[BlogEntry] What makes a great sitcom?

Over at Tubewad.com there's an article up detailing the elements of a great sitcom. They are: a solid premise, strong characters, great writing, comedians in the lead roles and a live audience. The comedians one in particular fails pretty miserably and he admits that (Friends? Cheers?) what he really means is "If you have a comedian in the lead role, you're better off than if you don't, see Seinfeld and Raymond as my prime examples."

I'm disappointed that he does not include How I Met Your Mother, my favorite sitcom on tv right now. I like the premise and characters, very Friends like. A happy couple, a couple of friends who ultimately hookup, and the outsider Barney. The writing is brilliant (mostly coming from Barney's character). None of them are comedians by trade, and I have no idea if it's filmed before a live audience. I think that the first three are enough to carry it, and the author was just looking to round out to five items so that he could hav e a list to post on Digg.