A
Sitcom whose premise includes at least one fantasy or
Science Fiction element, often an
Amusing Alien. These were especially popular in
The Sixties, as writers and networks cast about for novel alternatives to the more conventional
Dom Coms of the preceding years.
See also:
Magic Realism,
Mundane Fantastic,
Urban Fantasy, and
Monster Roommate. Not to be confused with a comedy that just happens to be very good. See
Supernatural Soap Opera for a serious action and drama filled version that focuses more on the supernatural world instead of trivial everyday things.
Fantasy Examples
- The Addams Family (Fester lights lightbulbs with his mouth, the bearskin rug growls, carnivorous plants behave like animals)
- Bewitched (Wife is a witch)
- Big Wolf on Campus (A teenage werewolf, his Genre Savvy best-friend and an Action Girl deal with the Monster of the Week, making movie references all the way)
- Calvin and Hobbes: The Series (Planet Eris antics abound in this very Medium Aware Script Fic)
- The Charmings (Snow White, Prince Charming, kids and wicked witch mother-in-law all in modern suburbia).
- Dave The Barbarian (An Affectionate Parody of Heroic Fantasy in general and Conan the Barbarian in particular; fantasy kingdom series with a Wizard in the secondary cast)
- The Flying Nun (About a nun who, well, flies.)
- The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Family lives in a cottage haunted by an old sea captain's ghost)
- Gilligan's Island
- God The Devil And Bob
- I Dream of Jeannie (Persian genie in bottle)
- Jimmy Two Shoes (Hell as the setting, with Satan and the Anti Anti Christ as main characters.)
- The Librarian
- Mister Ed (talking horse)
- The Munsters (Frankenstein monster, vampires, and a werewolf - all in one family!)
- The Muppet Show (Human guest stars appear on a vaudevillian variety show entirely composed of talking animals and stranger beings. Magical and/or science fiction sub-plots are common.)
- My Mother The Car (David Crabtree drives an antique car that is the reincarnation of his mother.)
- Nanny And The Professor (Nanny is Psychic)
- Pushing Daisies (Man can bring back the dead)
- Rentaghost (A company of ghosts for hire)
- Round the Twist - (Three siblings move into a lighthouse with their dad, in an isolated community where they become Weirdness Magnets for the supernatural)
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (Schoolgirl from a Witch family)
- Teen Angel (One of the main characters is a Guardian Angel)
- That's So Raven
- Topper (One of the earliest examples of the trope - The ghosts of a young couple killed in an avalanche (as well as the ghost of the St Bernard that tried to rescue them) try to help an uptight Banker loosen up and enjoy life.
- Transylvania Television (Vampire, Yeti, Bat, Skull, Frankenstein Monster and a large workforce of zombies run a television station.)
- Wizards of Waverly Place (A trio of young Wizards in New York City)
- Woof (A kid finds himself constantly turning in a dog for unexplained reasons. Hilarity Ensues))
- 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd: The neighbourhood bully is transformed into a talking dog, and has to complete 100 good deeds before he can be turned back into a human being.
Sci-Fi Examples
- ALF (Alien crash lands in suburbia)
- American Dad, which is a bit more sci-fi than it's predecessor. *
What with the CIA being heavily involved and all.
- Dr. Horrible\'s Sing-Along Blog
- Eureka
- Futurama (Unlucky Everydude from 1999 AD trapped in stasis for 1000 years, winds up living in the 31st century)
- The Greatest American Hero
- Haruhi Suzumiya contains many elements of classic sitcom rather than the typical "anime comedy".
- Heat Vision And Jack
- Herman's Head
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Radio series)
- Honey, I Shrunk The Kids (Adaptation of the film series)
- I Am Not An Animal
- It's About Time was based on the Fish Out of Temporal Water trope. It started with two astronauts accidentally Time Traveling back to the prehistoric era and making friends with a family of cave dwellers. When the show got disappointing ratings, a mid-season retool resulted in the astronauts returning to their own time—with the cave family in tow.
- The Jetsons (Family in the future)
- Lab Rats (A trio of bionic superhuman teens)
- The animated adaption of Men In Black walks the line between this and Mundane Fantastic, with the more jaded MIB members treating Starfish Aliens and fantastic technology as commonplace.
- Mork and Mindy (Alien moves in with suburbanite woman, learns about Humans)
- My Favorite Martian (Ray Walston plays an alien visitor passed off as Bill Bixby's uncle)
- My Hero (Superman-like hero married to normal woman)
- My Parents Are Aliens (well, foster parents, at any rate)
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 (A human and his Robot Buddies are imprisoned on a Space Station by a Mad Scientist and his/her henchmen, who force them to watch bad movies)
- Outer Space Astronauts
- Out of This World (Girl given time-stopping ability by her father, an alien)
- Phil of the Future (Family from the future trapped in modern times)
- Quark (Down on his luck captain IN SPACE)
- Red Dwarf (Slob put in stasis for 18 months, accidentally stays in for millions of years)
- Small Wonder (Suburban family with android daughter)
- 3rd Rock from the Sun (Alien explorers masquerade as a human family)
- Transolar Galactica (Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica/military sci-fi parody)
- Weird Science
Unclear or Debatable Examples
