A young boy takes his mother’s place in a group of gemstone-based beings, and must learn to control his powers.

MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series based on Mad, and contained animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts as well as images of Alfred E. Neuman. Its first TV broadcast was on October 14, 1995. The one-hour show aired Saturday nights on Fox, and was in syndication on Comedy Central. In Australia the show screens on satellite and cable TV channel The Comedy Channel and in late-night timeslots on free-to-air broadcaster the Nine Network and its affiliates.

One Day at a Time is an American situation comedy that aired on the CBS network from December 16, 1975, until May 28, 1984. It starred Bonnie Franklin as Ann Romano, a divorced mother who moves to Indianapolis with her two teenage daughters Julie and Barbara Cooper with Dwayne Schneider as their building superintendent.

The show was created by Whitney Blake and Allan Manings, a husband-and-wife writing duo who were both actors in the 1950s and 1960s. The show was based on Whitney Blake’s own life as a single mother, raising her child, future actress Meredith Baxter. The show was developed by Norman Lear and was produced by T.A.T. Communications Company, Allwhit, Inc., and later Embassy Television.

Like many shows developed by Lear, One Day at a Time was more of a comedy-drama, using its half-hour to tackle serious issues in life and relationships, particularly those related to second wave feminism. The earlier seasons in particular featured several multi-part episodes, serious topics, and dramatic moments. As in other Lear shows of the era, the show was shot on videotape in front of a live audience, giving it a sense of immediacy, and close-ups were often employed during dramatic scenes. As the social climate changed in the 1980s, the show’s writing became less edgy, and as the girls became adults, the innovation of the original premise — a divorced mother raising teenage children — was lost. The show’s nine years give it the second-longest tenure of any Lear-developed sitcom under its original name, after The Jeffersons.

The third time’s the charm, they say, and reformed party girl Kate is hoping that’s true when she becomes the third wife of a slightly older man, Pete. They fell into each others’ arms (literally) at a karaoke bar, and flash forward a year later, Kate finds herself with an instafamily complete with three stepchildren and two ex-wives. But Kate is determined to make this work and become a part of the family no matter what.

Based on the best-selling children’s books and liberally splattered with guts, blood and poo, a group of British comedians offer an anarchic and unconventional take on some of history’s most gruesome and funny moments, with topics including the Stone Age, the Middle Ages, the Egyptians and the Romans, among others.

Mockumentary comedy series following the life of scottish police officers from different areas of the force in a fly on the wall style.

Murphy Brown is an American situation comedy which aired on CBS from November 14, 1988, to May 18, 1998, for a total of 247 episodes. The program starred Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news anchor for FYI, a fictional CBS television newsmagazine.

Once again Dave will be bringing his trusty screen along but now, in each episode, he will also be joined by three comedy guests as they cast their eye over his latest modern world discoveries, compete in mischievous games and generally try to unscramble the baffling morass of non-stop information that surrounds us in the internet age.

Three brother bears awkwardly attempt to find their place in civilized society, whether they’re looking for food, trying to make human friends, or scheming to become famous on the internet. Grizzly, Panda and Ice Bear stack atop one another when they leave their cave and explore the hipster environs of the San Francisco Bay Area, and it’s clear the siblings have a lot to learn about a technologically driven world. By their side on many adventures are best friend Chloe (the only human character in the cast), fame-obsessed panda Nom Nom, and Charlie, aka Bigfoot.

The series focuses on an eccentric motley crew that is the Smith family and their three housemates: Father, husband, and breadwinner Stan Smith; his better half housewife, Francine Smith; their college-aged daughter, Hayley Smith; and their high-school-aged son, Steve Smith. Outside of the Smith family, there are three additional main characters, including Hayley’s boyfriend turned husband, Jeff Fischer; the family’s man-in-a-goldfish-body pet, Klaus; and most notably the family’s zany alien, Roger, who is “full of masquerades, brazenness, and shocking antics.”

The most interesting events of the week dug up and dusted off by QI’s research team.

The Office is a British sitcom television series that was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 9 July 2001. Created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the programme is about the day-to-day lives of office employees in the Slough branch of the fictitious Wernham Hogg Paper Company. Gervais also stars in the series, playing the central character, David Brent. Although fictional and scripted, the programme takes the form of a documentary, with the presence of the camera often acknowledged.

Two six-episode series were made, along with a pair of 45-minute Christmas specials. When it was first shown on BBC Two, it was nearly cancelled due to low ratings, but has since become one of the most successful of all British comedy exports. As well as being shown internationally on BBC Worldwide, channels such as BBC Prime, BBC America and BBC Canada, the series has been sold to broadcasters in over 80 countries, including ABC1 in Australia, The Comedy Network in Canada, TVNZ in New Zealand and the pan-Asian satellite channel STAR World, based in Hong Kong. The show began airing in The United States on Cartoon Network’s late night programing block, Adult Swim on 18 September 2009 until 2012.