Are sitcoms a dead artform?

[Brecht]

Seinfeld was known as "the show about nothing" but in the end, it was a show about Jerry Seinfeld's bad sense of humor. Married... With Children was a funny show, even the later seasons. I was never a huge sitcom fan but King of Queens had some funny scenes although most of its characters sucked except Arthur and Danny.

[IronMan]

I just turned 30 and am American and the Big Bang Theory still sucks in my mind.

How Johnny Galecki got work after Christmas Vacation is beyond me. He played some douche on Rosanne and then kind of floated around until BBT.

[IronMan]

Originally Posted by Norbert84

Seinfeld was known as "the show about nothing" but in the end, it was a show about Jerry Seinfeld's bad sense of humor. Married... With Children was a funny show, even the later seasons. I was never a huge sitcom fan but King of Queens had some funny scenes although most of its characters sucked except Arthur and Danny.

Speaking of Seinfeld's bad humor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNOOwjIN-E

[hastfount]

Big Bang Theory. And I'm not a kid.
Great characters, good-that is interesting-writing. Sharp but still sweet.

[electile disfunction]

Originally Posted by IronMan

Are sitcoms a dead artform?

What says the VE forum?

Art?

Oops, wrong discussion ...

I have a few disjointed and incoherent ideas. Someone might be able to make use of them:

Only a couple handfulls of worthwhile current sitcoms have been named in this thread. About 30 years ago there were the same number of "quality" sitcoms.

However, 30 years ago we had 1/20th of the channels broadcasting ... I suggest that, therefore, there are significantly fewer quality sitcoms, otherwise they would be more popular.

I chose 30 years ago because it was then that I noticed that people were beginning to laugh after the laugh-track of the show did! Not with the laugh track as they seemed to do earlier. It seems that people were getting used to being told what was comic rather than deciding for themselves.

Perhaps, what we have now is sort-of the same "volume of quality" as then, but diluted of a much greater number of shows produced.

I think the above is a little less than two cents of thoughts, but I don't want change.
e.d.

[banquomerc]

I love sitcoms...watch old Cheers reruns at 9 each night M-F; Clifford Clavin is the best thing about that show IMO. Strange, I missed so many of these episodes back in the early 80s when I was younger. The sitcom is not dead, but has changed to fit the culture-they are still full of true stereotypes and some are awesome and mindless, perfect ending after a day's work. We like Modern Family, Bent, Happy Endings, Mike & Molly, Big Bang, Rules of Engagement, and more...the point is too that they reflect strongly on American society. We are a generous, self-absorbed, materialistic, kind, homophobic, and largely clueless people on world affairs and geography with our troops all over the world. We don't even pay for our wars, but hand the money to the oil companies and corporations and can't figure where the deficit comes from. Now, that's real comedy.

[CARLTON BROWN]

Could I suggest a possible new UK sitcom series?

I would be called "Local Government", starring the sort of people that made Black Adder worth watching.

[3745 Laddie]

Originally Posted by Oswald

In a word, yes.

These days television companies want to spend money on the cheapest form of entertainment and that is currently what is known as 'Reality TV'. Add to that these so-called 'talent shows' which are also cheap to produce. TV companies don't want to spend money on developing new writers', directors' and actors'. The process is, in their view, too long and too expensive.

In the UK our main commercial TV company, ITV, hasn't produced a credible or watchable sitcom since 'Rising Damp' and that was over 30 years ago! They have attempted others since, but they've been appalling rubbish. I agree that 'On The Buses' was terrible - old musical turns shouting their lines at each other.

The BBC have faired better with sitcoms such as 'Porridge', 'Open All Hours', 'Dad's Army' and although not to everyone's taste, 'Last Of The Summer Wine' which closed after being broadcast for over 35 years!

Oswald,you seem to be forgetting about George And Mildred(which would have carried on for at least a few more series but for the untimely death of Yootha Joyce),Only When I Laugh,A Fine Romance,Never The Twain,Duty Free,After Henry,Is It Legal,Men Behaving Badly(which started out on ITV)and The Grimleys(which was rubbish in its final series but wholly decent for all of the previous episodes).

I agree that much of ITV's output in this area from the 80's until they just gave up the sitcom ghost altogether,a few years back,was poor.But they didn't have the luxury of sticking with shows that failed to rate well from the outset,where the BBC did and does.Only Fools And Horses being a model example of a sitcom now hailed as a classic but rated poorly for its first two or three seasons.

[cylnz]

I would have said yes a week ago.

then i started watching "how i met your mother" on netflix.

it's funny most of the time. im up to end of season 4 and it's been quite amusing.

[Historian]

Originally Posted by 3745 Laddie

I agree that much of ITV's output in this area from the 80's until they just gave up the sitcom ghost altogether,a few years back,was poor.But they didn't have the luxury of sticking with shows that failed to rate well from the outset,where the BBC did and does.Only Fools And Horses being a model example of a sitcom now hailed as a classic but rated poorly for its first two or three seasons.

I think that's an important point- as you said, the BBC sometimes used to stick with shows that didn't rate well at the beginning, and gave them time to develop and build an audience. You mentioned 'Foold & Horses', but there's another that comes to mind- 'Blackadder'.

IIRC, the first Richard Curtis/Rowan Atkinson-written 'The Black Adder' didn't do particularly well compared to the later Curtis/Ben Elton-written series, and the BBC wanted to axe it due to poor ratings and high costs- the second series only got the green light on condition the production costs were much lower, particularly without all the location filming from Series 1.

These days, I suspect if it's not an instant hit, particularly on ITV with their dependence on viewing figures and advertising revenue, it gets canned.
There's a flipside to that particular coin as well- sometimes there's been a tendency to milk successful sitcom formats well past their sell-by date. Did anyone think those last couple of 'Fools & Horses' Christmas specials were up to scratch?
Sometimes it's better to quit while you're ahead- Fawlty Towers is consistently regarded as one of the great highspots of British TV comedy, and there were just 2 series- 12 episodes.
If John Cleese and the BBC had tried to milk it for 8-10 series, might Basil have turned stale?