Comfort comedies

A single-camera ensemble comedy following the lives of an eclectic group of detectives in a New York precinct, including one slacker who is forced to shape up when he gets a new boss.

The everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Nightmare boss. Tedious colleagues. Pointless tasks. Welcome to Wernham Hogg. Fancy a tea break with David Brent? Classic comedy from the archive.

In an attempt to beautify her town — and advance her career — Leslie Knope, a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks and Recreation Department of Pawnee, Indiana, takes on bureaucrats, cranky neighbors, and single-issue fanatics whose weapons are lawsuits, the jumble of city codes, and the democratic process she loves so much.

Follow the lives of a group of students at what is possibly the world’s worst community college in the fictional locale of Greendale, Colorado.

The Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan is a wonderfully large and blended family. They give us an honest and often hilarious look into the sometimes warm, sometimes twisted, embrace of the modern family.

A family man struggles to gain a sense of cultural identity while raising his kids in a predominantly white, upper-middle-class neighborhood.

In this workplace comedy, a group of dedicated, passionate teachers — and a slightly tone-deaf principal — are brought together in a Philadelphia public school where, despite the odds stacked against them, they are determined to help their students succeed in life. Though these incredible public servants may be outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do — even if they don’t love the school district’s less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.

Six young people from New York City, on their own and struggling to survive in the real world, find the companionship, comfort and support they get from each other to be the perfect antidote to the pressures of life.