10 Best HBO Original Comedy Series, Ranked

HBO has long been the gold standard for original programming. Whether it was as a cable outlet back in the 1990s and 2000s or the streamer station of the 2010s and today, audiences have looked to HBO to raise the bar for both dramatic series and comedic shows. Some performers have carved out entire careers by allying with the streamer. Take Danny McBride, for instance. He has partnered with HBO for a trio of shows that all appear in our top ten list. Vice Principals, The Righteous Gemstones, and Eastbound & Down have largely defined his powerhouse career in comedy. He has been excellent in movies as well, but he is well known for his HBO comedy series.

HBO started delivering original comedies back in the 1980s with shows like 1st and 10 starring Delta Burke. The momentum continued into the 90s with the late great comedian Gary Shandling lifting the curtain on late-night talk shows with The Larry Sanders Show. Over the last twenty years, the laughs have just kept on rolling with Larry David carrying the torch from Shandling through 12 stellar seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Television and movie royalty like Julia Lousie Dreyfuss, Danny McBride, Jean Smart, and John Goodman have all found another level of success by starring in HBO original comedies. Here are the ten best.

10 ‘Vice Principals’ (2017-2018)

Number of seasons: 2

Danny McBride makes his first appearance on our list and his first of two hilarious collaborations with Walton Goggins on Vice Principals. These two also appear together in The Righteous Gemstones, but paired off first in 2017 to play two school administrators who are vying for the same promotion to Principal. With only two full seasons, it feels like there was so much more TV goodness to be tapped here, but at least we got a handful of episodes.

What more can you say about the chemistry between McBride and Goggins than what they have already delivered on the screen? McBride has his misguided polecat swagger in full effect here, while Goggins is terrific as a mild-mannered but crafty foil who will do almost anything to undermine his arch-nemesis. Together they are the ideal nincompoops who may look like full-grown men on the outside but have the mentality and maturity of the students they are supposed to be supervising.

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9 Entourage (2004-2011)

Number of seasons: 8

What is it like to be a planet in the orbit of the sun that is a big Hollywood star? HBO tackled this question with a laugh-out-loud take on the Entourage dynamic in show business. Drama (Kevin Dillon), Eric “E” Murphy (Kevin Connolly), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) all jockeyed to find the sweet spot on the coattail of rising movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) while also trying to put together their own careers in Tinseltown. Jeremy Piven has never been better than the narcissistic but dedicated agent Ari Gold working to get Vince the hottest and biggest starring roles. The show is based on the real-life experience of megastar Mark Wahlberg.

There were so many characters and such a dynamic maelstrom of relationships between this circle of friends and Ari. Each of them occupied just the right amount of space and contributed just enough to make Entourage a must-watch, appointment viewing every week in the 2000s. The show was so revered and well-received that a full-length film was made in 2015 with brand-new escapades for Vince and his pals.

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8 ‘Barry’ (2018-2023)

Number of seasons: 4

Bill Hader knocks it out of the park as Barry, a former marine with PTSD who tries to balance his career as a hitman with a quixotic desire to become a Hollywood actor. What could possibly go wrong? Barry is one of the most innovative and fresh ideas for a television show ever, and Hader leads a stellar cast that includes Emmy-worthy performances from both Henry Winkler as washed-out acting coach Gene Cousineau, Stephen Root as Barry’s relentless handler Monroe Fuches, and Anthony Carrigan as the driven but clueless gangster NoHo-Hank.

The way that Hader and fellow creator/producer Alec Berg establish the two separate worlds of their titular lead is a glorious piece of TV. The dichotomy plays out beautifully over the first several seasons before eventually dovetailing together and providing for some of the funniest and most dramatic moments within only a thirty-minute episode. Hader has come a long way from his SNL days and his breakout recurring character Stephan.

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7 ‘The Larry Sanders Show’ (1992-1997)

Number of seasons: 6

“Heyyyy Nowww!!!” It’s Garry Shandling as Larry Sanders in what was an important comedy win for HBO. The Larry Sanders Show is the only comedy from the decade of the 90s on this list and propelled the streamer as the preeminent carrier of original programming. The behind-the-scenes look at what went on before, during, and after, you catch your favorite late-night TV show was spot-on, but ridiculous enough to leave a lasting impression and a worthy top-five entry on this list.

The chemistry between Shandling and Rip Torn as show producer Artie and Jeffrey Tambor as not-so-subtle Ed McMahon knockoff Hank Kingsley was not only dynamic entertainment but a bridge into the twenty-first century for a new style of hour-long HBO comedies. And it was a veritable who’s who for guest stars and cameos each week who played along with the antics of the grind that is putting daily talk show together.

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6 ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ (2019-present)

Number of seasons: 4

The first three seasons of The Righteous Gemstones is Danny McBride at the peak of his powers both as a comedic performer and as a guy calling his own shots with the brass at HBO. In his third collaboration with the streamer, he is a writer and executive producer of a story about a horribly dysfunctional family of televangelists. As the eldest of three, Jesse rules the roost as he tries to pry power away from his father, Eli Gemstone (John Goodman).

The ensemble of the show is exceptional, with McBride, Goodman, Edi Patterson, Walton Goggins, and Adam DeVine. All have terrific comedic chops and their timing is top-notch. The third partnership between HBO and McBride is pushing Eastbound & Down to be the best and still has more seasons in the works. Be on the lookout for a fourth season of the comedy due out sometime in 2024.

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5 ‘Eastbound & Down’ (2015-2018)

Number of seasons: 4

Here is a case study of what happens to our favorite athletes when they start believing their own headlines and lose focus on what they are doing on the field. Danny McBrideis larger than life as Kenny Powers, a professional baseball player who flames out of a gold-paved road to millions of bucks and superstardom as an athlete because he just can’t get right mentally. Eastbound & Down is McBride’s second of three entries on this list. He has used the HBO platform perhaps more than anyone to take his career to an elite level.

Powers is the brash and irreverent precursor to McBride’s take on Jesse Gemstone in The Righteous Gemstones. He is obviously at his best when he can just riff and write his own dialogue like he does in Eastbound & Down. Born in Statesboro, Georgia, the 47-year-old actor is a natural for the southern-based show that dissects the hilarious downfall of a narcissistic and self-centered pro athlete. Katy Mixon is terrific in a supporting role as well.

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4 ‘Hacks’ (2021-present)

Number of seasons: 3

Jean Smartis one of the best actresses working today. She cut her teeth on roles in sitcoms like Designing Women in the 80s and 90s and has had a memorable turn in another HBO drama, Mare of Easttown in 2021. She has an uncanny ability to do both funny and drama, unlike any other female performer. In Hacks, she taps into that funny bone and delivers the character of washed-up Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance. Her relationship/mentorship with co-star Hannah Embinder as Ava Daniels is brilliant to the tune of a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

What separates Smart from the rest of the pack in not only Hacks, but Hollywood, in general, is her knack for delivering performances that have both an element of elegance and class with a touch of crass. It’s not an easy recipe to duplicate and Smart is one of the elite players who has been turning in stellar parts for over 45 years. Enjoy Ms. Smart now, while she is still killing it, as she won’t keep delighting audiences forever.

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3 ‘Veep’ (2012-2018)

Number of seasons: 7

It makes sense that two of the top three entries on the list would originate from Seinfeld graduates. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is as talented a comedic actress as has ever lived on the level of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett. She’s got enough awards to back this claim up with more Emmy statuettes than she can carry. Veepwas a triumph for her on the heels of a third criminally underrated comedy sitcom called The New Adventures of Old Christine.

Veep feels more like an HBO docuseries than…