Written by Arielle Port
Published June 23, 2024
I’ve been down this week with a lingering cold. I mustered the energy for a Zoom and the person I was talking to in New York was also getting over a cold. What is it about the beginning of the summer that gets everyone sick?
An old episode of black-ish came to mind – the whole family falls sick, and Dre begrudgingly takes on the role of nurse – and I started googling to see which of my other favorite sitcoms had episodes where at least one of the main characters was sick.
I used two metrics for this list: “Episodic Rating” and “Sick Rating”. Episodic television – like Friends or The Big Bang Theory – tells stories that are contained within the episode, so you can jump in at any point without needing too much context. Serialized television – like Game of Thrones or Lost – weaves a story line over several episodes if not seasons, encouraging a closer watch. For the purposes of a themed list like this, episodic is better so you can just pop in for the episode. “Sick Rating” is about how much story time is dedicated to the illness – how many characters are sick, one or multiple? Is it the A-Story or B or C-story? Is the sickness intrinsic to the plot or more of a contrivance?
I have compiled a list of five stellar Sick Day sitcom episodes, with some honorable mentions as well.
#5 Brooklyn Nine-Nine: The Road Trip (2.9)
Streaming: Peacock, Netflix (S1-4)
Logline: When Jake and Amy are assigned an overnight pickup duty, Jake invites their significant others along to make the work trip a romantic one. At the precinct, Sergeant Jeffords and Gina deal with a very ill but very stubborn Rosa.
Episodic Rating: 6/10
Sick Rating: 5/10
Review: In a very pre-Covid storyline, Rosa shows up to work with an obvious cold, but insists it’s just allergies. Kudos to Stephanie Beatriz and the MU team – she does truly look sick. Terry wants her to go home and get better, while Gina just wants Rosa to stay far away. A perp claims abuse when Rosa (offscreen) coughs on him during an interrogation. Rosa chugs a bottle of daytime cold medicine (to fight off her “symptoms”, since she can’t admit that she’s sick), giving her maniac energy. Eventually Gina locks Rosa in a supply closet, where she immediately passes out for the next ten hours, waking with enough strength to punch through the glass window. It’s a sweet button – Rosa begrudgingly thanking Terry and Gina for their help. It’s relatable for a woman who doesn’t understand why other women don’t have purse axes.
#4 New Girl – Sam, Again (5.13)
Streaming: Hulu, Peacock
Logline: While Jess’s personal and professional life collide, Schmitt makes the rest of the sick roommates quarantine while he preps for a big presentation.
Episodic Rating: 5/10
Sick Rating: 7/10
Review: Schmitt is preparing for a presentation at work and cannot afford to get sick. Schmitt’s quarantine plan is heavily reliant on taping up cellophane across the bedroom door. I’m no scientist, but this doesn’t seem airtight. What this episode beautifully captures is a sort of gently insane show that can really captivate you when you’re riding the cusp of a fever – Cece and Nick are entranced by Poppycock Palace, a sort of riff on Muppets or Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. It’s only the irritatingly non-narrative yet still repetitive Poppycock Palace that jolts Winston into working up the courage to go on his big date.
#3 The Big Bang Theory: The Pancake Batter Anomaly (1.11)
Streaming: Max
Logline: When Sheldon is hit with a cold, the boys abandon him, leaving Penny to take care of Sheldon.
Episodic Rating: 9/10
Sick Rating: 9/10
Review: Sheldon is tedious on his best days, so is it shocking that he’s a pain when he’s sick? Leonard, Howard, and Raj have a “Code Milky Green” in place – which is basically be anywhere that Sheldon isn’t. Unsuspecting Penny is left to care for Sheldon who demands soup and VapoRub and a rendition of “Soft Kitty.” Leonard is caught in his lie when he tries to sneak back into the apartment to get a backup pair of glasses. Even a genius like Sheldon regresses to childlike behavior when your body is at its weakest. At The Cheesecake Factory, he tells Penny his mom used to make soup with cut up hotdogs and homemade croutons – basically the one thing not on The Cheesecake Factory’s menu. This is exactly what you want when you think of a classic sitcom tackling an illness trope.
#2 Parks & Recreation: Flu Season (3.2)
Streaming: Peacock
Logline: A flu bug sweeps through the Parks & Recreation office, leaving Leslie, April, and Chris down for the count. Leslie won’t allow Ben to take over a presentation despite her flu.
