Since the success of old-school sitcoms like I Love Lucy and All In the Family, comedy has proven one of TV's most successful genres, with some shows running for over a decade. As impressive as the genre's longevity is, some audiences prefer shorter series that they can enjoy across a single day. A shorter show gives the audience something easy to digest, and some series surpass the quality of long sitcoms in a mere six episodes.

Comedy shows come in a range of formats, tones and styles, from dark comedy to witty satire and everything in between. While the classic weekly sitcom formula is still king, sometimes more can be said with less, and these shorter shows allow more focus on character building. Long shows always risk falling into a repetitive cycle of unoriginal stories, while compressing more into less forces the best out of writers.

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