Information about Sitcom

A situation comedy, usually referred to as a sitcom, is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Today, sitcoms are found almost exclusively on television, as one of its dominant narrative forms. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace.

Characteristics

The essence of the situation comedy is that the characters remain in the same situation from episode to episode. The situation is usually that of a family, workplace, or a group of friends. The term was adopted to distinguish the sitcom from other comedy formats: sketch comedy, which generally featured new characters and situations each outing, or the humorous monologue or dialogue, which did not feature characters. Often these other formats were presented within a variety format mixed with musical performances, as in Vaudeville. The emerging mass medium of radio allowed audiences to return to programs over and over, which allowed programs to return to the same characters and situations each episode and expect audiences to be familiar with them. Thus, while the humor in sitcoms varies, it is usually character-driven, which may result in running gags during the series.

Due to the need to retain the same situation over many episodes, in many sitcoms characters remained largely static. Events of individual episodes typically resolve themselves by the end, and are rarely mentioned in subsequent episodes. This episodic nature is mirrored in many dramas as well, but there are also many sitcoms that feature story arcs across many episodes, where the characters and situations slowly change over the course of their run.

History

Radio

The situation comedy format was born on January 12 1926 with the initial broadcast of Sam 'n' Henry on WGN in Chicago. The 15-minute daily program was revamped in 1928, moved to another station, and renamed Amos 'n' Andy, which became one of the most successful sitcoms from this period. It was also one of the earliest examples of radio syndication. Like many radio programs of the time, the two programs continued the American entertainment traditions of Vaudeville and the minstrel show, and, due to the latter, are somewhat controversial today.

Fibber McGee and Molly was one of the most successful sitcoms of all time, airing on radio from 1935 to 1959. The show starred vaudevillians James "Jim" and Marian Driscoll Jordan and also had its roots in Chicago.

In 1947, Beulah became the first radio sitcom featuring an African-American in the lead role.

Television

In the late 1940s, the sitcom was among the first formats adapted for the new medium of television. Most sitcoms were a half-hour in length and aired weekly. Many of the earliest sitcoms were direct adaptations of existing radio shows, such as Amos 'n' Andy, or vehicles for existing radio stars such as Burns and Allen (The Burns and Allen Show) and film stars such as Abbott and Costello (The Abbott and Costello Show). Early sitcoms were broadcast live and recorded on kinescopes or not recorded at all.

The television adaptation of Beulah in 1950 became the first TV sitcom with an African-American lead.

An early innovator in the history of sitcoms is Desi Arnaz who is credited with the first successful use of the multiple-camera setup, where three cameras shoot the action on stage simultaneously and the best shots from each of the cameras are later edited together. I Love Lucy, the extremely popular show that Arnaz and his wife Lucille Ball created and starred in together, was also among the first to record all episodes on film, and he is thus also credited with foreseeing the viability of the rerun.

Eventually, sitcoms began to divide themselves into two distinct groups: the domestic comedy, which focused on a family or a married couple in their home, and the workplace comedy, which focused on the employees at a workplace. The earliest domestic comedies include The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Honeymooners, and Make Room for Daddy. The earliest workplace comedies include Our Miss Brooks, set in a high school, and The Phil Silvers Show, which was set on a US Army post.

A few shows managed to feature both situations equally, such as the early 1960s The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The animated sitcom was born during this period with Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones and The Jetsons. The latter show was the first example of the science fiction sitcom subgenre.

By the mid-1960s, sitcom creators began adding more fantastical elements to live action sitcoms. Monsters and ghouls were featured as regular characters in The Munsters and The Addams Family created from a series of cartoon comics. Genies and witches featured in I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched, respectively. Sherwood Schwartz created the somewhat implausible Gilligan's Island. Also popular were the spy and superhero parodies Get Smart and Batman. Many of these shows returned to the practice of the single camera filming style, which was more practical given the visual effects used in these shows. Overall, the late 1960s was a period of greater production values for sitcoms. This allowed for the careful creation of special effects and sharp editing, features which were not possible with the same finesse in a multi-camera production. Many of these programs were not filmed before live audiences, yet featured a laugh track.