Episodic Rating: 7/10
Sick Rating: 9/10
Review: I appreciate that this was the point in the run of Parks where Ann’s being a nurse was still relevant. This show runs the gamut of how people react to getting a bug: April’s petulance, Leslie’s denial (it’s allergies!), Chris’s complete collapse (Stop. Pooping.) I love how Donna, Tom, and Jerry make Leslie sit at her desk and conference into a meeting when she shows up to the office obviously sick. Because half the workplace is out, this episode leads to new pairings – like Nick and Andy – that have a fun dynamic to explore. Leslie, delirious and hopped up on stolen flu meds, pulls it together when she steps up to present. I like to think this is the first moment when Ben really begins to fall in love with her.
#1 black-ish: Daddy Dre-Care (2.23)
Streaming: Disney, Hulu
Logline: When the whole house falls sick, it’s up to Dre to nurse everyone back to health.
Episodic Rating: 8/10
Sick Rating: 10/10
Review: This is the episode that inspired this list! This episode shows how a household can fall fast when one kid gets sick, and how the physical and emotional labor is put on the mom by default. Dre’s reluctance to take care of the kids becomes guilt that in their hour of need, they don’t even want him.The montage of Dre doctoring his way is really genius. He isn’t Dr. Mommy, so he’ll be Dr. Dre. He creates a pillow fort for the kids in the living room. He gets even the pickiest of pallets to take shots like a champ by treating them like actual shots, with a lick of sugar to start and an orange wedge to finish. He reinvents chicken noodle soup as fried chicken noodle soup. By the end of the episode, when Bow is feeling well enough to check on the kids, they just want their dad.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Happy Endings: Spooky Endings (2.5)
Logline: Alex and Dave are excited to not be shackled to a couples costume in their first post-breakup Halloween, and Alex won’t let a cold keep her from wearing her sexy new costume. Penny and Max attend the Pumpkin Bash with Alex and Dave, while Brad begrudgingly housesits for a friend with Jane in the suburbs.
Episodic Rating: 8/10
Sick Rating: 5/10
Review: Alex is so excited to go as Marilyn Monroe, and she looks HOT. Alex does meet a guy, but with her cold-induced deep voice and ambiguously gendered name, the guy thinks she’s a guy here for the drag costume competition. It’s a blow to Alex’s ego, but Dave points out she is wearing one of the most iconic drag costumes of all time. This is a hysterical use of a specific cold symptom, but other than that, Alex doesn’t really seem sick. This kept me laughing but didn’t scratch the itch in what I was looking for in a sick day watch marathon.
Friends: The One with Rachel’s Sister (6.13)
Logline: Rachel’s younger sister shows up unexpectedly. Monica refuses to admit she is sick.
Episodic Rating: 5/10
Sick Rating: 4/10
Review: This ends on a To Be Continued – pertaining to Ross’s date with Rachel’s sister, not pertaining to Monica’s cold – and is pretty contingent on knowing there is a long history between Ross and Rachel. Monica’s plotline is bizarre – desperate to prove she’s not sick, she keeps trying to seduce hubby Chandler. This show makes the best comic use of the lisp that accompanies a bad sinus infection – how can Monica be sick when she’s in the Pribe of her Libe?
Modern Family: Chirp (2.7)
Logline: Claire and Haley spend a day in bed together when they’re both down with the same cold. Gloria and Manny visit Jay at the warehouse. Cam and Mitchell disagree on whether Lily should pursue acting.
Episodic Rating: 9/10
Sick Rating: 3/10
Review: Claire and Haley’s sickness was a means to get them to watch a soap opera together – Claire thinks she is talking to Haley about a thinly veiled metaphor for Haley and her dufus boyfriend, but Haley thinks Claire is talking about her marriage to Haley’s father. It’s a cute concept – Haley arguing for the marriage passionately, while Claire is cavalierly saying how the relationship will ruin her life, but it’s not intrinsically tied to them being sick.
UNABRIDGED LIST
Black-ish – Daddy Dre-Care (4.23)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – The Road Trip (2.9)
Friends – The One with the Chicken Pox (2.23), The One with Joey’s New Girlfriend (4.5), The One with Rachel’s Sister (6.13)
Happy Endings – Spooky Endings (2.5)
Modern Family – Chirp (2.7), A Stereotypical Day (8.2)
New Girl – Sam Again (5.13)
Parks & Rec – Flu Season (3.2)
TBBT – The Pancake Batter Anomaly (1.11)*, The Large Hadron Collision (3.15), The Re-Entry Minimization (6.4), The Fish Guts Displacement (6.10)*, The Empathy Optimization (9.13), The Recollection Dissipation (10.20)*
Please let me know if I’m missing any episodes!
Arielle RePort 
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