I've loved the comments so far. Thought I would throw in my own two kibbles worth...

The early shows mentioned were pretty mindless stuff. I grew up on Gilligans Island, F-Troop (which I though was hysterical), The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, Hee Haw, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart (the one where he was a psychiatrist), The Carol Burnett Show, The Tim Conway Show, Laugh-In, The Smothers Brothers show, and probably some more that are buried under too much dust to remember. These shows varied in their inanity, but for the most part they were just written to be funny, and nothing else. Humor, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, so a lot of people didn't get, or didn't like the humor, but beyond laughter nothing much was intended (Except maybe for Tommy and Dick). Actually, in the case of the Carol Burnett show and the Mary Tyler Moore show, the writing is what I would consider to be the gold standard of comedy.

The problem with modern shows is that they try to make a statement, be provacative, push the limit, and raise social consciousness and be funny too. Consequently, they achieve nothing. I would rather have a root canal than have to sit through an episode of "Friends" or "Seinfeld" or "Everybody Loves Raymond". The writing is sophomoric, the "jokes" are tasteless, and if you have to resort to potty humor to lead into a canned laugh line, then you have not written comedy.

I'll take the inanity of Mayberry or the original "Star Trek" any day.

Freightdawg