Another trend beginning in the 1960's was the expansion of the domestic comedy beyond the nuclear family or married couple. The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons featured widowers and their children. The Partridge Family concerned a widow and her children. One notable sitcom from this period is Sherwood Schwartz's The Brady Bunch, which centered on a blended family, perhaps the best-known domestic comedy in US television history.

The Andy Griffith Show is also notable for being the first TV sitcom spinoff, from an episode of The Danny Thomas Show.

The musical sitcom become an important and popular sub-genre of sitcoms in the mid 1960s through early 1970s with The Monkees, which played off of the success of The Beatles, and with The Partridge Family.

In the early 1970s, sitcoms began to address controversial issues in a serious way, and largely returned to the three-camera shoot before live audiences. Many programs began to be recorded to video, as opposed to film, during this time as well. In the US Norman Lear is largely credited with the social issues development through his sitcoms All in the Family, based on Johnny Speight's Till Death Us Do Part in the United Kingdom, and its spin-offs Maude, The Jeffersons, and Good Times, all in the U.S. Also in Britain was Ray Galton and Alan Simpson's Steptoe and Son, which also had a US remake in Sanford and Son.

In 1971 was released, in Mexico, El Chavo del Ocho, a comedy sitcom where the characters were part of a little neighborhood called "la vecindad". This was the biggest sitcom in Latin America and Spain.

Women's liberation was the backdrop in a series of female-led sitcoms produced by Grant Tinker: The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and its spin-offs Rhoda and Phyllis.

The topic of war was addressed in the popular and long-running sitcom M*A*S*H. The producers of M*A*S*H did not want a laugh track on the show, arguing that the show did not need one, but CBS disagreed. CBS compromised by permitting the producers of the show to omit recorded laughter from scenes that took place in the operating room, if they wished. When it was shown in the United Kingdom, episodes were broadcast without the laugh track. Also the dubbed German version lacks canned laughter. Ross Bagdasarian also refused to use a laugh track in his production of The Alvin Show.

Also during this time, Bob Newhart adapted his deadpan club act for television in sitcom format, which was at once a throwback to the early vaudevillian origins of sitcoms and a harbinger of the 1980s - 1990s stand-up comedian sitcom trend.

In the mid-1970s, Garry Marshall had several huge hits in the US with his trio of sitcoms Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy.

Sex and titillation became a theme in the late 1970s with the UK sitcom Man About the House and its US remake Three's Company. Two soap opera parodies, Soap and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, are also notable shows from this period which pushed the envelope of what was acceptable in television sitcoms.

The 1980s saw the creation of a hybrid single camera half-hour drama / sitcom called a "dramedy". Examples include United States and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. These were largely unsuccessful, but hour-long comedy dramas would become popular in the 1990s. Also successful was the use of crude humor by shows like Married with Children.

Also in the 1980s, stand-up comic Bill Cosby starred in the tremendously successful sitcom The Cosby Show, which was the earliest of the current trend of successful sitcoms built around a stand-up comic's stage persona. Comedienne Roseanne Barr continued the trend in the late 1980s with her eponymous sitcom, as did Garry Shandling (It's Garry Shandling's Show and Larry Sanders). More recently, Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) and Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) have also made the transition from the brick wall to the small screen with self-starring sitcoms.

The early 1990s saw the rebirth of the animated sitcom, a trend which continues to this day. Most notable is The Simpsons, the longest-running sitcom in US history. Other successful sitcoms in this subgenre include South Park, Futurama, Family Guy, and King of the Hill.

In the mid-1990s several sitcoms have reintroduced the ongoing story line. Friends, the most popular U.S. sitcom of the 1990s-2000s, had an overall story arc similar to that of soap operas, in the tradition of earlier sitcoms such as The Beverly Hillbillies and One Day At A Time. Friends also used other soap opera elements, such as regularly employing the device of an end-of-season cliffhanger and gradually developing the relationships of the characters over the course of the series. Roseanne and Seinfeld are also noted for their long-term story arcs.

