The First Sitcom

[Perderabo]

The earliest sitcom that I have been able to track down is Mary Kay and Johnny (http://us.imdb.com/Title?0128883) which debuted in 1947. Could this be the earliest sitcom ever? I have found earlier comedy shows, but they seem to be more variety-type like "The Carol Burnett Show" was.

[ProffesorFan]

Maybe "I Love Lucy", but I'm not sure when that debuted, though. It was on the radion before tv was invented!

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Thurston: Now the first thing you use, darling, is your driver.
Lovey: My driver? Don't be silly, darling, you know our chauffeur is back home. I believe his name was Charles, wasn't it?
Thurston: No, darling, I'm talking about clubs.
Lovey: Of course, he drove us to all the very best clubs.
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[Perderabo]

Well, "I Love Lucy" debuted in 1951. It did not previously appear on radio. Ms. Ball did star in the radio sitcom "My Favorite Husband", which ran from 1948 to 1950 on CBS.

Nipkow patented his television system in 1884. The first commercial radio station, KDKA, began operations on Nov 2, 1920. This makes it pretty hard for any radio sitcom to precede the invention of television. Still,
commercial broadcasts of television didn't start in the US until 1939 and TV didn't really takeoff until 1946 when the wartime restrictions on building TV's were lifted.

Clearly there were radio sitcoms long before there were television sitcoms. So I guess I do need to clarify that I am looking for the first television sitcom.