I think it appealed to younger audiences. I'm a lot older than the intended audience, BUT at the time it was showing, I was a staff member at a large research university and actually recognized certain basic characters as being universal on campuses everywhere. I think it was because the series captured the fragile egos and "absent-minded professor" types that I thought it was pretty funny. But of course, most people DON'T work for universities, so the internal jokes may have been lost on them.