The early 2000s saw a rebirth of the single camera shooting style for half-hour sitcoms, with shows such as Malcolm in the Middle, The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Scrubs. Unlike earlier single camera shows, these sitcoms do not use laugh tracks. The British sitcom Green Wing, often featured scenes that were shot using a single steadycam, and which were later sped up or slowed down for comic effect.

Online

In 2007, Where are the Joneses became the first sitcom to be created specifically for online release.

Premises

Sitcoms are based on such premises as the "fish out of water", the foil, the family sitcom, the young protagonist’s point of view, misunderstandings, and the parody of serious versions of their characters or genres.

"Fish out of water"

Many sitcoms are based on the premise of a character being out of his or her element, in an environment they do not understand and in which they cannot function well. Such as Gilligan's Island and Kappa Mikey.

Foils

Other sitcoms are based on foils. In fiction, a foil is a minor character whose traits are the opposite to those of the main character. I Love Lucy is an early example, in which a straightforward, down-to-earth, rational husband marries a flighty, zany, emotional woman given to hatching complex absurd schemes that invariably cause problems for their impatient but long suffering husbands.

The family sitcom

Having existed from the invention of the sitcom and having prominence in the 1980s, this premise involves the lives and situations of a family, usually taking place inside their house or residence. The standard formula for an episode of a family sitcom is:

• A family member (usually a child) creates conflict or otherwise gets him or her self into trouble, usually followed by some kind of misunderstanding or cover-up.
• The culprit is exposed or caught and confronted.
• This almost always results in a lesson being learned.

Since the popularity of The Simpsons, in which the father of the household is the one who creates most conflict, many family sitcoms have trended toward the father being the "troublemaker" of the house.

A common aspect of family sitcoms is that, at some point in their run, a baby or adopted child is introduced into the family. The addition of a new baby to a sitcom family provides new story situations for the series as the family adjusts to a new member. However, there are practical problems with working with a baby on-set. Thus, most sitcom kids are aged to four or five within two years of their birth, allowing the characters a wider range of story lines.

In recent years however, family sitcoms have become rare and what is left tends to steer away from the traditional "lesson learned" format. The general exception to this is when the creators are mocking the format or paying an homage.

Youthful protagonist's point of view

A fourth premise for sitcoms is that of telling the story from the youthful protagonist’s point of view, usually making them an unreliable narrator. In these shows, the main characters are teens or pre-teens whose view of the world is often exasperating and endearing simultaneously. Trying to understand their world through inexperienced and naïve eyes, these characters often misunderstand the implications of incidents and actions. Often, they make a bad situation worse before their parents or another wise, understanding, and loving adult bails them out of their trouble. As a result, they become somewhat older and wiser.

Parody

Television sitcoms such as Batman and Get Smart are based on parodying other more serious versions of their characters or genres. Batman, starring Adam West, poked fun at the campy elements implicit in costumed crime fighters and over-the-top villains whose comic book punches are accompanied by onomatopoetic graphics (e.g., "pow", "bang") in dynamic and dazzling fonts. However, the parody was done so unobtrusively that the show could be watched as a straight action series if the viewer were so inclined. Likewise, Get Smart made fun of the action-adventure plots of secret agents like James Bond.

The "urban" comedy

Highly popular in the 1970s and again circa 1990, when newer networks such as UPN, Fox and the WB were still trying to establish themselves; this style is geared toward the African American viewer. The "urban" comedy usually has a cast composed almost entirely of African Americans, and deals with issues of their interest. Many of the same formulas are used as in any of the other styles, but there is usually a high sketch comedy influence and a lot of times involve many absurd gags not normally seen in modern American television. Another thing that sets "urban" comedies apart from most other shows is their use of stars not only from a stand-up comedy background, but also from the world of music.

Ensemble cast structure

Many sitcoms reuse a common mixture of character archetypes to achieve reliable comedic situations from week to week.

The naïf

The most common archetype appearing in sitcoms is the naïf or fool. Typically, this character accepts events and statements at face value and often misunderstands situations in ways that create conflict in the plot. In some series, the entire cast may take on this trait at one time or another.

