David Lampson and Andrew Leeds, the aspiring duo behind a sitcom-in-development called Stephen's Life, are obstinate and opinionated, and thus comprise the more interesting storyline (and ain't that what it's all about in reality TV land?). They’re a tenacious lot, however, and never more so than in their insistence that Stephen’s Life, a potentially quirky and funny concept about a Junior High kid who runs his life like a Fortune 500 company, be shot single-camera.
Traditional sitcoms, traditional yawns
This led me to think about comedy on television and the convention of the sitcom. I grew up in an '80s-verse of classic (or "classic," if you prefer) sitcom fare: Family Ties and The Cosby Show and Growing Pains and on and on (Silver Spoons, anyone? If you’re humming the theme song right now, we’re on the same page). In most cases, joining a family or metaphorical family (Facts of Life, etc.) in the living room or kitchen for mildly serious dilemmas solved by broad punch lines, catch phrases, and an occasional visit from the Wacky Neighbor was as ubiquitous and American as Ronald Reagan, apple pie, and eating a TV dinner nuked out of time and mind next to Mom.
By the 90s, this format began to groan. Urkel and Screech and minority-heavy and relationship-centric shows began to blot out the hope of ever finding an original storyline, let alone a laugh, emanating from the tired living room couch. Seinfeld, perhaps the funniest sitcom of all time, broke the mold and bucked the trend by famously focusing on “nothing.” The end of Friends may have signaled the end of a sitcom era: its attractive cast and consistently strong writing often gave it more of a romantic comedy flavor than that of a sitcom.
Out of the ashes… HBO
For a time, perhaps for several years in the early '00s, it was safe to say that comedy on television was pretty much dead anyway.
Then, for not the first time, cable television came along to whoop the networks a good one. Curb Your Enthusiasm, from the misanthropic and darkly brilliant mind of Larry David, may just be the show that reinvented the comedy wheel. Largely improvised, loose, and shot almost documentary-style with a single camera, the microscopic yet hilarious adventures of Larry David (playing himself) in shallow, self-absorbed Hollywood rewrote the rules of what a half-hour of comedy on television can do.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Chris Beaumont
Interesting. Good read... Sorry I don't have much to add.. perhaps later.
2 - Eric Berlin
Thanks Chris, glad you enjoyed!
3 - Chris Evans
Great piece, Eric. Being an aspiring sitcom (or dramedy) writer myself, it concerns me that the television sitcom is now considered to be dead, although I can see why it is. Friends is gone, and Will & Grace, which was in my opinion the only other excellent sitcom on television, has gone to the hounds. Too many gratuitous guest stars, predictable jokes, and unpredictable but also unbelievable plotlines. Please someone help! Maybe hopefully by the time I graduate college (in 4 years) this drought of good television comedy will have passedl. If not, heh, maybe that just leaves a spot open for me to bring something new and fresh to American television viewers.
4 - Eric Berlin
Thanks very much, Chris. I hope my piece illustrated that innovative and funny single-camera shows are beginning to break out of the malaise of the multi-camera sitcom quagmire.
The challenge will always be that a studio will have to invest more time and money into a single-camera pilot, whereas the multi-camera option will always be "easier."
But success (read = ratings) will always breed success, so here's hoping...
5 - Mark Saleski
i laugh a lot at That 70's show..mostly because it does indeed 'get' what it was like back then.
what's kinda interesting is how every once in a while even a lame, cliche-ridden show can make ya laugh....i remember watching (i wish i could remember the name) that show with brooke shields (the one with kathy griffin on it maybe?) oh wait! it was 'suddenly susan'!
anyway...brooke's character is laying in bed watching a rerun of the second generation of mary tyler moore...when they get to the "your gonna make it" part of the theme song, brooke's character flings her hand in the air (just like mary) but ends up tossing her remote control in the air...which ends up konking her in the head.
maybe you had to be there, but i laughed out loud.
(or maybe i'm just easily amused)
6 - Eric Berlin
I think That 70s Show does a great job with the period, but its the writing and character-development that has kept it strong over a fairly long run now.
I never watched Suddenly Susan, but I've heard good things about it from the oddest of places. For example, an old friend (and NYPD cop) sheepishly admitted to me once upon a time that he watched it with his girlfriend... and very much enjoyed it.
7 - Mark Saleski
i also liked "herman's head", which didn't stick around too long.
8 - Eric Berlin
From what I remember, that was pretty good as well. Is that the one where there were like four dudes who were pieces of his personality, that would chitchat and argue throughout the story?
I could definitely see where that one would lose steam after a bit though.
9 - Chris Beaumont
A show I think left TV too soon: Titus.
10 - Eric Berlin
Titus was all about the use of the flashback -- it pretty much thrived on it, didn't it? That would put it closer to That 70s Show in terms of attempting to be something of a hybrid.
My wife liked it. I didn't at first, but recall it growing on me around the time it was cancelled.
11 - Mark Saleski
i also liked "cop rock".
oh wait...that wasn't supposed to be funny.
12 - Eric Berlin
Yes, innovation in of itself does not a great show make...
13 - Mark Saleski
it was so bad that i was embarassed for them while watching it.
hmmm...i'd kinda like to see it again, not that i think of it.
