Modified On March 10, 2009
We could have. For the past three or four years, we’ve been predicting it.
Back on February 26, we tweeted the following:
If the sitcom is dead, then how does one explain 30 Rock? Or Big Bang Theory? Or Scrubs? Or Family Guy? Or Life (if we want to stretch)?
Now Josef Adalian, in a TVWeek article dated March 8, writes this:
While many in the industry have been wringing their hands (and flapping their jaws) about the supposed death of the sitcom, the network that introduced Americans to half-hour comedy through I Love Lucy has once again asserted its dominance over the genre. From both a cultural and commercial perspective, no other network—including former comedy champ NBC—comes close in the genre to matching CBS’s Monday night lineup of laughs.[…]
CBS executives, however, say it’s hard to pinpoint a specific formula beyond simply “make funny shows.”
“We don’t approach our development [saying], ‘Let’s do this kind of show or that kind of show,'” said Wendi Trilling, who has overseen comedy development for CBS since 2000. “We really approach it from … which scripts work the best, and then which pilots are the best.”
So while most of its rivals have spent the past decade focusing their energies on indulging the creative whims of writers in love with the notion of comedies that resemble feature films—so-called single-camera half-hours—CBS has kept pumping out sitcoms that are filmed in front of a live studio audience.
Or producers in love with the notion of “unscripted” comedies! As we ranted on August 15, 2007, after reading some twaddle about improvised scripts by Larry Carroll on MTV.com:
Pay special attention to the word “greenlit.” Folks are telling the suits that the projects are “largely improvised” or “totally unscripted” because, apparently, the suits are all hot and bothered by the idea and are all too willing to say yes to such projects. (And all too willing to be a part of “a revolution that favors awkward silences instead of traditional “setup, punch line” comedy.”)
You weren’t aware that there was such a revolution going on? Where have you been for the past half-decade? (That’s how long it’s been going on, according to Larry Carroll, the author of the piece. An entire half-decade! That’s a looooong time!)
And, from March 1, 2006, comes our tirade on the hype surrounding Fox’s ill-fated Free Ride:
The sitcom, don’t you know, is dead.
The truly funny sitcoms– the ones that will carry us into the next Golden Era of Television– won’t need writers. Brave souls like Rob Roy Thomas will re-invent the form and skilled actors will merely improv their way into the Television Hall of Fame. No writers need apply. (Those pesky writers were getting in the way!)
Why do they insist on this fantasy? What is so utterly horrifying to these nitwits about taking an idea for a sitcom, hiring accomplished writers to concoct truly humorous situations and dialogue, then hiring talented actors with a flair for comedy? Why all these wistful daydreams about a world in which we don’t need writers, the actors are all triple threats and the genre that brought us The Honeymooners, Mary Tyler Moore and Seinfeld is a flawed model tossed unceremoniously on the scrapheap of television history?
Oh, sure, even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. So, if we squawked long enough and often enough, we would eventually be vindicated. But in the TV biz, it takes forever to turn the ship around, so squawking for three or four years isn’t so psychotic in the grand scheme of things.
Anyway, the take-away from all this is that “Fat Guy/Hot Wife” (industry shorthand for typical sitcoms that follow a tried and true formula) is not dead. And this is good for comedians– no better person to build a traditional sitcom around than someone who knows how to utter a punchline and has the timing to deal with a live (studio) audience. (And if, while producing said sitcoms, they actually use a fat guy or two, it’s time for all the comics in NY and LA to cancel their gym memberships!)