The social rebel

Not commonly seen on US television before the appearance of The Bundys from Married... with Children, this character was fairly common on British comedies from the '60s onward; these characters at times have traits of "The naive fool", and "The antagonist". They have (at least limited) awareness that his or her actions are in some way socially unacceptable, rude or just plain dumb. At times, this character plays pranks, makes inappropriate comments and generally makes life more difficult for the other characters. This character isn't quite an antagonist, however. They are usually accepted (and even loved) by the other characters despite their flaws. In some cases. they are the ones who end up saving the day with just the right advice or sacrifice. This type was popularized in the US by the series Seinfeld, in which all of the characters are selfish and rude and don't care about how society views them, yet they are the protagonists of the show. An earlier antecedent was the Maynard G. Krebs beatnik character from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

The sage

This character usually has either an elevated intellect, advanced age, or "outsider" experience. The sage frequently comments wryly on the situation into which the other characters have placed themselves and often suggests solutions to resolve the major plot conflict.

The comic relief

The comic relief character usually exhibits eccentric personality traits and unusual reactions to commonplace situations and sometimes serves as the protagonist of the situation comedy series. This character's strange attitudes and reactions to events provide opportunities for absurd or unexpected humour.

The straight man

Sometimes the spouse of the lead character, the straight man's main purpose is to react to the comic lead's shenanigans with an often sarcastic or deadpan response, often acting as a foil to the naif, the wacky neighbor, or the comic relief. Many times the straight man functions as the main character of the show, driving the plot by being the only seemingly sane person admist the chaos of the show.

The wacky neighbor

The wacky neighbor is a stock character in popular fiction, particularly in situation comedy. This character is usually (but not always) male, lives close to the main character, and is highly eccentric, or just not very bright. This neighbor may be given to bizarre conspiracy theories, improbable get rich quick schemes, or a highly unconventional lifestyle. Their lives are also often clouded in mystery.

The wacky neighbor generally works as a gag character, performing functions that would usually be uncharacteristic or too implausible for main characters. The explanation that the character lives "nearby" allows him or her to easily drop in and out of situations to add comical dialogue or sight gags, without the storyline getting too deep into the character. Typically, the wacky neighbor might barge in to the main character's dwelling unannounced, to the chagrin of the main character.

The antagonist

This archetypal character functions as a primary rival, competitor, or enemy of the series' principal character, the protagonist.

The ladies' man / "the man eater"

The ladies' man and the man eater are aggressively sexual characters whose primary humor derives from their sexual exploits. Depending upon the tenor of the series, and depending on if it's airing earlier or later on the schedule, the character's attitude can range from harmless flirtation to borderline hypersexuality.

The ethnic or regional stereotype

Some sitcoms feature characters from other countries or specific regions of a country whose accents, speech patterns, mannerisms, and attitudes provide opportunities for conflict or comic relief.

Other common characters

Other recurring archetypal characters that appear in sitcoms include:

• The meddling or nosy neighbor.
• The wacky wife and her strait-laced husband.
• The wisecracking curmudgeon.
• The well-meaning, but ill-fated, male blue-collar worker.
• The lovable loser.
• The acerbic servant.
• The unseen character, often mentioned and sometimes heard, but never seen.
• The cutesy moppet.
• The overprotective father.
• The meddling sibling.
• The anti-hero.
• The sarcastic hero.

Plot formulas

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The plot and situations for many sitcom episodes arise out of a character's lying to or otherwise deceiving the other characters. The most common comedic situations based on deception include:

• Attempts to hide egregious mistakes or acts of weakness.
• Attempts to "correct" a mistake before others find out about it.
• Attempts to return stolen property before discovery of the theft.
• Attempts to replace destroyed property before discovery of destruction.
• Attempts to fix situations that end up making them worse.
• Attempts to protect friends and family members from bad news.
• Attempts to maintain an advantage based on deception.
• Attempts to dupe someone so as to achieve an advantage.

