I have ranked the top 68 television shows of the '00s, and will be presenting them, one-by-one, starting with 68 and working down. The rankings are more or less based on the show's popularity, it's cult status, it's critical acclaim, and my personal liking of it, with a heavy dose of arbitrariness added in. If a show was a big enough phenomena, I'll keep it on the list - but if I don't like it, I may drop it some spots. One other caveat - these are primetime shows (I apologize if I put a cable show that wasn't, I thought they were all primetime shows - the main point of this is just that no talk shows, no Colbert and Daily show that would be on otherwise).

26: King of Queens

If aliens come down and want to know what television comedy was like in the 00s, King of Queens might be the sitcom to show them. No one, I don't think, claims it's the funniest show or the best show, but it might be the most representative (and part of the proof of de-evolution CBS Monday night sitcom progression from Everybody Loves Raymond to King of Queens to Two and a Half Men).

It's a show that as a sophisticated east coast (well I know the show is based on the east coast also, but that's not the point) TV viewer and fan of Mad Men and Bored to Death I wanted to hate, but I just can't (Two and a Half Men, though, another story.) I don't watch it very often, nor do I flip to it generally when it's on, but I've seen episodes and it's hard not appreciate it's relative mastery of the traditional sitcom genre. Now, when I say relative mastery, I don't mean like Seinfeld (not a traditional sitcom in a lot of ways, but still multi-camera and laugh track and all that) or even Cheers - I mean more in a way that it is has the pure essences of sitcom - man (Doug) , husband, is selfish, immature, and not the smartest, wants to play cards and watch sports with his friends but has a good heart and really loves his wife deep down - woman (Carrie) is smarter, sarcastic, and really keeps their lives together while working at a legal secretary (at least the woman have jobs now.

The offbeat, strange character humor, which would often come from kids in a show like this instead comes from Carrie's father, Arthur who is craaaaaaazy, doing also sorts of eccentric things and not getting along with Doug in the process, although of course, somehow over time they grow warmer and learn to respect and live with one another.

Not to mention the achievement as being the definitive go-to example of fat-husband with hot wife - perpetuating the classic double standard that fat guys (well, TV fat - Kevin James is is large by any standard, but could get a lot real life fatter) can get attractive thin wives, but pretty much it never works the other (I suppose I have to give the new CBS Monday show Mike and Molly (and yes, this is just about the only credit I'm giving it) credit for having both protagonists being actually, and not TV, large and equally so).

Probably the strangest, biggest attempt at quirkiness (aside from Patton Oswalt, of course) is the recurring bit of having Lou Ferrigno as their neighbor (part of the Hulk's 00s revival, along with his appearance in I Love You, Man). Patton Osawlt as friend of Doug's Spence is the highlight of the show the few times I see it, playing a character pretty much based on himself, the stereotypical nerd character, but hey, Patton Oswalt's funny (also random aside - does anyone else hate it when a character has a link on wikipedia (Spence, Oswalt's character in this case) which just links back to the show page (King of Queens, here) - why would there be a link then? WHY!?).

Random fact I learned in that King of Queens has one of the great classic sitcom tropes - character written out of show with absolutely no explanation - Carrie had a sister who also lived with her and Doug, Sarah who magically disappears after the first season.

Anyway, yeah, King of Queens - the type of the thing CBS does (I was going to write best, but I think that might be giving too much credit to CBS.)