5 EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND (CBS)
EW reader mail to the contrary, anyone who watches this sitcom regularly would realize that far from being on the producers' pad, I and my office colleagues shower Raymond with praise because it consistently takes the most worn-out TV format--the family sitcom--and pumps it up with a laughing gas that's also truth serum. This season has benefited from beefing up the presence of once-beefy brother Robert (the svelte Brad Garrett), who flew from the nest of his parents (that Mobius strip of bad parenting, Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts) only to crash, thuddingly, into the greater problems of a single guy alone.
6 THE PRACTICE (ABC)
In the law universe according to writer-producer David E. Kelley, Bobby Donnell (stalwart Dylan McDermott) is as centered and sensible as Ally McBeal is flighty and foolish. This season, the series' strongest arc involved defending a law professor (indispensable Uber-WASP Edward Herrmann) on a murder rap, but it was the little things--like giving Lara Flynn Boyle a more well-rounded personality, and introducing us to Bobby's janitor dad (Charles Durning)--that gave the show its soul.
7 SPORTS NIGHT (ABC) On a fictional third-place sports-news show, it's all wisecracks, all the time--except when it's all heartbreak. Creator Aaron Sorkin moved from feature films to a sitcom with a bold newcomer's sense of adventure, speeding up the dialogue to an unheard-of pace even while slowing the emotional content to syrup consistency. But it all went down just fine by me: It's the sitcom that gives romanticism a good name.
8 THE CHRIS ROCK SHOW (HBO) Rock keeps getting better by narrowing his focus (highly unusual for an artist whose audience is expanding). Instead of using his new clout to court white entertainers, Rock is concentrating on black issues, grilling people like American Civil Rights Institute chairman Ward Connerly on his anti-affirmative-action stance and ending up with brilliantly bristling interviews. His sketch comedy and filmed bits were sharper too, and his monologues continue to make profane common sense. More power to him.
9 THE SIMPSONS (Fox) I would contend that after 10 seasons, its streak as a great sociopolitical satire is now unequaled in television history. Year-end checklist: an all-time great Halloween edition; an unexpected increase in the colors of Homer's emotional palette (he fell giddily in love with a lobster); and Bart remaining at once crueler than any character in South Park while continuing to display feelings of guilt and remorse that distinguish him from his crude descendants. Plus, the episode where Homer dreamed of himself as Yogi Bear and Bart as Boo Boo was chokingly hysterical.
10 THAT '70S SHOW (Fox) People who dismiss it as conventional don't recognize That '70s Show as a heightened (and frequently high) version of the conventional '70s sitcom. Lead teens Topher Grace and Laura Prepon are, week after week, turning in the sort of finely detailed adolescent-angst performances that the Dawson's Creek gang achieves only in its J. Crew photo spreads. And I haven't read a single review that gives this series credit for its signature scene--the recurring 360-degree camera pan shots, during which each young cast member tops the previous one's punchline. It's a new form of laugh getter: the circle joke.