The majority of sitcom episodes revolve around some form of the lying/deception premises listed above. Lesser-used sitcom plot formulas include:

• One or more characters going into a foreign environment only to return to "where they belong." Frequently, sitcom writers will use this plot formula to transplant the entire cast to some exotic location.
• A character choosing to make some fundamental change in their body, habits, job, or other component of their environment, only to return to "what feels normal."
• Characters entering competitions or contests.
• Characters being elevated to positions of responsibility they can't handle.
• Newcomers or strangers making one-time appearances that change the personal dynamics between the recurring characters.
• A special holiday episode, such as Christmas or Halloween.
• A character thinking another character is going to die and does anything to please him/her, while the other character takes advantage.
• Male and female characters exchanging their archetypal "men" and "women" roles to demonstrate the other gender "has it easier", only to find out they were more comfortable with their own.

The "Very Special Episode"

One type of plot of particular note is the "very special episode". This episode of a comedy series goes outside of their standard comedy format and involves a controversial issue or either a birth, a death or an otherwise traumatic experience for one of the major characters. Examples include any episode of Family Ties involving the alcoholic Uncle Ned (played by Tom Hanks) and the episode of Happy Days where Richie almost dies after crashing Fonzie's bike. The use of very special episodes many times is sign of the series "Jumping the Shark". Two other shows that had frequent issues that were serious were Roseanne and Maude. Maude had an abortion and was a feminist of the '70s. Roseanne had children getting married at young ages and deaths in the family. In one episode, Roseanne's father died and even though it was a serious situation, it was regarded by some to be one of the funniest moments on TV.

Life cycle

Landmarks in the life cycle of a typical sitcom include:

• Development
• Pilot episode
• Popularity or semi-popularity
• "Jumping the shark", i.e., an illogical plot twist usually symptomatic of a decline in the show's quality
• Cancellation
• Reruns in syndication
• Reunion Show
• DVD Box-set Release

Specific countries of origin

Most American sitcoms are half-hour shows in which the story is written to run a total of 22 minutes in length, leaving 8 minutes for commercials. Sitcoms made outside the US may run somewhat longer. American sitcoms (like other American television series) typically have long season runs of 20 or more episodes, whereas the British sitcom is traditionally made in series of six episodes. American sitcoms are often written by large teams of script writers during round-table sessions, while most British sitcoms are written by one or two people.

Australia

Australia has not had a significant number of long running sitcoms. Most successful sitcoms on Australian TV are British or American. Many of the shows described under the British and U.S. sections of this article are or have been extremely popular in Australia. British sitcoms, many from the BBC, are a staple on the government broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and traditionally many have also been shown by the Seven Network. American sitcoms dominate the comedy line-up of the three commercial networks.

While there has been a significant number of Australian sitcoms throughout the history of Australian television, they have most commonly run for just a single season - usually 13 half-hour episodes. Many successful Australian sitcoms have been somewhat similar in style to UK comedies, and several closely followed the premise of earlier UK programs.

An early successful situation comedy was My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? (1967) about a working-class Sydney family. Other popular sitcoms of this general period included The Group, and Our Man in Canberra.

In the first half of the 1970s it was the popular soap operas Number 96 and The Box that provided the main forum for Australian-grown sitcom style comedy. These shows combined melodrama and sex with large amounts of comedy. In 1976 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced a sex-comedy television sitcom Alvin Purple, based on the hit feature film of the same name. Like the films that preceded it, the series of Alvin Purple featured Graeme Blundell in the title role.

By the late 1970s Australian versions of popular UK comedies were produced using key personnel from the original series working in Australia. These productions retained the title and key cast members of the original programs and operated within the same story world of the original even down to explaining how the characters came to leave their original UK locale and be temporarily resident of Australia. These comedies, Are You Being Served, Doctor in the House (as Doctor Down Under) and Father, Dear Father (as 'Father, Dear Father in Australia), transplanted key original cast members to Australia to situations markedly similar to those of the original series. During this same general period, one of the UK producers of these shows also launched The Tea Ladies in Australia. Also during the late 1970s Crawford Productions, best known for their successful police drama series, also created situation comedy series. These include The Bluestone Boys (1976) on Network Ten, and Bobby Dazzler (1977) on the Seven Network.

