Comfort Sitcoms to Binge on Hulu

The secret is out about streaming.

People have their choice of virtually every movie and television series ever created.

For whatever reason, humanity has settled on sitcoms as the best thing to watch. These shows are like comfort food for many of us.

I don’t claim to understand it, but I’m about to recommend a bunch of shows to you, and I’ve watched almost all of them. So…

Anyway, here are the best comfort food sitcoms to binge on Hulu.

Abbott Elementary

Far be it from me to tell the voters in 24 Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards that they’re all wrong.

Abbott Elementary has more hardware than Tom Brady, David Ortiz, and LeBron James combined. Feel free to check my math.

Perhaps the best compliment I can give this show is that I have three dear friends who are school teachers.

They’re not short of reverential about Abbott Elementary, a series that taps into the nobility and aggravation of teaching America’s youth.

This is the sort of aspirational television that society needs, but it’s so funny you’ll never find it preachy.

black-ish

Sometimes, I’m not very alert. As proof, I’ll mention something that happened during season six of black-ish.

While researching the lead actress, whom I adore, I realized that Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of living legend Diana Ross.

Somehow, I suspect that would delight the younger Ross, who has lived in her mother’s shadow her whole life. Until black-ish.

For a time, this was the warmest celebration of family life on television.

That’ll be a recurring theme on this list, as I’m the fourth child in my family.

So, I’ve always enjoyed any series that shows siblings squabbling since that was my life.

My sister once stabbed me in the neck with a fork, you know. I remind her every holiday, too.

black-ish tells little stories like that with such warmth and decency.

You’ll feel like a member of the family when you watch this series, and the great Laurence Fishburne will ALWAYS make you laugh.

Futurama

I’m only picking one animated series for this list since adult animation is really its own thing.

Still, I feel good recommending Futurama because Nielsen just listed it as one of the most popular shows on streaming in 2024.

Futurama is my favorite series ever, and I’m pretty sure I can get you hooked just by recommending five episodes.

Watch “Amazon Women in the Mood” (season 3, episode 1), “The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz” (s3e5), “Time Keeps on Slipping” (s3e14), “Proposition Infinity” (s6e4), and “The Late Phillip J. Fry” (s6e7).

Should you want something more melancholy and moving, you could roll the dice with “Jurassic Bark” (s4e7).

However, I’ll warn you that this one is a serious trigger for animal lovers. It’s loosely based on the story of Hachikō.

You wouldn’t expect an animated sitcom to reduce you to tears, but “Jurassic Bark” is just that good.

The Goldbergs

You don’t need to be a child of the 1980s to laugh at the nerdish hijinks of Adam Goldberg.

The co-writer of Fanboys pitched a sitcom about his childhood upbringing and then absolutely pulled no punches.

Goldberg knows he was an immature dork whose family consisted of several oddball characters, most notably his mother and grandfather.

The family dynamic in The Goldbergs is somehow equal parts mortifying, nostalgic, and hysterical.

Various episodes lean harder into one of the three than the others, but the show maintains a nice mix throughout its run.

I’d suggest watching the first season. If the Bon Jovi song doesn’t move you in the season finale, this one’s probably not for you.

Please know that if you feel that way, you’re spitting on my youth, though.

Goldberg and I have an uncomfortable amount in common. Such is the oddity of growing up in a large family in those days.

Malcolm in the Middle

You loved Breaking Bad, right? And you thought Bryan Cranston delivered the performance of a lifetime, right?

Au contraire! Cranston did it twice, and the first time happened on Malcolm in the Middle.

This show also involves a large family, with poor Malcolm stuck in the middle as someone who is neither the youngest nor the oldest child.

He also happens to be a super-genius, which quietly runs in the family. Here’s Reese, ostensibly the dumbest one, being Top Chef:

That 45-second clip accurately encapsulates all 151 episodes. And Cranston clearly had the time of his life.

We recently learned that he still checks on his television children in real life.

And he’s taking time out of his tremendously busy schedule to create a few new episodes of Malcolm in the Middle.

The series is probably the hidden gem of this list, although I cannot swear that it has aged well.

I haven’t watched any episodes in a while.

Modern Family

Here’s another big family series I happen to love.

Without researching it, I would presume Modern Family is the most-watched show on this list.

So, I’ll presume you’re at least somewhat familiar with Claire and Phil Dunphy and their children.

To Disney fans, actor Ty Burrell is the narrator for EPCOT’s Awesome Planet attraction.

He rose to prominence primarily due to his work on Modern Family, as did Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet, and several others.

The reason why they’re all so popular is that they believably came across as a loving family full of many quirky characters.

Here’s a scene from the Disneyland episode that always warms my heart:

My Name Is Earl

Karma is a concept I think about a lot, like when my wife talks too much smack after beating me at Simpsons Bowling.

Suddenly, she can’t throw a strike for the next few days.

That’s karma, a concept where good things happen when you’re being good, while bad things happen when you’re not.

The premise of My Name Is Earl is that a terrible and genuinely idiotic man chooses to walk the path to redemption.

Earl has a kind of country bumpkin charm that probably wouldn’t work for anyone else but actor Jason Lee.

But the scene-stealers of the show are his larger, dumber brother and the man who married his ex-wife.

The latter gentleman’s name on the show is – I kid you not – Crab Man. That’s reason enough to watch right there.

New Girl

After Friends came out in the 1990s, dozens of shows attempted to duplicate its success.

For many years, none succeeded. Then, New Girl arrived on Fox and was…pretty much a mess.

Damon Wayans Jr. had a contract issue that forced him to leave the show for a time.

This unexpected development paid massive dividends when New Girl added Lamorne Morris to the cast as Winston.

Later, Wayans’ other show, Happy Endings, was canceled. So, he returned to New Girl, creating a dynamic duo with Morris.

Still, the reason why you’ll adore New Girl is its pair of inevitable Ross+Rachel romances.

The obvious one involves the leads, Jess and Nick, but it’s Schmidt and Cece who will ultimately steal your heart.

And that’s what happened with Monica and Chandler on Friends, too.

History repeated itself on New Girl, and you can watch it happen from the beginning.

Schitt’s Creek

I’ll be honest with you. I’ve watched every show on this list except Abbott Elementary (I’m getting to it, I swear) and this one.

However, my wife has watched every episode at least once and several multiple times.

She absolutely swears by it. My only experience was this being the only thing on television during a Disney visit.

I was NOT a fan. But my wife is ten times smarter than me and has much better taste in everything but romantic partners.

So, you can and should trust her about Schitt’s Creek.

Scrubs

The bromance in this show proved so popular and lasting that the same two dudes are still doing cell phone commercials to this day.

We no longer call them Turk and J.D. because they aren’t pretending to be doctors any longer.

Now, we watch Donald Faison and Zach Braff be themselves, which makes us realize they were never acting on Scrubs.

That’s what made the show great, as the two had dynamic chemistry, as did several others like Sarah Chalke and John C. McGinley.

Scrubs spoofs the medical drama yet it does so with such poignance, heart, and gallows humor that it’s accessible to all.

Hulu recently announced a reboot, which strongly suggests a lot of people are bingeing this show. You should join them!

By the way, if you want to try something a bit more challenging, Braff’s wonderful movie, Garden State, is also available on Hulu.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!