Yeah, people do tend to mention Arrested Development as a superior sitcom. Also people tend to mention Scrubs. The problem here isn't that they're not good (I think both are excellent), the problem is that neither are what one usually calls sitcoms. Comedies, sure, but not sitcoms. I know the definition of "sitcom" doesn't really exclude them, but the "hey look what Scrubs would be like if it was a sitcom" episode of Scrubs shows pretty well that it's not. Sitcoms are inherently infantile, silly, and whatever else.
How I Met Your Mother isn't consistently good, I'll admit. The first 3 or so episodes of season 4 are pretty rubbish, and the occasional episode isn't very good either. I've only ever really watched the show in season-long bulks before season 4 though, so I don't really notice it when the occasional episode is poor. Anyway, the show has
Neil Patrick Harris, so it's pretty much great by default.