The late-1970s sketch comedy series The Naked Vicar Show spawned successful a sitcom spin off, Kingswood Country, in 1980. This series was immensely popular, running four years. Its situation was somewhat similar to the British comedy Til Death Us Do Part and its American cousin All in the Family.

In the early 1980s there were few Australian sitcoms, with soap operas being the more common genre produced in Australia. During this period however the Australian Broadcasting Corporation produced Mother and Son, which emerged as an enduring audience favourite. In the late 1980s and early 1990s several new Australian sitcoms achieved significant success including Frontline, Hey Dad...!, Acropolis Now, All Together Now which all had relatively long runs. The Adventures of Lano and Woodley ran for two seasons, in 1997 and 1999, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Other programs such as Hampton Court and My Two Wives were only moderate successes, lasting just one season. This period also saw many short-lived failures such as Late for School and Bingles.

In 2002 the successful sitcom Kath and Kim began its hit run.

Canada

''See also: Canadian humour

Canadian sitcoms have generally fared poorly with both critics and audiences. One notorious example is The Trouble with Tracy, regarded by many Canadians as one of the worst TV shows ever made. Other Canadian sitcoms have included Snow Job, Check it Out!, Mosquito Lake and Not My Department all of which were mocked as being particularly unfunny. There have rarely been more than one or two Canadian sitcoms airing at any given time, although this has changed in recent years with the growth of original programming on cable television.

The few successful Canadian sitcoms have included: La famille Plouffe and its English version, The Plouffe Family; King of Kensington, Hangin' In, Puppets Who Kill, Made in Canada, Trailer Park Boys, and Corner Gas.

Canadian TV networks have had much more success with sketch comedy shows and quirky dramedies. And teen dramas (e.g., the shows The Kids of Degrassi Street, Degrassi Junior High and its successor, ) occasionally use sitcom-like subplots for comic relief.

One of Canada's most enduring comedic television series, The Red Green Show, was essentially a cross between a sitcom and a sketch series. Each episode unfolded through short comedic sketches rather than a conventional sitcom plot, but unlike a true sketch series the sketches always drew from a single set of characters and always fit within the shows main premise, and no actor played more than one role.

Notable Quebec sitcoms in recent years have included La Petite Vie, Catherine and Les Bougon.

Russia

''See also: , , Russian humour

Sitcoms have appeared in Russia beginning in the second half of the 1990s, for example, My Fair Nanny (adaptation of American sitcom The Nanny).

New Zealand

New Zealand began producing television programs later than many other developed countries. Due to New Zealand's small population, the two main New Zealand networks will rarely fund more than one or two sitcoms each year. This low output means there is less chance of a successful sitcom being produced to offset the failures.

Early sitcoms included Joe & Koro and Buck House. Later there was The Billy T James Show subsequently rerun in early 2004 as part of the first year's offering on Maori Television. The team of David McPhail and Jon Gadsby produced and/or starred in quite a number of sitcoms such as Letter to Blanchy with help from writer A K Grant.

The most popular and successful New Zealand produced sitcom to date has been Roger Hall's Gliding On, based on his hit stage play Glide Time. Another Hall play, Conjugal Rites was also made into a sitcom but by Granada in Britain.

In 1994, Melody Rules was produced and screened. Critically and commercially unsuccessful, it has become part of the lexicon within the television industry to describe an unsuccessful sitcom, for example, that show will be the next "Melody Rules". Another sitcom to have its roots in a stage play was Serial Killers (2003), about the scriptwriters of a medical soap opera.

Many British and American sitcoms are and have been popular in New Zealand, including many of those aforementioned in this article.

United Kingdom

Main article: British sitcom

The United Kingdom has produced a wealth of sitcoms, many of which have been exported to other nations or adapted for other countries. Classic British sitcoms include

• Hancock's Half Hour
• Only Fools and Horses
• Porridge
• Fawlty Towers
• Dad's Army
• Blackadder
• Are You Being Served?
• One Foot in the Grave
• Open All Hours
• The Young Ones.

More recent successes have included My Family, Father Ted (set in Ireland), The Vicar of Dibley, Green Wing, The Royle Family, Spaced, Absolutely Fabulous, The Office and Keeping Up Appearances.

