Never Judge a show by it's pilot.
My Name Is Earl: Tuesday Night 9:00 PM NBC.
I have to say a few comments about My Name is Earl before I even see the pilot.
Every time a long running sit-com goes off the air (last season it was Everybody Loves Raymond) someone announces that, "The sitcom is dead." Trust me the sitcom is not dead.
When Desi Arnaz created I Love Lucy he described his idea simply. We are going to film a stage play in front of a live audience with three cameras. Somewhere down the line we forgot that the plays are the thing. Lately instead of a plot we have strung together one-liners, zingers and sexual innuendoes. When we go back to the art of storytelling and show that the comedy should come from the situation you will see that the sitcom is very much alive.
There are also single camera sitcoms, like My Name is Earl that is not shot in front of an audience. Instead of shooting a play this is more like shooting a 22-minute movie. Over the years some of the most popular shows in television history were single camera sitcoms including
The Andy Griffith Show (Celebrating it's 45 anniversary this year), M*A*S*H and the first couple of seasons of Happy Days. Back then single camera sitcoms were required to use a laugh track (Although M*A*S*H* did not use the laugh track in the operating room).
Current single camera sitcoms include Scrubs, The Office, Malcolm in the Middle, The Bernie Mac Show and Arrested Development.
Did you notice that 3 of the 5 listed single camera sitcoms were on FOX? FOX also had another single camera sitcom called Oliver Beene that aired from 2003 to 2004. I have been told that this funny show failed not because it was a single camera sitcom, but because it was set in 1962 and period shows don’t do well (That '70s Show HELLO!). When FOX was in fourth place they took some creative risks and aired single camera sitcoms when the "Big 3" networks wanted to stick with the traditional three camera format. Now that NBC is in forth place, it's time for them to take some creative risks.
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Article comments
1 - Bob A. Booey
Good job, Tony.
Your post was at least worthy of a cut-and-paste of my comments from elsewhere.
Here's Syracuse communications professor and media quote whore Robert Thompson's theory on why single-camera comedies haven't taken off with the viewers:
Christian Science Monitor
"Shows like 'Arrested,' that tend to be the darlings of critics but never get great ratings, do something new, but they will never be monster hits because you have to sit down and really watch them," says Thompson. "The thing about a sitcom when it's done well, is that it can be enjoyed when you're half asleep, doing homework, making pot roast. They are not confusing or challenging," he adds, "They are completely user-friendly."
That is all.
2 - Temple Stark
Tony!!!!
This was chosen as an Editor's Pick this week by your humble Video / TV Editor Joan Hunt. Go HERE to find out why and grab a nifty graphic button to put on your own site.
3 - Kyle
The writing on this show is very tight and clever, particularly the third episode.
It was quite impressive to have the entire point of karma rammed home in the space of a single scene at the end of the episode.
Joy (Earl's ex-wife) and Earl were in a race to raise the $3,000 necessary to get Earl's car out of impound and, more importantly, get the $100,000 in cash he was storing inside.
To raise money, Joy first robs a sleeping homeless man of his shopping cart full of aluminum cans. After realizing that would be slow going, she and her new husband steal three guard rails from nearby an open ditch and sell them for scrap. She drives past Earl, waving the money out the window, and shouts: "Where's your karma now, dummy?"
On the way to the impound lot, she has to swerve to miss hitting the homeless guy she'd robbed earlier and plows into the open ditch from where she'd stolen the guard rails. Brilliant.
4 - BeckEye
It really is a very good show. I didn't bother watching it when it premiered because I thought it was more of the worn out "you might be a redneck" routine but it's not. I caught the marathon of the first 3 eps last Saturday and loved it. It's very clever and totally funny. I will definitely be tuning in from now on.