14 - Eric Berlin
As we're veering into aside-land, I actually thought the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was outstanding. Great music, great story.
15 - Chris Beaumont
Yes, Titus had a good deal of flashbacks in it. It did a good job at taking a slpsticky look at some serious dysfunctional family issues without seeming to make fun of it, per se.
Another good one that falls under the comedy umbrella is Monk.
16 - Eric Berlin
I thought Titus and crew were overly angry at first, but as I said it grew on me a bit.
Monk is a really hard show to categorize (which is usually a great thing for a TV show!). It's an hour-long detective show with strong comedic elements.
For me, Monk gets dull when it loses its comedic footing and gets too procedural.
17 - Baronius
Eric - Very good article.
I would suggest another factor in sitcom quality: the laugh track. The track reinforces the rythym you mentioned. In doing so, it restricts the type of jokes that are possible. Nearly every show you listed as alive has no laugh track; nearly all the dead ones do.
Take Spin City and Scrubs, both produced by the same people. Spin City wasn't funny at all, but it was hard to notice, because so many of the actors had amazing comic timing. Richard Kind could get a laugh reading the phone book (and not just because phone books are funnier than Spin City scripts). Scrubs employs the techniques you discussed to create off-tempo humor. You couldn't put a laugh track to it.
One last example: NewsRadio. A great show, but one that always underachieved. It had the mistimed writing and a laugh track, which don't work well together. NewsRadio episodes are much funnier on a second watching, just following the dialogue:
LISA: "This job... this job... I didn't know it was going to be so..."
DAVE: "... Bill-intensive... Bill-centric, Bill-a-licious, Bill-esque...?"
LISA: "No, it's like Billbastic."
DAVE: "I don't follow."
You can't time that for a laugh track.
OK, one last example. Cartoons. The Simpsons and (ick) Family Guy also take advantage of their freedom to time jokes as they want to. Cartoons can set up a gag for a long stretch, or bludgeon you with high-speed sight gags. They use flashbacks and "camera" work that feel more like Titus than Family Ties.
18 - Eric Berlin
Fantastic comments, Baronious -- I'm tempted to do an entire stand-alone piece on the laugh track now!
In doing research, I came across a lengthy defense of the laugh track in comedy, which I didn't agree with at all (though I was impressed by the intelligence of the argument).
I love your takes on Scrubs, News Radio, and Spin City. Particularly Spin City -- you've nailed that show perfectly: great great acting, mediocre writing.
I also get the sense that I gravitate toward shows with that off-beat timing (was raised on Monty Python reruns and Kids in the Hall, etc.). Therefore, I will point to Arrested Development as Pure Genius whereas others will say... "I don't get it."
19 - Eric Berlin
Just thinking... what kind of show could News Radio have been as a single-camera comedy? I'm guessing pretty damned great.
20 - Baronius
Thanks, but most of my thoughts were acquired on the TWoP boards. There, and from one episode of Scrubs: I don't know if you saw the episode with a live studio audience, but they purposely turned the show into a conventional sitcom. Students could study that episode.
I'm one of the people who doesn't get Arrested Development. I expected to like it because it's not "Raymond", but it's a swing-and-a-miss for me.
I can see that Monty Python really avoided traditional comic timing. Don't forget Mystery Science Theater! I remember watching it with friends, and we'd each miss different jokes because we'd be laughing at the previous one.
21 - Al Barger
You seem a bit obsessed with camera work here, which doesn't seem to me like the most important part of the deal.
In fact, this appears to be the golden age of tv comedy. Depending on how broadly you define "sitcoms" I'd say that half of the dozen best sitcoms ever are in production right now. You always have to save room for All in the Family and Andy Griffith, but very few previous shows could match, say,
Bernie Mac
The Simpsons
King of the Hill
South Park
Arrested Development
Malcolm in the Middle
I'll take this lot over the Huxtables and Michael J Fox any old time.
Also, Tony Shaloub as Monk specifically won an Emmy for best lead actor in a comedy, if memory serves.
Also, I second the recognition to the late lamented Titus. That show was beautiful.
22 - Eric Berlin
Al, my overall point was that single-camera adds a great deal to comedy on television and that, in part, is the reason that the best sitcoms/comedies are single-camera shows.
I'll stand by my comments on Monk -- it's not really a comedy.
And I'll end by saying that you've chosen three animated shows, Al, and three single-camera comedies!
23 - Eric Berlin
Where are the TWoP boards at, Baronius? I'd like to check it out.
I also stand by previous statements that I just can't believe that someone doesn't find Arrested Development funny... until I remember that comedy is massively and endlessly subjective.
I always found MST 3k hit-and-miss, myself. Maybe it had to do with my mood, but more than that it was the film itself -- some were much more condusive to laughs than others. And I never really liked the skits.
I'm planning on doing a piece on ESPN Classic's Cheap Seats at some point soon, which has in some ways perfected the MST 3k model. And, it's hilarious!
24 - Tan The Man
Nice... I bet your next article will be on the rise of science fiction and fantasy shows?
25 - Eric Berlin
Thanks Tan.
That would be tough for me because I don't get the Sci Fi channel. I'm also a little slower picking up on the sci fi than others. For example, Babylon Five got added to my Netflix list a few months back, and likely won't get in front of my face for quite some time.
So by all means, go for it yourself, man!