The British sitcom tends to rely less on quick-fire jokes and quirky characters, and focuses more on plots, the analysis of the British individual, and exaggerated caricatures of everyday stereotypes. There is also a tendency towards black humour; Porridge, for example, is set in a prison, and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin involves a man who twice fakes suicide to escape his humdrum life. Steptoe and Son can be heart-breaking as the ambitions of Harold are quashed by his needy, manipulative father. Three of the four series of Blackadder end with the deaths of most of the characters. One Foot in the Grave also regularly featured dark humour hidden beneath its seemingly innocent suburban exterior.

A frequent theme in British sitcoms is that of people trapped in an unpleasant situation or, more often, in a dysfunctional relationship. Shows such as Steptoe and Son (son unable to escape controlling father), Sorry (son unable to escape controlling mother), Gimme Gimme Gimme (two flatmates unable to escape each other) and Fawlty Towers (man unable to escape his emasculating wife) play on this. Where a sitcom of this type definitely ends, it is with an act of escape (Timothy literally flies away in Sorry, and Tom gets his dream job in Gimme Gimme Gimme).

The sitcom format has been hugely successful for the BBC with ITV having less success. Almost all successful classic British sitcoms first aired on BBC One; ITV have not had many successful sitcoms since the 1980s. BBC Two , BBC Three, BBC Four and Channel 4 have begun to have more success with comedy in recent years with BBC One having less success. American sitcoms in the UK tend to be aired on Channel 4, Five, BBC Two, Sky One and the American network ABC's channel ABC1 airing sitcoms shown on ABC in the United States.

Many British sitcoms are re-made for American audiences. For example, Till Death Us Do Part became All in the Family; Man About the House became Three's Company; and, the immensely popular Steptoe and Son became Sanford and Son. The Office was also remade for an American audience using the same title. Political sitcom The Thick of It is currently going an American adaption, also under the same name. However, most British sitcoms usually fare better in their original forms. Re-makes of Red Dwarf, Men Behaving Badly, Coupling, and One Foot in the Grave (Cosby) fell victim to adaptations that largely removed the essence of the comedy and did not stand the test of time.

Possibly the best example of this was Fawlty Towers, in which there were three attempts to Americanize the show. The first attempt was a proposed series titled Chateau Snavely in 1978 but a pilot was never produced. The second attempt at Americanising Fawlty Towers was Amanda's, where the character of Basil became a woman played by Beatrice Arthur. This eliminated the roles of the hen-pecked lead and the dragon-like wife. Amanda's was picked up by ABC in 1983 but never attracted an audience and was cancelled soon after. The final attempt to remake Fawlty Towers was Payne, in which John Larroquette played the title role. It was seen on CBS in 1999, but like Amanda's it was soon dropped by the network.

The UK is home to the world's longest running sitcom, Last of the Summer Wine. The show's pilot was broadcast in early 1973 with the first series starting that autumn. The series continues to this day with the show's 28th series, coming soon in Spring 2007.

United States

Mary Kay and Johnny was followed by The Goldbergs which first aired on January 17, 1949. Probably the most well-known and successful early television sitcom was I Love Lucy starring the real-life couple of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, which was groundbreaking for many reasons including the shooting of episodes on film thereby inventing reruns. The Simpsons is another very successful sitcom, which has become the longest running such program in the United States (it was first broadcast in 1989 and episodes are still in production as of 2007). The show is unusual in that it is animated. The longest running live-action sitcom in America was The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which ran from 1952 to 1966 on ABC. Other very successful sitcoms to air on United States major networks include All in the Family, The Cosby Show, Home Improvement, Friends, Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Roseanne, Happy Days, Cheers, Frasier, M*A*S*H, and King of Queens.

In 2005, Bravo aired a reality show, called , produced by Sean Hayes. Out of 10,000 scripts, NBC President, Kevin Reily, chose two pilots: Mark Treitel and Shoe Schuster's The Sperm Donor and Stephen's Life, with the latter ultimately winning the reality series.

