new life into the figure of the nanny who falls in love with her employer in the series The Nanny. While the series may never have attained the heights of some of its sitcom counterparts, there’s no doubt that it’s fun, silly, and irreverent in all of the best ways. The title character’s fashion sense — to say nothing of her unique voice — made Fran Fine one of the most recognizable figures on ‘90s TV. The series retains its power to entertain, and it’s always a pleasure to watch Fran get into various scrapes and earn her employer's exasperation (and growing affection). 

Julia Child was one of the most beloved television figures of the 1960s and beyond, bringing the joy of cooking into the living rooms of millions of Americans. In Julia, she finally gets the biographical treatment she deserves, and here, she is memorably portrayed by Sarah Lancashire. Lancashire perfectly captures Child’s effervescent personality and steely determination, even as she also doesn’t shy away from some of her stubbornness. The show is airy and fun and light. Still, it also has moments when it highlights just how difficult it was for women — and particularly women of color — to be taken seriously in the world of television. 

Parks and Recreation was never a huge ratings hit, but it’s still the sort of show one can always turn to for a pick-me-up. This is largely due to the sunny disposition of its central character, Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope, an employee of the Pawnee Parks Department who believes passionately in the value of local government. Slyly (and sometimes uproariously) funny, dazzlingly well-written, and impeccably acted (who could forget Nick Offerman’s dour misanthrope Ron Swanson?), this is a series that makes one believe not just in the power and good of government but in the fundamental decency of humans everywhere. 

Few sitcoms have been quite as thoughtful or as philosophically rich as The Good Place.  Like so many other shows that bear the creative imprimatur of Michael Schur, the series is fundamentally optimistic in nature, focusing as it does on a band of four people — Eleanor, Chidi, Jason, and Tahani — who inadvertently find themselves in the hell-like Bad Place and enlist the aid of demon Michael and knowledge bank Janet as they try to remake the cosmos itself. These are characters the audience is invited to love, care for, and cheer on, and the fact that the series deals with actual philosophy is just the icing on the cake. 

Throughout its run, Brooklyn Nine-Nine neatly captured the ethos of the feel-good show. Focusing on the antics of a group of cops at the precinct of the title, it’s a true ensemble sitcom. Each member of the force, from the stern Captain Holt (played by the late, great Andre Braugher) to the childish Jake Peralta (played with his usual doofiness by Andy Samberg) has their part to play in individual character arcs. From the first season to the last, the team invited audiences to be a part of their lives and struggles, but the show never lost sight of its goal: to make everyone laugh.