The Ultimate Sitcom poll

British television station Channel 4 held a poll to decide which is the best sitcom of all time entitled The Ultimate Sitcom on 2 January 2006.^[1] Although several public polls have been held, this poll was voted for people in the industry, such as actors, writers, directors and producers, and included sitcoms from both the UK and the US. The top twenty sitcoms according to the poll were:^[2]

1. Frasier (US 1993-2004)
2. Fawlty Towers (UK 1975&1979)
3. Seinfeld (US 1989-1998)
4. Porridge (UK 1974-1977)
5. The Larry Sanders Show (US 1992-1998)
6. The Phil Silvers Show (US 1955-1959)
7. Dad's Army (UK 1968-1977)
8. Blackadder (UK 1983-1989)
9. Spaced (UK 1999-2001)
10. The Office (UK TV series) (UK 2001-2003)
11. Father Ted (EI / UK 1995-1998)
12. Cheers (US 1982-1993)
13. I'm Alan Partridge (UK 1997-2002)
14. Yes Minister/Yes, Prime Minister (UK 1980-1988)
15. Curb Your Enthusiasm (US 2000-Present)
16. The Good Life (UK 1975-1978)
17. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (UK 1976-1979)
18. Hancock's Half Hour (UK 1954-1959 on radio, 1956-1961 on television)
19. Rising Damp (UK 1974-1978)
20. The Young Ones (UK 1982-1984)

Modern Sitcoms/The Future

As with previous generations, there are many changes that are being made to the style and content of the modern sitcom, these are a few examples.

The "Friends clone"

Following the success of Friends, many situation comedies have started using a similar formula; a group of young urbanites and their relationships with each other, almost always with a continuing story arc usually involving on and off again romances between the lead characters. The humor would always be deadpan or goofy at times in shows like How I Met Your Mother. Friends itself, however, was one of the many Seinfeld clones and co-creator Larry David has expressed irritation in the past that Friends was seen as the original of this format.

The single camera, no laugh track style

Another popular modern style of sitcom is filmed without a live studio audience or laugh track, using multiple locations and a single camera setup. The idea is to avoid the limitations that a stage and the tight shooting schedule of a standard sitcom provide and to make a more theatrical or realistic style. In addition, producers and writers of such shows believe that eliminating the laugh track allows more time for dialogue (and subsequently, jokes) and more movements for the characters instead of standing or sitting, while simultaneously refusing to "dumb down" the audience by cueing them on when to laugh.

There has been much criticism of sitcoms without a laugh track. Critics of this style believe that the unsteady single-camera style of filming is off-putting and can nauseate the viewer. Viewers who are channel surfing for comedies may assume that a show without laughter is not a comedy since they do not hear laughter. If they hear the laugh track, viewers know right away that the show is a comedy. Critics also believe that shows without a laugh track do not feel like a comedy, but more like a drama.

However, many single camera sitcoms have been among the most acclaimed shows in recent years. Sex and the City and Curb Your Enthusiasm have both won HBO many awards.Arrested Development,The Office,Scrubs, and 30 Rock are also very popular with critics.

The children's sitcom

There have been a large number of situation comedies in recent years geared toward children normally ages 12-16. These shows evolved from early shows on Nickelodeon, and highly successful series on Disney Channel have been seen as a reflection of the modern buying power of this group. The style of these shows usually has a lower budget than the usual big network series and the usual plot involves teen issues such as "sibling rivalry", school issues and dating. In Disney Channel sitcoms, issues are rarely discussed and focuses on one-liners and physical comedy than most of the plot. Also, the characters have more movement than staying still to show their body language. In some cases, like Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, a children's sitcom will combine realistic issues with surreal humour in one show.

Children's sitcoms are similar to the traditional "family sitcom", but the lead is always a child who is usually strong and independent, or a group or children. The most common type of characters in order would be lucky, helpful and dim-witted.

See also

• List of sitcoms
• Laugh track
• List of comedies

References

Bibliography

• Situation Comedy Bibliography (via UC Berkeley) — mostly USA programmes.

Further reading

External links

• IMDB Comedy
• Sitcoms Online
• British Sitcom Guide